Total Quality Management and ISO 9000 do not provide the quality management needed
We have had structures like Total Quality Management (TQM) and ISO 9000 standards and certification, which were found lacking as a management method. We re-engineered business process with BPR, to manage performance quality. But, performance quality proved difficult to manage. Six Sigma provides another structure for our final production quality. Now we have Business Process Management (BPM) to manage the quality of our processes.
Even with all this, we still cannot manage quality as the business routine of everyone in the enterprise. We need a way to know and manage quality consistently across the whole enterprise, to prevent and identify low quality, to trace the impact or source of low quality, and to isolate problems producing low quality.
Business Process Re-engineering emphasized Performance Quality
Does “performance quality” make sense to you? When you buy something, are you concerned about “performance quality”? Even for a service, is the performance quality in delivering the service or the quality of the result of the service more important? The result of the service is your input to which you add value.
As we see with our business processes, quality happens along the process. But how do we manage performance quality? Many set up performance checkpoints, but what are they really managing at these checkpoints? The fact is the only place we can formally manage quality of business processes is the quality of the final output result from the process.
Enterprise quality can be managed only by managing the quality of all results produced
Quality is an attribute of the result; not performance. Effectiveness is an attribute of performance. Instead of managing performance quality, we need to define the specific results that are produced across the enterprise. We then need to define the specific performance solutions utilized. and deploy solutions to specific results. Every performance solution utilized must be effective to produce a quality result.
The chain of results producing a final result comprise a result quality chain
Results are related to each other by the organization, impact, dependencies, and place in a result value-quality chain. A final result is not produced by a business process. The final result is produced by a chain of results that are input, created, utilized, or transformed to reach the final result.
The typical order fulfillment process is actually a chain of results like order received, credit checked, inventory checked, order approved, inventory picked, invoice prepared, delivery organized, order delivered, customer receipt confirmed, customer invoice received, etc. The only way to manage quality within the process is to manage the quality of these results. One low-quality result in the chain could lead to an unfulfilled order final result. We cannot prevent or identify a defective result as part of the routine, if we do not manage results in the chain. If we have a defective result, we need to know the specific performance that produced the result to identify and correct the ineffective performance. If we really want to manage quality in the process, we must convert the business process to a result quality chain.
R-pm is the only method for consistent result quality management through effective performance
The only way to understand quality consistently across the whole enterprise is to manage the quality of results across the enterprise. The only way to understand the impact of low quality is to manage quality along the chain of results. The only way isolate problems producing low quality is to manage the effectiveness of the performance producing the result.
Stop striving for performance quality, organize the business to produce quality results
Result-performance Management (R-pM) organizes the business results produced and business performance utilized, so the enterprise can manage quality as an attribute of results, not performance, and manage real quality for any result, not just final results from production.
Rule No. 2 of the 10 rules of 21st Century Management with R-pM, Generate Profits from a Chain of Managed Value and Quality, requires managing quality, as well as value, along the chain. To find out how manage result quality Join the R-pM community to review the download “How to Build Result Value-quality Chains“.
Visit Result-performance-Management.com to learn more about organizing your business with R-pM for 21st Century Management, and the R-pM Toolkit, your 21st Century Management Manual.
