4.0 Review of Quality Management Concepts
4.1 Principles of the Management System1 Approach
Use of a `management systems approach' to achieving particular outcomes is not new. The Egyptians used detailed documented work instructions to construct the pyramids. For much of history, artisans, who were responsible for product design and quality, individually produced products. The Industrial Revolution introduced mass production, with a need for quality inspection of goods. In the 1950's product inspection programmes using statistically based sampling procedures were introduced, replacing the 100% inspection that had prevailed until then.
The consequences of component failure increased after World War II as technology became more complex. New quality concepts that looked at managing inputs and processes rather than relying on end point inspection were introduced for military use. These concepts were the foundation for the development of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) 9000 series of quality management models. These are based on the premise that if production processes and inputs can be controlled, the output can be of a consistent and appropriate quality.
During the 1980's the quality management systems approach widened into other areas. ISO started, in January 1993, to develop international standards on environmental management (ISO 14000 series of standards). The objective of ISO is to improve environmental performance of organisations and to harmonise different national environmental management standards in order to facilitate international trade ((UNDP, 1996). In the 1990s individual management systems are coalescing to manage risks in relation to all aspects of business operations in an integrated fashion. It is expected that in the next five years there will be:
- "effective integrated linkage of quality systems such as HACCP, ISO 9000, ISO 14000, and Total Quality Management (TQM);
- improved strategies to determine the customer's needs and desires on a global basis;
- linkage of quality strategies to other company business strategies; and
- development of enhanced systems to determine the degree of a company's quality performance and degree of quality excellence" (Mermelstein, 1997).
All management systems, whether quality or environmental systems, aim to:
- identify objectives for the management system (usually described in outcome terms);
- plan and document a production process which will deliver those objectives
- implement the process in the plan;
- monitor the outcomes of the process; and
- review the actual outcomes against objectives, with adjustments as required.
This is known as the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle, which underlies all management systems approaches2.
1 Where this paper refers to "management systems" this term includes quality, environmental, health and safety, food safety, HR and risk management programmes within the scope of that generic management system.
2 While the PDCA cycle is not obvious in the ISO 9000 series of models, it is present. The next revision of ISO 9000 due in 2000 makes this explicit.
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