Quality Management, and especially delivering consistent quality, is key for the bottom line of any organization. When the quality goes down, every part of the organization will have to deal with the consequences. However, in order to keep the quality on a high level, quality managers face some tough challenges throughout the day.
1. Siloed Organization
An organization consists of several different departments, all responsible for their own processes. By nature, quality management runs through all these departments because they all have an influence on the quality the organization provides.
This departmental approach makes it hard sometimes for the quality manager to thrive. Because there is a quality department, people think that this department is wholly responsible for the quality, which it actually isn’t. Like we mentioned before, quality is a company-wide effort.
2. Lack of Innovation
The world is changing fast, but many people don’t actually want their job to change a lot. New innovation can be hard to get introduced into the workplace. The innovation can be in the information space, but also in new things like exoskeletons. All these new technologies make lives easier for everybody, but they do require a change in the way people do their job. The resistance to these changes makes it hard to introduce new innovations and tools to run the organization more efficiently. However, every quality manager is always looking to improve the process, hence the resistance to change creates friction.
3. Top Management Engagement
Although top management does care a lot about the quality of the product and service, they are less involved in the quality management part. Most standards are very focused on having top management involved in the QMS, but in practice, the quality manager takes care of it. The involvement of top management is mainly important to give quality a face. When top management is involved, and they show they care, it becomes easier to also get other people within the organization to adapt to new things and approaches.
4. More Complex World
The world is still globalizing in a fast way. More parts are purchased from all around the world. All these different suppliers have their own way of working and their own quality perceptions. Managing all this isn’t easy. The cultural differences can be quite frustrating, and the time differences can be exhausting.
Staying in Control
In order to manage all these, lots of information is shared, and communication must go back and forth. Having suitable tools to structure all this is key in order to avoid getting overloaded. Make sure the right tools are in place to facilitate the fast-changing world.
