Week 4 - Quality Management

Class Date: Thursday, 11th August, 2011

This weeks class provided us with an introduction to quality management. This is an area that I use to have an aversion to due to being told that becoming a consultant/analyst was the most likely career for me when I was studying philosophy. The idea of constantly reviewing business structure and management was not at all appealing, and definitely not exciting. But now I am more orderly (perhaps just older) and I've also had the experience of working for an employer who placed great emphasis on quality management. I saw the results gained from a well considered and constantly evolving system. It was not based on a model like Sigma Six of TQM but rather one refined from experience. So I can now see the importance of quality management. Rarely do works of a consistent quality just appear due to just doing the work. But the system being instigated must be sincerely followed. Merely stating that you are certified in an attempt to garner trust and business defeats the whole purpose of quality management.

From the lecture I found the best advice on the first slide: say what you do; do what you say; prove it; improve it. To me the rest appears to be details. The case study we looked at showed just how many details can be included. And with a group like RMIT it seems that there is a constant requirement, as well as need, to constantly review different aspects of the institution. 

There is also the chance that some organisations might become too transfixed on quality management and the process ends up degrading instead of improving the business. Something similar to the bureaucratic dystopia of Terry Gilliam's Brazil.  And then there is the question of who reviews the reviewers?  On and on it goes. A rabbit hole that I hope I never have to venture too far down.