One of the repeated questions in quality management is, what is the cost of quality? is quality free?
Well, my personal opinion is, it is and it is not. According to quality guru Philip Crosby “Quality is free. But it is not a gift”

In other words, the organisation needs to “pay” for establishing a quality system in order to get the rewards, it’s like paying for someone to fix the leaks in a system.

Therefore, with any  improvement initiative there will be some cost associated with the programme but at the end the organisation should gain much more than what they have paid.

In Dec 2011, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published the results of a research study aimed to evaluate the net social benefits of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Programme.

The researchers compared the benefits received by the 273 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award applicants from 2007 to 2010 with the cost of operating the Baldrige Program.

According to the research, the benefit-to-cost ratio of Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is 820-to-1, which means for every $1 spent to implement the programme the economy will get $820 in form of social value, which is categorized into 3 categories:

The researchers noted  that the benefit-to-cost ratio would be much higher  for the US economy but the research only focussed on the benefits stemming from the award applicants (in respect to the social costs of running the whole Baldrige programme). In reality, 1000’s more organisations will have benefited from the programme.

You can read the full research from here.

Ahmed
BPIR.com

This October, the Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER) has issued its periodical newsletter to inform readers of its research findings and initiatives in organisational excellence, benchmarking, and performance improvement.

The first section includes research being undertaken to develop a “guide model” to help professionals select the right performance improvement programme, through the use of a simple step-by-step procedure.

Whether you are looking to know the latest research in the field or you would like to know what are the latest must attend event or even book suggestions and reviews plus much more you will find it in COER newsletter

The Global Benchmarking Network is embarking on a project to look at the future of Benchmarking up to the year 2030.
 
This project will answer the following questions – What will Benchmarking look like in 2030 – and in between? What are the tools, methodologies and technologies that Benchmarkers can use now to help organisations and economies to improve their outcomes?

Please accept this invitation to participate in the survey, the survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete.

Once you complete the survey, you will immediately gain access to the Global Benchmarking Network “Benchmarking 2030 Interim Report” showing our initial research findings. Further findings will be presented at the 5th International Benchmarking Conference, 5-6 December 2010, Kuwait, kuwaitbenchmarking.com . The final report will be published in 2011.

Click here to participate in the survey and get the free report.

Hello all

I delivered this webinar on 8 April 2010 in Toronto, Canada.  It draws from three projects:

• A research project on behalf of SAI Global in 2006 to review and update the Australian business excellence framework. This project has the involvement of 16 countries (including Canada) and was endorsed by the Global Excellence Model Council. It was a unique project in that it is not only looked at the design of business excellence frameworks but also how best to deploy them on a national basis.
• A research project on behalf of the Asian Productivity Organisation in 2009 to identify the value and impact of business excellence. Five countries participated in the research; India, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.
• A research project on behalf of the Global Benchmarking Network in 2008 to investigate awareness, use and benefits of benchmarking.

The presentation:

1. Reflects on the history of business excellence.
2. Presents the research evidence on business excellence. What evidence is there that business excellence leads to long-term and sustainable business success?
3. Describes where we are now in terms of business excellence from a global perspective and what the future holds. Are the models here to stay?
4. Presents research findings showing how national business excellence custodians (the bodies responsible for business excellence) are assisting companies within their country and what more could be done to help companies on their journey towards excellence.
5. Focuses on recent innovations in “Benchmarking” which has led it to become one of the key tools of business excellence and organisational learning.
6. Presents the expert’s views on the steps to take to become world-class. 

You will notice in the presentation I was a bit twitchy. This was because I was given 3 very strong coffees before the presentation as I was falling asleep. I had arrived in Toronto at 2.00am to find that  I was locked out of the hotel I was supposed to be staying at and instead had to stay at a flea-infested motel – must have been the dirtiest hotel on the planet but I had no other choice at that time in the morning! Anyway the coffee worked and I got through the presentation and now know where not to stay in Toronto!

Thank you to the National Quality Institute, Canada, www.nqi.ca, for allowing BPIR Newsletter readers to watch the webinar.

Best regards
Dr Robin Mann, Commercial Director and Part-Owner, BPIR.com Limited, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

The Global Benchmarking Network is embarking on a project to look at the future for Benchmarking up to the year 2030. This project will take into account new technologies and social networking opportunities as well as issues such as global financial crises, governance, political, social and environmental trends and changing natural characteristics.  However the project also needs to look well beyond the current issues.

This project will answer the following questions - What will Benchmarking look like in 2030 – and in between? What are the tools, methodologies and technologies that Benchmarkers can use now to help organisations and economies to improve their outcomes? The main outcome will be to report on results of a  Roundtable at end 2010 – as part of the Dubai GBN AGM and Annual Conference.

The project will investigate the use of benchmarking and the future use of benchmarking techniques: It will connect Benchmarking experts with people from politics, science and companies and discuss the use and future use of benchmarking (e.g. survey, roundtable discussion, delphi study). Key parties to the proposal are Bruce Searles, Benchmarking Partnerships (project leader), Dr Robin Mann, bpir.com and Dr Holger Kohl, Fraunhofer.

I’m Musli, a PhD student at the Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER), Massey University (BPIR.com’s founding organisation). I’m conducting a survey on business improvement initiatives. This survey is part of my doctoral study, which is supervised by Dr. Robin Mann and Dr. Nigel Grigg.

As you know, there are numerous business improvement initiatives that can be used by organisations to improve quality, productivity and sustainability towards achieving excellence. The initiatives can be approaches, systems, tools and/or techniques, such as, Six Sigma, Lean, ISO9000, ISO14000, Business Process Reengineering, and Benchmarking. The right initiatives to be used may vary depending on several factors, for instance, the current maturity level of the organisation, organisation type and size, and the capabilities and responsibilities of the workforce.  Moreover, there is also a lack of clear understanding by people regarding when, where and how to implement the initiatives. In order to help organisations to select suitable initiatives according to the contexts, this survey attempts to identify where the main business improvement initiatives should be used according to the following areas: leadership and social responsibilities, strategy and policy, customers, processes, workforce, and, partnerships and resources.

All practitioners, managers, executives, consultants and/or academicians who have a good understanding and experience on business improvement initiatives are invited to complete the on-line survey - click on link below:

I hope you can participate. If you have completed the questionnaire and request form, you will be sent a copy of the survey findings through email, once it is ready.

Please complete the survey by 28th of February 2010. For further details, please refer to the front page of survey instrument

Your kind participation would be much appreciated. Thank you very much.

There is some exciting research going on at the COER (Centre of Organisational Excellence Research) at the moment.

 

Past research shows that culture plays a key role in sustaining continuous improvement in organisations. Continuous improvement, in turn, is often viewed as critical for organisational efficiency and waste reduction. However, the effect of culture in the specific context is less well understood. Several levels of culture such as the national culture, corporate culture and organisational sub-cultures, are present simultaneously. Which ones are important, and under what conditions do they become important? What needs to happen to ensure that the existing cultural diversity results in continuous improvement? Which role does – and, in fact, can – management and organisational leadership play?

 

This doctoral research is seeking answers to these questions using a multiple-case methodology. For participating organisations, this presents an opportunity to benefit from cutting-edge research and at the same time help advance the scientific understanding.

 

Participation in the study is free of charge. If you are interested in having your organisation participate, please get in touch with me for further information - either by email ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or by leaving a comment.

 

Jürgen 'Phil' Wagner