Call to put a bit of joy back into workplace.
A lean management expert is calling on firms to put the joy back into work.He is urging businesses to put quality first and adopt principles which have helped Toyota become one of the world's most successful companies.
Alan Clark has warned that the British and American manufacturing sectors are failing to perform like Toyota because of their refusal to take quality control seriously.
Toyota is one of the few car manufacturers today making a profit and increasing its market share because it has continued to follow the advice of American quality and management guru the late Dr W Edwards Deming, says Mr Clark, a management consultant and former general manager of Redditch-based automotive parts firm Bauer Springs.
A qualified design engineer and university lecturer on the subject of continual improvement, Mr Clark is holding his next workshop, entitled Hands-on Process Mapping, on Wednesday at City Spirit in St Paul's Square, Birmingham. Mr Clark, who runs Key Business Improvement and chairs the Institute of Quality Assurance Deming Special InterestGroup, said: "The post-war success of Japan is largely based on their acceptance of Dem-ing's work and their willingness to stop production to sort out quality issues.
"Quality is a fundamental principle on which good management is based, and it needs to be designed into systems from day one - if not, you are saddled with the huge cost of checking the end product and the waste involved.
"Deming is a national hero among the Japanese for his work on quality and performance. His approach puts the emphasis on fact-based management and respect for the workforce, and it's about doing more with less - eliminating waste, mess and chaos, hence increasing cost-effectiveness.
"By using a suite of visual management tools everyone can be engaged in the process of improving performance and quality."
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Title Annotation: | Business |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Birmingham Post (England) |
| Date: | Jan 13, 2007 |
| Words: | 298 |
| Previous Article: | G&C go west with regeneration project. |
| Next Article: | Asking the questions; Andy Newman talks to Jean Pousson, programme director in the Midlands for the Institute of Directors' director development... |