Project Quality management

Requirement

In this individual assignment, your task is to compare and contrast the work or quality philosophies of two of the gurus.
You can select any two based on your preferences.

Solution

Introduction:

Implementation of quality management techniques is important for ensuring excellence for the products and services offered by a business. Using the quality management principles, a business can set standards for its each activity and it helps the organization to create better value for the customers (Schilling & Neubauer, 2017). The current report deals with analysis of the quality management philosophies suggested by Deming and Ishikawa. The report also includes recommendations for the organizations on how to implement the quality management practices within the organization.

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Differences and similarities between quality philosophies: 

As per Edwards Deming, the quality management principles are not only effective for improving quality of an organization, but such principles is important for improving productivity of the business also. On the contrary, the quality management philosophy suggested by Ishiwaka is also based on the concept that the quality improvement is a continuous process and it helps the organizations to stratify the stakeholders (Konieczka & Namiesnik, 2016). The philosophy suggested by Ishikawa also indicates that the organization can use seven tools for evaluating the quality and improving it. However, both the principles have some similarities and some differences.
Similarities

  1. Use of tool and techniques: The 14 points of quality suggested by Deming indicates that the quality improvement is a continuous process and the quality improvement efforts need to be undertaken with consistency. Similarly, in case of the philosophy, suggested by Ishikawa also, the quality improvement is considered as a process which requires continuous improvement.

  2. Both the philosophers, Deming and Ishikawa focused on using improving quality in an organization using proper tools and techniques. Deming, in his philosophy, has suggested 14 different techniques that help the organizations in total quality management. In case of the principles, suggested by Ishikawa, 7 different tools are used for improving quality of the products (Sallis, 2014).

  3. Reducing the dependence on inspection: Both the philosophies suggested by Deming and Ishikawa focused on reducing the need of inspection for quality management. According to Deming, the employees need to be involved to the quality improvement efforts for obtaining the most results. The techniques suggested by Deming for quality improvement also focus on involving the workforce in quality improvement process. On the other hand, the quality improvement tools suggested by Ishikawa are also suitable for being used by the workers to assess the quality and improving it.

Dissimilarities:
Despite a number of similarities between the principles suggested by Deming and Ishikawa have some differences also. 

  1. No specific tool is suggested by Deming: Deming suggested the organizations to improve the quality of their products and services by involving the workforce, managing the suppliers and redefining the processes (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). On the other hand, Ishikawa focused on use of specific tools to achieve better quality for the products and services.

  2. Ishikawa focused on identifying the reasons behind quality issues whereas Deming emphasized on planning: Deming focused on improving the quality by re-engineering the planning, designing and manufacturing processes (Dale, 2015). On the other hand, Ishikawa gave importance on identification of the key reasons behind quality problems. Finding out the reason behind quality issues help the organizations to prevent repetition of the same mistakes. Therefore, from this perspective, the philosophy suggested by Ishikawa is more effective for improving quality.

  3. Ishikawa suggested for satisfying the stakeholders but had not focused specifically on suppliers: The philosophy suggested by Ishikawa focused on satisfying the stakeholders as a whole through quality improvement. On the other side, the concepts proposed by Deming provided specific guidelines to involve the suppliers and the employees with the quality management process. So, from the perspective of stakeholder management, the mode suggested by Deming is more effective.

Real-world examples for demonstrating contributions in practice:

Both the philosophies suggested by Deming and Ishikawa are implemented by the modern organization s. Hillerich & Bradsby is a US based organization which manufactures baseball bat. The organization, implemented the quality principles of Deming to involve its workforce to the quality improvement process (Sanz-Calcedo et al.2015). Hillerich & Bradsby management took a number of steps such as replacing the target based approach with the team-based approach. It indicates that the organization reduced the level of inspection on the employees which is one of the principles suggested by Deming. As suggested by Deming, the organizations need to reduce the level of inspection and empower employees for managing quality. The organization also emphasized on training and development of the employees. It, in turn, developed the skill of employees to carry out the tasks more accurately without high level of inspection. It is evident that both the steps taken by the management were supported by the principles of Deming. In addition, both the steps taken by the organization helped the management effectively to reduce the quality issues.
Toyota, the car manufacturer, is an organization that used the quality principles suggested by Ishikawa. Toyota implemented the concept of quality circle to improve productivity of the organization (Molina-Azorín et al.2015). The quality management process in Toyota empowers the employees to take stop the production process at any time if the employee finds any issue with the process. It indicates that the management of Toyota gives importance on identification of the problems to manage the quality for the products. In case of the concept suggested by Ishikawa also, more importance is given on identification of the problems associated with the quality. This approach of Toyota management enables them to get rid of every factor that can affect quality of the manufactured products.

Recommendation for organizations:

From the discussion on the quality principles suggested by Deming and Ishikawa, it is evident that each concept benefits the organizations in different ways in spite of all the similarities. The concept of Ishikawa helps the businesses to identify and mitigate the factors that are threatening to the product quality(Jiménez-Jiménez et al.2015). However, the concept of Ishikawa also enables the organizations to involve the employees to the quality management process and empower them with a number of tools. On the flip, the concepts provided by Deming also help organizations to increase then engagement level of employees with the quality management process. In addition, the philosophy of Deming also helps the organizations to involve supplier to the quality management process also. It indicates that implementation of the concept of Ishikawa is important to mitigate the threatening factors for quality whereas the concept of Deming is effective for managing different stakeholders individually. 

  • Use of combined approach for improving quality: It is evident for the contemporary organizations, to adapt a holistic approach for managing the quality (Oakland, 2014). To obtain this, it is important for the organizations to implement one or more approaches together. Therefore, the organizations should focus on implementing a combined approach for assuring quality on the basis of Deming and Ishikawa’s philosophy. 

  • Fixing the issues for quality degradation: The organizations should use the tools provided by Ishikawa to fix the factors behind the quality issues. The cause and effect analysis tool as suggested by Ishikawa is effective for identifying the reasons. Similarly, the tools like histogram and control charts assist businesses to identify the frequency and patterns of events causing quality issues.

  • Increasing the level of engagement for employees in quality management: The concepts of Deming should be used for enhancing the engagement level of employees with the quality management process. The organizations as suggested by Deming, should focus on improving skills of employees and making them involved to the quality management process.

  • Involving the suppliers in quality management: Involving all the stakeholders is necessary for managing the quality in an organization. The techniques as suggested by Deming help the organizations to manage the quality issues effectively.

Differentiating between quality and grade: 

Both the terms quality and grade indicates to what extent a product of service meet the requirements of its users. However, both the terms have different significances. 
As stated by Aquilani  et al.(2017), quality is a broader concept and it reflects the level to which a product can fulfill its purpose. The quality also indicates whether a product is able to satisfy its users or not with its functionality. It indicates that quality of a product indicates to which level the product has conformed to the designing specifications. The quality can be quantified. In other words, using the specific metrics, the quality can be measured and the areas that require improvement can be identified.
The grade, on the other hand, is different from quality. Some products may have similar functionalities but different technical requirements. The grade indicates the rank provided to a product on basis of the technical requirements (Zeng et al. 2015). In other words, the products with different technical specification are provided with different category or rank. A product which is low quality does not indicate that the product is low graded. The low quality of a product signifies that the product has not met its designing specifications. On the contrary, the low graded products indicate that the product is manufactured using lower technological requirements. Therefore, it can be stated that a product with low quality is not able to satisfy the users whereas a low graded product with right quality is able to satisfy the need of users. On the flip side, a high graded product may not be able to meet the requirements of the users if it does not meet all the quality criteria.

Importance of data collection and analysis in quality management: 

The data regarding the organizational activities play a main role in the quality management. Data help the organizations to review their activities and identify the areas which need to be improved. 

  • Data obtained from the checklists: The checklists are used by the organizations for analyzing data in a structured format (Nanda, 2016). The data collected from the checklists helps businesses to realize whether the products have met all the specification requirements fully. The data obtained from the checklists is also effective to analyze whether a product is able to meet all the requirements fully or not.

  • Data on the cause of quality issues: The organizations often use tools like cause and effect tool for knowing the factors which can hamper the quality. Use of such tools help businesses to collect data related to the reasons for quality degradation. If a business gets an idea on the factors behind degrading quality, controlling it becomes easier.

  • Predicting and analyzing the patterns of quality issues: The data obtained from the tools like control chart assists the businesses to find the range of possible outcomes (Benavides-Velasco et a.2014). From the control data, organizations can easily identify where and when the products deviate from the quality standards. It helps the businesses to predict the quality issues in advance and take preventive measures when necessary.

  • Frequency of the quality issues: Knowing frequency of an event that can affect quality of the product is important for controlling it (de Sousa Jabbour et al.2017). So, the organizations focus on obtaining the frequency related data for managing the quality issues. The tools like Histogram help the organizations to understand how frequently an event causing n quality issues occur.

  • Identification of important factors for quality issues: Some processes in an organization play a crucial role for managing the quality (Obeidat et al.2016). Organizations use the tools like pareto charts for identifying the important factors for quality management. Collection and analysis of such data is effective for the businesses to pay attention on the crucial factors that affect quality of the products. It, in turn, helps the businesses to manage the quality issues more accurately.

Definition and importance of quality:

Difficulties for defining quality: Quality is important for all the organizations to create value for the customers. However, defining quality is not easy. Everyone in an organization who is associated with the production or any other process, interpret quality in a unique way (Nanda, 2016). Therefore, the term quality does not have any single definition. Instead, the definition of quality changes on basis of the person who is defining it. In case of quality, it cannot be stated that only one view is right and the other views are incorrect. Rather, the differences in the definitions of quality indicate that the concept can be viewed from different perspectives and each aspect of quality is significant for the organization.
Different quality Gurus also described quality using different terms. For instance, Deming described that achieving quality is important for meeting the need of customers. On the other hand, Juran another quality Guru described the concept from the perspective of usability of a product. As suggested by Juran, maintaining quality of a product is crucial for considering the product as fit for being used. On the flip, Ishikawa focused on defining quality using a number of indicators and tools. Although apparently all the definitions of quality describe different aspects of the concept, each of the definition, ultimately focuses on achieving the satisfaction of customers through the products and services.
Ways to define quality: From the above discussion it is evident that the concept quality has many significances and it can be described in various way. Therefore, instead of realizing the actual meaning of quality, it is more effective to identify what does the concept quality do not mean (Oakland, 2014). From the existing definitions of quality, it can be stated that a product is considered as not to have the quality when it fails to meet requirements of the customers. So, it can be stated that quality is the ability of products or services to meet the requirements of the users.
Ways to improve the definition of quality: Quality is described in various ways. The definitions of quality describe the term from the perspective of degree of excellence, presence of desired features, the ability of meet specifications, the level of errors in a product and the capacity of a product to satisfy the need of customers (de Sousa Jabbour et al.2017). However, quality is also considered as a continuous process which assists the organization to address, predict and meet the demands of the stakeholders. Therefore, the definition of quality can be improved by combining all the aspects of defining quality while focusing on the need of meeting requirement of customers.
Example of quality issues: The recent example of buying books from the online shop can be an example of quality issue. When the bought product was received, it was found damaged. As the product does not meet expectation of customers its quality is considered low (Aquilani  et al.2017). In this case also, quality of the product was considered low as it failed to meet requirements of users. However, upon contacting the customer care center of the online shop, the book was soon replaced with a perfect one. A quality service is able to satisfy the need of customers (Zeng et al. 2015). In this case also, the after-sale service was satisfactory and so, it is expected to have high quality.

Conclusion:

The current discussion indicates that quality has different meaning to different persons. However, the concept is boarder and each of the perspective to achieve quality is important. Although there are different perspectives of quality, each of them is important for understanding the concept.

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References:

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  • de Sousa Jabbour, A. B. L., Jabbour, C. J. C., Latan, H., Teixeira, A. A., & de Oliveira, J. H. C. (2014). Quality management, environmental management maturity, green supply chain practices and green performance of Brazilian companies with ISO 14001 certification: Direct and indirect effects. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 67, 39-51.

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  • Konieczka, P., & Namiesnik, J. (2016). Quality assurance and quality control in the analytical chemical laboratory: a practical approach. CRC Press.

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  • Sallis, E. (2014). Total quality management in education. Routledge.

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