As noted by Akpieyi (1996), an Orgamzation that
seriously practices Total quality management (TQM) internalizes its culture in
its activities arid continuously protects the culture from dilution by carrying
out quality audit periodically to ensure that the established systems are being
maintained, while backward slides to the old habits are averted. The
organization thus exhibits distinguishing features of having quality in
recruitment and selection in orientation, in appraisals in promotion, rewards
and quality in leadership at all levels of the organization.
Other characteristics of organizations that use TQM
includes all their business processes are capable of delivery to their
customers the right products and services at the right time and at the lowest
possible cost. They invest heavily on cost of good quality to drive out cost of
bad quality. Work scraping, rework arid errors are substantially reduced to the
barest minimum. This is a function of strict adherence to the quality delivery
process. Visceral commitment to and obsession for internal customer and
external customers are distinctive features of TQM based organizations.
According to Akpieyi (1996), the customer supplier chain is nurtured and
sustained through the practice of getting each work group (the manager or
supervisor and his direct reports) to determine who its internal customers are
and delivers quality products/services to the end user- the external customer.
The recognition that integration of external supplier into business problem
solving and strategic planning process confers tremendous advantage in meeting
external customer requirements in another distinctive characteristic of TQM
based organization.
DIAGRAM
Customer Supplier Chain
Customer Supplier Chain
(Business Times, Feb. 12th, 2006)
ROUTE TO PRODUCTION EXCELLENCE
According to Elliot (2001), production excellence is
the result of
achieving a set of quantifiable performance criteria. The output measures of production excellence are straight forward and includes;
achieving a set of quantifiable performance criteria. The output measures of production excellence are straight forward and includes;
• Process
capability and control (minimum Cpk above 1.33)
• Equipment reliability (minimum 95 percent)
• A 100 percent on time delivery to customer request
• A priority focus on safety (a zero harm mentality)
• Year-over year actual per unit cost reduction
• Equipment reliability (minimum 95 percent)
• A 100 percent on time delivery to customer request
• A priority focus on safety (a zero harm mentality)
• Year-over year actual per unit cost reduction
Excellence sounds glamorous, but achieving it takes
nothing short of respective and predictable process coupled with a corporate
culture that holds excellence above all. Call it Six sigma, zero defects,
benchmark performance, production excellence, by any name is both a journey and
a race. Serious contenders are competent, lean and ever committed to higher
levels of performance. Never before has so much time been spent preparing
practicing and analyzing benchmark performance. Minimal conditioning requires
such a grueling regimen of daily discipline to succeed in achieving production excellence (Elliot
2001).
For world class competitors, industries and organizations,
minimal performance requirements include respective and predictable
year-over-year actual per unit cost reductions, ever reducing variations,
improved product quality and extra ordinary customer service. Achieving
production excellence requires institutionalized management proof process that
is sustainable despite changes in leadership, strategy and business conditions
(Elliot 2001).
As stated by Elliot (2001),
acknowledging and conquering complexity is the firsts step in achieving
production excellence, requiring a fundamental change in thinking and action.
The team must agree without reservations to support only those activities that
directly add value to the overall objective, aggressively and dispassionately
eliminating those activities that do not. Complexity is the collective sum of
all the activities performed that are not bottom-line justified on the low side
of the economic cycle and is the single greatest deterrent to production
excellence. Understanding the task, excellence requires a total commitment to
process capability; variation reduction and the creation of a benchmark
employee knowledge base, any organization that has a continuous improvement
culture would be able to understand the significant change required to achieve
statistical performance excellence and would change everything they do.
Management consensus, should provide a consensus that an even greater
discipline would be required to establish or maintain acceptable levels of
performance. Understanding the importance of knowledge, often manager believes
that only missing performance ingredient is effort. The truth is that vast
majority of employees work hard to do their best, still trying their best fall
short which makes the route from acceptable to excellence long. This means that
every employee must have an increased ability to perform, and this means
focusing resources on supplying knowledge to employees-all employees. Knowledge
will result in increased ability and with increased ability comes increased
performance (Ajibola 2005).
Consistent and clear expectations,
there are two categories of dysfunctional key performance indicators. The first
is those individually or functionally set objectives that encourage the
classical organizational conflicts; examples include optimal machine
utilization versus minimum inventions or increased sales versus higher margins.
The second is the use of generalized and concept objectives such as Six sigma,
quality benchmarking customer services, unless these concepts are translated
into detailed short termed activities, individuals are never sure what is
expected of them and thus will often fall short of expectations and performance
goals (Ajibola 2005).
Challenge of passion, excellence is the most difficult
of all business or personal objectives to define and achieve. It requires an
uncompromising passion to excel, without this passion, the excellence of
process discipline is impossible. Acknowledging the basic production excellence
is the achievement of basic output of elements, without a focused
organizational commitment to the basics of variation reduction, service, cost
and safety, there is no foundation on which to build successful strategic plan.
Organizations need not look to higher level priorities before the foundation is
firm enough to support the business structure. Unlimited involvement
experience, few managers have actually led a group of employees and colleagues
through a process of delegation and involvement in which immediate and
substantial performance improvement was a mandate. Without such experience,
most people cannot generate the level of faith required to make the personal
and organizational involvement to ensure success. The minimum requirement is a
total commitment to address aggressively the short falls of a full individual
and organizational knowledge and experience gap analysis. Less focus on output
measurements, most organizations are output or result focused; the central
driver of performance is the quality of the process input. In achieving
production excellences organizations need to change their focus and measures to
the input side performance (Elliot 2001).
As noted by Elliot (2001), excellence is about leaders
committing themselves and organizations to climbing over, going through, or
eliminating the barriers that have so often slowed and stopped them in the
past. Excellence is not a concept, it is a something we understand
intellectually, we want emotionally and we avoid consistently, production
excellence is driven by a passion for discipline, profitability and variation
reduction. Excellence in production requires a passion to make every action,
every activity and every moment count, every shift, every day and every hurdle
(Elliot 2001).
However the above route are not only
concerned with achieving conformance to customer requirement in the most
efficient or cost effective manner but has more new and hopeful effective
approach for an increasing production excellence through Total quality
management (TQM) (Elliot 2001).