Total Quality Management: Motorola Quality System Review or QSR Introduction
Total quality management is considered as a management approach that was first used during the 1950¶s and has become popular during the early of 1980¶s. Total quality is considered as a total description of the culture, attitude as well as the organization of the company that is in focus of providing their customers with their products or services that will meet the demands and preferences of their customers. Furthermore, the culture requires quality in all aspects of the company¶s operations, with the different processes that are being done right the first time and defects as well as the waste eradicated from the different operations (Hashmi 2008). TQM is a method that is used where in the management as well as the employees are all involved in their continuous improvement of the production of goods as well as services. It can also be considered as the combination of quality as well as the different management tools that focus at the increasing the growth of the business as well as reducing the losses that was caused by different unimportant or useless practices (Hashmi 2008). Motorola is only one of many companies that apply the principle of TQM in their organizational culture. Motorola Inc focuses on their sales victory in the global market in the industry of electronic components as well as equipment. The company is doing it by improving the quality of their products by improving their productiv ity and overall performance (Baldrige National Quality Program 2002). During 1981, the company had launched their ambitious project that drives for a tenfold of improvement in the quality of their products as well as their services. The said project had been successful; the evidence is that most of the products of the company are considered as number one or the best in their class. The company is still striving for the best and looking forward to target their goal of Zero defects in everything we do (Baldrige National Quality Program 2002) . With
accordance to the said project, the managers of the said company are
also literally carrying the corporate objective of the company and that is the total customer satisfaction. They are wearing a pocket that has a printed card that states the said objective. Furthermore, those upper management officials are also open in serving their customers by wearing pagers in order for them to be available to their customers. Furthermore, they are also visiting the different businesses of their customers in order to conduct a survey that will let the company know about their
customers¶ likes as well as dislikes towards their products (Baldrige National Quality Program 2002). Above all, the company is also implementing a system that handles the information and data that have been gathered using the all -embracing network of the customer surveys, complaint hotlines, filed audits as well as other significant measures about the feedback of the custome rs, together with the guidelines in planning for the quality improvement and development of the product (Baldrige National Quality Program 2002).
Quality-Assessment S ystems
In order to evaluate as well as improve the quality-system maturity of any organization, there are many quality-assessment systems, quality-audit systems as well as international, local as well as military standards that vary in level of scope, depth and the purpose (Craig 1996, p. 730). Maturity models are commonly a subset of an assessment system that is designed in order to assist as well as to test for the maturity of a specific element that is included in quality model. If you are going to look at the element -by-element basis, the approach of the organizat ion to an element that is being reviewed for the strategic linkage, depth as well as the appropriateness of the application. On the other hand, the deployment is being reviewed in order to determine the scope in which the approach is being implemented; the results will again be reviewed with relation to the appropriate benchmarks as well as the rates of improvement (Craig 1996, p. 730). In order to do the quality-assessment systems, an organization that will be assessed is consulted in ahead of time. The said organization will be given a chance in order to input into the process.
W hen
the said event happens, the organization
that is about to be reviewed will request for the request of comprehensive lists of different strengths, together with the opportunities for the improvement that serves as the outputs from the different processes. Eventually, a reasonable amount of learning will be taken place throughout the process of assessment (Craig 1996, p. 730). Once the assessment has been done, an important opportunity for the training department to review the output of the assessment as well as to put up a strategy for training and improvement plan (Craig 1996, p. 730).
Motorola Quality System Review
The quality
or QSR
system review
or
QSR
is
part
of
the total
quality
management program of Motorola. It serve as an assessment vehicle where in the corporation evaluates the continuing health of the quality system in each of the major business unit as well as suppliers of the compan y. The main focus of the said program is to identify the image of the how the business should be conducted. Furthermore, it also focus on the setting the common goal of perfection that help to provide an awareness of the quality -system requirements across
the whole
organization (Craig 1996, p. 730p. 730). Above all, the said project is a method that is used in order to give opportunity for the cross-fertilization of different ideas as well as serve to a routinely refocus of the organization to the quality of their product (Craig 1996, p. 730p. 730). The main method that is used in the said project is a formally documented QSR form for assessment, together with the procedures review. The review team handles the entire project that ref lects the macro view of the different subjects from the different business unit as well as suppliers (Craig 1996, p. 730p. 730). It is considered as a formal survey where in the customer evaluates the continuing health of the supplier¶s quality system. It is intended to lead to continuous improvement as well as to assure that the quality system of the supplier is effective in order to achieve the total satisfaction of the customers. The main purpose of the QSR of Motorola is to assess and theref ore, compare the quality system of the supplier to the ideal system. Furthermore, the process of reviewing the quality subsystem can help the company to know more about their strengths, weaknesses as well as the opportunities that will open for the improvement (W einstein & Johnson 1999, p. 218). The QSR is designed in order to assess the quality of the efforts that are being exerted by every division (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233). Quality System Review and Organizational Change
In order for the company to deal with the project of the Total Quality Management or the TQM, reorganization is a must. The company had been able to recreate their organizational structure based on the plan of the TQM, and that is to connect all of the stakeholders of the company from the upper level management up to the lower level management, together with the customers as well as the suppliers.
The upper level management of the company had been able to implement several quality trainings in order to make sure that the negative effects that will be encountered by the company during the change will be prevented. Table 1 shows the quality training of the managers of the company with accordance to the implementation of the project of quality system review.
Table 1 Quality Training Senior
Basic
Strategic
Conductin
Motivating
Correlating
Executives
awarenes
quality
g quality
teams
results
s
planning
reviews
Middle
Basic
Conducting
Effective
Implementin
Managing
Managers
awarenes
self-
action
g solutions
quality
s
assessmen
planning
improvemen
t
t
Manufacturin
Basic
Quality tool
Interpretin
Team
Implement
g Associates
awarenes
training
g data
problem
solutions
s
solving
Administrative
Basic
Quality tool
Interpretin
Team
Implement
and Support
awarenes
training
g data
problem
solutions
s
solving
In order for the company to implement their project of application their internal quality management, they had been able to train the different upper level management or those managers who belongs to the upper position. The said process has been done in order to make sure that they know the different strategies and plan that must be done in order to follow the general protocol or standard of the company in terms of quality control with accordance to their total quality management. The primary reason of the company about the application of their own internal Quality System Review is to survive during their time. It is due to the fact that during the said time, the company had struggle from their competitor due to the fact that the quality of their products are not that high. That is the reason why the
company decided to focus on meeting the needs and demands of their customers with regards to the reliability as well as the usability of their products (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233). That is why the company had decided to increase their participation in the process of goal-setting as well as the increase in the involvement in the process of improving the culture of the quality in the organization as a whole (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233) Quality System Review and Management
In order for the company to implement their Total Quality Management as well as to prevent the negative impact of change in the mentality as well as performance of the employees towards the company. The QSR have been implemented. The QSR had helped the company to connect to their employees in order to make sure that they are being understood as well as being followed by the employees. Furthermore, the said project enables the company to promote unity as well as teamwork inside the company. In addition to that, the said project also enables the company to promote initiative inside the company (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233) The management of the company had decided to create their scoring system in order to evaluate the performance of a specific department. For instance, a category can examine the quality of management systems. On the other hand, one sub-category under the said title will be concerned with the extent that the management solicits, accepts as well as rewards feedback from the work force itself (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233). The scoring for the said element varies from poor meaning there is no system that exists for the solicitation of different ideas from the employees up to the outstanding, meaning, the individual or the group that is being assessed is practicing team unity and following the general standard of the company (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233). The fact that the company had implemented the scoring approach, it had served as a driver for motivation due to the fact that having or garnering the rate of outstanding will serve as an ego-booster for the employees. That is the reason why they are striving and working at their best. The said project had helped to distribute good ides to the other parts of the organization as well as serve as an aid in the creative and empowering processes (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 234).
That is why most of the employees are empowered in order to improve the different processes, transactions, services as well as administrative quality and they are active and involved in the quality improvement teams (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233). Furthermore, the management of the company also provides different active leadership of the employees by letting them participate in the process of the continuous improvement (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233). The main advantage of the management of the com pany is that it had been able to relate the goal setting to the effort of the employees or the forces of each individual from each and every unit, in order for them to be involved in the goal setting and decision-making process (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233). Conclusion
The overall and continuous implementation of the Total Quality Management and Quality System Review of Motorola can be said that had been successful. That is due to the fact that the company had become one of the most successful companies in the world who applied the principle of TQM as well as one of the most awarded companies when it comes to their implementation of the QSR. Another important thing is that the customers of the company are satisfied about the products as well as the services that they are offering. That is why the company had become one of the most trusted brands worldwide. The company had been able to monitor the activities as well as the performance of its different stakeholders such as the suppliers. The suppliers are important because they are the one that provide the different important hardware as well as software that will help the company to produce and manufacture their product and sell it to market. The company is using its own Qua lity System Reviews towards their suppliers in order to assess the quality system of their suppliers every two years. They are being scored based on the items or subjects about the control over the processes as well as their ability to develop new products (United States General Accounting Office n.d., p. 13). The said method or approach had helped the company to monitor the individual performance of its different business units, groups as well as the performance of an individual that helped to properly mon itor the whole processes of the company that reflect to their performance. In terms of management, the company had been able to handle the different effects or impact of organizational change towards the motivation as wells as performance of their employees. The company also had enable to reconstruct or
reorganize the physical and power structure of the company, in order for them to perform with accordance to the plan of initiative or team work. Another important aspect that had been showed by the company is the clearness of their communication process and communication activities throughout the implementation of the project as well as the maintenance process or stage of the company. The upper level management had been able to communi cate well within their level as well as communicate and reach out to the lower management. The planning and controlling phase of the said project had been implemented and deployed properly due to the fact that their have been many programs and activities that had been done such as mentoring and coaching. The said two practices are considered as two of the most important approach or method that can be used in the project management in order to lessen as well as prevent the bad or negative impact of the change to the mentality and performance of the employees. The said planning and controlling process of the company had been able to prevent the refusal to change of the employees by letting them know the real reason behind the project as well as it¶s positive impact to them as well as to the overall performance of the company.
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