ASSIGNMENT-2

Name: Abhiram Sridhara, UCID: as2488, Course: Total

Quality Management
1. Discuss the importance of quality partnering and
strategic alliances
Two companies with different Business Strategies and employing
divergent IT infrastructure have to think practicably about the
pros and cons before entering into strategic alliances or mergers.
Since the partnering philosophy is solidly grounded in the
practical demands of the marketplace. The simplest way to
understand partnering or the strategic alliance is to think of it as
working together for mutual benefit. Various components working
together may be suppliers, fellow employees, customers and even
organizations that are potential competitors. Partnering can lead
to continual improvements in such key areas as processes and
products, relationships between customers and suppliers, and
customer satisfaction. Mutual co-operation and trust between
partners will further help in gaining competitive advantage over
others. Internal partnering can improve relationships among
employees and among departments within an organization.
2. Discuss the various forms of quality partnering and
strategic alliances
Partnering with suppliers: The goal of partnering with
suppliers is to create and maintain a loyal, trusting, reliable
relationship that will allow both partners to win, while
promoting the continuous improvement of quality,
productivity, and competitiveness.

 Partnering with competitors: Small- and Medium-sized

enterprises (SMEs) dont typically develop major
technological breakthroughs. However, there are many ways
in which SMEs can work together to enhance their
competitiveness in spite of being competitors in the same
markets.
Internal Partnering: Internal partnering is creating an
environment and establishing mechanisms within it that
bring managers and employees, teams, and individual
employees together in mutually supportive alliances that
maximize the human resources of an organization.
Environment, mechanism, mutually supportive alliances and
human resources are key concepts in this definition.
Partnering with competitors: Small- and Medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) dont typically develop major
technological breakthroughs. However, there are many ways
in which SMEs can work together to enhance their
competitiveness in spite of being competitors in the same
markets.
Education and business partnerships: The need to
continually improve employees work skills is the primary
force driving business and education partnerships. In such
partnerships, educational institutions provide on-site
customized training, technical assistance, and consulting
services to help organizations continually improve their
people and their processes
Global partnering: Companies that market to customers
worldwide should examine the possibility of partnering with
suppliers worldwide

3.

Discuss the importance of quality culture

Quality assurance is the collective term for the formal activities

and managerial processes that attempt to ensure that products
and services meet the required quality level. Quality assurance
also includes efforts external to these processes that provide
information for improving the internal processes. It is the quality
assurance function that attempts to ensure that the project
scope, cost, and time functions are fully integrated.

Widely shared philosophy of management.

Strong value system.
High standards for performance.
Definite organizational character
Emphasis on the importance of human resources to the
organization.
Ceremonies to celebrate organizational events.
Recognition and rewards for successful employees.
Effective internal network for communicating the
culture.
Informal rules of behavior.

4. Explain the difference between traditional and modern

quality cultures
Traditional quality culture used to revolve around the following
factors:
a. Productivity and quality are conflicting goals. Improving quality
consumes additional corporate resources that are needed to
maintain productivity. Therefore, quality can be improved only at
the expense of productivity.

b. Quality is defined as conformance to specifications or

standards. Such conformance pays no attention to incorrect
specifications or obsolete standards that are prevailed in most
companies.
c. Quality is measured by degree of nonconformance. It is usually
measured by the defect count in "parts per million" the famous
six-sigma measurement. Such measurement focuses on the
degree of non-conformance instead of customer satisfaction.
d. Quality is achieved through intense product inspection. Such
inspection consumes much of the corporate resources. If a
product fails the inspection, it needs to be reworked or scraped.
Some defects are allowed if a product meets minimum quality
standards. This implies that customers are willing to pay for a
buggy yet working product.
e. Quality is a separate function and focused on evaluating
production. It is assumed that the production group will welcome
such independent quality function.
f. Workers are blamed for poor quality. However, replacing a
worker does not mean improving quality. Furthermore, poor
quality may come from the supplier side.
g. Supplier relationships are short-term and cost-oriented. There
is no way to control the quality of raw materials or parts delivered
by the suppliers.
Organizations which adopt modern quality culture and take efforts
to maintain them will differ from traditional culture in following
aspects:
Operating Philosophy: In an organization with a traditional culture,
the primary focus is return on investment and short-term profits
while in an organization with a quality culture, the core of the
operating philosophy is customer satisfaction.
Objectives: Organizations with traditional cultures typically adopt
short-term objectives while Organizations that adopt a quality

culture plan strategically. They develop both long- and short-term

objectives.
Management Approach: In organizations with traditional cultures,
managers think and employees do while in organizations with
quality cultures, managers are seen as coaches of the team. They
communicate the vision, mission, and goals; provide resources;
remove barriers; seek employee input and feedback; build trust;
provide training; and reward and recognize performance.
Attitude toward Customers: Organizations with traditional cultures
tend to look inward. They are more concerned about their needs
than those of customers while Organizations with a quality culture
are customer-focused. Customer satisfaction is the highest
priority and is the primary motivation driving continual
improvement efforts.

5.

How do you understand who is a customer?

Customers can be classified into two categories as Internal as well

as External. They are the ones who are willing to pay for the value
we create for them in the form of products and services offered. In
a total quality setting, customers define quality and employees
produce it that is external customers define quality and internal
customers help in producing it.
6. Explain customer defined value, value analysis and
retention.

Organizations should measure success based on customer

retention data rather than on customer satisfaction data.
Customers might migrate to the competitors out of mere curiosity
even in spite of customer satisfaction. To retain customers over
the long term, organizations must turn them into partners and
proactively seek their input rather than waiting for and reacting to
feedback provided after a problem has occurred.
The key to establishing a customer focus is putting employees in
touch with customers and empowering those employees to act as
necessary to satisfy the customers.
The customer must be the organizations top priority. The
organizations survival depends on the customer.
Customer satisfaction is ensured by producing high quality
products. It must be renewed with every new purchase. This
cannot be accomplished if quality, even though it is high, is static.
Satisfaction implies continual improvement. Continual
improvement is the only way to keep customers satisfied and
loyal.
7. Discuss product innovation models for customer
retention
Organizations should measure success based on customer
retention data rather than on customer satisfaction data. The
issue is not whether customers are satisfied with the
organizations products or services; it is whether they are satisfied
enough to be retained.
To retain customers over the long term, organizations must turn
them
into partners and proactively seek their
input rather than waiting for and reacting to feedback provided
after a problem has occurred.
Innovation model which can give organization a competitive edge
involves following 5 processes.

 Target the Opportunity: Identify customer needs and use

them to innovate.
Explore the Idea: Ensure the innovation will be successful
Develop Alternatives: Develop alternatives for innovations
Optimize the Solution: optimize the chosen alternative for
the production.
Commercialize the innovation: Deploy effective marketing
strategy for the innovation.
8. Discuss employee empowerment
Organizations should exercise cultural control influencing
individual performance, interpersonal skills and his/her wellbeing.
Employees should have judgmental abilities to make quick
decisions in crunch situations. Senior management should clearly
convey the performance requirement in order to grow in a work
place.
An empowered employee will care as much or even more about
the quality of the work than the supervisor or the CEO because
they feel responsible for that particular product or service and
strive to make it a success. In order to achieve employee
empowerment management must provide an open,
nonthreatening, creative environment that encourages employee

involvement which expects employees to think, recognizes

employee value; and rewards employee ownership of processes,
products, and services.
9. Discuss leadership for quality
Quality leadership is an alternative that emphasizes results by
working on methods. In this type of management, every work
process is studied and constantly improved so that the final
product or service not only meets but exceeds customer
expectations. The principles of quality leadership are customer
focus, obsession with quality, effective work structure, control yet
freedom (e.g., management in control of employees yet freedom
given to employees), unity of purpose, process defect
identification, teamwork, and education and training. These
principles are more conducive to long-term thinking, correctly
directed efforts, and a keen regard for the customers interest.
Quality leadership does have a positive effect on the return on
investment. In 1950, Deming described this chain reaction of
getting a greater return on investment as follows: improve quality
decrease costs improve productivity decrease prices
increase market share in business provide jobs increase
return on investment. Quality is not something that can be
delegated to others. Management must lead the transformation
process.

Customer Focus: This means the organizations primary

goal is to meet or exceed customer expectations in a way
that gives the customer lasting value

Obsession with Quality: It means that every employee

aggressively pursues quality in an attempt to exceed the
expectations of customers.

Recognizing the Structure of Work: When the optimum

structure is in place, work processes should be analyzed,
evaluated, and studied continually in an attempt to
improve them.

Freedom through Control: Leaders must ensure that

managers and employees take control of work processes
and methods by collaborating to standardize them.

Unity of Purpose: Most important responsibilities of a

leader is to articulate the organizations mission. When
there is unity of purpose, all employees pull together
toward the same end.

10. How to lead for a better quality change?

To give quality leadership, the historical hierarchical management
structure needs to be changed to a structure that has a more
unified purpose using project teams. A single person can make a
big difference in an organization. However, one person rarely has
enough knowledge or experience to understand everything within
a process. Major gains in both quality and productivity can often
result when a team of people pool their skills, talents, and
knowledge. Teams need to have a systematic plan to improve the
process that creates mistakes/ defects, breakdowns/delays,
inefficiencies, and variation. For a given work environment,
management needs to create an atmosphere that supports team
effort in all aspects of business. In some organizations,
management may need to create a process that describes
hierarchical relationships between teams, the flow of directives,
how directives are transformed into action and improvements,
and the degree of autonomy and responsibility of the teams. The

change to quality leadership can be very difficult. It requires

dedication and patience to transform an entire organization.
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