QUALITY CONSCIOUSNESS
World-class standards
Ranil Pathirana
Organisations face diverse challenges, depending on the relative maturity of the quality consciousness standards of their goods and services. Challenges abound when it’s time to establish a culture of quality… and even while strengthening it.
Furthermore, there’s no doubt that strong leadership is essential to developing and sustaining a culture of quality.
Ranil Pathirana observes: “Globally, we’re moving towards a context where quality along all parameters is likely to become increasingly more important to achieving corporate success. We’ll have to comply with this requirement if we want to be successful and keep pace with competitors.”
Evaluating quality consciousness among Sri Lanka’s exports, he opines: “While our tea is recognised globally, most other products that are of high quality aren’t widely known.”
“In terms of quality, Germany is said to lead the world, followed by many EU countries. And in Asia, Japan is considered the leader in quality. We need a long-term strategy, and time and effort, to move towards this level,” he adds.
Musing on what more can be done to improve quality, Pathirana explains that “developing our capacity to design systems, engineer processes and ensure compliance along with intensive development of available human resources – as well as attracting foreign human resources so we can learn – will lead to rapid improvements.”
He believes that all organisations can embed quality consciousness in their products “by making employees aware of what quality is, and why it’s a value addition and increasingly in demand; integrating quality management and optimisation into systems and processes; and bringing in expertise and know-how from outside.”
Companies should translate quality driven goals into clear performance expectations that are assessed at regular intervals through performance reviews. World-class organisations also work hard to develop the right mix of incentives including recognition and awards, leading to promotions.
These clear stepping stones towards achieving the highest quality can prove to be vital incentives for achieving world-class standards.
Corporates that are known for their high quality standards are more likely to link specific key performance indicators (KPIs) to this vision, and devote much more time to identify and track a wide range of quality focussed indicators.
Similarly, a Forbes Insights and American Society for Quality (ASQ) survey indicates that 79 percent of world-class organisations say their KPIs are effective in promoting cooperation among business units – versus only 52 percent among others.
What this highlights is a gap between those that are world-class in terms of establishing and maintaining a culture of quality, and others for whom this is a mere ambition.
Maintaining quality when there is pressure on pricing and margins can be a huge challenge, as it has been during the economic crisis. At times, investors could be more interested in financial performance than quality standards.
World-class organisations are more likely to be gathering customer insights through formal quality discussions and focus groups, or by tracking and analysing big data and social media.
Another requirement would be to invest in talent so that the workforce is equipped with the right knowledge and tools to drive a quality culture. Quality professionals must be adept at harnessing the power of big data in a way that enables them to make informed decisions.
On what more can be done to turn Sri Lanka into a quality hub for all sectors, Pathirana recommends: “First, we need to learn and understand why quality is becoming increasingly important in management, and for goods and services.”
He continues: “Then we must incorporate this knowledge into our learning process and simultaneously insist on quality output at all levels from classrooms to boardrooms, and all the way to government. In time, our output will win the world’s respect.”
