🚀 go-pugleaf

It was interesting to note so many statements on Relevance of Quality movement.
 I would like to share my opinion on the subject.
1. Quality has changed its face. Changing face should not be treated as its end.
  In past Quality was not integral part of product or services (Customer will no
 t take quality for granted). Today Quality is taken for granted as expectation
 of customer.
2. Quality has changed its dimensions over a period of time. This will be eviden
 t from any consumer durable product. It could be interesting to survey what a c
 ustomer would have "stated as his Quality Requirements" say decade back. On  th
 e same spirit what it is today. I am sure the quality of the customers statemen
 t itself have undergone changes.
3. PARDIGM shift in Quality management is another player that could lead to this
  perception. The importance of Quality Managers is coming down. To day it is ex
 pected that every manager or executive is a Quality Manager for the product or
 services he/she is delivering to his or her Internal/external customers.
4. Quality Management has become more difficult with factors like Fast changing
 technology, Increased customer awareness, Media, Newer and more products etc.



P G Subramaniam
Chief Executive
APAR Management Consultants
ASAP Management Consultants Private Limited
18, Srinivas Iyer Street
Aryagowda Road
West Mambalam
Chennai 600033
India

WebSite :       www.asapmanagement.com
(               :       +91 44 4896048, +91 44 4893175
( (FAX) :       +91 44 8259911
Email           :       subra@giasmd01.vsnl.net.in
Pager           :       9632 708447

-----Original Message-----
From:   Johan MAERTENS [SMTP:mineral.maertens@wmich.edu]
Sent:   Thursday, November 19, 1998 9:07 PM
To:     Multiple recipients of list QUALITY
Subject:        Is quality a fad? Is quality dead?

Hello,

I have been following the list's discussion in the background for a
while.
I am not in Quality, but quality is in me.
I notice many people are busy with quality. Others say to me: quality
is dead (read below) do not waste your time with it.

My question is: IS THERE A FUTURE FOR QUALITY IN THE 21st CENTURY?
What news (or old) should I look for for next century's quality? What
will be new to you?

Your thoughts are welcome.

Selected citations:

In Quality Progress (Jan 1997) Sowell suggested that quality might be
viewed as a cyclical approach to management.
I am not sure if quality can be considered cyclical. If quality is
cyclical, the cycles are not as short as the market and economic
cycles we see in industrial cycles. Instead, such cycles may
correlate more to the human generation cycle. Each generation, in the
name of progress, tends to reject some of the ideas of the previous
generation.

Alson C.H. Look wrote: My perception is that quality is not as
popular as it used to be. As evidence, I offer decreasing
applications for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the
recent history of layoffs of quality staff, and membership decreases
in some ASQC divisions.

Kevin R. Crystal wrote: Quality is viewed by many as a dying fad that
never worked. I fear we may be in a situation similar to the period
following World War II, when advances in quality fell by the wayside.
While quality has become deeply ingrained in some companies'
cultures, others believe it is going away. I often note this attitude
in The Wall Street Journal, which has tremendous influence on the
business community.


Anonymous (1988).  Are U.S. manufacturers becoming slackers? Quality,
Volume 37, Number 8,  August 1998, pp. 12-14
With the blossoming of the American economy, U.S. manufacturers are
letting their quality procedures slip, thinking things are so great
that they can coast. This is what Bob Marino has seen in many
manufacturing plants. Marino is president of Pittsburgh- based
TriTech Services Inc., a consulting service. "Times like now, when
economic conditions in this country are very good ... companies have
very high profitability and start looking for ways to cut things to
increase profitability to a higher level and, more often than not,
they will start cutting quality," Marino said. He added that a bad
economy triggers the reverse, causing companies to scramble for ways
to improve themselves.

Are U.S. companies turning up their noses to quality? Many
manufacturers are beginning to relax, yet they aren't totally
forgetting about quality, said David Goetsch. Goetsch notices this
with decreasing enrollment in quality classes.


Anonymous (1997). Transformation of quality efforts. Government
Executive,  Volume 29, Number 7,  July 1997, pp. 66-68
TQM is now buried in the line of failed management fads, along with
MBO, PPB, ZBB, BPR, and whatever comes next. Management fads deserve
a fate like this for promising quick fixes and fast results to
problems that have taken decades to create.

But while TQM is dead, the cornerstones of quality-process
measurement, customer feedback, participative management and supplier
cooperation-are still there. Each must play a key role in future
quality improvement efforts.

Most admit that many lessons were learned the hard way-assuming that
TQM would solve all problems without realizing that TQM is, more than
anything else, an organizational learning process about change and
competitiveness. But their experience proves that the commitment to
quality management is quite strong, provided there is also a
concomitant realization that this is, above all, a long-range
process.

Indeed, there is a true bit of a renaissance in quality these days.
Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, is getting some press for his
"back to quality basics" philosophy, in which he argues that managers
should be evaluated on their quality prowess and awarded different
color belts for accomplishments, like karate experts. Imagine
managers listing "black belt in quality" on their resumes.


Johan Maertens, CSP, MSE
Western Michigan University
Engineering College

mineral.maertens@wmich.edu