Türk sanayiinin kalite ödüllerine yaklaşımı

Abstract

Son yıllarda gelişen hızlı küreselleşme ve rekabet, kalite ve müşteri tatminine daha fazla önem verilmesine yol açmıştır. Bunun sonucu olarak, firmalar kalite programlarım geliştirmek zorunda kalmışlardır. ISO 9000 Standartları kalite kavramına yeni bir boyut kazandırmıştır. Uluslararası alanda kabul gören bu standartlar, kalite faaliyetlerinin başlangıç noktasıdır. Sürekli gelişmeye kalkışı da olan bu standartlar, uluslararası rekabet, müşterilerin belge isteklerini karşılama ve kalite tahhütlerini içeren kalite güvence sisteminin uygulanması yolunda yararlı olmaktadır. Ancak, ISO 9000 Standartları, firmaların tüm kalite gereksinimlerine cevap verememektedir. Bu standartlar, müşteri odaklı olmadığı gibi ürün veya hizmetin nasıl daha iyi olacağı konusunda hüküm içermemektedirler. Kalite sistemi elemanlarının iyileştirilmesi ve yapılan değerlendirmelere atıfta bulunmamıştır. Fakat tüm bu adı geçen konulan içeren Toplam Kalite Yönetimi uygulamaları için gerekli olan kalite sisteminin kurulması ve sürdürülmesine esas teşkil etmektedir. Toplam Kalite Yönetimi için bir çok tanım yapılmaktadır. Toplam Kalite Yönetimi müşterilerin şu andaki ve gelecekteki beklenti ve ihtiyaçlarını belirleyerek bunları karşılamayı ve aşmayı, mutlak müşteri memnuniyetini hedef alan bir yönetim felsefesi ve iş yapma biçimidir.Toplam Kalite Yönetimi, klasik yönetim modeline göre daha yüksek bir rekabet gücü sağlayabilmektedir. Bu modelin başarılı olabilmesi, tüm unsurlarının benimsenerek uygulanması ile olasıdır. Bu unsurlar; üst yönetimin liderliği, müşteri odaklılık, firma çalışanlarının eğitimi, takım çalışması ve sürekli gelişme (kaizen) sürecinin benimsenerek uygulanması şeklinde sıralanabilir. Toplam Kalite Yönetimi modelinin yaygınlaşması ve gelişmesine yardımcı olmak amacıyla Kalite ödülleri verilmektedir. Kalite kontrolün ve kalite güvence sisteminin geliştirilmesi amacıyla ilk olarak Japonya' da verilen Deming ödülü, Toplam Kalite Yönetimi uygulamasıyla rekabetin ve müşteri tatmininin gerçekleştirilmesi amacıyla Amerika'da verilmeye başlanan Malcolm Baldrige Ödülü ile Toplam Kalite Yönetimi' nin mükemmellik kavramı üzerinden toplumsal gelişmenin sağlanması amacıyla Avrupa'da verilmeye başlanan Avrupa Kalite Ödülü tezin konusunu oluşturmaktadır. Bu üç ödülün değerlendirme kriterleri arasında farklılıklar olmasına karşılık bu kriterler, üst yönetimin liderliği, politika ve stratejiler, organizasyon yapısı ve işlerliği, kalite kontrol faaliyetleri, bilgi ve teknoloji kullanımı, planlama, insan kaynaklan, müşteri ve çalışanların tatmini, prose kalitesi ve iş sonuçlan gibi başlıklardan oluşmaktadır. Araştırma sonunda, Türk sanayi sektöründe, kalite güvence sisteminin yerleşmeye başladığı, müşteri tatmini ve rekabet konusunda fîrmaların istenen düzeye gelemediği, Toplam Kalite Yönetimi uygulamalarına çok az firmanın geçmiş olmasına karşılık genel eğilimin bu yöne doğru olduğu görülmüştür. Sonuçların kalite ödülleri ile karşılaştırılmasından, kalite tanımının Toplam Kalite Yönetimi felsefesine uygun yapılması, kalite ödüllerinden beklenenlerin en başında Toplam Kalite Yönetimi uygulamalarının geliştirilmesinin gelmesine karşılık kalite ödülü kriterlerinden, Deming Ödülü ve Malcolm Baldrige Ödülü kriterlerinin, Avrupa Kalite Ödülü kriterlerinden daha fazla öne çıkması, henüz Toplam Kalite Yönetimi Modeli' nin tam olarak yerleşmediğini göstermektedir.

The ISO 9000 standards, relating to quality assurance and quality management, have given a new dimension to the quality concept. These internationally accepted standards are very helpful to the companies for implementing their quality systems. These standards contribute to continuous improvement as well as to competitivenesss and total cutomer satisfaction, and are the beginning step for quality efforts, because the standards ensure that a quality system is established and is being followed. They provide the foundation for a total quality management program by concentrating on three fundamentals: implementing quality control, documenting the various processes and procedures that effect product or service quality, and ensuring that the appropriate quality emphasis is established and followed by everyone in the organization. The ISO 9000 standards provide global standards for organizations undisciplined in quality assurance and quality management, and also building blocks for implementing total quality management. However, the quality assurance system mentioned in ISO 9000 standards is not adequate by itself to meet the requirements of a company. For example, ISO 9000 standards do not have a sufficent customer focus which is very vital, do not address how good a product or service is, do not focus on continuous improvement and the scope of support systems and processes needed for continuous improvement, and do not call for an ongoing evaluation and improvement of the quality system elements. These, however, are not deficiencies. The intention is not to include these elements, because ISO 9000 standards serve a different purpose. It is designed to ensure the adequacy of a given quality system and to use audits to ensure its adherence to it. Total quality management is a management approach that emphasizes organizationwide commitments set up by the leadership of the top management, integration of quality improvement efforts with organizational goals, and inclusion of quality as a factor in performance appraisals.The success of total quality management depends on the acceptance and application of the key elements. These key elements consist of management mentality and philosophy, organization, methods, and systems. During the last decade, there has been an intensified focus on and commitment to total quality management. Total Quality Management has brought varied results to organizations. For some, it was the major reason for their survival. For others, it was a source of frustrations that eventually led to abandonment of the effrort. Some failed because they had unrealistic expectations and did not appreciate the time and effort that total quality management required. Preventive actions, measurements, implementattion of statistical techniques, team work, continuous improvement(kaizen), customer focused productions, and training of the workers are the basic approaches of Total Quality Management. These basic approaches of total quality management are introduced by Deming, Juran and Feigenbaum who are the masters of quality concept. Increasing global competition has resulted in renewed interest in quality and has led many companies to seek guidance in implementing their quality programs. Meanwhile, several national and regional awards have been established to promote quality and serve as model of Total Quality Management. Wellknown main quality awards are as follows: -The Deming Application Prize, -Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, -European Quality Award. The Deming Prize was established in Japan by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), in 1951. This award is named in honor of W. Edwards Deming, an American statistician and proponent of quality control techniques who is recognized as the father of the worldwide quality movement. The prize has three award categories: the Deming Prize for the individial person, the Deming Application Prize which is investigated in this research, and the Quality Control Award for factory. The Deming Application Prizes are awarded to private or public organization and are subdivided into small enterprises, divisions of large corpoations, and overseas companies. The Deming Prize was established to ensure that good results are achieved through succesful implementation of companywide quality control activities. Its framework is centered on the implementation of a set of principles and techniques, such as process analyses, statistical methods, and quality circles. The Deming prizes evaluate the operations of a company against 10 criterias as follows: xi 1-Company policy and planning, 2-Organization and its management, 3-Quality control education and dissemination, 4-Collection, transmission, and utilization of information on quality, 5-Analysis, 6-Standardization, 7-Control, 8-Quality assurance, 9-Effects, 10-Future plans. AH criteria, unlike the Baldrige Award and European Quality Award, have equal scoring weights. The Balridge Award was established in 1987 to promote quality awareness, understand the requirements for quality excellence, and share information about successful quality strategies and the benefits. There are three eligibility categories- manifacturing, service, and small firms- with a maximum of two awards given in each category. The Balridge Award is based on 7 examination criteria that are subdivided into 28 items of examination with 91 areas. The Balridge Award criteria are as follows: 1 -Leadership, 2-Information and analysis, 3-Strategic quality planning, 4-Human resource development and management, 5-Management of process quality, 6-Quality and operational results, 7-Customer focus and satisfaction. In 1988, responding to the quick success of the Balridge Award, 14 large European multinational corporations formed the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) to promote Total Quality Management principles in Western European countries. In 1991, European Foundation for Quality Management, with the support of the European Organization for Quality and the European Commission, established two types of quality awards for firms: the European Quality Prize, given to firms that meet the award criteria, and the European Quality Award, presented to the most accomplished applicant. xu The European Quality Award criteria are as follows: 1-Leadership, 2-Policy and strategy, 3-People management, 4-Resources, 5-Processes, 6-Customer satisfaction, 7-People satisfaction, 8-Impact on society, 9-Business results. The basic common point of the quality awards is Total Quality Management. For this reason, there are no any important differences between the criteria of different quality awards. Thus, some criteria of a quality awards differ from the others on the emphasized concept, evaulated area, and scoring. In this work, it is aimed to determine the perception of the Turkish Industry about the different criteria and subcriteria of quality awards and their importance for the companies. It was seen that most of companies try to implement their quality systems first, and then focus on total customer satisfaction and competition. Only very few of these companies adopt Total Quality Management and apply in their production. It was also noticed that quality assurance system mentioned in ISO 9000 standards, is the first step for establishing Total Quality Management in the companies. The companies that have been certified by ISO 9000 standards, have a strong trend to implement Total Quality Management and, the companies that have already not been certified by ISO 9000 standards, have not taken any action for Total Quality Management. If the Turkish Companies' approach on Total Quality Management and quality awards are taken into consideration, it is recognized that these companies believe in the contribution of the quality awards to establish Total Quality Management and social development in Turkey through Total Quality Management's "excellence" concept Many of the companies define "quality" as a "customer, people and community perception" similar to the European Quality Award. The most important contribution of the quality awards expected by the companies, is "continous improvement of quality" which is the key element of the Deming Prize, and the less important contribution is "promote the competitiveness" and "customer xm satisfaction" which are the key elements of the Malcolm Baldrige Award. One-third of the participant companies in the research, focus on the "philosophy" of Total Quality Management, the next one-third focus on "competition" and the remaining one-third focus on "quantitative data" as a basis, in order to set up their strategy and policy. If the top management characteristics of the companies are compared to the top management criteria of the quality awards, the most common subcriterion is "setting the quality qoals" of the M. Baldrige Award, and the following subcriteria are "setting the quality and quality control policies" and "plannig according to the results" of the Deming Prize. In the training area, most of the companies emphasize the "employee education and training" and "quality assurance and related subjects" which are the subcriteria of the Malcolm Baldrige Award, and "quality control and statistical tecniques" subcriterion of the Deming Prize follows. Among the subcriteria about organization, "interdivision cooperation and quality circles" of the Deming Prize, and "employee involvement and satisfaction" of the M. Baldrige Award are the most significant ones. Less significant subcriteria are "workers performance and recognation" of the M. Baldrige Award, and "development skills and capabilities of the workers through recruitment, training and career progression" of the European Quality Award. The most important subcriterion for enablers is "human resources and other resources". Also, "leadership of top management" subcriterion which is common in the Malcolm Baldrige Award and the European Quality Award has less importance. According to the research, the most important subcriterion for process evaluation is "quality assurance system" of the Deming Prize. "Process control and improvement" of the European Quality Award and "standardization" of the Deming Prize are the other important subcriteria. The subcriterion "total customer satisfaction" of the Malcolm Baldrige Award and the European Quality Award, is determined as the most important subcriterion among the results subcriteria. The other important subcriteria are "quality, servicing, delivery, time, and cost", and "measures for overcoming defects" of the Deming Prize. xiv The aims of the Quality Awards are, respectively, implementation of quality control and quality assurance system for the Deming Prize, promote competitiveness and customer satisfaction for the Malcolm Baldrige Award, and social development through the excellence concept of Total Quality Management for the European Quality Award. It is optioned from this research that the Turkish Industry has great intention to implement Total Quality Management which is a very hard process, but, do not possess the necessary background at the moment. Few companies have a quality assurance system and very few of them have matured Total Quality Management. Also, it has been seen that the criteria of the Deming Prize and the Malcolm Balridge Award are more suitable to the Turkish Industry, rather than the European Quality Award criteria. It is obvious that the quality awards have great contribution to the very hard process of implementing Total Quality Management in industy.