Quality Principles
Quality management is typically based on a set of principles adopted by a firm that define how an organization will prioritize and achieve quality. For example, the well known 14 quality principles used by Toyota to drive every process at the company.Management by Walking Around
Firms that achieve high levels of quality use techniques such as management by walking around whereby executives are expected to be fully engaged with both customers and operations such that they understand any gaps in quality. Where this doesn't occur, the quality management team is tasked with aggressively advocating for quality at the executive level.Management Accounting
Management accounting is the practice of measuring anything that management needs to know. Quality management is largely a practice of measuring, improving and measuring again. This can include measurements that improve operational processes in real time. For example, measuring quality variances at every step of the production process to identify quality problems at the workstation level.Root Cause Analysis
Determining the root cause of quality problems and addressing the cause as opposed to the symptoms.Knowledge
Capturing and communicating knowledge so that the same quality mistakes aren't repeated. Knowledge waste and knowledge loss are common root causes of quality problems.Training
Giving teams the knowledge they need to produce quality in their role. For example, training front desk staff at a hotel in hopes of improving service quality.Authority
Designing processes and roles to give employees the authority they need to address quality issues on the spot. The classic example is a worker on an assembly line who has authority to stop an entire production line for a quality problem.Quality Control
Quality control is the process of testing products and services. This is a tiny part of the quality management process that is too often mistaken as the only step required to achieve quality.Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is the process of ensuring end-to-end quality including elements such as process design, product design and procurement. Quality management is often separated into two practices: quality assurance and quality control.Quality Management = Quality Assurance + Quality Control
Incident Management
Incident management is the reactive process of managing quality incidents such as a service that goes down.Problem Management
Problem management is the corrective process of addressing the root causes of incidents.Customer Engagement
Engaging customers to understand quality perceptions. This avoids a process of naive quality management whereby quality is viewed as a specification as opposed to a market reality.Product Design
Quality management feeds into product design to improve quality at the design level.Process Design
Quality management often takes a design thinking approach whereby all quality problems are designed-out of processes. For example, mistake-proofing a step in a production process.Technology
Sponsoring changes to technology that design-out quality problems. For example, user interfaces that remove latent human error.Communication
Advocating for quality with company wide communication. For example, speaking at weekly all-hands meetings to raise awareness of quality issues and recognize individuals who have improved quality.Culture
Developing norms, expectations, symbols and language that are conductive to quality. For example, the norm that all employees only speak positively about customers in internal conversations in a firm that depends on customer service quality.Procurement
Managing suppliers to obtain quality inputs. For example, a supplier scorecard whereby suppliers are held accountable for quality failures.Standards
Quality often requires consistent processes, practices, products and services such that standards compliance is an important element of quality management.| Overview: Quality Management Examples | ||
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Definition | The practice of improving the quality of processes, products and services. | |
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