To meet that increasing demand what strategic concept will provide a competitive advantage for your business?  The concept of customer-driven quality and service, or total quality management, will determine the future success of your business.

In today’s competitive environment, an effective total quality management system must be an organized, structured, and institutionalized approach for conducting a business.  The ultimate goal is meeting and exceeding customer expectations and continuous improvement.

Who Must Be Involved?

Top management must play a leading role in defining the company’s quality policy and operational philosophy.  However, equally as important, all employees should be involved in the organization’s quality initiative and have the opportunity to receive training on the appropriate tools and skills necessary to perform their jobs effectively.  Without everyone’s participation, there is no quality management system. 

To make the system work, members of the work force should be empowered to exercise discretion pertaining to service, quality, and customer-related issues within their functional assignments.  Every employee should clearly understand the requirements and expectations of their customers.

A Quality Program with Outstanding Success

To achieve these goals more than 60 state or regional quality award programs in 36 states have been established.  Many companies and organizations in the United States have adopted the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria as their management system model for self-assessment and continuous quality improvement.

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act, Public Law 100-107, signed by President Reagan in 1987, established the annual U.S. National Quality Award.  The United States Congress asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to study the performance of selected companies in the United States.  The report titled Management Practices: U.S. Companies Improve Performance through Quality Efforts, (GAO/NSIAD-91-190) can be obtained from the United States General Accounting Office, Washington, DC 20548.

What amazing findings did this study reveal? 

Results of the Study

The study revealed that companies adopting quality management practices experienced an overall improvement in corporate performance.  In nearly all cases, companies that used total quality management practices achieved better employee relations, higher productivity, greater customer satisfaction, increased market share, and improved profitability.

The report went on to say that each of the companies studied developed its practices in a unique environment with its own opportunities and problems.  However, none of these companies reaped those benefits immediately.  Allowing sufficient time for results to be achieved was as important as initiating a quality management program.

Proof that the Baldridge Award Criteria Promote Business Success

The following report verifies the power of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria to improve and sustain business success: 

For four years in a row the “Baldrige Index” (companies receiving the Baldrige award) outperformed the Standard & Poors (S&P) 500 stock index by almost three to one.  Companies that advanced to the final rounds of Baldrige judging, but did not receive the Award, outperformed the S&P index by more than two to one.

The link is obvious.  Companies that are driven by customer focus and process management have a definite and unmistakable advantage over companies that are not driven by this vital strategic concept.

How to Achieve World-Class Customer Service

To achieve world-class levels of customer satisfaction, businesses must move away from the traditional management style toward the desired state.  There are six transitional stages for arriving at a culture in which a service and quality improvement mentality can be adopted company-wide:

1. Getting everyone in the company committed to quality awareness

2. Planning for quality through shared goals, values, and objectives

3. Transforming the focus of everyone in the organization on improvement through education and training rather than finding excuses for the organization’s poor performance by blaming others

4. Implementing the quality improvement process by peeling away layers of management and by empowering and giving authority to employees to make decisions

5. Measuring results based on customer and shareholder satisfaction, and

6. Achieving sustained excellence

As we begin a new year and a new decade, now is the time to begin improving your competitive advantage through customer-driven quality and service.  The future success of your business depends upon it.

Article by Forrest L. Farmer
Clean-Pro Industries, Inc.