Approaching quality in an ever-changing world

Abstract

Quality is a weapon. The emphasis and appearance of this weapon must continually reconstruct as the world evolves. Specifically, we must respond to changes in geographical and economic borders, exponential rates of technological developments and expectations induced by the Internet. Quality is the most useful weapon to deal effectively with continual changes. Two things must happen in order to use quality as a potent weapon: (1) we must learn an inductive approach; and (2) we must develop details required in executing this new approach. The historical approach to using quality as a weapon can be labeled as deductive. The deductive approach has been mostly ‘outside in’ and favors generic ideas developed by academicians lacking a real appreciation for macro-as well as micro-execution details. The deductive approach is not suitable for rapidly changing socioeconomic and technological environments. What we need now is an inductive approach. The inductive approach can be described as ‘inside out’. That implies that we should start with the specifics of a situation to be improved and attack it with quality science tools. In so doing, we learn to appreciate the power of quality science in finding solutions to complex situations. If we solve a few specific situations in this manner, general principles of quality science will become known and practicing them will become more common. We establish the thesis that in a rapidly changing world what we need is an inductive approach more than a deductive approach. How do we execute an inside out approach? The inside out approach is based on the frequently asked question, ‘What should be done next?’ in line with the objectives of the organization. The theme of this paper is to develop a set of common questions whose answers define a need and the path that organization must take along with a set of actions. The questions we develop are fairly universal and remain constant with respect to the changing times. What does mature, however, are the answers to these questions as the world changes and organizations progress. In this paper, we develop examples of world-wide changes and how companies are rearranging their quality approach.