The Future of Quality Management

The future of quality management: Have we solved the quality problem?
Quality management has received less attention over the past few years from both practitioners and scholars. Some view quality management as a well-established and organisations just need to implement what is already known to solve their quality problems. However, even quality leaders like Toyota with well-established quality systems report significant quality problems. There have also been reports of quality failures that emerged from suppliers. For example, Mattel Toys had product tainted with lead paint from one of their suppliers that disrupted their quality. This talk discusses how practices need to evolve both within and between organisations to sustain high quality performance. Although we have learned a great deal about quality over the past few decades, we have not solved the quality problem.

Presenter: Kevin Linderman (Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota)

The Evolution of Corporate Quality Improvement Programs:  Framework and Evidence

This talk identifies components of sustained corporate quality improvement (QI) programs and prescribes QI program future evolutionary states.  Using the “3 P’s Framework” -- which posits People, Process and Purpose as high-level dimensions of QI program infrastructure -- we analyze program initiation and significant inflection points in lean six sigma program evolution over two decades at a Fortune 500 manufacturing firm and over one decade at a large healthcare delivery services firm to identify drivers of program sustainment and evolutionary phase transitions.  A key finding is that a sustained QI program does not simply aim to maintain existing achievement levels but instead seeks to continuously increase scope, complexity and sophistication of program objectives and outcomes.

Presenter: Mohan Tatikonda (Kelley School of Business, Indiana University)

ISO 9001:2015: which impacts can be expected?

Autumn 2015, the 2008 version of the international standard for quality management ISO 9001 will be replaced by a new one. The standard’s structure will be aligned with other management system standards, the standard gives more attention to risk management, and company management will get an even more prominent role. Based on research about previous versions of the standard, expectations about the new standard’s impact can be formulated. The impacts will also depend on the role certification bodies will play – will they stick to the paradigm of control or will the paradigm of improvement be better addressed?

Presenter: Henk de Vries (Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University)