Quality Improvement – A Never Ending Story    Part 3

 

There’s an old saying “If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you will keep getting the same results. Expecting something different is insanity”. Which means, if improvements are wanted, then change must take place.

 

Change is often an ugly word to many, especially to those who have become so set in their way. To them, change is viewed as a near-term threat, rather than the reality of a long-term gain.

 

The road to quality improvement is not always easy or short but it is very worthwhile. The journey on that road is required for survival in today’s business world. As Dr. W. Edwards Deming stated in regards to quality improvement “you don’t have to do this, survival is not compulsory”.

Quality Improvement – A Never Ending Story    Part 2

 

An example is the USA Today story. When Al Neuharth of Gannett started the nation’s newspaper, USA Today, other major newspapers were folding up or reducing in size, not unlike today. Newsprint readership was down nationally, sounds familiar. But Al’s dream of a high quality, new style newspaper became a reality in 1982. Since that time most all newspapers have adapted the color, style, graphics, and quality improvements that USA Today spearheaded. The end result was better news media and increased readership compared to before USA Today. And all it took was one renegade like Al to lead the industry to improve the quality for all. 

 

Constant quality improvement, though it may seam inconsistent with the quarterly bottom line, is the only way to survive today.  Organizations must look past the short term and focus on the distant goals of improved quality. The USA Today story bears this out. “It was the worst period of life. But I would do it again” states Nancy Monagan, national editor USA Today, about the paper’s start up time. Dick Thien, journalist, USA Today said “I rewrote one piece for the sports cover 17 times. I never had to rewrite anything 17 times before”. 

 

The USA Today story, as told in Peter S. Prichard’s “The making of McPaper”, is very inspirational as a saga of quality improvement and success. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the American Dream.

 

The book points out one very important fact, that for quality improvement to occur, there must be a champion. And the higher that champion is in the organization’s leadership, the better the chance for success. Many times, the organization’s only champion for quality improvement is one with little or no clout and/or resources enough to make a major impact on quality. While this bottoms-up approach has merit, it rarely produces the improvement success of a top-down quality improvement situation. The scope of Quality increases the further up in the organization the decisions are made.

Quality Improvement – A Never Ending Story    Part 1

by L Daniel Crowley
 

How long does it take to get quality? How much time and resources should it require to achieve quality? And what happens when quality is reached? These and similar questions are often asked by management when involved in a quality improvement cycle.

 

The answers to the above, in today’s world market, are elusive. Remember back to the time you watched the Mickey Mouse Club or Sesame Street. Most of us wanted to be rich by the time we were middle aged. Usually that meant $20 in our pocket at 15. When we were 15 rich equated to being able to buy a new mustang convertible when we were 30. At 30 it was a $50,000 salary by 40. And at 40 to 60, middle age is in the future 10-15 years and rich is many times our current income. What we strive for today is always more than we wanted yesterday.

 

The same is true of quality, the better it gets the higher the next target is set. True quality is a never ending story. Quality is continuously improved the output of your service of products. Why? Because your competitor across the street, town, country or world is always improving their quality of product or services.