The Quality Fundamentals course is designed to be at approximately Academic Level 3 and a springboard to higher level courses. However, on completion of this CMI (Chartered Management Institute, UK) approved course, if you have more than 2 years practical experience in a Quality function, this qualification will enable you to apply to the CQI (Chartered Quality Institute, UK) for Practitioner Level membership. This has post nominal recognition. It is necessary for you to register with the CQI at the start of this course as a student member, but the registration fee will be waived.

This course is made up of five core units, which are elaborated on, further below:

1. QF1: An Introduction to Quality
2. QF2: Quality – The People Factor
3. QF3: The Role of Monitoring and Measuring for Making Decisions
4. QF4: Business Performance Improvement
5. QF5: Principles of Quality Management Systems

Who Should Attend

• Members of Board of Directors
• Business Executives
• Business Managers
• Company Secretaries
• Entrepreneurs
• Employees within the Quality function

QF1: An Introduction to Quality

The topic, ‘Introduction to Quality,’ might sound rather basic, but in fact it is not. Experience shows that there are literally dozens of definitions, several of them being quite different from the others. This is not an exercise in semantics, but it is intended to show that there is much more to the topic of quality than meets the eye. It is a common misconception that quality is all about cracked castings, chipped cups, defect reports and blame. This unit is intended to show that it is very much more than that. In fact, these are minor issues when looking at the big picture. We intend to show that the right policy, where quality is concerned, can make the difference between being successful and profitable or even at the worst extreme, being put out of business altogether.

At the workshop, amongst other topics, the participants will learn:

• What Quality really means to Organisations
• The History of Quality Management
• The Cost of Poor Quality
• Quality Planning
• Quality Control
• Quality Improvement
• Eight Management Fundamentals
• PDCA

QF2: Quality – The People Factor

The ‘People Factor’ is at the very core of every successful quality-based business strategy. Create the right culture and an organisation could fly to the top of its class. Get it wrong, and at best, they remain an also ran.

It is frequently asked ‘How can we motivate our people?’ One way is to involve your colleagues in studying this course. Learning by doing is the best way to learn anything. This is why we talk about workplace learning. More important is to make sure that you do not demotivate them, but that is the problem, this is what almost always happens. The most motivated your people are likely to be is on the morning of day one when they first join you. Either you can build on that event within hours sometimes, or they can be disheartened, dispirited and thinking they made a mistake joining your organisation. What might this and even the less dramatic examples cost you? How much did the selection process cost? How long does it take the recruit from the moment they walk over the threshold to become a star performer? Maybe they never will and probably you have to start again with another.

This Unit explore the basic reasons for this and how to make everyone a star performer. At the workshop, amongst other topics, the participants will learn:

• How People impact quality
• Organisation Values
• Management style
• Leadership
• Quality Circles
• Quality leadership
• Steering Committees
• Team leadership
• Communication

QF3: The Role of Monitoring and Measuring for Making Decisions

Lord Kelvin remarked that good management was based on making decisions built on facts. In this Unit, Monitoring and Measuring for making decisions, look at the practicalities involved in doing just that.

We look at the popular methods of collecting and analysing data, the risks involved in both taking samples and 100% data collection. How data can be collected in preparation for the next Unit, Business Performance Improvement, the fallibility of the human inspector and workplace design. As with the previous Units we encourage the practice of Workplace Learning going into the workplace and seeing how the ideas in this Unit are or are not being applied and what are the consequences?

At the workshop, amongst other topics, the participants will learn:

• A Factual Approach to Decision Making
• The Use of Statistical Data
• Collecting Data
•  Types of Data and Data Collection
• Use of Charts to Analyse Data
• Use of Control Charts
• Using Data for Inspection
• Inspection
• Key Performance Indicators
• Using Data for Project by Project Improvement

QF4: Business Performance Improvement

Business Performance Improvement is a general term used by a wide variety of people but with often very different perceptions of the subject.

In terms of its potential for saving significant costs from your processes, this Unit absolutely lends itself to getting your work colleagues involved even if they are not doing these courses themselves and practicing what the Unit teaches. This is the essence of Workplace Learning and if the student does not do that, it is a big opportunity wasted.

Our perception covers the broadest spectrum and includes every activity in an organisation that will improve its competitive situation in its marketplace. The Japanese have a name for this; it is ‘Dantotsu’, and it means that an organisation should strive not only to make every feature of its products, services and general business performance criteria better that its competitors, but to be so far ahead wherever possible that it will take at least 5 years to catch up, so it is fiercely competitive. It means striving to galvanise to total human and other resources of the company to work towards making that company unbeatable. To achieve that certain basics must be in place and this course is about those basics.

At the workshop, amongst other topics, the participants will learn:

• Introduction to Problem Solving
• Defining a Project
• Project Identification Based on Cost
• Recording the Current Situation
• Process Analysis
• The Fishbone Diagram and Related Tools
• Key Tools for Testing the Theories
• Remedies
• Holding the Gains
• Presenting a Project

QF5: Principles of Quality Management Systems

No doubt, a great many people will be familiar with ISO 9000 and think of it as the basis of Quality management Systems. Many people use it as such, but there are some who do not. For example, there is the British Quality Foundation Model (BQF) which uses the European Organisation for Quality (EFQM) Model. There is the American National Quality Award Model known as the ‘Baldrige Award’, the Japanese Deming Prize concept although this is more a set of principles than simply a model, and there are ‘Integrated Management Systems’ and finally Hoshin Kanri. Which should you use? It is confusing. In this Unit each is explored to help the student make up his or her own mind.

At the workshop, amongst other topics, the participants will learn:

• Introduction to Quality Management Systems
• Introduction to Hoshin Kanri
• Creating the Vision
• Key Performance Indicators
• Deploying the Visions at all Levels
• The House of Quality
• Managing the Improvement Process
• Managing Risk
• Competitive Advantage
• Linking to Standards and Awards
• Final Summary of Quality Fundamentals