Applying Quality Standards - LO-3 - engage in quality improvement

WEB SCRIPT ELECTRONICS
Sector: COMPUTER SYSTEMS SERVICING NC II
Qualification: Apply Quality Standards
Unit of Competency: Applying Quality Standards
Module Title: Engage in Quality Improvement
Learning Outcomes: JUNIE G. BASACA
Developer/s:

OBJECTIVES At the end on this unit, you be able to:
1. Explain continuous quality improvement.

Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is a quality management philosophy
that encourages all team members, including board members, volunteers, and
employees, to continuously ask what can be done better. CQI builds on
existing quality management approaches such as TQM, Lean, and Six Sigma,
but emphasizes that internal and external customer satisfaction is paramount,
INTRODUCTION and that problems are caused by processes, not people. Despite CQI’s focus
on people, data drives the search for problems and captures improvements.
This process is sometimes also called performance and quality improvement
(PQI), and involves three main steps: develop, implement, and reflect.

Topic 1: Continuous Quality Improvement

Quality Improvement

Quality improvement (QI) refers to the combined and unceasing efforts of everybody in
a company to make everything about it, especially its production process, better. It is a systematic
approach to the elimination or reduction of rework, waste, and losses in the production process.

Continuous Quality Improvement

Continuous quality improvement, or CQI, is a management philosophy that organizations
use to reduce waste, increase efficiency, and increase internal (meaning, employees) and external
(meaning, customer) satisfaction. It is an ongoing process that evaluates how an organization
works and ways to improve its processes.

9 Simple Continuous Quality Improvement Techniques
1. Standard Work
It is simply the documentation of the current best practice for any given task or
process. It should be detailed and include necessary supporting assets like diagrams or
images.

In order to improve on anything, you must first understand the current state. If
processes or activities are not performed uniformly, it is difficult to improve and
impossible to measure the impact of improvements. Standard Work has other benefits as
well. It makes bringing new employees up to speed much easier. It ensures that the results

of processes are consistent. And it reduces the opportunity for error. This creates the
opportunity for them (employees) to shine by applying improvements to the Standard.

2. Catch Ball
The idea Catch ball comes from the Lean Business Methodology. The idea is no

matter who starts the project that person (often but not always the manager) states the
purpose, objectives and other ideas and concerns and then 'throws' them to others for
feedback, ideas, support, and action. This creates a bi-directional loop, which clear
ownership and accountability. Everyone knows who has the “ball” so to speak.

The benefits of this technique are feedback and ideas from people at all levels of
the origination, decreased barriers to cross-functional collaboration, clarity of ownership
and accountability, and alignment of goals and objectives.

3. 5 Whys
A process for getting to the root cause of any problem. When something goes

wrong, you ask “why.” That answer leads to another “why” and so forth. It turns out that
the underlying cause of most process breakdowns can be uncovered by asking why about
5 times.

The benefits of this technique are it helps your team focus on finding the root
cause of any problem, encourages each team member to share ideas for continuous
improvement, rather than blaming others, and gives your team the confidence that it can
eliminate any problem and prevent the process from recurring failures.

4. Digital Huddle Boards
Huddle boards (also called Kaizen boards) are used to create a visual

representation of improvement work. This helps people easily understand the health of
continuous quality improvement within the organization and immediately detect when
progress on any given project is stalled. In modern practice, they are electronic so they
can be accessed from anywhere by any member of the team.

Kaizen aims for improvements in productivity, effectiveness, safety, and waste

reduction, and those who follow the approach often find a whole lot more in return:

• Less waste
• People are more satisfied
• Improve commitment
• Improve retention
• Improve competitiveness
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Improve problem solving
• Improve teams

5. 5S
A workplace organization method that uses a list of five Japanese words: seiri

(sort), seiton (set), seiso (shine), seiketsu (standardize), and shitsuke (sustain). An
organized workplace is the key to efficiency and safety. It can also be enormously
important when attempting to reduce waste, especially the wastes of motion and
transportation.

6. Gemba Walks
A supervisor or other leader goes to the place where the work is done to observe

and ask questions of the people doing the work. The goal is not to evaluate people’s

performance, but rather to seek opportunities for improvement and get a clear
understanding of how the standard work is being executed in the real world. After the
walk, the supervisor may use Catchball or another technique to begin the process of
improvement.

Benefits of this technique are it helps decision makers understand daily work,
provides opportunities for dialogue, foster a culture of continuous improvement, show
workers management cares about them and their work, break down barriers in the
workplace, reveal opportunities for process improvements and help identify and
eliminate waste.

7. Value Stream Mapping
The way of documenting and assessing everything that happens to bring value to

the customer. It is an end-to-end analysis of how a service or product goes from the initial
requires into the hands of the customer.

Processes that add value are improved, while those that don’t add value are
eliminated. It is an excellent method for uncovering the current state and a jumping off
point for quality improvement and waste reduction.

Benefits of this technique are it allows you to visualize and bound your process, it
helps you optimize the way you deliver value to your customers, and it helps you identify
the process steps with the greatest significance.

8. PDSA
PDSA stands for Plan, Do, Study, Act. It is a basic improvement cycle that helps

teams act on opportunities for improvement. The planning phase involves understanding
the current state of affairs and describing the desired state. During the “Do” step,
potential improvements are introduced. This is followed by a period in which the results
are studied. Finally, if the changes are positive, the standard work is updated, and the new
process is enacted.

Others use PDCA (Plan-do-check-act cycle) is a four-step model for carrying out
change. Just as a circle has no end, the PDCA cycle should be repeated again and again for
continuous improvement. The PDCA cycle is considered a project planning tool.

Plan is recognizing an opportunity and planning a change. Do is testing the
change. Carry out a small-scale study. Check is review the test, analyze the results, and
identify what you’ve learned. Act is to take action based on what you learned in the study
step. If the change did not work, go through the cycle again with a different plan. If you
were successful, incorporate what you learned from the test into wider changes. Use what
you learned to plan new improvements, beginning the cycle again.

Advantages of using this technique are stimulates continuous improvement of
people and processes, it lets your team test possible solutions on a small scale and in a
controlled environment, and it prevents the work process from recurring mistakes.

9. Mind Mapping
A diagram used to visually organize information. It is a technique for visualizing

connections between many related ideas or pieces of information. It can be extremely
useful in brainstorming, problem-solving, project planning, and note-taking. Mind maps
are like a tree, starting with a core thought (the trunk) and connecting it to related ideas,
big (branches), and small (twigs). The visual structure makes gaps in knowledge readily

apparent and relationships between ideas clear. It is useful anytime fresh thinking is
needed and is effective for process development, product improvement, quality control,
or any other opportunity for improvement.

Mind Mapping helps with creativity, thinking, business and team work.
6 Principles of Continuous improvement Model

1. Improvements are based on small changes, not only on major paradigm shifts or new
inventions
This concept is important, because large changes often feel frightening and
destabilizing to organizations. By approaching change in small, incremental steps, the
continuous improvement model reduces the fear factor and increases speed to
improvement. When following this principle, the organization does not need to wait for a
strategic shift or a new product release to begin to advance.

2. Employee Ideas are Valuable
This concept is important, because large changes often feel frightening and

destabilizing to organizations. By approaching change in small, incremental steps, the
continuous improvement model reduces the fear factor and increases speed to
improvement. When following this principle, the organization does not need to wait for a
strategic shift or a new product release to begin to advance.
3. Incremental improvements are typically inexpensive to implement

Employees tend to focus on small changes that can be accomplished without a lot
of expense. In fact, many ideas from employees involve eliminating processes, rather than
adding them, which is an excellent way to be sure that every activity adds some value to
the customer and reduces wasted effort.

4. Employees take ownership and are involve in improvement
When people come up with the ideas to improve their own work, they intrinsically

see the value of the changes. Knowing that improvements come from their peers inspires
faith in the necessity of the changes much more so than does a decree from senior
leadership who has never actually done the process in question.

5. Improvement is reflective
Constant feedback is an important aspect of the continuous improvement model.

Open communication during every phase of executing an improvement is critical to both
the final results of the improvement and to the maintenance of employee engagement.

6. Improvement is measurable and potentially repeatable
It is not enough to simply make a change and call it improvement. To achieve real

improvement, the impact of change must be measured. This makes it possible to
determine if the change can be applied successfully to other problems. Making continuous
improvement part of company culture is an excellent and cost-effective approach to
tackling an organization’s most difficult challenges. When supported by improvement
technology, results can be achieved quickly and success can be sustained over time.