Organizational Assessment Of Total Quality Management

Organizational Assessment of Total Quality Management

Matthew J. Shepard

MGT 449-Quality Management & Productivity

James Turner

December 6, 2006

Organizational Assessment of Total Quality Management

To adequately measure continuous improvement, organizations must use a set of assessment criteria that completes the following:

(1) Highlight the leader's role in setting organizational direction, goals, and reviewing results.

(2) Reveal the level to which all processes are linked and aligned toward achieving the results required for success.

(3) Ensure strategic plans and action plans are focused on customer and mission performance requirements that must be met for the organization's strategy to succeed.

(4) Consider customer satisfaction and expectations to anticipate requirements and link them as key input to strategic plans.

(5) Examine the collection, analyses, and use of performance metrics information to sustain a fact-based system for improving organizational performance excellence.

(6) Align human resource development efforts with the organization's strategy to maintain a work environment conducive to performance excellence.

(7) Challenge key operational and work process management efforts to achieve flexibility, cost reduction, and cycle time reduction.

(8) Focus on measured results that are linked to the strategic goals of the organization.

(9) Facilitate communication and sharing of best practices information.

(10) Serve as a working tool for understanding and managing performance, planning, and training.

Once completed, the assessment becomes the basis for refinements of the strategic plan and the supporting action plans. Three sectors have been selected and identify the methods of improvement. The US Army has been chosen in the government sector, Resurrection Life Church as a non-profit sector, and Veteran's Administration for the service sector.

The Army Performance Improvement Criteria (APIC) is used to improve upon processes and is based on the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, a national quality award for private industry, and the President's Quality Award, a federal quality award. It provides a common framework for all Army organizations to measure how well they are meeting their stated goals and customer needs. It provides a systematic review that indicates the degree to which these processes are linked and aligned toward mission accomplishment and leads to informed management decisions. The APIC helps the manager at higher levels view the linkages between the various functional areas and multiple processes that comprise the organization. This assessment framework can be applied equally no matter which specific management discipline or philosophy is adopted by an organization. According to AR5-1 (March 2002), the application of APIC supports Total Army Quality in three ways:

(1) It provides a systematic, disciplined approach to deal with the dynamics of change by providing a working tool for strategic planning, conducting organizational assessments, analysis, and performance improvement planning.

(2) Effective use of the APIC criteria can raise the organization's performance expectations and standards by improving business practices and capabilities.

(3) It establishes common performance criteria to facilitate communication and sharing of the best management techniques, strategies, and management practices among Army organizations.

The APIC assists in generating continuous improvement over time. When properly conducted, the self-assessment reveals the health of your organization, identifies strengths, and pinpoints opportunities to improve management practices and programs. Through continuous self-assessment, the organization can review, prioritize, and select the best approach for getting results.

The criteria for establishing self-assessment are built upon core values and concepts, which are embedded beliefs and behaviors found in high-performing organizations; the categories that they are encompassed in are leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management, and business results. They are the foundation for integrating key performance requirements within a results-oriented framework that creates a basis for action and feedback. According to AR 5-1 (March 2002), the core values and concepts are:

(1) Visionary Leadership - The senior leaders should set key directions, create a customer focus, clear and visible values and high expectation for the organization by action and example for both war-fighting and business.

(2) Customer-Driven - The organization's focus is on its customers - ensuring its operations meet customer needs in the most efficient manner possible. Customers judge the quality and performance of an organization. Customer-driven excellence is thus a strategic concept, which is directed toward customer retention, market share gain and growth.

(3) Organizational and Personal Learning - the ability of the organization to acquire, share and use knowledge for continuous improvement.

(4) Valuing Employees and Partners - investing in people, helping soldiers, employees, and partners optimize opportunities for success in their work environment.

(5) Agility - the ability to transition rapidly within or between operations, war-fighting or business.

(6) Focus on the Future - remaining the world's finest land force for the next crisis, next war, and an uncertain future requires operating strategically with a long-range orientation.

(7) Managing for Innovation - capacity to develop creative and effective products and solutions to increase strategic and tactical responsiveness and decision-making.

(8) Management by Fact - reliance on data and analysis for decision making and analysis of organizational performance.

(9) Public Responsibility and Citizenship - involves a proactive and responsive commitment to the needs and concerns of the community and the larger public.

(10) Focus on Results and Creating Value