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The term Quality management has a specific meaning within many business sectors. This specific definition, which does not aim to assure 'good quality' by the more general definition (but rather to ensure that an organisation or product is consistent), can be considered to have four main components: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement.[1] Quality management is focused not only on product/service quality, but also the means to achieve it. Quality management therefore uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more consistent quality.

Contents[hide]

1 Quality management evolution 2 Principles

o 2.1 Customer focus

o 2.2 Leadership

o 2.3 Involvement of people

o 2.4 Process approach

o 2.5 System approach to management

o 2.6 Continual improvement

o 2.7 Factual approach to decision making

o 2.8 Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

3 Quality improvement

4 Quality standards

5 Quality software

6 Quality terms

7 Academic resources

8 See also

9 References

10 Further reading

[edit] Quality management evolutionQuality management is a recent phenomenon. Advanced civilizations that supported the arts and crafts allowed clients to choose goods meeting higher quality standards than normal goods. In societies where art responsibilities of a master craftsman (and similarly for artists) was to lead their studio, train and supervise the on, the importance of craftsmen was diminished as mass production and repetitive work practices were instituted. The aim was to produce large numbers of the same goods. The first proponent in the US for this approach was Eli Whitney who proposed (interchangeable) parts manufacture for muskets, hence producing the identical components and creating a musket assembly line. The next step forward was promoted by several people including Frederick Winslow Taylor a mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. He is sometimes called "the father of scientific management." He was one of the intellectual leaders of the Efficiency Movement and part of his approach laid a further foundation for quality management, including aspects like standardization and adopting improved practices. Henry Ford was also important in bringing process and quality management practices into operation in his assembly lines. In Germany, Karl Friedrich Benz, often called the inventor of the motor car, was pursuing similar assembly and production practices, although real mass production was properly initiated in Volkswagen after World War II. From this period onwards, North American companies focused predominantly upon production against lower cost with increased efficiency.

Walter A. Shewhart made a major step in the evolution towards quality management by creating a method for quality control for production, using statistical methods, first proposed in 1924. This became the foundation for his ongoing work on statistical quality control. W. Edwards Deming later applied statistical process control methods in the United States during World War II, thereby successfully improving quality in the manufacture of munitions and other strategically important products.

Quality leadership from a national perspective has changed over the past five to six decades. After the second world war, Japan decided to make quality improvement a national imperative as part of rebuilding their economy, and sought the help of Shewhart, Deming and Juran, amongst others. W. Edwards Deming championed Shewhart's ideas in Japan from 1950 onwards. He is probably best known for his management philosophy establishing quality, productivity, and competitive position. He has formulated 14 points of attention for managers, which are a high level abstraction of many of his deep insights. They should be interpreted by learning and understanding the deeper insights. These 14 points include key concepts such as:

Break down barriers between departments Management should learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership

Supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job

Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service

Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement

In the 1950s and 1960s, Japanese goods were synonymous with cheapness and low quality, but over time their quality initiatives began to be successful, with Japan achieving very high levels of quality in products from the 1970s onward. For example, Japanese cars regularly top the J.D. Power customer satisfaction ratings. In the 1980s Deming was asked by Ford Motor Company to start a quality initiative after they realized that they were falling behind Japanese manufacturers. A number of highly successful quality initiatives have been invented by the Japanese (see for example on this page: Taguchi, QFD, Toyota Production System. Many of the methods not only

provide techniques but also have associated quality culture (i.e. people factors). These methods are now adopted by the same western countries that decades earlier derided Japanese methods.

Customers recognize that quality is an important attribute in products and services. Suppliers recognize that quality can be an important differentiator between their own offerings and those of competitors (quality differentiation is also called the quality gap). In the past two decades this quality gap has been greatly reduced between competitive products and services. This is partly due to the contracting (also called outsourcing) of manufacture to countries like India and China, as well internationalization of trade and competition. These countries amongst many others have raised their own standards of quality in order to meet International standards and customer demands. The ISO 9000 series of standards are probably the best known International standards for quality management.

There are a huge number of books available on quality management. In recent times some themes have become more significant including quality culture, the importance of knowledge management, and the role of leadership in promoting and achieving high quality. Disciplines like systems thinking are bringing more holistic approaches to quality so that people, process and products are considered together rather than independent factors in quality management.

The influence of quality thinking has spread to non-traditional applications outside of walls of manufacturing, extending into service sectors and into areas such as sales, marketing and customer service.[2]

[edit] PrinciplesQuality management adopts a number of management principles[3] that can be used by top management to guide their organizations towards improved performance. The principles include:

[edit] Customer focus

Since the organizations depend on their customers, therefore they should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and try to exceed the expectations of customers.[4] An organization attains customer focus when all people in the organization know both the internal and external customers and also what customer requirements must be met to ensure that both the internal and external customers are satisfied.[5]

[edit] Leadership

Leaders of an organization establish unity of purpose and direction of it. They should go for creation and maintenance of such an internal environment, in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization's quality objective.[4]

[edit] Involvement of people

People at all levels of an organization are the essence of it. Their complete involvement enables their abilities to be used for the benefit of the organization.[4]

[edit] Process approach

The desired result can be achieved when activities and related resources are managed in an organization as process.[4]

[edit] System approach to management

An organization's effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its quality objectives are contributed by identifying, understanding and managing all interrelated processes as a system.[4]

[edit] Continual improvement

One of the permanent quality objectives of an organization should be the continual improvement of its overall performance.[4]

[edit] Factual approach to decision making

Effective decisions are always based on the data analysis and information.[4]

[edit] Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

Since an organization and its suppliers are interdependent, therefore a mutually beneficial relationship between them increases the ability of both to add value.[4]

These eight principles form the basis for the quality management system standard ISO 9001:2008.[4]

[edit] Quality improvementThere are many methods for quality improvement. These cover product improvement, process improvement and people based improvement. In the following list are methods of quality management and techniques that incorporate and drive quality improvement:

1. ISO 9004 :2008 — guidelines for performance improvement.2. ISO 15504 -4: 2005 — information technology — process assessment — Part 4: Guidance on use

for process improvement and process capability determination.

3. QFD — quality function deployment, also known as the house of quality approach.

4. Kaizen — 改善, Japanese for change for the better; the common English term is continuous improvement.

5. Zero Defect Program — created by NEC Corporation of Japan, based upon statistical process control and one of the inputs for the inventors of Six Sigma.

6. Six Sigma — 6σ, Six Sigma combines established methods such as statistical process control, design of experiments and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) in an overall framework.

7. PDCA — plan, do, check, act cycle for quality control purposes. (Six Sigma's DMAIC method (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) may be viewed as a particular implementation of this.)

8. Quality circle — a group (people oriented) approach to improvement.

9. Taguchi methods — statistical oriented methods including quality robustness, quality loss function, and target specifications.

10. The Toyota Production System — reworked in the west into lean manufacturing.

11. Kansei Engineering — an approach that focuses on capturing customer emotional feedback about products to drive improvement.

12. TQM — total quality management is a management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organizational processes. First promoted in Japan with the Deming prize which was adopted and adapted in USA as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and in Europe as the European Foundation for Quality Management award (each with their own variations).

13. TRIZ — meaning "theory of inventive problem solving"

14. BPR — business process reengineering, a management approach aiming at 'clean slate' improvements (That is, ignoring existing practices).

15. OQM — Object-oriented Quality Management, a model for quality management. [6]

Proponents of each approach have sought to improve them as well as apply them for small, medium and large gains. Simple one is Process Approach, which forms the basis of ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System standard, duly driven from the 'Eight principles of Quality managagement', process approach being one of them. Thareja[7] writes about the mechanism and benefits: "The process (proficiency) may be limited in words, but not in its applicability. While it fulfills the criteria of all-round gains: in terms of the competencies augmented by the participants; the organisation seeks newer directions to the business success, the individual brand image of both the people and the organisation, in turn, goes up. The competencies which were hitherto rated as being smaller, are better recognized and now acclaimed to be more potent and fruitful".[8] The more complex Quality improvement tools are tailored for enterprise types not originally targeted. For example, Six Sigma was designed for manufacturing but has spread to service enterprises. Each of these approaches and methods has met with success but also with failures.

Some of the common differentiators between success and failure include commitment, knowledge and expertise to guide improvement, scope of change/improvement desired (Big Bang type changes tend to fail more often compared to smaller changes) and adaption to enterprise cultures. For example, quality circles do not work well in every enterprise (and are even discouraged by some managers), and relatively few TQM-participating enterprises have won the national quality awards.

There have been well publicized failures of BPR, as well as Six Sigma. Enterprises therefore need to consider carefully which quality improvement methods to adopt, and certainly should not adopt all those listed here.

It is important not to underestimate the people factors, such as culture, in selecting a quality improvement approach. Any improvement (change) takes time to implement, gain acceptance and stabilize as accepted practice. Improvement must allow pauses between implementing new changes so that the change is stabilized and assessed as a real improvement, before the next improvement is made (hence continual improvement, not continuous improvement).

Improvements that change the culture take longer as they have to overcome greater resistance to change. It is easier and often more effective to work within the existing cultural boundaries and make small improvements (that is Kaizen) than to make major transformational changes. Use of Kaizen in Japan was a major reason for the creation of Japanese industrial and economic strength.

On the other hand, transformational change works best when an enterprise faces a crisis and needs to make major changes in order to survive. In Japan, the land of Kaizen, Carlos Ghosn led a transformational change at Nissan Motor Company which was in a financial and operational crisis. Well organized quality improvement programs take all these factors into account when selecting the quality improvement methods.

[edit] Quality standardsThe International Organization for Standardization (ISO) created the Quality Management System (QMS) standards in 1987. They were the ISO 9000:1987 series of standards comprising ISO 9001:1987, ISO 9002:1987 and ISO 9003:1987; which were applicable in different types of industries, based on the type of activity or process: designing, production or service delivery.

The standards are reviewed every few years by the International Organization for Standardization. The version in 1994 was called the ISO 9000:1994 series; consisting of the ISO 9001:1994, 9002:1994 and 9003:1994 versions.

The last major revision was in the year 2008 and the series was called ISO 9000:2000 series. The ISO 9002 and 9003 standards were integrated into one single certifiable standard: ISO 9001:2008. After December 2003, organizations holding ISO 9002 or 9003 standards had to complete a transition to the new standard.

ISO released a minor revision, ISO 9001:2008 on 14 October 2008. It contains no new requirements. Many of the changes were to improve consistency in grammar, facilitating translation of the standard into other languages for use by over 950,000 certified organisations in the 175 countries (as at Dec 2007) that use the standard.

The ISO 9004:2009 document gives guidelines for performance improvement over and above the basic standard (ISO 9001:2000). This standard provides a measurement framework for improved quality management, similar to and based upon the measurement framework for process assessment.

The Quality Management System standards created by ISO are meant to certify the processes and the system of an organization, not the product or service itself. ISO 9000 standards do not certify the quality of the product or service.

In 2005 the International Organization for Standardization released a standard, ISO 22000, meant for the food industry. This standard covers the values and principles of ISO 9000 and the HACCP standards. It gives one single integrated standard for the food industry and is expected to become more popular in the coming years in such industry.

ISO has also released standards for other industries. For example Technical Standard TS 16949 defines requirements in addition to those in ISO 9001:2008 specifically for the automotive industry.

ISO has a number of standards that support quality management. One group describes processes (including ISO 12207 & ISO 15288) and another describes process assessment and improvement ISO 15504.

The Software Engineering Institute has its own process assessment and improvement methods, called CMMi (Capability Maturity Model — integrated) and IDEAL respectively.

[edit] Quality softwareThe software used to track the three main components of quality management through the use of databases and/or charting applications.

[edit] Quality terms Quality Improvement can be distinguished from Quality Control in that Quality Improvement is

the purposeful change of a process to improve the reliability of achieving an outcome. Quality Control is the ongoing effort to maintain the integrity of a process to maintain the

reliability of achieving an outcome.

Quality Assurance is the planned or systematic actions necessary to provide enough confidence that a product or service will satisfy the given requirements.

[edit] Academic resources International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, ISSN 1746-6474, Inderscience International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, ISSN: 0265-671X, Emerald Publishing

Group

[edit] See also Quality audit Quality infrastructure

Quality management system

Sales process engineering

Systems thinking - Applications

Business excellence

Hoshin Kanri

Health care

Expediting

Test management

[edit] References1. ^ Rose, Kenneth H. (July, 2005). Project Quality Management: Why, What and How. Fort

Lauderdale, Florida: J. Ross Publishing. p. 41. ISBN 1-932159-48-7. http://books.google.com/?id=b5F08Z0QRosC&pg=PA41&dq=Quality+management+quality+planning+quality+control#v=onepage&q=Quality%20management%20quality%20planning%20quality%20control&f=false.

2. ^ Paul H. Selden (December 1998). "Sales Process Engineering: An Emerging Quality Application". Quality Progress: 59–63.

3. ^ Quality Management Strategy, May 2010

4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cianfrani, Charles A.; West, John E. (2009). Cracking the Case of ISO 9001:2008 for Service: A Simple Guide to Implementing Quality Management to Service Organizations (2nd ed.). Milwaukee: American Society for Quality. pp. 5-€“7. ISBN 978-0-87389-762-4. http://books.google.com/?id=-XtbQNGhGmMC&pg=PA5&dq=quality+management+eight+principles+ISO+9001:2008#v=onepage&q=quality%20management%20eight%20principles%20ISO%209001%3A2008&f=false.

5. ^ Westcott, Russell T. (2003). Stepping Up To ISO 9004: 2000 : A Practical Guide For Creating A World-class Oraganization. Paton Press. p. 17. ISBN 0-9713231-7-8.

http://books.google.com/?id=zk-mlLY__wkC&pg=PA17&dq=ISO+9004+Focus+internal+customer+and+external+customers#v=onepage&q=ISO%209004%20Focus%20internal%20customer%20and%20external%20customers&f=false.

6. ^ "Object Oriented Quality Management, a model for quality management.". Statistics Netherlands, The Hague. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/dnss/QAF_comments/Object%20Oriented%20Quality%20Management.pdf.

7. ^ http://ssrn.com/abstract=1488690 "Thareja"

8. ^ Thareja P(2008), "Total Quality Organization Thru’ People, Each one is Capable", FOUNDRY, Vol. XX, No. 4, July/Aug 2008

[edit] Further reading Juran, Joseph M. and Joseph A. De Feo, "Juran's Quality Handbook", 2010, ISBN 9780071629737 Process Assessment and Improvement ISBN 0-387-23182-X

Pyzdek, T, "Quality Engineering Handbook", 2003, ISBN 0824746147

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Quality assuranceFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Quality assurance, or QA (in use from 1973) for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process.[1] QA cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality products.

Two principles included in QA are: "Fit for purpose", the product should be suitable for the intended purpose; and "Right first time", mistakes should be eliminated. QA includes regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components, services related to production, and management, production and inspection processes.

Quality is determined by the product users, clients or customers, not by society in general. It is not the same as 'expensive' or 'high quality'. Low priced products can be considered as having high quality if the product users determine them as such.

Contents[hide]

1 Historyo 1.1 Initial efforts to control the quality of production

o 1.2 Wartime production

o 1.3 Postwar

2 Steps for a typical quality assurance process

3 Failure testing

4 Statistical control

5 Total quality management

6 QA in software development

o 6.1 Models and standards

7 Company quality

8 Using contractors and/or consultants

9 Quality assurance in European vocational education & training

10 Bibliography

o 10.1 Journals

o 10.2 Issues

o 10.3 Books

11 See also

12 References

13 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Initial efforts to control the quality of production

During the Middle Ages, guilds adopted responsibility for quality control of their members, setting and maintaining certain standards for guild membership[citation needed].

Royal governments purchasing material were interested in quality control as customers. For this reason, King John of England appointed William Wrotham to report about the construction and repair of ships[citation needed]. Centuries later, Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the British Admiralty, appointed multiple such overseers[citation needed].

Prior to the extensive division of labor and mechanization resulting from the Industrial Revolution, it was possible for workers to control the quality of their own products. The Industrial Revolution led to a system in which large groups of people performing a specialized type of work were grouped together under the supervision of a foreman who was appointed to control the quality of work manufactured.

[edit] Wartime production

At the time of the First World War, manufacturing processes typically became more complex with larger numbers of workers being supervised. This period saw the widespread introduction of mass production and piecework, which created problems as workmen could now earn more money by the production of extra products, which in turn

occasionally led to poor quality workmanship being passed on to the assembly lines. To counter bad workmanship, full time inspectors were introduced to identify, quarantine and ideally correct product quality failures. Quality control by inspection in the 1920s and 1930s led to the growth of quality inspection functions[citation needed], separately organised from production and large enough to be headed by superintendents.

The systematic approach to quality started in industrial manufacturing during the 1930s[citation needed], mostly in the USA[citation needed], when some attention was given to the cost of scrap and rework. With the impact of mass production required during the Second World War made it necessary[citation needed] to introduce an improved form of quality control known as Statistical Quality Control, or SQC. Some of the initial work for SQC is credited to Walter A. Shewhart of Bell Labs, starting with his famous one-page memorandum of 1924[citation needed].

SQC includes the concept that every production piece cannot be fully inspected into acceptable and non acceptable batches. By extending the inspection phase and making inspection organizations more efficient, it provides inspectors with control tools such as sampling and control charts, even where 100 per cent inspection is not practicable. Standard statistical techniques allow the producer to sample and test a certain proportion of the products for quality to achieve the desired level of confidence in the quality of the entire batch or production run.

[edit] Postwar

In the period following World War II, many countries' manufacturing capabilities that had been destroyed during the war were rebuilt. General Douglas MacArthur oversaw the re-building of Japan. During this time, General MacArthur involved[citation needed] two key individuals in the development of modern quality concepts: W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran. Both individuals promoted the collaborative concepts of quality to Japanese business and technical groups, and these groups utilized these concepts in the redevelopment of the Japanese economy.

Although there were many individuals trying to lead United States industries towards a more comprehensive approach to quality, the U.S. continued to apply the Quality Control (QC) concepts of inspection and sampling to remove defective product from production lines, essentially ignoring advances in QA for decades[citation needed].

[edit] Steps for a typical quality assurance processThere are many forms of QA processes, of varying scope and depth. The application of a particular process is often customized to the production process.

A typical process may include:

test of previous articles plan to improve

design to include improvements and requirements

manufacture with improvements

review new item and improvements

test of the new item

[edit] Failure testingValuable processes to perform on a whole consumer product is failure testing or stress testing.[citation needed] In mechanical terms this is the operation of a product until it fails, often under stresses such as increasing vibration,

temperature, and humidity. This exposes many unanticipated weaknesses in a product, and the data is used to drive engineering and manufacturing process improvements. Often quite simple changes can dramatically improve product service, such as changing to mold-resistant paint or adding lock-washer placement to the training for new assembly personnel.

[edit] Statistical controlMany organizations use statistical process control to bring the organization to Six Sigma levels of quality,[citation needed] in other words, so that the likelihood of an unexpected failure is confined to six standard deviations on the normal distribution. This probability is less than four one-millionths. Items controlled often include clerical tasks such as order-entry as well as conventional manufacturing tasks.[citation needed]

Traditional statistical process controls in manufacturing operations usually proceed by randomly sampling and testing a fraction of the output. Variances in critical tolerances are continuously tracked and where necessary corrected before bad parts are produced.

[edit] Total quality managementThe quality of products is dependent upon that of the participating constituents,[2] some of which are sustainable and effectively controlled while others are not. The process(es) which are managed with QA pertain to Total Quality Management.

If the specification does not reflect the true quality requirements, the product's quality cannot be guaranteed. For instance, the parameters for a pressure vessel should cover not only the material and dimensions but operating, environmental, safety, reliability and maintainability requirements.

[edit] QA in software developmentSee also: Software quality assurance

The following are examples of QA models relating to the software development process.

[edit] Models and standards

ISO 17025 is an international standard that specifies the general requirements for the competence to carry out tests and or calibrations. There are 15 management requirements and 10 technical requirements. These requirements outline what a laboratory must do to become accredited. Management system refers to the organization's structure for managing its processes or activities that transform inputs of resources into a product or service which meets the organization's objectives, such as satisfying the customer's quality requirements, complying with regulations, or meeting environmental objectives.

The CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) model is widely used to implement Quality Assurance (PPQA) in an organization. The CMMI maturity levels can be divided in to 5 steps, which a company can achieve by performing specific activities within the organization. (CMMI QA processes are excellent for companies like NASA, and may even be adapted for agile development style).

[edit] Company quality

During the 1980s, the concept of “company quality” with the focus on management and people came to the fore[citation

needed]. It was realized that, if all departments approached quality with an open mind, success was possible if the management led the quality improvement process.

The company-wide quality approach places an emphasis on four aspects[citation needed] :-

1. Elements such as controls, job management, adequate processes, performance and integrity criteria and identification of records

2. Competence such as knowledge, skills, experience, qualifications

3. Soft elements, such as personnel integrity, confidence, organizational culture, motivation, team spirit and quality relationships.

4. Infrastructure (as it enhances or limits functionality)

The quality of the outputs is at risk if any of these aspects is deficient.

QA is not limited to the manufacturing, and can be applied to any business or non-business activity:

Design work Administrative services

Consulting

Banking

Insurance

Computer software development

Retailing

Transportation

Education

Translation

It comprises a quality improvement process, which is generic in the sense it can be applied to any of these activities and it establishes a behavior pattern, which supports the achievement of quality.

This in turn is supported by quality management practices which can include a number of business systems and which are usually specific to the activities of the business unit concerned.

In manufacturing and construction activities, these business practices can be equated to the models for quality assurance defined by the International Standards contained in the ISO 9000 series and the specified Specifications for quality systems.

In the system of Company Quality, the work being carried out was shop floor inspection which did not reveal the major quality problems. This led to quality assurance or total quality control, which has come into being recently.

[edit] Using contractors and/or consultantsConsultants and contractors are sometimes employed when introducing new quality practices and methods, particularly where the relevant skills and expertise are not available within the organization or when allocating the available internal resources are not available. Consultants and contractors will often employ Quality Management Systems (QMS), auditing and procedural documentation writing CMMI, Six Sigma, Measurement Systems Analysis (MSA), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Advance Product Quality Planning (APQP).

[edit] Quality assurance in European vocational education & trainingWith the formulation of a joint quality strategy, the European Union seeks to fostering the overall attractiveness of vocational education & training (VET) in Europe. In order to promote this process, a set of new policy instruments were implemented, such as CQAF (Common Quality Assurance Framework) and replacement EQARF (European Quality Assurance Reference framework), which shall allow for EC-wide comparison of QA in VET and building the capacities for a common quality assurance policy and quality culture in VET throughout Europe. Furthermore the new policy instruments shall allow for an increased transparency and mutual trust between national VET systems.

In line with the European quality strategy, the member states subsequently have implemented national structures (QANRPs: reference points for quality assurance in VET), who closely collaborate with national stakeholders in order to meet the requirements and priorities of the national VET systems and support activities to training providers in order to guarantee the implementation and commitment at all levels. At European level, the cooperation between QANRPs will be ensured through the EQAVET network.

Over the past few years, with financial support of the European Union as well as the EU member states, numerous pilot initiatives have been developed, most of which are concerned with the promotion and development of quality in VET throughout Europe. Examples can be found in the project database ADAM, which keeps comprehensive information about innovation & transfer projects sponsored by the EU.

A practical example might be seen in the BEQUAL project, which has developed a benchmarking tool for training providers, who with the help of the online-tool can benchmark their quality performance in line with the CQAF quality process model. Furthermore the project offers a database with European good practice on quality assurance in the field of vocational education & training.

Online Benchmarking Tool For Vocational Training Institutes

A different approach was developed by the European VETWORKS project. The project builds on the observation, that over the past years there’s rapid growing VET networks throughout Europe, with a strong tendency to interlocking educational activities across organisations and sectors. It is argued that the vast majority of instruments and methods of quality assurance available for educational planning, monitoring and evaluation on provider level do not meet the new requirements. They are designed for managing the quality of either individual organisations or discrete training processes and structures, and this way are systematically counting out collaborative quality processes within newly emerging learning networks. The VETWORKS approach therefore shall allow local networks to examine their strengths and weaknesses in the area of vocational education & training. When local networks understand the factors that contribute to their success and those that pose challenges, they can better undertake strategies to maximize their strengths and effectively address their weaknesses.

Recent experience in place-based learning strategies, shows that learning communities often deploy three key success areas (Faris, 2007):

Partnership - learning to build links between all sectors and mobilize their shared resources; Participation - learning to involve the public in the policy process as well as learning

opportunities;

Performance - learning to assess progress and benchmark good practice.

The SPEAK-tool, adopted under the VETWORKS initiative to each of these areas deploys indicative descriptors, which local networks can use to determine achievements in their activities towards building on local VET quality. Following the EQARF process model, each indicative descriptor can be assigned a certain stage of the P-D-C-A cycle. This not only allows for compliance with the EQARF principles, but rather extends the original model by deploying a separate network level, bridging between systems and institute level. The quality process cycle employs four key areas of activity, typically found in quality management systems: quality planning, control, assurance and improvement. Each area of activity is focused on a specific quality issue, such as what do we want to achieve?, which concrete operations are required to ensure achievement? what have we achieved? what needs to be improved? indicative descriptors and process cycle define the core elements of quality management in VET networks. SPEAK aims at using quality assurance on a new range by systematically taking advantage of the EQARF and combining it with state-of-the-art methodologies of self-evaluation, especially the SPEAK instrument. By using SPEAK, stakeholders and managers of educational networks and programmes will be able to link progress indicators available for provider, network and system level:

provider level: SPEAK helps to systematically gain knowledge about VET providers’ “performance” in their working environment (at the market, or in the network),

network level: SPEAK helps to evaluate progress-indices, and measure the total operating performance of educational networks and organizations, by connecting relevant data on all actors´ levels: collaborators, volunteers, management etc.

system level: SPEAK helps to reflect and concretize descriptors available for the system level in the light of local VET strategies and programmes.

Finally, on the basis of different analysis options SPEAK also can help to get essential insights in long-term effects of educational programs and requirements for change. The below table reflects this construction principle.

VETWORKS European Quality Assurance in Vocational Education & Training

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Journals

The Quality Assurance Journal, ISSN: 1087-8378, John Wiley & Sons QP - Quality Progress magazine, Published by the American Society for Quality

Quality Assurance in Education, ISSN 0968-4883, Emerald Publishing Group

Accreditation and Quality Assurance: Journal for Quality, Comparability and Reliability in Chemical Measurement, ISSN: 0949-1775 Print, ISSN: 1432-0517

Food Quality and Preference, ISSN: 0950-3293

[edit] Issues

Almeida, E., Alvaro, A., Meria, S. (2007, September 3–4). A Component quality assurance process. Foundations of Software Engineering, doi: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1295074.1295093

Feldman, S. (2005, February). Quality assurance: much more than testing. Queue, 3(1), doi: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1046931.1046943

Meisinger, M., Wagner, S. (2006, November 6). Integrating a Model of Analytical Quality Assurance into the V-Modell XT. Foundations of Software Engineering, 38-45.doi: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1188895.1188906

[edit] Books

Majcen N., Taylor P. (Editors): Practical examples on traceability, measurement uncertainty and validation in chemistry, Vol 1; ISBN 978-92-79-12021-3, 2010.

Pyzdek, T, "Quality Engineering Handbook", 2003, ISBN 0-8247-4614-7

Godfrey, A. B., "Juran's Quality Handbook", 1999, ISBN 0-07-034003-X

[edit] See also Best practice Data quality

Data integrity

Farm assurance

GxP, a general term for Good Practice quality guidelines and regulations

ISO 9000

Mission assurance

Program assurance

Quality control

Quality infrastructure

Quality management

Quality management system

Ringtest, part of a quality assurance programme in which identical samples are analysed by different laboratories

Software testing

Software quality assurance

Total Quality Management

Verification and validation

[edit] References1. ^ Definition of "Quality assurance" in Merriam Webster Dictionary2. ^ Thareja, Mannu; Thareja, Priyavrat (February 2007). "The Quality Brilliance Through

Brilliant People". Quality World 4 (2). http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1498550. Retrieved 2010-01-11.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2010)

[edit] External links Graduate Certificate in Quality Assurance, LH Martin Institute for Higher Education Leadership &

Management, The University of Melbourne Measurement Science in Chemistry

Quality Assurance Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants and Fuel Reprocessing Plants

Training in metrology in chemistry

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bTotal quality managementFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Total Quality Management)

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Total quality management or TQM is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes. [1] It is used around the world.

TQM functions on the premise that the quality of products and processes is the responsibility of everyone who is involved with the creation or consumption of the products or services offered by an organization. In other words, TQM capitalizes on the involvement of management, workforce, suppliers, and even customers, in order to meet or exceed customer expectations. Considering the practices of TQM as discussed in six empirical studies, Cua, McKone, and Schroeder (2001) identified the nine common TQM practices as cross-functional product design, process management, supplier quality management, customer involvement, information and feedback, committed leadership, strategic planning, cross-functional training, and employee involvement. [2]

[edit] TQM and Six SigmaThe Six Sigma management strategy originated in 1986 from Motorola’s drive towards reducing defects by minimizing variation in processes. [3]

The main difference between TQM and Six Sigma (a newer concept) is the approach.[4] At its core, Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction.

In a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving processes, products, services and the culture in which they work.

The methods for implementing this approach come from the teachings of such quality leaders as Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran.

[edit] Further reading Deming, W. Edwards. Out of the Crisis (1986) Ishikawa, Kaoru. What is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way (1985)

Feigenbaum, A.V. Total Quality Control (1991)

Juran, J.M. Juran on Leadership for Quality: An Executive Handbook (1989)

Crosby, Philip B. (January 1989). Let's Talk Quality: 96 Questions You Always Wanted to ask Phil Crosby (1st ed.). McGraw-Hill. p. 208. ISBN 978-0070145658.

[edit] References1. ^ Ahire, S. L. 1997. Management Science- Total Quality Management interfaces: An

integrative framework. Interfaces 27 (6) 91-105.2. ^ Cua, K. O., K. E. McKone, and R. G. Schroeder. 2001. Relationships between

implementation of TQM, JIT, and TPM and manufacturing performance. Journal of Operations Management 19 (6) 675-694.

3. ^ Anand, G., P. T. Ward, and M. V. Tatikonda. 2010. Role of explicit and tacit knowledge in six sigma projects: An empirical examination of differential project success. Journal of Operations Management 28 (4) 303-315.

4. ^ "Six Sigma vs. Total Quality Management". http://www.pmhut.com/six-sigma-vs-total-quality-management. Retrieved April 19, 2010.

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Quality policy | Quality management

Quality policy

Aim and Purpose | The Customer | Customer Relations | The quality management systemOur employees | Our Suppliers | Quality-related Costs | Quality Objectives

Aim and PurposeThe main aim of BOMATEC LTD is to ensure the long-term financial success of the company by attaining complete customer satisfaction. In order to achieve a customer orientated mentality throughout the company, BOMATEC LTD has introduced a quality management system, one to be understood as a perpetual process

Description

This quality policy is one element within the construct of the total company policy. The implementation of this quality policy by the management, both internally and externally, plans to establish a customer orientated mentality on the part of the company’s employees.

The Customer oben

For us the customer takes priority. All activities are aimed in this direction. Complete customer satisfaction is our main target.

Customer Relations oben

Our customers’ expectations are the factors which set the goals for the quality of our services. This means that we have to work closely together with our customers to be able to understand and meet their expectations.

Where competitive market prices are equal the highly-placed trust in the quality of our performance lifts us above the level of our competitors. Our products are market and customer conform. We therefore want to be assured that our products and services are of a better quality than those of our competitors, or at least of an equal standard.

The quality management system oben

Quality is created during processing – for this reason the management of quality is of the utmost importance during all processes and procedures. Quality assurance is an integrated part of all procedural sequencing. As a basis we use the standards set by ISO 9001. The ISO manual serves as a guiding tool throughout all processes and assures the control of our quality policies.

The documentation and continuous furthering of our quality management system is assured by quality improvement processes, clearly defined rules of responsibility, documentation and tailoring of guidelines, certification and re-certification carried out by accreditation bodies.

Our employees oben

The management of quality is a leadership duty and a permanent function of all employees. Our employees are committed and have the necessary professional expertise and high human qualities. The management, acting as a good example and so upholding the values set, is the driving force for the implementation of the quality objectives. By the correct choice of personnel, employee support and employee training, the management are able to exercise their competence. The management establishes the organizational structure for the employees as well as those required means of production, methods and tools which are needed to achieve the quality target. We look upon open communication and teamwork as the supporting columns of our company’s culture and as a decisive factor in the effectiveness of our services. We can only attain our quality objectives when each and every employee understands and lives our quality system. Therefore we hand over the responsibility of creating quality in the processes to each individual employee. Each individual is aware of and understands the exact instructions to achieve the requested quality in his or her personal field of work. Each individual also knows where assistance can be had in case of missing information or documentation, this ensures the objective of continuously avoiding mistakes.

Our Suppliers oben

Our suppliers are also our partners. Our quality requirements are thus part of the agreement we have with our suppliers and their products. The suppliers are to be integrated into our quality management system.

Quality-related Costs oben

To establish and ensure quality at financially competitive cost-efficient levels requires staying in control of economic principles. This will allow us to offer our services at competitive market prices.

Quality Objectives oben

The main objective of BOMATEC LTD is to ensure the company’s long-term financial success by achieving complete customer satisfaction.

To meet customer requirements 100% To increase the volume of our revenue within the current customer base and the expansion into

a new customer base reflecting the improvements made through our quality improvement processes.

To increase production by improving efficiency using the ISO identified procedures, resulting in a reduction of the process time and having control of our procedures.

By maintaining and improving the quality management system.

Promoting personal responsibility and quality awareness.

Improving partner relationships with our current suppliers to achieve our quality objectives and the consolidation of new, quality-aware suppliers, preferably with ISO 9000 certification into our processes.

The implementation of zero-defect principles to avoid the costs inherent in rectifying mistakes.

The establishing and keeping of quality objectives and their supervision will become an important and meaningful element within the leadership duties of our company.

Quality management oben

Ziel und Zweck | Description

Aim and Purpose oben

Our management decides how the activities affecting quality within the managing system are to be coordinated at this level, how processes are to be controlled and guided.

The usual management instrument is a daily situation meeting. This allows the exchange of pertinent information, the control of current business activities and the implementation of improvement measures. All important decisions made during this meeting are minuted. At suitable intervals team-meetings are to be held at the level of the project concerned, this serves the need for coordination and to exchange information between the organization’s interfaces. A further important management instrument is the budget and its administration. At the moment this does not lie within the framework of the quality management system’s documented reviews (performance review of the QM-system).

The management assesses the quality system regularly in order to ensure the compatibility and effectiveness for the requirements set by the ISO 9001 standards as well as the defined quality policy and its assurance.

Description oben

The review of the Q-system takes place at least once a year. The basis for this evaluation are the results of the internal quality audits and the report of the Q-manager to the appointed Q-assessors. Here, the actual data delivered from the practical application of the quality process is/are compared and evaluated with the current stand of the quality objectives set for the period running. In addition, and at the same time, the results of already implemented improvement measures are analyzed and checked for their worthiness. The described evaluations form the basis for the development and definition of new quality objectives for the coming period. Those actions looked upon as being necessary for improvements are determined and implemented as improvement measures. These measures are agreed upon and the new quality objectives defined, introduced, and made valid for the next period. The reviews are recorded and are valid as quality records.

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Career: Quality Control Manager Save

A Day in the life of a Quality Control Manager

Quality control managers work in every type of production environment possible, from producing dictionaries to dowel-cutting for boat plugs. A quality control manager samples production, analyzes it, and then makes recommendations on how to increase the quality of goods. It takes a firm grasp of scientific as well as managerial concepts to be a successful quality control expert; quality control managers work hard inspecting, analyzing, and writing reports about production. These people are the last line of defense between quality goods that the public respects and shoddy work that can harm a company’s reputation. Does this mean they are appreciated by coworkers? Quality control managers answered us with a resounding one-word answer: No. If you absolutely need approbation from your colleagues, be warned: Quality control is not the field for you. “People see you as the policeman, criticizing people’s work and telling them that they’re not doing their job right,” said one QC inspector. The best of QC professionals act as educators as well, letting people know that they are only there to help

everyone keep product quality high. “I spend more time talking with people than examining objects,” wrote one eight-year veteran of the QC field, “because the object can’t change.”Meeting with workers, executives, and supervisors takes up a significant 30 percent of the QC manager’s day, but another 30 percent is spent testing and analyzing materials. Scientific methodologies are important; those who do not properly conduct their tests are going to make recommendations based on faulty data. The remainder of time is spent writing reports, making recommendations, and doing professional reading. QC experts must keep up with current materials use, statistical studies, and technological advances that affect the field of quality control. For example, construction materials stress-testing can be done using high-pressured pistons to compress them to the point of breakage; a recent advance lets the QC expert analyze the molecular composition of a small sample to get nearly as precise an estimate of its tensile strength.

Paying Your Dues

No specific academic requirements exist for quality control experts, but the many positions in the field that involve scientific analysis require bachelor’s degrees. Candidates who majored in chemistry, physics, and engineering are at an advantage during the job hunt; at a minimum, coursework should include mathematics, statistics, and computer modeling. Some candidates who have only high school degrees are sponsored to take two- or three-year post-high school courses that train them in a particular industry. Many of these industries-automobile, aerospace, and glassmaking, to name a few-have exacting requirements that can only be learned through specific training. Quality control trainees may also have to spend significant time on a production floor analyzing behavior that affects quality control.

Associated Careers

Quality control managers find a number of detail-oriented jobs open to them. Those with financial backgrounds become bookkeepers, accountants, and loan officers more than anything else. A number with strong interpersonal skills become production supervisors and inventory managers, fields well-suited to their organizational abilities and analytic natures.

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Every manufacturer talks a good "quality" game, but for some the ability to consistently match and exceed customer expectations seems too difficult and expensive a concept to pursue. And

yet, according to analyst firm Aberdeen Group, best-in-class manufacturers are not only able to produce higher quality products while increasing customer satisfaction, but they're doing this while investing less in both cost of good quality as well as cost of poor quality. The difference

between "good" and "poor" quality is measured by how much it costs to conform (or not conform) to customer requirements in product and processes.

Based on a recent survey of senior manufacturing executives, the Aberdeen report indicates that "the top strategic action taken to address the market pressures around the cost of quality is to

create and improve visibility and control over quality processes across the manufacturing operation and the supply chain." This action, the report states, is taken by 55% of best-in-class

manufacturers, and 52% of all other respondents.

One of the surest paths to best-in-class status, Aberdeen asserts, is the adoption of an enterprise quality management system (QMS), which offers companies the ability to define common goals,

objectives and metrics to measure performance across the supply chain. 88% of companies defined as best-in-class reportedly have or are implementing a QMS at the enterprise level.

The accompanying PACE (pressures, actions, capabilities and enablers) chart illustrates how manufacturers can progress from identifying a problem to focusing on a solution, and as a result

become best-in-class themselves.

Pressures

Need to ensure customer satisfaction Need to reduce the cost of quality

Actions

Create/improve visibility and control into quality processes across manufacturing operations and supplier networks

Minimize scrap, rework and returned materials

Build in complete product and process traceability into production process

Create/improve communication and collaboration across engineering, procurement, manufacturing and distribution

Capabilities

Standardized processes for responding to adverse events across the enterprise Dynamically update quality business processes as best practices emerge

Cross-functional continuous improvement teams are focused on improving enterprise quality processes

Monitor adverse events in real-time

Automated data collection from across manufacturing operations

Operational metrics are linked with financial metrics

Enablers

Document management

Traceability

Statistical process control (SPC)

Dashboards

NC/CAPA (non-conformance and corrective & preventive action)

Automated product quality planning

Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)

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