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QUALITY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT (CONTD.)
BROAD CONTENTS
The Quality Movement
Quality Development Stages
Quality Audit
Deming Philosophy
35.1 THE QUALITY MOVEMENT:
During the past 100 years, the views of quality have changed
dramatically. Prior to World War
I, quality was viewed predominantly as inspection, sorting out
the good items from the bad.
Emphasis was on problem identification. Following World War I
and up to the early 1950s,
emphasis was still on sorting good items from bad.
However, quality control principles were now emerging in the
form of:
- Statistical and
mathematical techniques
- Sampling tables
- Process control
charts
From the early 1950s to the late 1960s, quality control evolved
into quality assurance, with its
emphasis on problem avoidance rather than problem detection.
Additional quality assurance
principles emerged, such as:
- The cost of
quality
- Zero-defect
programs
- Reliability
engineering
- Total quality
control
35.2 DEVELOPMENT OF QUALITY STAGES:
This comprises of the following “five level model”:
- Inspection
- Quality Control
- Quality Assurance
- Quality Management
- Total Quality Management
1.
Inspection:
“Activity such as measuring, examining, testing, or gauging one
or more characteristics
of an entity and comparing the results with specified
requirements in order to establish
whether conformity is achieved for each characteristic” (ISO
8402)
2. Quality Control:
Quality control is a collective term for activities and
techniques, within the process, that
are intended to create specific quality characteristics. Such
activities include continually
monitoring processes, identifying and eliminating problem
causes, use of statistical
process control to reduce the variability and to increase the
efficiency of processes.
Quality control certifies that the organization's quality
objectives are being met.
Quality control is also referred to as the technical aspect of
quality management. They
set up the technical processes and procedures that ensure that
each step of the project
provides a quality output from design and development through
implementation and
maintenance. Each step's output must conform to the overall
quality standards and
quality plans, thus ensuring that quality is achieved.
A good quality control system will:
- Select what to
control
- Set standards
that provide the basis for decisions regarding possible corrective action
- Establish the
measurement methods used
- Compare the
actual results to the quality standards
- Act to bring
nonconforming processes and material back to the standard based on the information collected
- Monitor and
calibrate measuring devices
- Include
detailed documentation for all processes
3. Quality Assurance:
Quality assurance is the collective term for the formal
activities and managerial
processes that are planned and undertaken in an attempt to
ensure that products and
services that are delivered are at the required quality level.
Quality assurance also
includes efforts external to these processes that provide
information for improving the
internal processes. It is the quality assurance function that
attempts to ensure that the
project scope, cost, and time functions are fully integrated.
The Project Management Institute Guide to the Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK) refers to
quality assurance as the management section of quality
management. This is the area
where the project manager can have the greatest impact on the
quality of his project.
The project manager needs to establish the administrative
processes and procedures
necessary to ensure and, often, prove that the scope statement
conforms to the actual
requirements of the customer. The project manager must work with
his team to
determine which processes they will use to ensure that all
stakeholders have confidence
that the quality activities will be properly performed. All
relevant legal and regulatory
requirements must also be met.
A good quality assurance system will:
- Identify
objectives and standards.
- Be
multifunctional and prevention oriented.
- Plan for
collection and use of data in a cycle of continuous improvement.
- Plan for the
establishment and maintenance of performance measures.
- Include quality
audits.
4. Quality Management:
During the past twenty years, there has been a revolution toward
improved quality. The
improvements have occurred not only in product quality, but also
in quality leadership
and quality project management. Unfortunately, it takes an
economic disaster or a
recession to get management to recognize the need for improved
quality. Prior to the
recession of 1979–1982, Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler
viewed each other as the
257
competition rather than the Japanese. Prior to the recession of
1989–1994, high-tech
engineering companies never fully recognized the need for
shortening product
development time and the relationship between project
management, total quality
management, and concurrent engineering. The push for higher
levels of quality appears
to be customer driven. Customers are now demanding:
- Higher
performance requirements
- Faster product
development
- Higher
technology levels
- Materials and
processes pushed to the limit
- Lower
contractor profit margins
- Fewer
defects/rejects
One of the critical factors that can affect quality is market
expectations. The variables
that affect market expectations include:
• Salability: the
balance between quality and cost
• Produceability:
the ability to produce the product with available technology and workers, and at an acceptable cost
• Social
acceptability: the degree of conflict between the product or process and the
values of society (i.e., safety, environment)
• Operability:
the degree to which a product can be operated safely
• Availability:
the probability that the product, when used under given conditions,
will perform satisfactorily when called upon
• Reliability:
the probability of the product performing without failure under given
conditions and for a set period of time
•
Maintainability: the ability of the product to be retained in or restored to a
performance level when prescribed maintenance is performed
Customer demands are now being handled using total quality
management (TQM).
Total quality management is an ever-improving system for
integrating various
organizational elements into the design, development, and
manufacturing efforts,
providing cost-effective products or services that are fully
acceptable to the ultimate
customer. Externally, TQM is customer oriented and provides for
more meaningful
customer satisfaction. Internally, TQM reduces production line
bottlenecks and
operating costs, thus enhancing product quality while improving
organizational morale.
5. Total Quality Management (TQM):
For this, we first explain what
“total quality”
is. Total Quality means:
- Quality of work
- Quality of
Service
- Quality of
information
- Quality Process
- Quality of
Organization
- Quality of
People
- Quality of
Company
- Quality of
Objectives
Mature organizations today readily admit that they cannot
accurately define quality.
The reason for this is because quality is defined by the
customer. The Kodak definition
of quality is those products and services that are perceived to
meet or exceed the needs
and expectations of the customer at a cost that represents
outstanding value
The ISO 9000 definition is "the totality of feature and
characteristics of a product or
service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied
needs." Terms such as fitness
for use, customer satisfaction, and zero defects are goals
rather than definitions. Most
organizations today view quality more as a process than a
product. To be more specific,
it is a continuously improving process where lessons learned are
used to enhance future
products and services in order to:
- Retain existing
customers
- Win back lost
customers
- Win new
customers
Therefore, companies today are developing quality improvement
processes. Figure 35.1
shows the five quality principles that support Kodak's quality
policy. Figure 35.2 shows
a more detailed quality improvement process.
Total Quality Management (TQM)
is a management strategy aimed at
embedding
awareness of quality in all organizational processes. Total
Quality Management (TQM)
has been widely used in manufacturing, education, government,
and service industries,
as well as NASA space and science programs.
Total Quality provides an umbrella under which everyone in the
organization can strive
and create customer satisfaction at continually lower real
costs.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is the management of total
quality. We know that
management consists of planning, organizing, directing, control,
and assurance. Then,
one has to define "total quality". Total quality is called
total
because it consists of the
following three qualities:
1. Quality
of return to satisfy the needs of
the shareholders
2. Quality
of products and services to
satisfy some specific needs of the consumer
(end user)
3. Quality
of life - at work and outside
work - to satisfy the needs of the people in the
organization.
This is achieved with the help of upstream and downstream
partners of the enterprise.
To this, we have to add the corporate citizenship, that is the
social, technological,
economical, political, and ecological (STEPE)
responsibility of the enterprise
concerning its internal (its people) and external (upstream and
downstream) partners,
and community. Therefore, total quality management goes well
beyond satisfying the
customer, or merely offering quality products (goods and/or
services). Note that we use
the term consumer or end customer. The reason is that in a
Supply Chain Management
approach, we do not have to satisfy our customers' needs but the
needs of our
customers' customers' all the way to the end customer, the
consumer of a product and/or
service.
These two figures (35.1 and 35.2) seem to illustrate that
organizations are placing more emphasis on the
quality process than on the quality product and, therefore, are
actively pursuing quality improvements
through a continuous cycle.
35.3 QUALITY AUDIT:
A quality audit is an independent evaluation performed by
qualified personnel that ensures that
the project is conforming to the project's quality requirements
and is following the established
quality procedures and policies.
A good quality audit will ensure that:
- The planned
quality for the project will be met.
- The products
are safe and fit for use.
- All pertinent
laws and regulations are followed.
- Data collection
and distribution systems are accurate and adequate.
- Proper
corrective action is taken when required.
- Improvement
opportunities are identified.
35.4 DEMING’S PHILOSOPHY:
Deming postulated that 85 percent of all quality problems
required management to take the
initiative and change the process. Only 15 percent of the
quality problems could be controlled
by the workers on the floor. As an example, the workers on the
floor were not at fault because
of the poor quality of raw materials that resulted from
management's decision to seek out the
lowest cost suppliers. Management had to change the purchasing
policies and procedures.
Management had to develop long-term relationships with vendors.
Dr. Deming’s
Dreadful Diseases:
- Looking elsewhere for examples, or concluding that “our
problems are different.
- “Creative accounting” rather than “commitment”
- Purchasing to an “acceptable level of quality.
- Management’s failure to delegate responsibility.
- That employees cause all the problems.
- Quality can be “assured by inspection”.
- False starts: no organization-wide commitment.
Although many experts have contributed to the success of the
quality movement; the three most
influential contributors in this country and internationally are
W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M.
Juran, and Phillip B. Crosby. Dr. Deming pioneered the use of
statistics and sampling methods
from 1927 to 1940 at the U.S. Department of agriculture. Dr.
Deming applied Dr. Shewhart's
Plan/Do/Check/Act cycle to clerical tasks. Figure 35.4 shows the
Deming Cycle for
Improvement.
Deming contended that workers simply cannot do their best. They
had to be shown what
constitutes acceptable quality and that continuous improvement
is not only possible, but
necessary. For this to be accomplished, workers had to be
trained in the use of statistical process
control charts. Realizing that even training required
management's approval, Deming's lectures
became more and more focused toward management and what they
must do. |