Business philosophies

Total quality management

Tom Dryden, of Dryden Vaccum Cleaners, believes in quality: ‘The specifications or specs of a product are exact instructions about its design, including its dimensions(size), how it is to be made, the materials to be used, etc. The object of quality control is conformity to specifications, the idea that the product should be made exactly as it was intended, with zero defects : no faults at all. Things should be done right first time so we don’t have to correct mistakes later in process of reworking. We do spot checks every few minutes during production to ensure everything is going well.

We have a system of total quality management(TQM), including quality circles : groups of employees who meet regularly to suggest improvements.’

Words

specification (in short term spec) /ˌspesɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/ ★☆☆ n.

[countable, usually plural] a detailed instruction about how a car, building, piece of equipment etc should be made

The aireport building had been constructed to FFA specifications.

dimension /daɪˈmenʃən, də-/ ★★☆ W3 n.

[usually plural] the length, height, width, depth, or diameter of something SYN measurement

a rectangle with the dimensions 5cm x 2cm

[countable] a part of a situation or a quality involved in it

the moral dimension of world politics

quality control(QC) n.

[uncountable] the practice of checking goods as they are produced to be sure that their quality is good enough

A Levy-Jennings qaulity control chart is a graphic representation of the acceptable limits of variation in the results of a analytic method.

conformity /kənˈfɔːməti $ -ɔːr-/ n.

[uncountable] behaviour that obeys the accepted rules of society or a group, and is the same as that of most other people OPP non-comformity

an emphasis on conformity and control

intend /ɪnˈtend/ ★★★ S2 W1 vt.

to have something in your mind as a plan or purpose

I intend to spend the night there.

zero defects

[plural] when a product or system has no faults at all, especially when this is the aim of the company making the product or using the system

right first time adj. adv.

used to say that, in amking a product, it is better to perform an operation corretly the first time, rather than have to work on it again in order to correct mistakes

Quality efforts ensure that 96% of products are now going out right first time.

rework/ˌriːˈwɜːk $ -ˈwɜːrk/ vt.

to correct mistakes or faults in something

10% of the engines had to be reworked when they came off the pruduction line.

to make changes in something such as music or a piece of writing SYN revise

I plan to rework the whole song.

spot check n.

[countable] an examination of a few things or people from a group, to check whether everything is correct or satisfactory

We carry out sopt checks on the vehicles before they leave the depot.

total quality management(TQM) (also quality managment)

the management of systems in a company to make sure that each department produces or does things of high quality and keeps improving

We need to look at improving our quality management systems.

quality circle n.

[countable] a small group of factory workers who meet regularly to discuss ways to improve working methods and to solve problems

Quality circle were introduced into Ford UK to form the communications basis for these organizational changes.

Continuous improvement

Ray, at Lightining Technologies: ‘We are always making small improvements or enhancements; this is continuous improvement. We refer to it by its Japanese name : Kaizen.’

Silvia Chavez, Aerolineas Latinas: ‘We use continuous mprovement in our service industry. We look carefully at the overall customer experience. In retailing, they use mystery shoppers, who pretend to be shoppers to check service inshops. We use “mystery travllers” to report on the standard of service before, during and after the flight.’

Words

enhancement n. SYN improvement

[countable] the act of improving something, or the state of improved

continuous improvement

the process of continually making frequent small changes to a company, its products etc, rather than a few very big changes

Continuous improvement is our guiding management philosophy - it is the way we choose to do business.

mystery shopper n.

[countable] someone whose job is to visit differnet shops, pretending to be someone who is buying something, but who is really collecting information about what goods people buy and why they buy them. the information is used when planning how to sell a particular product.

Benchmarking

Jim, production manager at an electricity power station in the UK : ‘We use a system called benchmarking to compare our performance to other power stations. We’ve recently been to the US to see how the best power stations operate - best practice - and try to copy it. We’ve managed to halve the number of workers, and increase productivity.’

Words

benchmark /ˈbentʃmɑːk $ -mɑːrk/ ★☆☆ n.

to use a company’s good performance as a standard by which to judge the performance of other companies of the same type

British Steel have benchmarked themselves against the best operations anywhere in the world.

[countable] something that is used as a standard by which other things can be judged or measured

performance /pəˈfɔːməns $ pərˈfɔːr-/ ★★★ S2 W1 n.

[countable, uncountable] how well or badly a person, company etc does a particular job or activity

Sean’s performance at school has greatly improved.

[countable] when someone performs a plya or a piece of music

best practice n.

[countable, uncountable] a description of the best way of performing a particular activity, especially in business, that can be used by other people or companies as a set of rules to follow

halve /hɑːv $ hæv/ ★☆☆ vt.

to reduce something by a half

Cash cuts have halved the number of places available on training courses.

Business process re-engineering

Susanna, head of personal banking at an interantional bank: ‘Business process re-engineering’, or BPR, applies in service industries as well as in manufacturing. We didn’t want to change existing things in small ways. We completely redesigned all our processes in management, administration and customer service. We eliminated three levels of management and installed a completely new computer system. The gains in productivity have been very good.’

Words

business process re-engineering(= BPR) n.

[uncountable] when a business tries to improve its performance in every area, not just manufacturing, by completely redesigning systems, processes etc, rather than changing the existing ones

Business process re-engineering totally reshapes the company to take advantage of new technologies.

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