The European Organization for Quality’s Annual Congress took place this year in the beautiful Czech city of Prague, with the key theme of “Competitiveness through Excellence – Challenge for Europe”.
The EOQ is a non-governmental organisation dealing with the management of quality from 36 European countries through associations with national professional organisations. It brings together quality professionals from all over Europe, and as a such its annual congress is a massive event: over 500 people attended and were able to choose from over 80 presentations on topics varying from new management systems, sustainable manufacturing development, project management and more. The presentations spanned industries as well, with the organisers providing dedicated tracks for automotive, healthcare, pharmaceutical, IT, food chain, public sector and education.
Many themes were explored over the course of the two days, and included the need for businesses in Europe and the west to be aware of both the technological revolution in telecommunications and computers, and the economic revolution as many countries in the East move to a market economy, as stated by Yuri Gousakov, the president of the EOQ. This is also allied with the growing ecological awareness and concern within the market as well as the need to share and replenish the depleting world resources. Sustainability is growing concern in those terms, just as it is in terms of the continuing satisfaction of the company stakeholders. All in all, this means that companies have to be more efficient, more streamlined and more agile.
“…companies have to be more efficient, more streamlined and more agile…”
As a result, the role of the quality practitioner is becoming ever more important, and, according to Stephen K. Hacker, an executive chairman of Transformation Systems International, is now seen as a leadership role. The top organisations are now hiring not simply on qualifications, but on leadership skills. And just as organisations in the West have been looking to Japan in recent years for inspiration on matters of business improvement, so there is much to learn from them in terms of leadership.
Shoji Shiba, a revered quality expert who taught at the Massachusetts Institue of Technology from the early ‘90’s until his retirement last year, spoke of how great leaders avoid arrogance & unlearn success (“success is the first step to failure”), forecast the future & take focused action, have a noble mind and influence as a symbol & role model, and create great change leaders through trust and emotional ties.
This theme of leadership was explored in greater depth by Larry Smith in his presentation on the recent leadership history of Ford Motor Company. Mr Smith told of how the teachings of W. Edwards Deming were initially embraced, then rejected, then embraced again by management at Ford during the last turbulent 30 years, before the successful implementation of Six Sigma at the company. Ford now use a ‘back to basics’ philosophy steered by their chairman. This vision begins with the implementation of a fundamental quality system that is audited for effectiveness over time. It includes the notions of variability reduction and process improvement, while utilizing lean/flexible manufacturing systems with Six Sigma problem solving and periodic attention from senior management. In 2004, Ford announced savings attributable to Six Sigma to be around the $300million.
However, although a success story, the question of how to ally quality and process improvement initiatives to long-term sustainability is also a pertinent one. Carl Johnson, an ASQ Senior Member, presented on what is ‘Beyond Six Sigma’, and he pointed out that since announcing those savings, Ford have had to cut thousands of jobs in 2006 as a cost-saving measure. Mr Johnson argued that profitable growth and attributing recognisable value are key to the long-term success of organisations, but that these can still be entwined with Six Sigma. This can be done by using DMADV as the foundation of your execution framework, taking an outside-in approach to your value chain, defining products and processes that could give additional value to your customer and then verifying these hypotheses with your customer to make sure you got it right, and finally focusing the organisation on delivering value via the people, process and technology.
“The challenge for world-class organisations now is… to innovate and to lead…”
Amongst this need for greater agility, greater awareness of the quality of processes, and greater leadership, one word kept being brought up as vital to any business’ future: innovation. For it is innovation that feeds and is fed by these and other factors vital to ongoing success. Professor Michael Porter of Harvard Business School was quoted as having said: “the competitiveness of a country depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate & improve”.
The word ‘Innovation’ and its meaning is seen by some in a similar way to how Six Sigma was seen a few years ago: hazy and shrouded in intrigue. But it is being used more and more and its meaning is becoming not only clearer, but necessary for improvement professionals. Some of the key Innovation objectives are to provide sustainable value creation, and to diversify into key fields of activity, either in the same or new sectors. These include improving methods & procedures, as well as developing new materials, developing advanced management systems and diversify into strategic activities.
Innovation arises from the juxtaposition of technology and the needs of the business, and ultimately the market. The challenge for world-class organisations now is not simply to be the most efficient, or the fastest – the so-called better, faster, cheaper, etc – it is to innovate and to lead.
In the words of Dr. Deming, “Management will in time be judged not by the quarterly dividend, but by plans and innovation with the aim to stay in business, to protect investment, to ensure future dividends, and to provide jobs and more jobs through improvement of product and service for the future. One requirement for innovation is faith that there will be a future. Innovation, the foundation of the future, cannot thrive unless the top management has declared unshakable commitment to quality and productivity.”
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For more information on the European Organisation for Quality, go to their website.
