Total Quality Management: Motorola Quality System

Review or QSR
Introduction

            Total quality management is considered as a management approach that

was first used during the 1950’s and has become popular during the early of 1980’s.
Total quality is considered as a total description of the culture, attitude as well as the
organization of the company that is in focus of providing their customers with their
products or services that will meet the demands and preferences of their customers.
Furthermore, the culture requires quality in all aspects of the company’s operations,
with the different processes that are being done right the first time and defects as
well as the waste eradicated from the different operations (Hashmi 2008).

            TQM is a method that is used where in the management as well as the
employees are all involved in their continuous improvement of the production of
goods as well as services. It can also be considered as the combination of quality as
well as the different management tools that focus at the increasing the growth of the
business as well as reducing the losses that was caused by different unimportant or
useless practices (Hashmi 2008).

            Motorola is only one of many companies that apply the principle of TQM in
their organizational culture. Motorola Inc focuses on their sales victory in the global
market in the industry of electronic components as well as equipment. The company
is doing it by improving the quality of their products by improving their productivity
and overall performance (Baldrige National Quality Program 2002).

            During 1981, the company had launched their ambitious project that drives
for a tenfold of improvement in the quality of their products as well as their services.
The said project had been successful; the evidence is that most of the products of
the company are considered as number one or the best in their class. The company
is still striving for the best and looking forward to target their goal of Zero defects in
everything we do (Baldrige National Quality Program 2002).

            With accordance to the said project, the managers of the said company
are also literally carrying the corporate objective of the company and that is the total
customer satisfaction. They are wearing a pocket that has a printed card that states
the said objective. Furthermore, those upper management officials are also open in
serving their customers by wearing pagers in order for them to be available to their
customers. Furthermore, they are also visiting the different businesses of their
customers in order to conduct a survey that will let the company know about their
customers’ likes as well as dislikes towards their products (Baldrige National Quality
Program 2002).

            Above all, the company is also implementing a system that handles the
information and data that have been gathered using the all-embracing network of the
customer surveys, complaint hotlines, filed audits as well as other significant
measures about the feedback of the customers, together with the guidelines in
planning for the quality improvement and development of the product (Baldrige
National Quality Program 2002).

Quality-Assessment Systems

            In order to evaluate as well as improve the quality-system maturity of any

organization, there are many quality-assessment systems, quality-audit systems as
well as international, local as well as military standards that vary in level of scope,
depth and the purpose (Craig 1996, p. 730).

            Maturity models are commonly a subset of an assessment system that is

designed in order to assist as well as to test for the maturity of a specific element
that is included in quality model. If you are going to look at the element-by-element
basis, the approach of the organization to an element that is being reviewed for the
strategic linkage, depth as well as the appropriateness of the application.  On the
other hand, the deployment is being reviewed in order to determine the scope in
which the approach is being implemented; the results will again be reviewed with
relation to the appropriate benchmarks as well as the rates of improvement (Craig
1996, p. 730).

            In order to do the quality-assessment systems, an organization that will be

assessed is consulted in ahead of time. The said organization will be given a chance
in order to input into the process. When the said event happens, the organization
that is about to be reviewed will request for the request of comprehensive lists of
different strengths, together with the opportunities for the improvement that serves
as the outputs from the different processes. Eventually, a reasonable amount of
learning will be taken place throughout the process of assessment (Craig 1996, p.
730).

            Once the assessment has been done, an important opportunity for the
training department to review the output of the assessment as well as to put up a
strategy for training and improvement plan (Craig 1996, p. 730).
Motorola Quality System Review or QSR

            The quality system review or QSR is part of the total quality

management program of Motorola. It serve as an assessment vehicle where in the
corporation evaluates the continuing health of the quality system in each of the major
business unit as well as suppliers of the company. The main focus of the said
program is to identify the image of the how the business should be conducted.
Furthermore, it also focus on the setting the common goal of perfection that help to
provide an awareness of the quality-system requirements across the whole
organization (Craig 1996, p. 730p. 730).

            Above all, the said project is a method that is used in order to give
opportunity for the cross-fertilization of different ideas as well as serve to a routinely
refocus of the organization to the quality of their product (Craig 1996, p. 730p. 730).

            The main method that is used in the said project is a formally documented
QSR form for assessment, together with the procedures review. The review team
handles the entire project that reflects the macro view of the different subjects from
the different business unit as well as suppliers (Craig 1996, p. 730p. 730).

            It is considered as a formal survey where in the customer evaluates the

continuing health of the supplier’s quality system. It is intended to lead to continuous
improvement as well as to assure that the quality system of the supplier is effective
in order to achieve the total satisfaction of the customers. The main purpose of the
QSR of Motorola is to assess and therefore, compare the quality system of the
supplier to the ideal system.

            Furthermore, the process of reviewing the quality subsystem can help the
company to know more about their strengths, weaknesses as well as the
opportunities that will open for the improvement (Weinstein & Johnson 1999, p.
218). 

            The QSR is designed in order to assess the quality of the efforts that are
being exerted by every division (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233).

Quality System Review and Organizational Change

            In order for the company to deal with the project of the Total Quality
Management or the TQM, reorganization is a must. The company had been able to
recreate their organizational structure based on the plan of the TQM, and that is to
connect all of the stakeholders of the company from the upper level management up
to the lower level management, together with the customers as well as the suppliers.
            The upper level management of the company had been able to implement
several quality trainings in order to make sure that the negative effects that will be
encountered by the company during the change will be prevented. Table 1 shows
the quality training of the managers of the company with accordance to the
implementation of the project of quality system review.

Table 1 Quality Training

Senior Basic Strategic Conductin Motivating Correlating

Executives awarenes quality g quality teams results
s planning reviews

Middle Basic Conducting Effective Implementin Managing

Managers awarenes self- action g solutions quality
s assessmen planning improvemen
t t

Manufacturin Basic Quality tool Interpretin Team Implement

g Associates awarenes training g data problem solutions
s solving

Administrative Basic Quality tool Interpretin Team Implement

and Support awarenes training g data problem solutions
s solving

            In order for the company to implement their project of application their
internal quality management, they had been able to train the different upper level
management or those managers who belongs to the upper position. The said
process has been done in order to make sure that they know the different strategies
and plan that must be done in order to follow the general protocol or standard of the
company in terms of quality control with accordance to their total quality
management.

            The primary reason of the company about the application of their own
internal Quality System Review is to survive during their time. It is due to the fact that
during the said time, the company had struggle from their competitor due to the fact
that the quality of their products are not that high. That is the reason why the
company decided to focus on meeting the needs and demands of their customers
with regards to the reliability as well as the usability of their products (Cooper &
Locke 2000, p. 233).

            That is why the company had decided to increase their participation in the
process of goal-setting as well as the increase in the involvement in the process of
improving the culture of the quality in the organization as a whole (Cooper & Locke
2000, p. 233)

Quality System Review and Management

            In order for the company to implement their Total Quality Management as
well as to prevent the negative impact of change in the mentality as well as
performance of the employees towards the company. The QSR have been
implemented. The QSR had helped the company to connect to their employees in
order to make sure that they are being understood as well as being followed by the
employees. Furthermore, the said project enables the company to promote unity as
well as teamwork inside the company. In addition to that, the said project also
enables the company to promote initiative inside the company (Cooper & Locke
2000, p. 233)

            The management of the company had decided to create their scoring system
in order to evaluate the performance of a specific department. For instance, a
category can examine the quality of management systems. On the other hand, one
sub-category under the said title will be concerned with the extent that the
management solicits, accepts as well as rewards feedback from the work force itself
(Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233).

            The scoring for the said element varies from poor meaning there is no
system that exists for the solicitation of different ideas from the employees up to the
outstanding, meaning, the individual or the group that is being assessed is practicing
team unity and following the general standard of the company (Cooper & Locke
2000, p. 233).

            The fact that the company had implemented the scoring approach, it had
served as a driver for motivation due to the fact that having or garnering the rate of
outstanding will serve as an ego-booster for the employees. That is the reason why
they are striving and working at their best. The said project had helped to distribute
good ides to the other parts of the organization as well as serve as an aid in the
creative and empowering processes (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 234).
            That is why most of the employees are empowered in order to improve the
different processes, transactions, services as well as administrative quality and they
are active and involved in the quality improvement teams (Cooper & Locke 2000, p.
233).

            Furthermore, the management of the company also provides different active
leadership of the employees by letting them participate in the process of the
continuous improvement (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233).

            The main advantage of the management of the company is that it had been
able to relate the goal setting to the effort of the employees or the forces of each
individual from each and every unit, in order for them to be involved in the goal-
setting and decision-making process (Cooper & Locke 2000, p. 233).

Conclusion

            The overall and continuous implementation of the Total Quality Management
and Quality System Review of Motorola can be said that had been successful. That
is due to the fact that the company had become one of the most successful
companies in the world who applied the principle of TQM as well as one of the most
awarded companies when it comes to their implementation of the QSR.

            Another important thing is that the customers of the company are satisfied
about the products as well as the services that they are offering. That is why the
company had become one of the most trusted brands worldwide.

            The company had been able to monitor the activities as well as the
performance of its different stakeholders such as the suppliers. The suppliers are
important because they are the one that provide the different important hardware as
well as software that will help the company to produce and manufacture their product
and sell it to market. The company is using its own Quality System Reviews towards
their suppliers in order to assess the quality system of their suppliers every two
years. They are being scored based on the items or subjects about the control over
the processes as well as their ability to develop new products (United States General
Accounting Office n.d., p. 13). The said method or approach had helped the
company to monitor the individual performance of its different business units, groups
as well as the performance of an individual that helped to properly monitor the whole
processes of the company that reflect to their performance.

            In terms of management, the company had been able to handle the different
effects or impact of organizational change towards the motivation as wells as
performance of their employees. The company also had enable to reconstruct or
reorganize the physical and power structure of the company, in order for them to
perform with accordance to the plan of initiative or team work.

            Another important aspect that had been showed by the company is the
clearness of their communication process and communication activities throughout
the implementation of the project as well as the maintenance process or stage of the
company. The upper level management had been able to communicate well within
their level as well as communicate and reach out to the lower management.

            The planning and controlling phase of the said project had been implemented
and deployed properly due to the fact that their have been many programs and
activities that had been done such as mentoring and coaching.

            The said two practices are considered as two of the most important approach
or method that can be used in the project management in order to lessen as well as
prevent the bad or negative impact of the change to the mentality and performance
of the employees. The said planning and controlling process of the company had
been able to prevent the refusal to change of the employees by letting them know
the real reason behind the project as well as it’s positive impact to them as well as to
the overall performance of the company.

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