What are the four components of quality management?
While businesses may adopt different approaches to driving quality management, the basic components of all quality management methods are the same: planning, assurance, control, and improvement.
Quality planning
The initial phase of quality management involves determining required quality standards by considering stakeholder expectations, success criteria, internal and external standards and roles in quality management. Companies must staff accordingly for quality management and provide clear data on processes and measures.
Quality assurance (QA)
QA is the method of setting and evaluating the quality standards of a product or service. It also involves maintaining these criteria for providing reliable products.
An example can be a table manufacturing company using quality assurance to set the standard for an ideal table. This process includes planning, implementation, appraisal, and reporting ensuring every new table meets the set quality benchmark.
Quality control (QC)
Quality control is checking whether the finished product or service meets the requirements defined in QA. It often includes measurements and tests that are designed to prevent low-quality products reaching customers.
Quality improvement
When products do not meet quality standards, or a higher quality standard is being implemented, businesses need to know how to make those improvements. Quality improvement means using tests to identify where improvements can be made, then designing and implementing those amendments.
What are the seven principles of quality management?
All models of quality management are based on similar principles that lie at the heart of business success. These are:
Customer focus
Quality management must be designed with the customer in mind. Shaun Peel, Technical Director of MattressTek, a Lancashire-based business that builds machinery for the mattress manufacturing and foam processing industries, says for a smaller business, quality management is a way to stand out to customers.
“Our customers are making significant investments in machinery and production lines, so we need a process for testing, improvement and development before we present a prototype,” he says. “Ensuring and delivering quality that meets and exceeds expectations means our customers will return and approach us with other problems they have.”
Leadership
Successful business leaders uphold a quality-driven purpose and guide team members to high-performance achievements. This largely depends on clear communication of the company's mission, strategy, and policies.
Furthermore, superior leadership fosters a trusting environment, equipping teams with the necessary resources for delivering top-quality goods and services.
Employee engagement
It’s important to have employees who are responsible for quality management at every level of your business, and getting these people on board with your quality management strategy should be a top priority. “Quality management should be viewed as a cultural system embedded in your company at every level of operation, rather than just a set of procedural steps,” says Ann Vereecke, professor of operations management at Vlerich Business School.
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Process approach
A business looking to manage quality should identify which processes affect quality, rather than considering a business as teams, roles, or departments. This encourages efficiency and helps you to identify which changes will most impact overall quality.
Improvement
At its heart, quality management should help your business make improvements, but those improvements should be continuous – as your company makes one change, you should be setting new goals to work towards.
Evidence-based decision-making
Quality management should be based on measurements and tests, rather than assumptions or simply ‘gut feel’. This may involve using surveys, tests, or specialist software.
Relationship management
Effective quality management relies not just on your business, but also involves suppliers, distributors, and partners. They play a crucial role in delivering high-quality products and services.
Whichever approach you adopt, quality management helps small businesses to improve and develop their products and services, says Peel. “Quality management has translated into better machines, a positive reputation in our industry, and stronger relationships with customers."
Five quality management methods
Quality management offers a variety of business benefits, especially as a company grows.
“As a business scales, quality management is essential because it emphasises improving processes to ensure the quality of products or services is reliable and consistent," says Vereecke. “Rather than cutting costs to drive growth, quality management makes your business operations more efficient, which frees up resources and increases profit.”
Just as there are multiple benefits, there are also several methods for achieving effective quality management.
“Each methodology has its own strength, and whatever your choice, it’s essential to communicate the strategy clearly,” adds Vereecke. “These methodologies aren’t exclusive and can be combined to form a more robust process improvement system tailored to your business needs.”
Below are five of the most common quality management methods.
Method 1 - Total Quality Management (TQM)
Total quality management is a structured approach to improving the output of your business, including goods and services, through continual improvement of internal practices. Organisations that adopt TQM must involve every department and function of the business in the effort to improve and deliver high quality products and services.
Method 2 - Six sigma
Six sigma is a quality management method that focuses on improving business processes to reduce variation and the risk of defects. It is associated with improved quality, profits, and employee morale. The ultimate goal of six sigma is to reduce defects to an insignificant level.
Method 3 - Lean manufacturing
Lean manufacturing focuses on minimising waste, which is defined as anything that customers do not value and don’t want to pay for. By reducing waste, companies maximise productivity, adding value and improving quality.
“We use lean manufacturing when designing and making each component, through to building and testing each machine on a single site,” says Peel at MattressTek. “We use our own engineers for quality management, since they are responsible for installation, programming and servicing.”
Method 4 - ISO 9001
ISO comprises global standards for corporate function, specifically ISO 9001, which affirms quality management systems by ensuring products/services meet customer and regulations.
While ISO standards outline what a company must do, they don't enforce how to achieve it. ISO-certified companies often report elevated profits and satisfaction levels. Additionally, such certification bolsters customer trust with evidence of consistent high-quality products or services.
Method 5 - Kaizen (continuous improvement)
Kaizen, a Japanese philosophy meaning 'change for the better', requires continuous monitoring and refinement of processes for long-term operational efficiency. Notably practiced by Toyota, it involves minor tweaks for ongoing improvements.
This philosophy emphasises waste reduction and process simplification to enhance quality. It also strives to expedite market launch times to increase customer satisfaction.
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