Let us take you back to 1919, when two enterprises were established; The Chartered Quality Institute set up to educate organisations on quality management, and Tesco which began as a set of market stalls initially selling tea. CQI now has around 19,000 members in 130 countries while Tesco has become international and is currently the market leader in the UK*.
Having measurable quality objectives that are customer focused is an integral part of any business or quality management system (ISO 9001:2015 clause 6.2.1), and Tesco has often made some of their quality objectives visible to the public – e.g. past objectives have included serving a customer within 30 seconds and opening up a new lane if existing queues are full. Similarly , when a famous fast food chain opened its first UK stores in London back in the seventies, it offered free food to anyone not served within 5 minutes.
Continual improvement is not possible without measurement, and measurable objectives create ambition, drive and focus. To celebrate 100 years of quality, the CQI is inviting people to submit what they believe to be the “most influential quality improvement in the last 100 years” (#WQD19); what would that be for you?
Would you equate quality improvement with internal speed and efficiency, positive customer feedback or a mix of the two? Of course, sometimes, efficiency can improve the customer experience but that aside, 100% conformity would be ideal (e.g. fast free food is ok but if it is not what a customer wanted then it serves no purpose!).
Or you might look at an invention that has improved the quality of our lives (and without any negative side effects!) Oops, that counts out the television and the mobile phone (each has created screen addiction), the microwave (losing the art of cooking), the Internet (too much fake news) and sliced bread (potential calorie overload).
So, what can we give this award to? It would have to be something that has improved the quality of our lives without causing any harmful side effects. Yes, it’s a toughie! How about giving the award to the satellite navigation system, known to its friends as the satnav? The device that makes even the worst of map readers look like they know what they are doing (even if their sense of direction has not actually improved at all). Now finally, the driver does not have to stop every five minutes to check a map and auditors can arrive at an audit on time.
An ISO 9001 quality management system can help you measure your organisations quality objectives. If you feel it’s time for improvement, take a look at our ISO 9001 training courses…
*The Guardian reported Kantar data w/e 24 March 2019, showing a 27.4% share, comfortably ahead of Asda and Sainsbury’s
