Business Excellence

Business Excellence

Part 1:

For the purposes of this assignment we shall consider the arguments in each text and review them against the current developments in the field of business excellence such as the EFQM model and the US Baldrige model. In addition to this we shall also consider the statements made in the texts against the current popular areas such as lean and six-sigma.

In order to do this effectively we shall briefly summarise the key points raised in each text in order to illustrate their validity against the current activities in business excellence.

Wilkinson et al attempt to identify what quality means in today's business environment and there is a belief that the word 'quality has been attributed to all kinds of management techniques' (P1, 1995, Wilkinson and Willmott). If the word is used in such a manner could it be that the word is simply used as an extension to legitimise management activities? Wilkinson et al believe that the word is used frequently to do this in order to 'legitimise change in the name of a self evident good' (P2, 1995, Wilkinson and Willmott).

It is clear from the article that organisations implementing quality initiatives believe they are doing so in order to create value within the organisation, through the reduction of waste. One organisation is placed on a pedestal in favour of quality management initiatives, namely Toyota and it is believed that the west simply adopted quality initiatives in the 1970's in order to catch up with the Japanese. However Japan had been using quality in terms of it's own production methods since the 1950's and was in Wilkinson and Willmott's view 'reconstructing it's industry' (P5, 1995, Wilkinson and Willmott).

Quality is therefore nothing new it has been around in the world since the 1950's. Management's perception of the word quality is a problem though for quality initiatives. It is widely believed and it has previously been stated that quality is used to legitimise activities, but also when the word quality is used it is believed that the goods or service being described is superior. However clearly from the texts we can see that scholars have used the word to describe that applying quality to work means only 'consistent and dependable practices have been applied' (P3, 1995, Wilkinson and Willmott). Wilkinson has cited this in the text as a statement made by Deming. This statement implies the reduction of waste occurs in the actual process, rather than creating the belief that the goods are superior to others.

Early studies into the areas of quality by Deming believe that the failure of organisations to adopt quality is largely the fault of managers and 'their failure to manage' (P7, 1995, Wilkinson and Willmott). If we are attributing the blame on failing to manage quality to managers, how can we use the term to legitimise managements need to change the poor practices within the firm? Principally we are using the term to generate the need for change within the organisation and enable employees ...