A culture of quality doesn’t happen by accident.  If it’s really a priority for your organization, then leaders throughout the company must make time for it. They must nurture it. They need to allocate a portion of the agenda at management meetings to talk about it.  They should reinforce it in communications to employees. They must dedicate the necessary time and resources to make sure that a culture of quality survives and thrives everywhere in the organization, every day. 

At one time or another, most of us have heard a friend or colleague complain that their heart just isn’t in their work anymore. Their motivation has plummeted.  Their work environment is uninspiring.  Perhaps you have even felt that way yourself, – a victim to that nagging feeling that the product of your labor just doesn’t seem as meaningful as it used to be. 

Like so many endeavors, quality management initiatives require that a fundamental set of building blocks be in place in order to be successful.  In an earlier post, we talked about eight mandatory elements of a QMS system. That article covered QMS from a functional perspective; in other words, it addressed the specific types of processes that a good QMS system must support. 

A new generation of cloud ERP software is bringing the benefits of on-demand financials, inventory, logistics, and manufacturing to today’s small and midsized organizations. Most of the major ERP vendors don’t handle quality management out of the box, though; preferring instead to work with best of breed solutions that have proven their value in the QMS space.  

“A culture of quality is one in which everybody in the organization, not just the quality controllers, is responsible for quality.” This quote, by Lee Harvey and Diana Green mentioned in their article “Defining Quality”, is the perfect definition of a culture of quality. In this context, an organization is perceived to have a culture of quality, when quality is embedded in its spirit and translated into actual actions that are performed by literally everyone, from the CEO to the middle management and frontline staff. To know more about a culture of quality read our previously published blog: What is a Culture of Quality?

In far too many organizations, quality managers are looked upon as the bad cops, insistent upon excessive documentation, blind adherence to process, and rigid set of rules that don’t always seem to make sense.  

We all know that quality is important, but quality initiatives sometimes carry less weight for others in your organization, especially if the resulting benefits are not visible to them on a regular basis. Effective reports help to communicate and establish the value of quality management activities. Just as importantly, reporting supports accountability by providing a visibility to the things that might not be working so well. That, in turn, can provide the basis for course corrections that ultimately help the organization to achieve its business objectives.