The long-term success of an organization depends on the projects it delivers. If they can handover the final project well on time and the end products meet all the quality expectations, their market reputation will improve. Moreover, it will boost the revenue of an organization exponentially. Hence, it becomes crucial to oversee all the activities during the project development phase and ensure achieving the desired excellence in the end product. This process of keeping a keen eye on all the activities is called quality management. Experts in the project management industry opt for the Quality Management certification course that trains them in adding value to a project.
Once the candidate gets trained in using the tools and techniques for efficient project management, they get countless career opportunities to explore. Employers put their trust in such professionals as the certification listed in their resume assures, they are capable enough. Hence, it is advisable for every candidate in the project management industry to complete a certification program before starting the professional journey. Learn about the quality management syllabus that the certification you plan to do covers. Additionally, choose a course provider with an excellent market reputation to get trained to learn each and every concept well. Let us dig deeper and discuss all the details about quality management certification and how it can prove fruitful in your career.
Understanding The Fundamentals of Quality Management
Quality management is a significant part of every domain or industry under the sun. It is the process of ensuring that the product or service meets all the user expectations. It is a consistent effort that the experts must continue throughout the project development phase. The four fundamental components of quality management are:
Planning
The first pillar of quality management is in which you plan the entire process in advance. Planning related to the changes you need and how you will implement them gets done under it.
Assurance
The next pillar is the assurance that your documented plan will deliver the expected results. In this process, the team also ensures that the implementation is happening the way you planned in the planning stage.
Control
Under the control process, the team performs quality checks at different levels to ensure the utmost quality. It is a crucial step in the quality management process because flaws, if there are any, get identified during this time.
Improvement
Lastly, if the team finds any gap in the expectation and delivery during the control process, they work towards improving them in the improvement stage.
Irrespective of the industry in which you work, you can get assured excellence using these four fundamental components. Even if you check the quality management course syllabus of a certification program of your choice, you will see a significant part of it relies on these components.
Quality Assurance and Control Processes
Quality assurance is a process to design or document the SOPs in compliance with ISO 9000 standards. The expected outcome of every project process is a premium quality product that meets all expectations. However, the operational process each project must follow can vary. Hence, under quality assurance, a document is generated that states everything about the project completion process.
You have documented the process as per the current or previous scenarios. Your team knows that they have to follow those procedures to take the project towards successful completion. However, how will you know if the quality assurance process you documented is actually working according to your expectations? That is where the QC (quality control process) comes into the picture. Under the control processes, the teams create test units that will run at different levels of a project. These test units will check and verify if the outcomes meet the expectations. If there are any gaps, they work to fulfill those.
Implementing Total Quality Management (TQM)
TQM, total quality management, is a framework that emphasizes training the employees to keep quality as a top priority. The idea is to fuel the belief that every employee, from the lowest to the highest-ranking executive, should focus on improving quality and achieving the utmost customer satisfaction. When we mention quality improvement, TQM emphasizes continuous effort for every project. Moreover, the working professionals who have completed the best online Lean Six Sigma courses also work to improve their project management approaches. This way, they ensure that the internal processing also moves towards delivering better results.
It is clear that total quality management is a fruitful framework that every organization must follow. Hence, it is no surprise that employers look for candidates who have completed certification after learning every topic in the total quality management syllabus. They understand the process better and can deliver the best results in terms of end-product quality. Listed below is the step-by-step process of implementing total quality management that any expert working in the domain must follow.
Step1: Identification
The first step to bring about any change is to identify where you need improvement. So, in the project management process, the first step to improve quality is to identify the flaws. Study the existing production process and the operational details to know where things go wrong. Once you know where the quality starts deteriorating, you will know exactly where you would have to implement change!
Step2: Plan Development
The next step in the implementation process is to plan the development. You have learnt where you need the change. It is time to document how you would make that change happen. This part involves sorting which process needs how many resources and how each team can meet customer expectations. o
Step3: Process Mapping
In this stage, the team plans the process. Every process, right when the company gathers customer or user needs until the final project delivery gets planned under this step. At the end of this, you will get a document stating which team or employee would do what to ensure successful project delivery.
Step4: Team building
Now, changes and improvements cannot happen all by themselves! You would require a proficient who can implement everything with utmost efficiency. So, in this step, you will build an efficient team. Companies hire people who understand the concept of quality management and have a thorough knowledge of tools that help in this domain. The idea is to hire those professionals who would add value to the project and the organization.
Step5: Daily Process Management
The last step is to manage the process well. Bring all the plans into implementation, keep a keen eye on every activity being carried out, and ensure everything happens according to expectations.
In these simple steps, the management slowly takes the process of project development towards significant progress. They keep assessing the difference this approach brings and continuously remove the drawbacks until they achieve perfection and excellence.
Quality management systems and standards
Once the organization has introduced TQM into its daily operations, this process becomes the standardized approach. Every project after that would follow the same process. That is why the organization set up a QMS.
The quality management system has set standards that an organization follows to take every project towards its final destination. Some of the standards set by a QMS within an organization are:
- Roles and responsibilities of each team member in the project development process.
- Directing the organizational activities to meet all the customer needs aptly.
- Infusing the vision of continuously improving the product or service quality
- Setting the stringent quality check that every organization must follow to ensure zero flaws in the product.
- Keeping a pre-defined process for resource allocation, ensuring every team gets enough resources to deliver its best performance.
Basically, QMS defines every activity that will be carried out from start to end. The idea is to give clear descriptions to each team member, ensuring they all work in the right direction with the same vision.
Quality improvement methodologies and tools
Quality management is a skill, and only those who have learned it religiously can add value to an organization. So, companies prefer professionals who have completed formal training from a renowned course provider. It assures them that the candidate understands every scenario and has hands-on knowledge of the improvement methodologies. If they see you have completed KnowedgeHut's Quality Management certification online courses, it is obvious that you know how to use the latest tools to improve quality.
Let us discuss some tools and methodologies you will learn in the total quality management syllabus. These are the tools that will help you during your professional career.
- One of the effective methodologies is to plan ahead for change. Whenever you plan to bring about a change, make sure you keep every process sorted. Not planning the change will create chaos, and it will have a direct impact on the final quality.
- Always focus on implementing total quality management with utmost perfection. Embed the awareness about quality into the processes and ensure all your team members work with the same vision.
- Review the results of every process or take regular feedback from your users. If there are any gaps between the expectations and the deliveries, make efforts to fill those gaps.
Quality Improvement Tools
Tools make the life of any professional easy. They automate a lot of tasks, reducing the human effort. Moreover, tools also bring efficiency into the process. Some of the tools you can use for quality improvement are:
Check Sheets
With this tool, you can organize data by category. As the data keeps increasing rapidly, check sheets help keep it sorted. For this tool to be fruitful, you should have atleast 50 observations available to put into a tabular form. It reduces the clerical effort by automating the tasks.
Flow Charts
It is a tool that gives a graphical representation of significant data sets. An elaborate flow chart explains the entire process of project development in every detail. Even anyone who joins the project at a later stage can understand everything effortlessly. Moreover, even the stakeholders can get a detailed idea about the project.
Cause & Effect Diagram
It is also known as a fishbone diagram because of its shape. This diagram explains the relationship between the variables. The unexpected results you get are referred to as the effect, and the solution the team used to alter the outcome is referred to as the cause. Though it might not be apt for complex processes, it is a perfect fit for small projects.
Histogram
This tool helps plot data in a frequency distribution table. Significant data records get listed in rows, and identifying the missing or newly added values gets easier. Once the experts have gathered significant data units, they can sort it in tabular form for histograms. This representation is convenient for every team member to understand.
All these tools are included in the quality management syllabus, covered during your training. Once you master them, you can add value to the projects and be an asset to your organization.
Conclusion
Quality management and improvement are the need of the hour, and every organization keeps it a priority. It clearly indicates that they need professionals who understand the domain well and can deliver the best results. That is where the demand increases, and you get the opportunity to push your professional career toward success. You can start with the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification training and later enroll on a quality management course. Learn every tool and methodology involved in quality management well and implement them all in the projects that you work on. The results will reflect in quality and resource management, and it can help prove your worth. Once you become proficient enough, rest assured that you will have a monetarily sound and secure professional career.
