Overview

The foundation of the planning strategy is the improvement of quality. The following methods are but a few ways of approaching the quality improvement process:

• Design a new product

• Redesign an existing product

• Design a new process (including service)

• Redesign an existing process

• Improve the system as a whole

It is usually quite easy for people to list the products they make or services they deliver and to describe the processes that produce them. It is much more difficult, however, to know how to improve the quality of the products or services. Should a new product be designed or should the process that produces the product be redesigned? Should some improvement be made to the system as a whole? The five activities listed above may be carried out within various parts of the organization. These efforts must be coordinated and must focus on a common purpose. The foundation of quality as a strategy that provides the focus for these five activities is the ongoing process of matching products and services to a real need, which they satisfy. This requires advanced planning.

Identifying the Need

Say, for example, I produce a slide rule. To improve its quality, I must know that the need the product fulfills is hand-held computation. Analysis of competitive products should not be limited to other brands of slide rules, but should include abacuses and calculators, which are also aimed at fulfilling the need for hand-held computation. It would be easy to think that the need is...