MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES

A common sense approachto quality managementContinuous improvement results from small gainswhich, over time, will add up to big gains

D. M. Woodruff, ManagementMethods, Inc., Decatur, Ala.

Quality is a never-ending jour-ney. The journey shouldinvolve steps for continuous

improvement. When such steps arefollowed, the result is TQM's goal: cus-tomer satisfaction (Fig. 1). Contrastthis methodical approach with the oneused by most organizations: emphasison quality or quality improvement.Such organizations offer a lot of talk,but few results. The problem lies in afocus on higher goals and individualperformance instead of processimprovement.

Foundations for continuous im-provement. Tobetter understand thefoundations necessary for success withTQM and continuous improvement,we must think of work as a process.All work is really a process. A processis "any set of events or actions thatcombine to produce an outcome." Effec-tive continuous improvement effortsmust focus on process improvement,

-not just task improvement. Too oftenmanagers focus on task improvementand "people improvement" withoutunderstanding the process and its con-straints. .

People. The key elements areinvolvement, desire, trust and empow-erment. Employees and managers are"in it together." Managers must earnthe trust of their employees, andemployees must earn the trust oftheirmanagers. This is only done throughconsistent daily effort where "qualitywalk = quality talk." Decisions thataffect quality must be consistent withthe "quality lingo" being used in anorganization. Management and employ-ees must be willing to change and try

new or different methods. Managerscan't become roadblocks. They mustparticipate in the efforts to continuallyimprove processes. Focus on us, notthem. Management and employees areall a part of the business team. Remem-ber, the goal is improved customer sat-isfaction.

Two simple contrasting examplesvividly illustrate these concepts. Asmall company in Arkansas has beenextremely successful with their quality

Foundations

Practice Continuous1

_ CustomerImprovement ,.. satisfaction

Organization

Fig. 1. Afirmfoundation, practice and orga-nization leads to continuous improvement,which leads to customer satisfaction.

process while a very large companystill worries about "what looks good"to upper management. The small com-pany has involved people at all levelsworking with each other and with cus-tomers. The large company still hasnot eliminated the bureaucracy norfocused on teamwork. Substance isimportant, not looks! Customer satis-faction is the goal inste~d of "lookinggood" for top management.

Training is one way of involvingeveryone in the continuous improve-ment process. People at all levels ofthe company should be trained in"what they need to know," but not"overdosed" on training. In fact, on thepeople side of continuous improve-ment, training needs must be identi-fied and every employee given oppor-tunities to learn new skills every year.

One company requires 100 hours oftraining per employee per year. Whileyour business may require only a smallamount of training each year, it isimportant to recognize that a continualinvestment in training is vital to con-tinuous improvement. Studying yourprocesses will help identify "who,where and what" training is needed.Remember, the common goal isincreased customer satisfaction.

Common sense tells us that "yareally gotta wanna." Managementcan't make people participate or beinvolved in the quality process. Man-agement must set the stage to allowand encourage involvement in the con-tinuous improvement process. Thiscan be accomplished by empoweringemployees to make on-the-spot deci-sions to correct a process problem orsatisfy a customer. An approach thatempowers employees demonstratesmanagement's involvement in contin-uous improvement for customer satis-faction.

Remember the forgotten areas.Generally, companies will involve themanagement team, hourly employeesand others from the major areas of thebusiness. Sometimes it is easy to over-look the "forgotten areas" such asdesign, clerical, maintenance, mea-surement, packaging, transportationor other support areas. Teams orga-nized for problem solving can miss keyplayers because one ofthese areas hasbeen overlooked. For example, onecompany has identified design draw-ing errors as a high cost quality prob-lem. Initially they didn't involve thedesign engineers and draftsmen inidentifying the process steps that canlead to incorrect drawings in manu-facturing. Instead, they complainedabout "poor" engineering. This com-pany finally established a problem-solving team to identify ways toimprove the process for completingdrawings and getting the correct draw-

ings to manufacturing. While this sce-nario may not fit your particular busi-ness, it should be easy to generalizethe concept to your operations.

Another example is in the installa-tion of equipment, whether factory,refinery or office equipment. Is main-tenance involved in specifying keyequipment and/or locating it? Remem-ber, they're the ones who actually knowwhat's required to keep equipmentproperly performing. We must thinkoutside the "box"of people we normallyinclude in the decision-making andproblem-solving process to includethose "forgotten" areas.Have a strategy and a plan. It is

vital that we focus on the system forquality and continuous improvementand not just the activities or even theend result. Involve people from allareas and be realistic about expecta-tions for improvement. Generally,managers say things like "we've got toimprove quality" or "reduce rejects by10%" or "improve customer satisfac-tion." Yet, there is no strategy or planfor achieving these results. In fact, justthe opposite may be true. Goals couldbe contradictory, such as a goal on"pounds shipped on time" with no ref-erence to the quality requirements ofthose pounds. Each department shouldbe involved in setting goals that arecompatible with the overall businessstrategy. Ask questions about customersatisfaction before developing the planfor increasing customer satisfaction.

Practicing continuous improve-ment requires a long-term thoughtprocess. It says we will forever be look-ing for ways to improve processes. Thatseems harsh and perhaps impossible,but it is really very practical. If wewant our businesses to survive, wemust be seeking ways to do the workbetter every year. The problems expe-rienced by the U.S. automotive andsteel industries in the 1980s werebecause of the failure to focus on con-tinuous process improvement. Dr. W.Edwards Deming, the quality pioneer,has said that we must always worktoward improving the system. We mustinvolve people in finding better waysof doing the work right the first timeand improving it the next time. Thisrepresents true process improvement.

Systems and processes. A pro-cess or systems focus means that welook at the "big picture" and thenbreak it down into key steps or ele-ments using tools such as flowcharts,

Afirmfoundation,practiceandorganizationleadsto continuousimprovement,whichleadsto customersatisfaction.pareto charts, and cause and effectdiagrams.1 Look for small gains tha,tcan have a multiplying effect down-stream. For example, by reducing thevariation in solids concentration inthe feedstock, a processing unit maybe stabilized and final product varia-tion reduced to improve customer sat-isfaction. Another scenario exists ina tube mill. If the initial drawing pro-cess isn't stabilized then all other pro-cesses will have excessive variationin them. Remember, variation is theculprit. We need to use the simpletools of statistical process control toquantify and identify variation in ourprocesses. These tools will help k~epthe focus on prevention and continu-ous improvement.

1b help focus on customer satisfac-tion, five questions should be answeredabout any process:

1. Who are the customers?2. What do they like?3. How can we give them what they

like?4. How do we know they like what

we give them?5. How can we improve this process?Effective process documentation aids

the effort to improve customer satis-faction. It is important to know how thework is being done and to document thework being done. Standard operatingprocedures and work instructions arecritical building blocks of continuousimprovement. After documenting thework actually being done, it is easier togain consistency from person to personor shift to shift. Using the process doc-umentation, a group of empoweredemployees can identify improvementopportunities and even revise proce-dures to aid the continual improvementjourney. Again, this is a long-term jour-ney and requires a shift in the tradi-tional management thinking of task

5.9

Fig. 2. Organize for continuous improvement by cutting across departmental boundaries.

orientation and quick results.Keep score of results not peo-

ple. Many companies have elaborateperformance appraisal systems. Re-gardless of your company's mechanismfor "keeping score," it is important tofocus on results. It is easy to focus onactivities, such as the number of sug-gestions for improvement an employeemakes, or the number of accidents anemployee has. However, it is some-times more difficult to expand ourthinking to results. Pareto charts canhelp focus on results by highlightingtop problems and opportunities forimprovement.

Managers and employees togethershould decide what is to be measuredon every process. Make these mea-surements visible for all to see. Visualaids will help us focus on results. Asimple example will emphasize theimportance ofthis point. A tire manu-facturer had a process where two orthree managers reviewed the previousday's rejected tires early every morn-ing. Results were recorded, but notcommunicated to the employees. Theirfirst step was to involve more employ-ees in the review process. Initialresults indicated a reduction in thenumber of rejected tires. Next, thequality manager requested permissionto pile all the rejected tires outside theemployee entrance for one week. APareto chart of the top defects wasposted near the entrance. Top prob-lems were easily identified by allemployees. This led to an emphasis onresults, by using the tires and chartstogether to involve the employees. Theresult was a reduction of waste byencouraging a process focus and con-tinuous improvement actions aimedat solving the problems in the process.This beats the alternative oftrackingrejects by shift and blaming theemployees for not doing the work right.

Recognition. Studies of manage-

ment practices indicate that peopledesire recognition and appreciation forwhat they do. It is vital to the long-term success of any quality manage-ment process for managers to providefeedback and reinforcement for desiredbehaviors. This doesn't mean that youmust give prizes or other items as"bribes" for performance. It simplymeans that sincere "thank yous" area fundamental element of continuousimprovement.

A few years ago we observed a sit-uation that highlights the importanceof being sensitive to people. An engi-neer implemented a simple solution fora nagging process problem. Instead ofbeing reinforced for the simple andinexpensive solution, a manager toldhim, "that's so simple you should havecome up with it six months ago." Doyou think the engineer ever presentedanother solution for a problem? No, infact, he transferred to another locationshortly after that incident. A simple"thank you" would have encouragedcontinuous improvement. Instead, pro-cess improvement became a punishingconcept for the technical staff.

Organize for continuous improve-ment. Successful efforts at establish-ing continuous improvement as "theway we do the work" or as a "way oflife in our company" involve a coordi-nated and systematic approach. Aneasy way to accomplish this is to estab-lish an overall continuous improve-ment guidance (leadership) team(Fig. 2). This team cuts across lines ofresponsibility and levels of manage-ment. They can break down barriersto continuous improvement. In gen-eral no more than nine people shouldbe on this team and seven is usuallyoptimum. (Depending upon the size ofyour organization this may only be ateam of three to five.) Also, thereshould be some team members with

"positional power" so that the employ-ees realize management is seriousabout the process. Power is not to beused as a club, but rather to make cut-ting across traditional barriers andlines of authority easier.

As they begin work, the team mem-bers should be trained in team skillsso they will function as a team and nota committee. Top management mustbe involved in helping this team or it isdoomed to frustration and failure. Theguidance team sets the overall direc-tion for the continuous improvementprocess, develops the strategy andplans, and serves as "cheerleaders forcontinuous improvement." This teamshould meet periodically and publishminutes of each meeting.

Involving employees in ways to dothe work better comes about withminimal resistance when a guidanceteam is used. The guidance team canserve as a resource to other teams inyour company. Often a member of theguidance team can work with depart-mental or other problem solvingteams on specific continuous improve-ment projects.

Simple ways to get results with con-tinuous improvement are:

.Involve people

. Train

. Don't spend big dollars-focus onhow we can do the work better.Just do it--enough philosophy andtalk, let's have someaction!

LITERATURE CITED

IWoodrufT, D. M., "Tools for better management," Hydro-carbon Processing, August/September 1989.