Chapter 1: QMS Foundations

1.1 The Relevance of Standards

Are management standards still relevant in a world of accelerated technology and rampant globalization? This issue is pertinent to any discussion of standards because standards are most useful when applied in a stable and predictable environment. If we operate under conditions of crisis and chaos we must use management techniques designed to handle large fluctuations. In the end, however, we still need a standard that defines our baseline so that measurements of our progress, or lack of progress, are meaningful.

To establish meaningful standards requires that there are universal organizational fundamentals. Such fundamentals must be constant, although the paradigms may shift (i.e., the way we model and apply the fundamentals varies with the most accepted global norms and mores). However, no matter what the paradigm shift involves, those who sell a product at a loss of one cent per piece will never make up the loss in volume. Those who do not know what their customer really needs will still lose to someone else who does. Those who do not cost-reduce their products continuously will eventually lose their market dominance. Those who do not periodically offer more performance for the same price will lose their competitive edge. And those who do not nurture their suppliers could lose a month's shipments waiting for a product from a vendor who went bankrupt because the vendor priced the product at a loss to win your contract.

Thus, the development and application of standards to enhance organizational development remains relevant in spite of the overwhelming, constantly changing twenty-first century explosion in technology and globalization. In fact, international and national standards are now in use in over 160 countries to form the foundation for effective quality management systems. The number of Annual Quality Awards now lists at least 119 programs worldwide. In the United States, state-wide programs are underway in at least 41 states ^[1].

This book intends to present a systematic, engineering approach for the creation of effective QMSs. However, the framework for such systems requires knowledge of process-oriented structures. For this purpose, the following section discusses the concept of core competencies.

^[1]Johnson, Corinne N., "Annual Quality Awards Listing," Quality Progress, August 2001, p. 62, at http://www.asq.org.