This comes up quite a bit with many of the methodologies that our improvement management software helps customers manage. The literature around CQI and other techniques is full of references to manufacturing because many of the methods got their start in that sector. Approaches like Lean, Six Sigma, TQM and others were first applied in auto manufacturing and then spread to factories that made just about anything.
But other industries began to take note of the success of improvement efforts in manufacturing and realized that the core principles of CQI can be applied to almost any sector. We now see the approach being applied in healthcare, higher education, construction, software development, transportation and almost any industry you can name. This is because all of them are made up of a series of processes that can be broken down, analyzed and made better.
Listen to this Post and Subscribe to the Podcast!
This is a question that we don’t hear very often, but we wish more people would ask. It is easy to understand quality in terms of manufacturing where components and products are produced and defects are evident, but quality applies to the output of every process in any organization. Quality means accurate data entry, it means adequately stocked exam rooms, it means making payments to vendors on time, it means providing effective customer service. Every person from the front desk attendant to the CEO is responsible for quality outputs that have an impact on every stakeholder including customers, investors, employees, and the community.
Each organization shapes their approach to CQI, but there are some guiding tenets shared by most.
The basic steps for implementing an improvement using the CQI philosophy are as follows:
There are a variety of tools and techniques that can help streamline the path to improvement and keep it top of mind. They include:
Improvement Management Software: A central system for documenting improvement efforts and collecting ideas for positive change helps improvement work gain momentum. It provides a standard way to measure the impact of improvement and enables collaboration. The most effective solutions have built-in workflow with alerts and notifications to accelerate the pace of change.
Standard Work: Standard work (sometimes called Standardized work) is the documentation of the best practices for any process or task. Standard work forms the baseline for improvement.
PDSA: PDSA stands for Plan, Do, Study, Act. It is also known as the Deming Cycle. An opportunity for improvement progresses through this cycle with documentation occurring at every step. Once the cycle is complete, it begins again with a new plan for improvement.
Value Stream Mapping (VSM): Value Stream Mapping is a CQI method for documenting and analyzing every step of the process that takes a service or product from its request to its delivery to the customer. It helps identify opportunities to eliminate waste and improve the quality of outputs from any type of process.
Catchball: Catchball is a practice in which an idea is generated by one person, often, but not always, a manager. That person passes the idea to someone else for feedback and action. The idea is passed back and forth, up and down, and between as many people as necessary for it to turn into a completed improvement.
Continuous Quality Improvement is something that every leader would agree is a laudable goal. But it doesn’t happen on accident. Successful organizations apply the principles and techniques with purpose and commitment. If you have questions about the approach that we did not answer here, please feel free to reach out. We’re always happy to chat about it.