Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Privacy Policy for http://totalqualitymanagementhistory.blogspot.com/

Privacy Policy for http://totalqualitymanagementhistory.blogspot.com/

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TQM Sustainability: What it means and how to make it viable

Professor Mohamed Zairi
Juran Chair in TQM
Director of The ECTQM
University of Bradford
UK
The literature review indicates that in order to achieve ‘world-class’ status, each MBNQA and EQA winner had to closely examine its entire operations, processes and its customers, so as to compare itself with the best in class. Self-assessment, which is one of the fastest growing methods, is used by these organizations to measure their standards and performance in their attempts to achieve world class rating. Both the MBNQA and EQA models provide the ideal framework against which this can be done. Their TQM implementation evolved against a background of economic and business pressures that derived an increased focus on the continuous benchmarking of their performance with the world’s best, adapting new best practice and innovating to become world-class. A world-class organization is one that has the production and/or service capability that is competitive in the dynamic global economy.
A synthesized review of the literature on the 1988 and 1999 MBNQA winners, also the 1992 and 1999 winners of the EQA examined the history and evolution of their TQM path and the findings reflect four paradigm shifts ( Table 1):
Table 1
The aforementioned analysis was undertaken by Zairi & Liburd (2001) and they concluded that essentially TQM sustainability is alrgely dependent on the following:
  1. A series of transformational change paradigms, through an evolutionary path reflecting a product, service, customer and market orientations.;
  2. The existence of a number of critical factors which impinge greatly on TQM successful implementation and which enable superior performance;
  3. The creation of a culture of continuous improvement, learning and innovation so as to have in place a sustainableclimate of growth;
  4. An emphasis on measurement using a balanced perspective

History (Evolution) of Quality Control

Contributors in the Improvement of Concept of QUALITY

In the early 1900s, the beginning of Factory Productions, the final products were inspected for the purpose of accepting or rejecting the same. During these times, in his list of basic areas of manufacturing management, F. W. Taylor, emphasized on quality by including Product Inspection into it. Radford’s was of the view of involving quality consideration early in the product design stage and also to connect-together Quality, Productivity and Costs.
In 1924, Walter Shewhart introduced ‘Statistical Process Control (SPC)’ by means of ‘Control Charts’ in order to keep a control over production. After five years or so, Dodge & Romig introduced Acceptance Sampling Inspection Tables popularly known as Dodge-Romig Tables. The concept of SPC found a little acceptance in the Manufacturing Industry till 1940s.
Historically, Second World War remarkably increased the importance of Quality Control. W. Edward Deming introduced SQC in Japanese Industry. This resulted in creation of a quality manufacturing facilities in Japan. The devastated country in this Second World War posed a tough competition to other leading nations in the area of manufacturing, especially the American Manufacturing Firms.
After this war, in the mid-twentieth century, professionals and engineers in the industry hugely benefited by the American Universities in terms of training in quality control. This has seen the emergence of ‘Quality Assurance’ evolved out of this development taken place around ‘Quality Control’ concept. At about the same time, Joseph Juran began his `Cost of Quality’ approach, emphasizing accurate and complete identification and measurement of Costs of Quality, In the mid 1950s, Armand Fiegen Baum proposed Total Quality Control which enlarged the focus of Quality Control from manufacturing to include Product Design.
During the 1960s, the concept of “Zero-defects” gained favor. Philip Crosby, who was the champion of “Zero defects” concept focused on employee motivation and awareness. In this decade from 1950 to 1960; quality control and management became synonymous with the growth of Industrial Revolution in Japan.
In the 1970s, Quality Assurance methods were used in services such as government operations, health care, banking etc. During this period the world started importing heavily from Japan including America and European countries. In the late 1970s, there was a dramatic shift from quality assurance to a strategic approach to quality. The `reactive’ approach of finding and correcting defectives in products manufactured was changed to a pro-active’ approach of focusing on preventing defects from recurring altogether. During the same period ‘British Standards’ (BS 5750) emerged along with ISO 9000 Standards of Quality.
In late 1980s, Total Quality Management (TQM) gained a lot of popularity even outside Japan and became the main theme revolving around the concept of Quality Control. In the twenty first century the concept of quality has been gathering a total or gross approach in terms of ‘Business Excellence’.

A Brief History of Quality Control

Concerns for product quality and process control is nothing new. Historians have traced the concept as far back as 3000 B.C. in Babylonia.  Among the references to quality from the code of Hammurabi, ruler of Babylonia, is the following excerpt: “The mason who builds a house which falls down and kills the inmate shall be put to death.”
This law reflects a concern for quality in antiquity. Process control s concept that may have begun with pyramids of Egypt, when a system for quarrying and dressing stone was designed.One has only to examine the pyramids at Cheops to appreciate this remarkable achievement.
07 Cheops pyramid2
Later Greek architecture would surpass Egyptian architecture in the area of military applications. Centuries later, the shipbuilding operations in Venice introduced rudimentary production control and standardization.
3190221052_f06504f644
Following the Industrial Revolution and the resulting factory system, quality and process control began to take on some of the characteristics that we know today.
industrial-revolution
Specialization of labor in the factory demanded it. Interchangeability of parts was introduced by Eli Whitney when he manufactured 15, 000 muskets for the federal government. This event was representative of the emerging era of mass production, when inspection by a skilled  craftsman at a workbench was replaced by the specialized function of inspection conducted by individual not directly involved in the production process.
Fredrick Winslow Taylor
Fredrick Winslow Taylor
Specialized labor and quality assurance took a giant step forward in 1911 with  the publication of Fredrick W.Taylor’s book Principles of Scientific Management. The pioneering work had a profound effect on management thought and practice. Taylor’s philosophy was one of the extreme functional specialization and he suggested eight functional bosses for the shop floor, one of whom as assigned the task of inspection:
The inspector is responsible for the quality of the work, and both the workmen and speed bosses [who see that the proper cutting tools are used, that the work is properly driven, and that cuts are started in the right part of the pieces] must see that the work is finished to suit him. This man can, of course, do his work best if he is a master of the art of finishing work both well and quickly.
Taylor later conceded that extreme functional specialization has its disadvantages, but his notion of process analysis and quality control by inspection of the final product still lives on in many firms today. Statistical quality control (SQC), the forerunner of today’s TQM or total quality control, had its beginning in the mid-1920s at the Western Electric plant of the Bell System.
Walter Shewart, a Bell Laboratories physicist, designed original version of SQC for the zero defects mass production of complex telephone exchanges and telephone sets. In 1931 Shewart published his landmark book Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product. This book provided a precise and measurable definition of quality control and developed statistical techniques for evaluating production and improving quality. During World War II, W.Edward Deming and Joseph Juran, both former members of Shewart’s group, separately developed the versions used today.
It is generally accepted today that the Japanese owe their product leadership partly to adopting the precepts of Deming and Juran. According to Peter Drucker, U.S. industry ignored their contributions for40 years and is only now converting to SQC.

From Quality Assurance to Total Quality Management: the Future of Automated Test Standardization

By Moshe Moskovich,
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer,
QualiSystems
Design verification and quality assurance processes are the backbone of successful product development. Whatever the product, the ultimate goals are the same: to reduce development costs and accelerate time to market without affecting product quality.

Companies invest considerable time, resources and money in testing. Costs can reach up to 300% of the total product development budget. In order to reduce test development time and improve test coverage and efficiency, many companies have created automated testing systems using skilled, in-house human resources, or have invested in third-party test automation solutions. Although automated tests developed in-house are tailored to an organization’s specific requirements, this solution suffers from a number of disadvantages.
Hard-coded test scenarios are extremely difficult to maintain, modify and re-use, especially as products are constantly changing. In order to modify tests, engineers must update the code — often an extensive process, particularly as different engineers use different programming languages and methods. The result is a lack of standardization throughout the testing process – from test design and execution through documentation, data collection and storage, data retrieval and analysis.
Lack of standardization significantly impacts data management efficiency, test development time and quality management process as a whole – on an enterprise-wide basis.
Furthermore, developing automated tests with complete test coverage is a major challenge for manufacturers of complex products that incorporate both software and hardware. Full test coverage requires the use of many different types of test equipment from a variety of vendors. Incorporating these into automated tests requires engineers to program complex drivers. Often, if an item of test equipment is replaced, the test needs to be re-coded. This is not only expensive in terms of time and resources, but also impacts on standardization and test environment maintenance.
One way of addressing these issues is to view product testing as an enterprise-wide total quality management system similar in concept to ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). This combines a top-down system that considers quality control across the entire organization with a bottom-up approach. This approach commences with discrete tests and uses them as building blocks to create automated processes for full test coverage. The result is a total automated quality management system, which underpins the product lifecycle from design through post-manufacture.
Schematic depicting the flow of a total automated quality management system
total automated quality management system
Test Procedures
A user-oriented tool for test design and development ensures uniformity of UI, test flow, data collection, documentation, test results, and coverage. It removes the need for complex programming of test processes and also saves the cost of skilled resources.
Unified Central Database
This acts as the foundation for the quality management infrastructure. All test data is collected in a standardized manner through the testing processes and automatically stored for easy data aggregation (retrieval, reuse, analysis etc).
Process Control
To ensure the quality of the product, it is not enough to test the product in different stages of its lifecycle (QC), we also need to ensure quality process execution (QA). The system will provide tools to construct the test process logic and flow, and to aid data collection in a standard format when test processes are executed.
Decision Support and BI Systems
Managers and engineers can access real-time and historic test data stored in the central database and use it to monitor quality. In multi-site organizations, where testing is conducted in different locations, managers can track test status remotely, receive real-time updates, and generate aggregation reports.
How would such a system impact on the various roles within a company? The examples below show some typical roles in a large, multi-site organization:
Role Benefits of Automated Quality Management system
R&D Engineer » Self-sufficiency in testing tasks
» Drastically speed up testing set-ups in unstable environments
» Storage,reuse and sharing of knowledge
Process / Production manager » Online production flow monitoring
» Real-time event-handling and alerts
» Online quality-related reports management
Corporate Manager » Quality policy planning
» Improved cost control
» Continuously improved process auditing
Product Manager » Online monitoring of product quality
» Automated product fault data collection and aggregation
» Investigation tools for quality related issues
The paradigm shift from in-house development of semi-automated tests to total quality management is already underway as solutions that address these problems start to enter the market. However, only a comprehensive system that covers all test requirements over the complete product lifecycle can take quality management to this next necessary step.This will also improve and simplify quality management in terms of data collection and analysis, increasing efficiency and further a meliorating quality management.
A natural development of such a system will be to incorporate quality standards libraries as templates into product testing, which help ensure compliance with standards and best practices.
A major advance towards total quality management has been recently made by QualiSystems. QualiSystems’ TestShell suite of solutions addresses the issues of total quality management from both a top-down and bottom-up approach. TestShell covers quality management from an enterprise-level perspective, by offering manufacturers real-time business intelligence in addition to code-free test design, and 24/7 automated test run capabilities.
As product complexity increases, remote and outsourced manufacturing become the norm, and customers continue to demand high quality at low cost. In the near future, not only test automation but total quality management systems will become increasingly essential – particularly in large, global organizations.

The quest for quality at Safeway Australia

At LSI, we build environmental, occupational health and safety (EH&S) decision-making into the beginning of the product realization process to fully realize our EH&S Policy and vision. By including EH&S consideration during the concept stage, potential safety hazards and negative environmental impacts can be minimized before they have the chance of becoming part of our processes or products.
The model used to guide EH&S decision-making at LSI incorporates a solid foundation of a third party certified ISO 14001 (environmental) & OHSAS 18001 (safety) based management system. ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 are management system standards built upon the total quality management concept of "Plan, Do, Check, Act".
The discipline and recognition of ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001 certifications supports performance driven EH&S programs which, in turn, strengthen and enhance the product realization process. These standards embody the core elements that are included in LSI's Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) regarding how we identify and manage the significant safety hazards and environmental aspects of our business. LSI's SEMS is regularly audited by an independent and accredited registrar (Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance) for conformance with the ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards.
LSI also has a formal procedure to identify safety hazards and environmental aspects associated with our products and operations. Our SEMS requires that the aspects be evaluated to determine which aspects are or may become significant. LSI sets documented and measurable environmental & safety objectives and targets to manage its significant aspects. The objectives and targets take into account LSI's commitment to pollution prevention, compliance with relevant EH&S regulations, LSI Worldwide EH&S Standards, views of interested parties such as customers and shareholders, as well as opportunities for continuous improvement. Learn more about our EH&S performance.
The output of these efforts is a set of documented objectives and targets that form the basis of environmental and safety plans across the business. The plans include time frames within which performance driven EH&S programs will be met. These plans are revised as necessary to incorporate new activities or products, audit findings, feedback from management reviews, input from interested parties, or new legal and other requirements.
To ensure that this management concept is embedded in its daily operations, LSI trains employees regarding the importance of conforming with the SEMS, safety hazards and environmental impacts associated with their work, their roles and responsibilities within the SEMS, and the potential consequences of failure to follow operating procedures.
Periodic audits are performed to assess compliance with relevant legal requirements and company policies and programs. We also audit the SEMS to ensure that it has been properly implemented and maintained, and that it conforms to the requirements of ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. LSI's executive level management reviews the SEMS annually to ensure its continuing adequacy and effectiveness as a business tool. Updates to our EH&S Policy, objectives, and other SEMS elements are made where necessary, in an effort to meet the challenge of continuous improvement in our management system in order to deliver sustainable EH&S performance expected by our customers, stakeholders and communities.

Quality Management

Foxsemicon thoroughly constructs a quality management system to assure Total Quality Management and strives for continuous improvements on total customer satisfaction as the first priority. Quality is the first responsibility in the business, and the core of the whole company's operations. All the staff must insist on implementing the quality policy to satisfy customer's needs and wants and achieve zero defects.
Quality Management