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Selected papers from the first annual Canadian Quality Congress
Edited by Madhav Sinha
1. Introduction
This paper summarizes some results of a research and experimentation activity that the author is conducting since 2003, with the aim of contributing to the completion of the quality-based "revolution" that broke out in the 1980s and too soon came to a standstill. Commercial reasons took in fact the lead. Too low was the concern with bringing the quality-related concepts to maturity. Executive and entrepreneur interest in quality progressively faded. The author believes that the strategic role of quality in managing organizations can be perceived only if some major conceptual breakthroughs take place. The first is the real incorporation of the modern systems view into quality management; the second is the key role of joint quality and systems thinking in value generation. The paper consequently focuses on the value creation process and on how to revisit managing for quality in the systems perspective.
If today, after more than 20 years since the "quality revolution" started, we ask quality practitioners and quality scholars what they perceive as the core concept of quality management, we will most probably get a spectrum of answers that reflect fragmented and tool-oriented views. Had we monitored such perceptions in time, we would identify cycles of management fads, more than clear development paths. After the first, successful attempts to set the basis for the new total quality management (TQM) view - with the Malcolm Baldrige and EFQM Models - we had, for example, the process management, process reengineering (BPR), self-assessment and benchmarking periods. We also had some strange returns to the standard-based view of quality. In the recent years the scene was dominated by "Six Sigma" approaches, that focus on reducing variation (a clearly important but partial aspect of managing for quality), putting however more emphasis, quite often, on cost reduction than on customer satisfaction (a clear sign that ways are continuously sought to regain executive attention).
Truly, the technical were the most tangible and easily understandable aspects of the new TQM models. However, the most critical aspects were those related to the organization, and the way of managing it. Unfortunately they were the most difficult to grasp, both because the way they were presented was still...