Ecuadorian Model of Excellence

-->

In his blog "A View from the Q", Paul Borawski, invites us to think about Global Quality Programs and its application around the world.  He asked the following questions:

Do you live in a country with a National Quality Program? It is used to create models for others to emulate? Does the national program to grow in visibility and perceived value and building national capacity for excellence?

I will answer those questions, starting with the most important statement: More important than an Award of Excellence, is to have a Model of Excellence.

The Models of Excellence are references to position an organization as World Class.

It is important to distinguish in the field of Quality between an ISO 9001, which contains the MINIMUM requirements to say that you have a Quality Management System. In the other hand a Model of Excellence contains best management practices recognized worldwide.

The ISO 9001 standard is therefore under a certification structure, but the application of a model of excellence, by concept is not certifiable.

Based on different Models of Excellence almost every country worldwide have established Awards or Recognitions to organizations that demonstrate meaningful application of these best management practices. . As we can see in blogs of Influential Voices of Quality there are many initiatives in the world.

In Ecuador it has been adopted Malcolm Baldrige Model (USA), which based on principles of excellence, then develops into seven criteria, the results representing 450 points, while generating results (drivers) represent 550 points.

The organization in charge of Ecuadorian National Quality Award is the CorporaciónEcuatoriana de la Calidad Total, which currently delivers the National Quality Award for large and medium enterprises and the prize "FIRST STEPS" for SMEs that start in the way of quality. This work involves private companies and public entities from all the sectors including health facilities and education.

One of the key elements are the Self-Assessment tools, that enables organizations to implement plans to improve the management and that result in improvements in business performance in general and better satisfaction of the stakeholders and better financial performance. I think this is the strength of these models.

In Ecuador it is noteworthy that all companies that have applied to compete for Ecuadorian Quality Award have taken first steps through ISO 9001 certification, and in order to continue its path of improvement, they select Excellence Models as alternative.

Ecuador are not going at the speed I would like, but the concepts of Quality Management Systems and Models of Excellence increasingly become more visible and support the improvement of the whole society.

Quality in a surprising place

In his blog "A View from the Q", Paul Boraswki, invites us to think about Quality in our everyday live. Paul asked the Influential Voices:

Have you spotted a non-work situation that could use a quality tool? Or how about a quality solution in a surprising place?

I have enjoyed reading for others Influential Voices and l have learned a lot from them.

The quality (good or bad) is a transverse axis in every moment of our lives, at home, in the transportation towards work, in the office, on the ground, in every place....

As a result of that question I have reviewed and delighted with the Quality Progress Magazine,October 1997, where we had articles like:

• Improving the Quality of Family Life
• Use PDSA for crying out loud
• Goals + Alignment + Love = Success
• Creating a Family Mission Statement

 After reading them I have seen that the Quality and its fundamentals does not expire.

Under the definition given in a previous blog Quality is a process in which people happy, produces products (services) that make others human beings happy, makes me think of biscuits made ​​in a small population of my country called Cayambe.

 

They do not use brainstorming, or control charts, their records are incipient, products variability is high, and there are wastes.

Now let's see why I think they have quality:

• They work as a family, and the secrets passed from parents to children, which cultivates values ​​and beliefs.
• They care about their customers and give them to try the products that come directly from the oven.
• Customers seek them, it becomes obligatory stop in the small town, and every tourist goes through the small shop buying biscuits.
• They have loyalty, so customers often wait patiently to be served.

 

This leads me to confirm that quality is synonymous of achieving growth through the satisfaction of internal and external customers.

César Díaz

Fear of failure, risk and results

 

In his blog "A View from the Q", Paul Boraswki,  invites us to think about  risk, failure and our personal position in relation with these issues. Additionally Paul gives us access to a study on the comfort level of parents towards their children's failures.

Paul leaves some questions to be answered in relation to the management of the failures in our workplace:

Do you try again until you find a solution? Are you penalized for failure? Or do you avoid it altogether? How much risks are you willing to take to find solutions to quality challenges?

To answer these questions I would first think that the only time we have is the present, and that depending on what we do today will have a future.  For that reason if we want to have a better future we must “act”  and it has always implied the risk of making some mistakes.

According to ISO Guide 73, we have the following definition of risk:

Risk is the probability of an event multiplied by its consequences.

The consequences can be either positive or negative, are the result of our actions, so we must mitigate the negative impacts and promote positive.

Likelihood is the possibility that the positive or negative event of our action occurs.

We are always able to influence both risk factors, for which we must prepare, improve our skills and always make decisions based on the best information available to us.

The ISO has developed a standard for Risk Management:  ISO 31000: Risk Management, Guidelines andPrinciples. In the revision of ISO 9001 risk management principles and concepts are included transversely.

Risk is inherent in any action, whether before dedicating to a sport or activity I prepare myself physically and mentally and analyze all the factors involved, my downside risks decrease and I can improve my chances of success and reduce the negative impacts.

The only sure way to be safe (no risks), is to do nothing in life, but that in turn is too risky.

In life you have to try many times, and not be afraid to fail, and each time learning from our mistakes to avoid them in the next try.

Parents should teach their children to take risks, and to recognize that what is achieved with effort is worthwhile.  We must do not penalize the errors, but the failure to try.

Now back to the questions and answer them from my personal point of view:

• While we have forces, we must pursue our dreams, no matter the falls we have had, or may come in the future.
• We should never punish risk-taking, but the failure to do analysis before acting. Making mistakes is always good if we learn from it.
• My personal challenge is to learn and inform in the best way me to assume the risks of continuing promoting quality.

César Díaz

Each person is different

 

All humans’ beings are different, and our needs and expectations are different.

 Tastes of the colors are different, the clothes that we like are different, the food we like is different..

Our thoughts and way of seeing the world depend on the environment in which we have grown, our home, our beliefs and traditions.

For that reason our definition of quality depends on our cultural environment.

Now if we do a tour in our lives, what we appreciate as good at age 15, is different from what we feel at 40, to 50 to 60.

Men appreciate different things than women.

In Ecuador, the people of a city or region appreciate things differently. We have different food, different clothes, still we speak differently.

How do we generate common paradigms that allow us to speak  and feel quality in the same way?

Through sharing experiences, experiences, culture, beliefs.

If inside an organization, we would like that everybody appreciate the quality in the same way, first we need to develop a common corporate culture that leads to improvement.

If I want my customers to feel and appreciate the quality of my products I need first to educate them.

How can I make that human beings embrace quality? Using different ways for different people

 

Cesar Diaz

How do we define Quality?

In his blog "A View from the Q", Paul Boraswki, told us that has been 13 years since Dr. Juran said that this would be the century of Quality.

Paul also gave us access to a publication from the point of view of design, which asked how we define Quality. This publication discusses about Quality products with emphasis in design. I invite you to read the topic where Quality is focused as emotional, which should give us consistency and that in essence is subjective.

Paul also invited us to review some of the ASQ publications such as Future Study done for this organization, which states that we must evolve from the small Quality to holistic sustainable systems considering all stakeholders.

With this in mind the question is how influential voices can define Quality.

Some people believe that Quality is a subjective term and can include many things, basically anything that is  right  for the company or the client.

Given that each client is different, share the definition of Daniel Zrymiak  in his blog, or Aimee Siegler in her blog, stating that the Quality may have different meanings for different persons. On the right side of my blog (blogroll) you can find more discussions on the subject.

So what is the correct definition of Quality?

I think there is no single correct definition, but the Quality is about living. We know what it is when something does not meet Quality expectations to which I am accustomed, whether in products or services.

We could revise the concepts of Quality given by W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran and Philip Crosby

Deming took the user's perspective,  Juran the perspective of the manufacturer and Crosby  the management perspective.

Deming would say that the correct definition of Quality is the customer's responsibility, and thus there are many definitions of Quality.

Juran defines Quality using two perspectives. The first refers to the characteristics that determine the best value, which means a greater number of features that best meet customer needs, and the second aspect is the absence of problems.

Crosby emphasizes the role that management must meet and the need for commitment and how to meet the requirements of customers is vital.

In the ISO 9000 world, Quality is defined as the degree to which the feature of a product and / or service meets the requirements.

Now every client is different, and therefore the Quality has no single definition.

When we ask, "Is there a right or wrong way to define Quality?" the answer may be simple or complicated as well. It's best not to stop on the definition but build Quality in processes, products and services.

My definition collected by some authors (and perhaps already written) Quality is a process in which people happy, produces products (services) that make others human beings happy .... That leads me to another question ... What is happiness?

 

César Díaz