Case study: Nissan Nissan is famously associated with "Kaizen' or continuous quality improvement. Nissan states: "We will not be restricted by the existing way of doing things. We will continuously seek improvements in all our actions. Kaizen can be applied everywhere, anytime, any place. It can involve the smallest change in everyday working practice as well as a major change in production technology. Typically these improvements are initiated by teams of employees sitting down together and sharing ideas for improvements. Small steady changes are maintained to make sure that they actually work. No improvement is too small. Everyone at Nissan is responsible for thinking about the current way of doing a job and finding a better way of doing things. Kaizen improvements can save Money, time, materials, labour effort as well as improving quality, safety, job satisfaction, and productivity. Productivity levels at Nissan's plant in Sunderland, and the quality of final production there, have not happened by chance or good fortune. They stem from an all-embracing approach to a production process, designed to bring out the best in both people and machines. It continues to be conspicuously successful. It is vital to train people to work in such a hi-tech industry with such sophisticated quality systems. NMUK's training department conducts a training needs analysis to assess individual employees' needs and to organise training programmes. The department concentrates on five main areas: 1. technical development 2. people development 3. understanding processes 4. computer skills and graduate training Straine lopment
Which of the below total quality management elements can be found on the case study attached, motivate your answer
1. Ethics - Ethics is the discipline concerned with good and bad in any situation. It is a two faceted subject represented by organizational and individual ethics. Organizational
2. Integrity - Integrity implies honesty, morals, values, fairness, adherence to the facts and sincerity. The characteristic is what customers (internal or external) expect and deserve to receive. People see the opposite of integrity as duplicity. TQM will not work in an atmosphere of duplicity.
3. Trust - Trust is a by-product of integrity and ethical conduct. Without trust, the framework of TQM cannot be built. Trust fosters the full participation of all members. It allows empowerment that encourages pride ownership and it encourages commitment. It allows decision making at appropriate levels in the organization, fosters individual risktaking for continuous improvement and helps to ensure that measurements focus on the improvement of the process and are not used to contend people. Trust is essential to ensure customer satisfaction. So, Trust Builds the Cooperative Environment Essential For TQM.
4. Training - Training is very important for employees to be highly productive. Supervisors are solely responsible for implementing TQM within their departments and teaching their employees the philosophies of TQM. Training that employees require are interpersonal skills, the ability to function within teams, problem-solving, decision making, job management performance analysis and improvement, business economics and technical skills. During the creation and formation of TQM, employees are trained so that they can become effective employees for the company.
5. Teamwork - To become successful in business, teamwork is also a key element of TQM. With the use of teams, the business will receive quicker and better solutions to problems. Teams also provide more permanent improvements in processes and operations. In teams, people feel more comfortable bringing up problems that may occur and can get help from other workers to find a solution and put it into place. There are mainly three types of teams that TQM organizations adopt:
6. Leadership - It is possibly the most important element in TQM. It appears everywhere in an organization. Leadership in TQM requires the manager to provide an inspiring vision, make strategic directions that are understood by all and instil values that guide subordinates. For TQM to be successful in the business, the supervisor must be committed to leading his employees. A supervisor must understand TQM, believe in it and then demonstrate their belief and commitment through their daily practices of TQM. The supervisor makes sure that strategies, philosophies, values and goals are transmitted down throughout the organization to provide focus, clarity and direction. A key point is that TQM has to be introduced and led by top management. Commitment and personal involvement are required from top management in creating and deploying clear quality values and goals consistent with the objectives of the company and in creating and deploying well-defined systems, methods and performance measures for achieving those goals.
7. Communication - It binds everything together. Starting from the foundation to the roof of the TQM house, everything is bound by a strong mortar of communication. It acts as a vital link between all elements of TQM. Communication means a common understanding of ideas between the sender and the receiver. The success of TQM demands communication with and among all the organization members, suppliers and customers. Supervisors must keep open airways where employees can send and receive information about the TQM process. Communication coupled with the sharing of correct information is vital. For communication to be credible
8. Recognition - Recognition is the last and final element in the entire system. It should be provided for both suggestions and achievements for teams as well as individuals. Employees strive to receive recognition for themselves and their teams. Detecting and recognizing contributors is the most important job of a supervisor. As people are recognized, there can be huge changes in self-esteem, productivity, quality and the amount of effort exhorted to the task at hand.
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