Quality Improvement Activities

ISO9001:2000 insist on having quality improvement program in the organisation. This is to assure there will always be continual improvement to maintain the system and assist in boosting the employees morale. Improvement activities normally involve teamwork, and such encourage the participation of the employees from bottom up. Except maybe ESS (employee suggestion scheme) which individuals can contribute to the improvement program, most activities such as 5S, Kaizen, QCC(Quality Control Circle), TQM (Total Quality Management), Benchmarking, JIT (Just In Time system), Six sigma, Lean Management, ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) and etc. The above activities has been develop for years, it range from simple low-tech activities to high-tech big budget investment from the organisation, which both hope to gain return of investment through reduction of waste, product rejects by utilising the resources and increase the sales by the increase of customer satisfaction. These will contribute to the bottom line and that eventually lead to business growth and sustainable business.
However to ensure the success of this program, improvement activities must be consistent. The top management must play a crucial role to support and be involved in the program. One way to encourage the employees participation is through insentive program or an additional bonus in their yearly appraisal for those who involved in the program apart from doing their core job. There're more success stories found in other businesses and can be apply in your own organisation, however, we need to ensure high quality of human resource, more RELEVANT training can coaching must be given to ensure employees are able to contribute continually to the program.