Quality in work place

PatrickTownsend states:

Quality is a good idea for a whole bunch of dandy reasons:

---- it makes people, both customer and employees, happy , it usually is good for the environment,it reduces turnover, it makes organisation or perhaps whole countries competitive; it raises the self esteem of those people allowed to make decision, and it can even be taught and or applied in schools.

Good stuff to warm the heart but not necessarily excite the head. Quality makes money. "For someone who heads up a non-profit or governmental operations, to not know that quality will reduce expenditure and or increase capacity for work requires an act of intentional stupidity."

The reason an organisation needs to make the investment in time and energy needed to pursue quality is because dosing so extends the life of the organisation by resulting in a main line transfusion of that which gives life to the organisation.

Quality is not optional, it used to be when owners (with their junior partners, the union) dictated what was to be made and at what price it would be sold, quality is optional. Its not any more. There has been a power shift. The customers are in charge now and they wont give the power back.

A couple of simple sounding conscious decision by the senior staff of an organisation is required. The first will be acceptance of the idea that the HR or Personnel department of their organisation is in the habit of hiring adults. The second will be the acceptance of the idea that the folks who are on the payroll can think . Not only can they think, but they know things that the senior staff doesn't know and wont learn unless they make it possible for their subordinates to put forward their ideas. Quality is not easy. Putting a process in place that engages the mind -- and the heart -- of every person on the pay roll is a daunting challenge that is not for the weak of heart. For those who are up to it, a complete quality process offers a way to make a great deal of money. Oh yes it will make people happy and it will be good for the environment all the rest of that but the bottom line is the bottom line. That's why people do it.

Source: Economic Times, February 6, 2004