Introduction
Improving quality is high on the agenda of many organizations and yes, that is more than right. You deliver products, you offer services or you control the internal processes: your quality largely determines your performance, but also your customer satisfaction and the continuity of your organization.
However, we see that in practice, quality improvement is often stuck in separate actions or temporary projects. How do you ensure that your quality is structurally increased? How do you make quality improvement an integral part of your organization? Without it leading to extra complexity or administration?
In this blog, you can read exactly what quality improvement means. We'll also tell you which strategies can help organizations increase quality and which methods you can use for sustainable improvement. Of course, we will also show you how to ensure this in daily practice.
What does quality improvement mean?
In fact, quality improvement is nothing more than the structural improvement of products, services and processes. With the aim of better meeting the expectations of your customers, employees and or other stakeholders. So this is not only about reducing possible errors, but also about working smarter, better managing risks and making performance predictable.
Improving quality is not a one-off optimization. It is and remains an ongoing process. Where classical management is often focused on controlling and correcting, quality improvement really focuses on preventing, learning and improving.
The main goal is clear: to increase quality in a way that contributes to the organizational goals. When it comes to organizational goals, consider:
- Higher customer satisfaction
- Reduced failure costs and repairs
- Better compliance with laws and regulations
- Have more control over processes and risks.
Organizations that are able to structurally improve their quality are arguably more dynamic. They are better able to grow without losing control of the processes.
Effective improvement strategies
Quality actually starts with the customer, because what does your customer really expect from you? And where does the customer experience any friction? By structurally analyzing your customer feedback, you receive valuable input for improving quality.
We'd like to give you a few practical strategies:
- Structurally measure your customer satisfaction
- Analyze your complaints and returns
- Map your customer journeys
By aligning your business processes accordingly, you not only increase quality, but also trust in your organization.
Implementation of continuous improvement
'continuous improvement' (Kaizen) is about small but continuous steps. We are not talking about major reorganizations here, but rather about daily improvements in the workplace. Through this approach, you make improving quality manageable and sustainable.
Small steps can include:
- Implementing short improvement meetings
- Recording your improvement proposals
- Periodic evaluations of your processes
Process optimization
Many of the quality problems that may exist are caused by processes that are unclear, fragmented or have grown so historically. By optimizing these processes, you will see that the quality improves.
A few well-known methods include:
- LEAN: a method aimed at eliminating waste
- Six Sigma: a method aimed at reducing variation and errors
Involving your employees
If you intend not to involve your employees in the processes, quality improvement is actually doomed to failure. Your employees know the practice best, they are present in the workplace and they are often the first to see where and how things can be improved.
There are several effective ways to increase employee engagement:
- Actively involve your employees in improvement initiatives
- Clearly define responsibilities
- Make successes visible, no matter how small they are
In this way, increasing quality becomes part of the entire organization.
Methods to increase quality
Of course, there are several methods you can use to increase quality within your organization. We have listed a few for you:
1. Use the PDCA cycle
The PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle is a reliable method for improving quality.
- Plan: decide what you want to improve
- Do: carry out the improvement
- Check: measure the result
- Act: secure or adjust the outcome
By structurally applying this PDCA cycle within your organization, you prevent improvements from remaining too voluntary.
2. Benchmarking as a tool
By applying benchmarking, you get more insights. This is because it helps you compare your own performance with other organizations or best practices. Benchmarking is not meant to copy, but rather to learn from.
Here's how to benchmark on:
- Process performance
- Quality indicators
- Customer Satisfaction.
For reliable insights into quality management standards, we would also like to refer you to ISO or read more about this on our standards page.
3. Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
When something goes wrong, we quickly tend to correct things immediately. RCA goes one step further and looks for the underlying cause. The benefits of RCA:
- Structural solutions instead of symptom management
- Less repetition of errors
- Better substantiation of improvement measures.
4. Six Sigma for process improvement
Six Sigma is a data-driven method. A method to improve processes and reduce variation. This method is particularly suitable for organizations where quality is measurable and must be reproducible. The Six Sigma method is often found in:
- Production
- Logistics
- Services
- Health care and government
The result of the Six Sigma method ensures more stable processes and predictable quality. Want to know more about Six Sigma? We recently wrote a blog about the Six Sigma method, you can find it here.
Best practices for sustainable improvement
Sustainable quality improvement requires more than separate improvement actions. It involves structural choices and a way of working that can permanently support quality.
Establish a culture of continuous improvement
Improving quality only works if it really becomes part of your company culture. This means that there must be room for learning and improvement. But errors should also be seen as input for improvement. A quality culture does not happen by itself, but it can be managed. And good leadership follows.
Use feedback as an engine for improvement
Giving and receiving feedback is essential to increase the quality within your organization and processes. Not only the feedback from your customers, but also from your employees and partners.
Schedule periodic evaluations, provide internal audits, and work with dashboards with quality indicators. By structurally analyzing the available feedback, an overview is created and a direction for improvement.
Conclusion
Improving quality requires more than just good intentions. It requires a structured approach. It requires clear choices and real involvement within your entire organization. By combining strategies such as customer focus, process optimization and continuous improvement with methods such as PDCA, RCA and Six Sigma, you provide a solid foundation and a good basis for sustainable quality improvement.
Do you want to increase the quality within your organization and not lose the overview? Then it helps to organize quality management centrally and in a structured way.
ISO2HANDLE supports organizations in this as a knowledge partner, with solutions that really help to make quality transparent, manageable and continuously improvable.
Read herer more about quality management.
Quality, Health, Safety and Environment?
