Case studies Core threads of continuous improvement

Richard Chang

Richard Changs series of titles covering, for example, continuous improvement, change management and teamwork, has been launched by Kogan-Page. The Irvine, California-based, consultant gives guidelines on critical success factors for continuous improvement and their impact on management, empowerment, learning, training and coaching. The focus on quality improvement is not new. The media has communicated a wide range of information about organizations immersed in quality implementations. Unfortunately, the popularity of quality improvement has not been overwhelmingly positive as of late, since the progress being reported tends to highlight the breadth of activities being implemented rather than the results being achieved. This is so probably for a number of good reasons.

The author Richard Chang is President and CEO of Richard Chang Associates, Irvine, California, USA. Abstract Discussses a recent survey of companies which shows that, although 73 per cent of the respondents had implemented total quality initiatives, 63 per cent of these initiatives were failing. Suggests that many organizations are trying to implement too many quality improvement activities too fast without taking the time to develop systematic, longterm implementation strategies. Gives guidelines on critical success factors for continuous improvement and their impact on management, empowerment, learning and training.

Failings
For instance, a recent study, conducted by the American Quality Foundation and Ernst & Young, of 584 companies in the USA, Canada, Germany and Japan, found failings across a range of quality improvement activities in the automotive, computer, banking and healthcare industries. In another recent survey of more than 300 electronics companies, 73 per cent of respondents reported having a total quality initiative under way. However, 63 per cent of those having initiatives reported that they had failed to improve quality defects by even as much as 10 per cent. It is not that the intentions and resource commitments being directed towards quality improvement initiatives have necessarily been awed. Rather, it is often the design of the overall approach and specic implementation methods which are limiting return on investment. Achieving measurable improvement results early on results which can be expanded on systematically is crucial to sustaining a quality improvement initiative and building long-term implementation success. Trying to implement too much too fast has proven to be the downfall of many initiatives. Instead of taking the necessary time up-front to develop an overall, results-oriented
This article rst appeared in Management Training, May 1995.

Management Development Review Volume 8 Number 4 1995 pp. 1416 MCB University Press ISSN 0962-2519

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Core threads of continuous improvement

Management Development Review Volume 8 Number 4 1995 1416

Richard Chang

approach which incorporates a systematic deployment strategy and long-term implementation plan, the top priority for many organizations has been to get many quality activities started as quickly as possible. When it comes to quality improvement, doing more with many in a short period of time is not necessarily better.

Core threads
Fortunately, the core threads weaving through successful quality improvement initiatives do not appear to be elusive. Based on success stories, as well as various quality award criteria/certication guidelines, there appears to be widespread agreement that the ten core threads include: (1) Intense customer focus. Product and service attributes which add value to the customer and enhance customer satisfaction become the foundation of the organizations quality improvement system. Unending attention is paid to emerging customer and market requirements, customer-satisfaction determination and measurement, and customer responsiveness. (2) Hands-on senior management involvement. Senior management must personally be involved with creating systems and strategies for achieving quality leadership, as well as establishing and communicating quality improvement expectations and priorities. Functioning as role models, senior management instils the quality improvement philosophy, reinforces customer focus, and supports workforce development and participation. (3) Deployment of strategic objectives. Strategic objectives and quality improvement goals have been linked and deployed systematically to all functional work groups, as well as linked to improvement team efforts. Employees at all levels understand their specic roles and responsibilities for developing and implementing strategies and plans for achieving quality improvement goals. (4) Continuous process improvement. This focus is instilled throughout the organizations operations as evidenced by repeated cycles of planning, implementation and evaluation both incremental and breakthrough improvements being 15

experienced with products and services (new and existing), customer values and internal operations. (5) Empowered involvement of satised employees. Workforce satisfaction and empowered involvement are viewed as key requirements for improving customer satisfaction and operating performance. Operating policies and practices project a philosophy of customer force and allow employees to carry out customer-focused problem solving and decision making. (6) Long-term orientation. Quality leadership is attained through a willingness to make long-term commitments to key stakeholders, for example, customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders. Planning processes maintain a strong future orientation and anticipate changes which may affect the organization in the short and longer terms, including technology, customer requirements and regulations. (7) Targeted measurement data. Management and employee decisions are driven by fact-based measurement data, including: customer satisfaction; product and service quality; benchmarked and competitive comparisons. Measurement data linked to key customer satisfaction and operation performance indications are tracked and analysed to determine trends and lessons learned, and which inuence on-going quality planning and improvement efforts. (8) Market responsiveness. Cycle time to introduce new or improved products and services has continuously been reduced in order to meet the increasing demands of a competitive marketplace. Major improvements have been experienced in the organization of work, product and service delivery processes and in the ability of the organization to anticipate important market shifts. (9) Continuous learning and development. Investments made in workforce learning and development are viewed as an important, required and ongoing ingredient to achieve the organizations performance improvement goals. Learning and development efforts have been designed to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce and provide for

Core threads of continuous improvement

Management Development Review Volume 8 Number 4 1995 1416

Richard Chang

more exible and targeted training delivery options. (10) Internal and external partnerships. Strong internal partnerships, such as crossdepartmental teaming, collaborating with unions and external partnerships, including customers and suppliers, have been built to help accomplish quality improvement goals and build operational strength. By establishing robust partnerships, both internally and externally, the organization can build greater operating effectiveness and establish new market opportunities.

Training challenge
As a training and development practitioner, ensuring that all, or even most, of the above listed core threads are woven successfully into your organization can certainly seem like a monumental challenge. Interestingly, many of the success stories also noted that training was often harnessed as a change agent to help build the necessary awareness, behaviours and skills into the organization. Thus, it is vital to ensure that your overall quality training strategy and specic implementation approaches are strategically positioned and aligned to weave greater quality improvement success. Important lessons include, but are not limited to, the following: Assess quality training needs systematically. Systematic assessment of quality training needs does not consist simply of asking management and employees what programmes or topics they would like to receive. Determine what the organizations strategic objectives are and then analyse existing skills and capabilities of the workforce in order to identify the quality-related training needs at all levels of the organization. Deploy a targeted training approach. Focusing on the number of employees trained is not as important as training the right employees on the right quality-related

skills. To help build a common understanding, it is helpful to have all employees attend a brief quality-improvement orientation session which introduces the organizations approach to basic quality concepts and principles. However, for subsequent training, rather than rolling training courses out on a cattle call or one-size-ts-all basis, a results-oriented training approach, incorporating the delivery of training in various quality improvement methods, analytical techniques, team concepts and measurement tools using a just-in-time learning process, is more effective target training for a targeted audience. Build internal coaches/facilitators. In order to sustain the quality improvement journey, it is important that organizations build a cadre of internal coaches/facilitators to help drive the quality improvement strategy and requisite skills throughout the organization, as appropriate. This approach to training is often carried out through certied coaches/facilitators who train an intact work group or quality improvement team. While serving as a member of the team, the coach/facilitator introduces the appropriate quality improvement tools, techniques and methods on an as-needed basis to help guide the members through the improvement effort. Continuously improve quality-related training. Since continuous improvement is one fundamental theme embedded in quality improvement philosophy, training programmes should also denitely reect this theme. It is important that organizations gather evaluation data to help assess the effectiveness of the training processes being deployed and the application of the necessary skills and knowledge. As your organizations quality improvement initiative matures, you may nd it necessary to forge ahead with new and/or rened training strategies, programmes and implementation approaches.

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