Continuous Process Improvement

Continuous Improvement Strategies

There are four primary Improvement Strategies:

Repair, Refinement, Renovation & Reinvention.

Repair: Anything broken must be fixed so that it

functions as designed.

Two levels to this strategy:

• Short-term- Customer receives a damaged product, a quick fix is required.

• Long-term- Individual or a team identifies root cause & eliminates it.

Repair strategy does not improve process.

Refinement: This strategy involves activities that continually improve processes,

products & services to make them quicker, better,

easier or with less waste.

Renovation: This strategy results in major or break through improvement.

Reinvention: A new product, service, process or activity is developed using teams

based on a complete understanding of the customer requirements.

Leadership System-TQM Implementation

Quality StatementsVISION: The vision statement is a short declaration of what an organization

aspires to be tomorrow. Successful visions are timeless, inspirational &

become deeply shared within the organization.

IBM- Service.

Apple- Computing for the masses.

Disney Theme Park- Happiest place on earth.

Paranoid- Instant Photography.

MISSION: Mission statement answers questions like:

Who we are, who are the customers, what we do, & how we do it?

Mission statement is generally less than one paragraph, easy to understand & describes

functions of the organization.

National Railway: To meet customers’ Transportation & distribution needs

by being the best at moving their goods on time, safely & damage free.

Ford: To improve continually our products & services to meet the customers’ needs,

allowing us to prosper as a business & to provide a reasonable return to our share

holders, the owners of the business.

Quality Policy StatementThe quality policy statement is a guide for everyone in the organization as to

how they should provide products & services to the customers. It should be

written by the CEO with feedback from the workforce & approved by the

quality council.

Common characteristics are:

• Quality is first among equals

• Meet the needs of the internal & external customers

• Equal or exceed the competition

• Continually improve the quality

• Include business & production practices

• Utilize the entire workforce.

Quality policy is an essential requirement of quality certifications like ISO/QS

9000.

Quality Policy of Xerox: Quality is the basic business principle for Xerox.

Quality means providing our external & internal customers with innovative

products & services that fully satisfy their requirements. Quality is the job of

every employee.

Strategic PlanningFor TQM to succeed the strategic Quality plans & business plans

should be inseparable.

Seven steps to Strategic Planning:

1. Customers Needs

2. Customer Positioning

3. Predict the future

4. Gap Analysis

5. Closing the Gap

6. Alignment

7. Implementation.

TQM MODELS

7. Accelerated Business Improvement Model (Smith-1995)

16. Dhruv Model for Excellence