Discuss strategic quality planning and the importance of time in quality improvements. Appraise approaches of quality improvements and various business excellence models and quality
1) Learning Outcomes being assessed:
LO 2 Discuss strategic quality planning and the importance of time in quality improvements.
LO 3 Appraise approaches of quality improvements and various business excellence models and quality
awards; Baldrige, Deming, EFQM, and UAE awards.
2) Handing in format instructions
• Sign this page and put it as a cover for your assignment.
• Submit a softcopy of your work on the Blackboard (Word-PowerPoint)
• Work must be neat, readable and follow the instructions.
3) Marks
LO’s Feedback to Students
Q1. Company description and operational plan points 10 LO2 1 mark for each
point
Q2. Critical process – enhancement of this process 20 LO3
Forms of academic impropriety Lecturer Findings
1-is there verbatim copying or unidentified and unacknowledged quotation of another’s work or from Internet?
2-is there paraphrasing of another’s work by simply changing a few words or altering the order without clear identification and acknowledgement?
3-is there unauthorized co-operation between a student and another person or student?
Goals should
Ø Improve customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and process
Ø Be based on statistical evidence
Ø Be measurable
Ø Have a plan or method for its achievement
Ø Have a time frame for achieving the goal
Ø Finally, it should be challenging yet achievable
SEVEN STEPS TO STRATEGIC QUALITY PLANNING
In order to integrate quality with the strategic planning process, a systematic and sequential procedure has to be adopted. There are seven basic steps to strategic process planning. They are
Step 1. Customer Needs
The basic step is the identification of customers and their wants and needs. An organization must seek its customers’ requirements, expectations and assess future trends before developing a strategic plan.
Step 2. Customer Position
The second step requires the planners to determine its positioning with regards to its customers. Various alternatives such as whether the organization should give up, maintain or expand market position should be considered. In order to become successful, the organization should concentrate and consolidate its position in its areas of excellence.
Step 3. Predict the Future
Next, the planners must predict future conditions that will affect their product or service: To help predicting the future, the tools such as demographics, economic forecasts, and technical assessments or projections may be used.
Step 4. Gap Analysis
In this step, the planners must identify the gaps between the current state and the future state of the organization. This concept is also known as value stream mapping. For identifying the gaps, an analysis of the core values and concepts and other techniques may be used.
Step 5. Closing the Gaps
Now the planners should develop a specific plan to close the gaps. This process is also termed as Process improvement. By assessing the relative importance and relative difficulty of each gap, planners can close the gaps.
Step 6. Alignment
Now the revised plan should be aligned with the mission, vision, and core values and concepts of the organization. Organization should embrace quality as an essential ingredient in their vision, mission, and objectives.
Step 7. Implementation
In order to implement the action plan, resources must be allocated to collecting data, designing changes, and overcoming resistance to change. Also the planners should monitor and assess the result of the strategic plan.
Since quality is a continuous improvement process, one has to reassess and renew the strategic plans periodically. So it is a cyclic process. Figure summarizes the strategic planning cycle.