PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT

Participative (or participatory) management, otherwise known as employee involvement or

participative decision making, encourages the involvement of stakeholders at all levels of an
organization in the analysis of problems, development of strategies, and implementation of
solutions. Employees are invited to share in the decision-making process of the firm by
participating in activities such as setting goals, determining work schedules, and making
suggestions. Other forms of participative management include increasing the responsibility of
employees (job enrichment); forming self-managed teams, quality circles, or quality-of-work-
life committees; and soliciting survey feedback.
Four processes influence participation. These processes create employee involvement as they
are pushed down to the lowest levels in an organization.
1. Information sharing, which is concerned with keeping employees informed about the
economic status of the company.
2. Training, which involves raising the skill levels of employees and offering development
opportunities that allow them to apply new skills to make effective decisions regarding
the organization as a whole.
3. Employee decision making, which can take many forms, from determining work
schedules to deciding on budgets or processes.
4. Rewards, which should be tied to suggestions and ideas as well as performance.
A participative management style offers various benefits at all levels of the organization. By
creating a sense of ownership in the company, participative management instills a sense of
pride and motivates employees to increase productivity in order to achieve their goals.
Employees who participate in the decisions of the company feel like they are a part of a team
with a common goal, and find their sense of self-esteem and creative fulfillment heightened.
Managers who use a participative style find that employees are more receptive to change than
in situations in which they have no voice. Changes are implemented more effectively when
employees have input and make contributions to decisions.
The organization can then place itself in a proactive mode instead of a reactive one, as
managers are able to quickly identify areas of concern and turn to employees for solutions.
Creativity and innovation are two important benefits of participative management. By allowing
a diverse group of employees to have input into decisions, the organization benefits from
the synergy that comes from a wider choice of options.
Elements of Total Quality Management
Quality is an essential parameter which helps organizations outshine their competitors and survive the
fierce competition.

The success of total quality management depends on following eight elements which are further
classified into following four groups.

Foundation

Building Bricks

Binding Mortar

Roof

Foundation

Foundation further includes Ethics, Integrity and Trust

The entire process of Total Quality Management is built on a strong foundation of Ethics, Integrity and
Trust. Total Quality Management involves every single employee irrespective of his designation and
level in the hierarchy.

Ethics: Ethics is an individuals understanding of what is good and bad at the workplace. A thin line of
difference does exist between good and bad, which is for you to decide. Ethics teach an individual to
follow code of conduct of organization and adhere to rules and regulations.

Integrity: Integrity refers to honesty, values and an individuals sincerity at workplace. You need to
respect your organizations policies. Avoid spreading unnecessary rumours about your fellow workers.
Total Quality Management does not work in an environment where employees criticize and backstab
each other.

Trust: Trust is one of the most important factors necessary for implementation of total quality
management. Employees need to trust each other to ensure participation of each and every individual.
Trust improves relationship among employees and eventually helps in better decision making which
further helps in implementing total quality management successfully.

Bricks

Bricks are placed on a strong foundation to reach the roof of recognition. The foundation needs to be
strong enough to hold the bricks and support the roof.

Training: Employees need to be trained on Total Quality Management. Managers need to make their
fellow workers aware of the benefits of total quality management and how would it make a difference
in their product quality and eventually yield profits for their organization. Employees need to be trained
on interpersonal skills, the ability to work as a team member, technical know-how, decision making
skills, problem solving skills and so on. Training enables employees to implement TQM effectively within
their departments and also make them indispensable resources.
Teamwork: Team work is a crucial element of total quality management. Rather than working
individually, employees need to work in teams. When individuals work in unison, they are in a position
to brainstorm ideas and come up with various solutions which would improve existing processes and
systems. Team members ought to help each other to find a solution and put into place.

Leadership: Leadership provides a direction to the entire process of Total Quality Management. Total
Quality Management needs to have a supervisor who acts as a strong source of inspiration for other
members and can assist them in decision making. A leader himself needs to believe in the entire process
of TQM for others to believe in the same. Proper downloads, briefs about TQM must be given from to
time to employees to help them in its successful implementation.

Binding Mortar

Binding Mortar binds all the elements together.

Communication - Communication binds employees and extracts the best out of them. Information
needs to be passed on from the sender to the recipient in its desired form. Small misunderstandings in
the beginning lead to major problems later on. Employees need to interact with each other to come up
with problems existing in the system and find their solutions as well.

Three types of Communication takes place between employees:

Downward Communication: Flow of information takes place from the management to the employees

Upward Communication: Flow of information takes place from the employees to the top level
management

Sideways Communication: Communication also takes place between various departments.

Roof

Recognition: Recognition is the final element of Total Quality Management. Recognition is the most
important factor which acts as a catalyst and drives employees to work hard as a team and deliver their
lever best. Every individual is hungry for appreciation and recognition. Employees who come up with
improvement ideas and perform exceptionally well must be appreciated in front of all. They should be
suitably rewarded to expect a brilliant performance from them even the next time.
How to Implement Total Quality Management TQM?
The most important purpose for the implementation of a Total Quality Management TQM process is to
get the assigned task completed at the right time and with quality improvement.

The Six Cs required for proper implementation of a TQM are given below.

1. There must be a quality improvement commitment from all employees of the organization.

2. Organization must follow a modern quality improvement culture on a constant basis.

3. Continuous improvement must take place in all policies, procedures, and activities laid down by
management for the organization.

4. Cooperation and experience of employees must be utilized to improve strategies and enhance
performance.

5. Focus on customers' requirements and satisfaction of their expectations are very important for
long-term survival of the business.

6. Effective controls must be laid down to monitor and measure the real performance of the
business.

1. Commitment from Employees

In an organization, the Total Quality Management (TQM) policies shall be developed. These policies shall
be binding on all employees of the organization. Due to this, the quality improvement will become an
essential part of everyones work.

Furthermore, this will ensure a Quality Improvement commitment from all the employees for the work
deployed to them.

2. Quality Improvement Culture

There shall be a Quality Improvement Culture in the organization. The culture followed needs to be
modernized on a continuous basis to encourage employee's feedback. This will ensure employee
comfort towards effective administration of allotted work.

3. Continuous Improvement in Process

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a continuous process and not a program. This requires constant
improvement in all the related policies, procedures and controls laid down by the management.

There should be a continuous search of the proficiency to do the task better. This will always result in
scope for improvement, although such improvement may be small.

4. Cooperation from Employees

The application of Total Quality Management (TQM) is in direct relation with the Total Employee
Involvement during and after the implementation of the same.

The experience and cooperation of the employees are utilized in the development of improved
strategies and performance measures.
5. Focus on Customer Requirements

Total Quality Management (TQM) process shall be prepared by focusing on customers' requirements
and their expectations from the products and services. In today's market, customer requires and expects
perfect goods and services with zero defects.

Focus on customer requirement is significant to survive in long-term and to build prominent relationship
with the customers.

6. Effective Control shall be laid down

The controls are to be laid down for monitoring and measuring the performance of the business. The
controls also help to rectify the deficiencies, if any, in the business process.

The checklist of control policies shall include all documents or manuals of the current best business
practices.

Final Glance on TQM

Total quality management (TQM) is a strategic technique for continuous improvement in the quality of
products and services.

TQM is an approach to achieve long-term success through customer satisfaction.

Six Cs of TQM are very important and are required for the successful implementation of Total Quality
Management.

Benchmarking
Product, service and process improvements can take place only in relation to established

standards, with the improvements then being incorporated into new standards.

The word benchmark is a reference or measurement standard used for comparison, and

benchmarking is the continuous process of identifying, understanding and adapting best

practice and processes that will lead to superior performance.

There are many drivers for benchmarking including the external ones:

_ customers continually demand better quality, lower prices, shorter lead times, etc;

_ competitors are constantly trying to get ahead and steal markets;

_ legislation changes in our laws place ever greater demands for improvement.

Internal drivers include:

_ targets which require improvements on our best ever performance;

_ technology a fundamental change in processes is often required to benefit fully from

introducing new technologies;

_ self-assessment results, which provide opportunities to learn from adapting best

practices.

The benchmarking process has five main stages which are all focused on trying to measure

comparisons and identify areas for action and change

PLAN the study:

COLLECT data and information:

ANALYZE the data and information:

ADAPT the approaches:

REVIEW performance and the study:

In a typical benchmarking study involving several organizations, the study will commence

with the Plan phase. Participants will be invited to a kick-off meeting where they will share

their aspirations and objectives for the study and establish roles and responsibilities.

Participants will analyze their own organization to understand the strengths and areas for

improvement. They will then agree appropriate measures for the study.

In the Collect phase, participants will collect data on their current performance, based on the

agreed measures. The benchmarking partners will be identified, using a suitable screening

process, and the key learning points will be shared. The site visits will then be planned and

conducted, with appropriate training. Five to seven site visits might take place in each

study.

Data collected from the site visits will be Analyzed in the next phase to identify best

practices and the enablers which deliver outstanding performance. The reports from this

phase will capture the learning and key outcomes from the site visits and present them as the

main process enablers, linked to major performance outcomes.

In the Adapt phase, the participants will attend a feedback session where the conclusions from

the study will be shared, and they will be assisted in adapting them to their own organization.

Reports to partners should be issued after this session. (A subject expert is often useful in

benchmarking studies, to ensure good learning and adaptation at this stage.)

The final phase of the study will be a post-completion Review.

This will give all the participants and partners valuable feedback and establish, above all

else, what actions are required to sustain improved performance. Best practice databases

may be created to enable further sharing and improvement among participants and other

members of the organization.

Six Sigma
Competitive pressures on companies and Government demands

on the public sector have driven the need to find more effective and efficient approaches to

managing businesses and non-profit-making organizations.

The key is to identify and eliminate variation in processes. Every process can be viewed as

a chain of independent events and, with each event subject to variation, variation

accumulates in the finished product or service. Because of this, research suggests that most

businesses operate somewhere between the three- and four-sigma level. At this level of

performance, the real cost of quality is about 2540 percent of sales revenue.

Six Sigma is a breakthrough strategy to significantly improve customer satisfaction and shareholder
value by reducing variability in every aspect of the business. Technically the term six sigma signifies 3.4
defects per million opportunities.

Companies that adopt a six-sigma strategy can readily reach the five sigma level and reduce the cost of
quality to 10 percent of sales. They often reach a plateau here and to improve to six-sigma performance
and 1 percent cost of quality takes a major rethink.

There are five fundamental phases or stages in applying the six-sigma approach to

improving performance in a process: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control

(DMAIC). These form an improvement cycle grounded in Demings original Plan, Do,

Check, Act (PDCA). In the six-sigma approach, DMAIC provides a

breakthrough strategy and disciplined methods of using rigorous data gathering and

statistically based analysis to identify sources of errors and ways of eliminating them.

The DMAIC steps:

D Define the scope and goals of the improvement project in terms of customer requirements and the
process that delivers these requirements inputs, outputs, controls and resources.

M Measure the current process performance input, output and process and calculate the short- and
longer-term process capability the sigma value.
A Analyze the gap between the current and desired performance, prioritize problems and identify root
causes of problems.

Benchmarking the process outputs, products or services against recognized benchmark standards of
performance may also be carried out.

I Generate the improvement solutions to fix the problems and prevent them from recurring so that the
required financial and other performance goals are met.

C This phase involves implementing the improved process in a way that holds the gains. Standards of
operation will be documented in systems such as ISO 9000 and standards of performance will be
established using techniques such as statistical process control (SPC).

Six-sigma approaches are not looking for incremental or virtual improvements, but

breakthroughs. This is where six sigma has the potential to outperform other improvement

initiatives. An intrinsic part of implementation is to connect improvement to bottom-line

benefits and projects should not be started unless they plan to deliver significantly to the

bottom line. The projects selected to improve business performance must be agreed

upon by both the business and operational leadership, and someone must be assigned to

own or be accountable for the projects, as well as someone to execute them.

At the business level, projects should be selected based on the organizations strategic goals

and direction. Specific projects should be aimed at improving such things as customer

results, non-value add, growth, cost and cash flow.

When it comes to selecting six-sigma projects, key questions which must be addressed

include:

_ what is the nature of the projects being considered?

_ what is the scope of the projects being considered?

_ how many projects should be identified?

_ what are the criteria for selecting projects?

_ what types of results may be expected from six-sigma projects?

Six sigma is not a new technique, its roots can be found in total quality management (TQM)

and statistical process control (SPC) but it is more than TQM or SPC rebadged. It is a

framework within which powerful TQM and SPC tools can be allowed to flourish and reach

their full improvement potential. With the TQM philosophy, many practitioners promised
long-term benefits over 510 years, as the programs began to change hearts and minds. Six

sigma is about delivering breakthrough benefits in the short term and is distinguished from

TQM by the intensity of the intervention and pace of change.

One highly publicized aspect of the six-sigma movement is the establishment of process improvement
experts, known variously as Master Black

Belts, Black Belts and Green Belts.

These include the:

_ leadership group or council/steering committee;

_ sponsors and/or champions/process owners;

_ implementation leaders or directors often master black belts;

_ six-sigma coaches master black belts or black belts;

_ team leaders or project leaders black belts or green belts;

_ team members usually green belts.

Many of these terms will be familiar from TQM and continuous improvement activities. The

Black Belts reflect the finely honed skill and discipline associated with the six-sigma

approaches and techniques. The different levels of Green, Black and Master Black Belts

recognize the depth of training and expertise.

Poka Yoke
Mistake proofing, or its Japanese equivalent poka-yoke (pronounced PO-ka yo-KAY), is the use of any
automatic device or method that either makes it impossible for an error to occur or makes the error
immediately obvious once it has occurred.

Poka-yoke [poka yoke] is a Japanese term that means "mistake-proofing" or inadvertent

error prevention. The key word in the second translation, often omitted, is "inadvertent". There is no
Poka Yoke solution that protects against an operators sabotage, but sabotage is a rare behavior among
people.

A poka-yoke is any mechanism in a lean manufacturing process that helps an equipment operator avoid
(yokeru) mistakes (poka). Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or
drawing attention to human errors as they occur.

Poka-yoke can be implemented at any step of a manufacturing process where something can go wrong
or an error can be made.

Shigeo Shingo recognized three types of poka-yoke for detecting and preventing errors in a mass
production system:
 1. The contact method identifies product defects by testing the product's shape, size, color, or
other physical attributes.

2. The fixed-value (or constant number) method alerts the operator if a certain number of
movements are not made.

3. The motion-step (or sequence) method determines whether the prescribed steps of the process
have been followed.

Either the operator is alerted when a mistake is about to be made, or the poka-yoke device actually
prevents the mistake from being made.

A methodic approach to build up poka-yoke countermeasures has been proposed by the Applied
Problem Solving (APS) methodology, which consists of a three-step analysis of the risks to be managed:

1. identification of the need

2. identification of possible mistakes

3. management of mistakes before satisfying the need

Benefits of Poka Yoke implementation

A typical feature of Poka Yoke solutions is that they dont let an error in a process happen. But that is
just one of their advantages. Others include:

Less time spent on training workers;

Elimination of many operations related to quality control;

Unburdening of operators from repetitive operations;

Promotion of the work improvement-oriented approach and actions;

A reduced number of rejects;

Immediate action when a problem occurs;

100% built-in quality control.

Just-in-time (JIT) management

JIT, like

many modern management concepts, is credited to the Japanese, who developed and began

to use it in the late 1950s.

Basically JIT is a program directed towards ensuring that the right quantities are purchased

or produced at the right time, and that there is no waste. Anyone who perceives it purely as

a material-control system, however, is bound to fail with JIT. JIT fits well under the TQM
umbrella, for many of the ideas and techniques are very similar and, moreover, JIT will not

work without TQM in operation. It is essentially:

_ A series of operating concepts that allows systematic identification of operational

problems.

_ A series of technology-based tools for correcting problems following their

identification.

An important outcome of JIT is a disciplined program for improving productivity and

reducing waste. This program leads to cost-effective production or operation and delivery of

only the required goods or services, in the correct quantity, at the right time and place.

The successful operation of JIT is dependent upon a balance between the suppliers

flexibility and the users stability.

In some manufacturing

companies JIT has been introduced as continuous flow production, which describes very well the
objective of achieving conversion of purchased material or service receipt to

delivery, i.e. from supplier to customer. If this extends into the supplier and customer chains,

all operating with JIT a perfectly continuous flow of material, information or service will be

achieved.

The JIT concepts identify operational problems by tracking the following:

1 Material movements when material stops, diverts or turns backwards, these always

correlate with an aberration in the process.

2 Material accumulations these are there as a buffer for problems, excessive variability, etc.,

like water covering up rocks.

3 Process flexibility an absolute necessity for flexible operation and design.

4 Value-added efforts where much of what is done does not add value, the customer will not

pay for it.

Many European

and American companies that have adopted JIT have made spectacular improvements in

performance. These include:

_ Increased flexibility (particularly of the workforce).

_ Reduction in stock and work-in-progress, and the space it occupies.

_ Simplification of products and processes.

These programs are always characterized by a real commitment to continuous improvement.

Organizations have been rewarded, however, by the low cost, low risk aspects of

implementation provided a sensible attitude prevails.

The Kanban system

Kanban is a Japanese word meaning visible record, but in the West it is generally taken to

mean a card that signals the need to deliver or produce more parts or components. In

manufacturing, various types of records, e.g. job orders or route information, are used for

ordering more parts in a push type, schedule-based system. The

schedules then push the production of the part or components out and onward. These

systems, when computer-based, were originally called Material Requirements Planning

(MRP) but have been extended in many organizations to Enterprise Resource Planning

(ERP) systems. The main feature of the Kanban system is that it pulls parts and components

through the production processes when they are needed.

Kanban is the means of signaling to e upstream workstation that the downstream workstation is ready
for the upstream workstation to produce another batch of parts.

A Kanban system provides parts when they are needed but without guesswork, and

therefore without the excess inventory that results from bad guesses. The system will only

work well, however, within the context of a JIT system.

Quality Function Deployment

QFD is a methodology used to ensure that customers requirements are met throughout the product
design process and in the design and production of operation system

QFD is both a philosophy and a set of planning and communication tools that focuses on customer
requirements in coordinating the design, manufacturing, and marketing of goods.

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a system for designing a product or service, based

on customer requirements, with the participation of members of all functions of the supplier

organization. It translates the customers requirements into the appropriate technical

requirements for each stage. The activities included in QFD are:

1 Market research.
2 Basic research.

3 Innovation.

4 Concept design.

5 Prototype testing.

6 Final-product or service testing.

7 After-sales service and troubleshooting.

These are performed by people with different skills in a team whose composition depends

on many factors, including the products or services being developed and the size of the

operation.

The QFD team in operation

The first step of a QFD exercise is to form a cross-functional QFD team. Its purpose is to take

the needs of the market and translate them into such a form that they can be satisfied within

the operating unit and delivered to the customers.

As with all organizational problems, the structure of the QFD team must be decided on the

basis of the detailed requirements of each organization. One thing, however, is clear close

liaison must be maintained at all times between the design, marketing and operational

functions represented in the team.

The QFD team must answer three questions WHO, WHAT and HOW, i.e.:

WHO are the customers?

WHAT does the customer need?

HOW will the needs be satisfied?

WHO may be decided by asking Who will benefit from the successful introduction of this

product, service, or process? Once the customers have been identified, WHAT can be

ascertained through interview/questionnaire/focus group processes, or from the knowledge

and judgement of the QFD team members. HOW is more difficult to determine, and will

consist of the attributes of the product, service, or process under development. This will

constitute many of the action steps in a QFD strategic plan.

WHO, WHAT and HOW are entered into a QFD matrix or grid of house of quality (HoQ),

which is a simple quality table. The WHATs are recorded in rows and the HOWs are placed
in the columns.

The house of quality provides structure to the design and development cycle, often likened

to the construction of a house, because of the shape of matrices when they are fitted together.

The key to building the house is the focus on the customer requirements, so that the design

and development processes are driven more by what the customer needs than by

innovations in technology.

The central relationship matrix is the working core of the house of quality diagram. Here the

WHATs are matched with the HOWs, and each customer requirement is systematically

assessed against each technical design requirement. The nature of any relationship strong

positive, positive, neutral, negative, strong negative is shown by symbols in the matrix.

The very bottom of the house of quality diagram shows the target values of the technical

characteristics, which are expressed in physical terms. They can only be decided by the team

after discussion of the complete house contents. While these targets are the physical output

of the QFD exercise, the whole process of information-gathering, structuring, and ranking

generates a tremendous improvement in the teams cross-functional understanding of the

product/service design delivery system.

Basic Seven Tools

Flow Charts

A flow chart shows the steps in a process i.e., actions which transform an input to an output for

the next step. This is a significant help in analyzing a process but it must reflect the actual

process used rather than what the process owner thinks it is or wants it to be. The differences

between the actual and the intended process are often surprising and provide many ideas for

improvements.

In making a flow chart, the process owner often finds the actual process to be quite different than

it was thought to be. Often, non-value-added steps become obvious and eliminating these

provides an easy way to improve the process.

A danger in flow charting is the use of assumed or desired steps rather than actual process steps
in making the chart. The utility of the chart will correlate directly to its accuracy. Another danger

is that the steps plotted may not be under the control of the user. If the analyst does not "own

the process" the chart may not be too helpful.

Ishikawa Diagrams

Ishikawa diagrams are named after their inventor, Kaoru Ishikawa. They are also called fishbone

charts, after their appearance, or cause and effect diagrams after their function. Their function is

to identify the factors that are causing an undesired effect (e.g., defects) for improvement action.

or to identify the factors needed to bring about a desired result (e.g., a winning proposal). The

factors are identified by people familiar with the process involved. As a starting point, major

factors could be designated using the "four M's": Method, Manpower, Material, and Machinery; or

the "four P's": Policies, Procedures, People, and Plant. Factors can be subdivided, if useful, and

the identification of significant factors is often a prelude to the statistical design of experiments.

Checklists

Checklists are a simple way of gathering data so that decisions can be based on facts, rather than

anecdotal evidence. Figure 4 shows a checklist used to determine the causes of defects in a

hypothetical assembly process. It indicates that "not-to-print" is the biggest cause of defects,

and hence, a good subject for improvement. Checklist items should be selected to be mutually

exclusive and to cover all reasonable categories. If too many checks are made in the "other"

category, a new set of categories is needed. So long as each factor can be

considered mutually exclusive, the chart can provide useful data.

Pareto Charts

Alfredo Pareto was an economist who noted that a few people controlled most of a nation's

wealth. "Pareto's Law" has also been applied to many other areas, including defects, where a few

causes are responsible for most of the problems. Separating the "vital few" from the "trivial

many" can be done using a diagram known as a Pareto chart.

It may then be useful to analyze the data in terms of the cost incurred rather than the number of

instances of each defect category.

A useful application of Pareto Charts is Stratification, explained in the subtopic Stratification.

Stratification is simply the creation of a set of Pareto charts for the same data, using different

possible causative factors.

Histograms

Histograms are another form of bar chart in which measurements are grouped into bins; in this

case each bin representing a range of values of some parameter. Besides the central tendency and
spread of the data, the shape of the histogram can also be of interest. For example a bi-modal
distribution. This indicates that the

measurements are not from a homogeneous process, since there are two peaks indicating two

central tendencies. There are two (or more) factors that are not in harmony. These could be two

machines, two shifts, or the mixed outputs of two suppliers.

Scattergrams

Scattergrams are a graphical, rather than statistical, means of examining whether or not two

parameters are related to each other. It is simply the plotting of each point of data on a chart

with one parameter as the x-axis and the other as the y-axis. If the points form a narrow "cloud"

the parameters are closely related and one may be used as a predictor of the other. A wide

"cloud" indicates poor correlation.

When there is

a question on the strength of the correlation between the two parameters, a correlation

coefficient can be calculated. This will give a rigorous statistical measure of the correlation

ranging from -1.0 (perfect negative correlation), through zero (no correlation) to +1.0 (perfect
correlation).

Control Charts

Control charts are the most complicated of the seven basic tools of TQM, but are based on simple

principles. The charts are made by plotting in sequence the measured values of samples taken

from a process. For example, the mean length of a sample of rods from a production line, the

number of defects in a sample of a product, the miles per gallon of automobiles tested

sequentially in a model year, etc. These measurements are expected to vary randomly about

some mean with a known variance. From the mean and variance, control limits can be

established. Control limits are values that sample measurements are not expected to exceed

unless some special cause changes the process. A sample measurement outside the control limits

therefore indicates that the process is no longer stable, and is usually reason for corrective action.