Quality Management System Research Paper

Quality Management System

1.1.1.1 INTRODUCTION OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

“Quality” and “quality management systems” have been leading in the business world for last two decades. Different consultants have built their careers around these topics, and quality issues in business have been responsible for the development of new organizations and even industries, for instance, the American Society for Quality and Six Sigma Consulting.

The presence of quality in business focuses on the savings and additional revenue that organizations can realize if they eliminate errors throughout their operations and produce products and services at the optimal level of quality desired by their customers. Errors can take any form. It is very common, and

After World War Two Japan reoriented her drive for expansion and pursued economic goals. Initially, when Japanese products started to flow to the western markets, they were notorious for poor quality. Overcoming this difficulty required an improvement in quality and in the frames of the American plan of economic support for Japan, such American gurus as Deming and Juran participated in working out a sound quality approach in Japan. Their theories created the basis for the work of Japanese innovators (Shingo, Taguchi, Ishikawa and others). Ishikawa's work on statistical quality control (SQC) was instrumental in pursuing quality in production in Japan. The Japanese quickly recognized the importance of quality in management and went beyond quality in production. They set up strategies that now form the basis of quality thinking and international efforts in this area. The basic principles were:

Senior Management must take charge of quality management implementation and their unconditional commitment to quality constitutes the cornerstone of the system. Personnel throughout the organization must be exposed to training in quality management. Quality improvement must be viewed as a continuous process. Participation of the work force in quality improvements must be secured.

The Japanese were the first to switch their commercial interest from competition in productivity and price to competitive

So, often we hear people saying: "Quality car", when they really mean it is a luxurious vehicle with several extras, leather interior etc. A carpet may be described as a quality carpet, when in fact what is meant is that it is pure silk or pure wool with a high density of knots. All this makes `Quality' appear to be a very difficult concept to understand and an impossible one to manage which is so imprecise and means so many contents. Thus before quality can be planned and managed the very term must be defined precisely.

Expression 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. In other words the perception of beauty is a matter of personal subjective opinion. Similarly people have various needs and requirements as to products, processes and organizations, therefore their perception of quality is a matter of how well their needs are satisfied. Hence quality, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Certainly neither beauty nor quality is just one, particular aspect of an entity but encompass a number of its characteristics of art.

ISO 9000:2000 "Quality Management Systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary" defines Quality