Abstract

For companies to compete in the future, managers must understand the need to create order within the operation and then constantly improve upon that overall order. This requires a process and system thinking orientation uncommon in our traditional management practice. Process management demands a greater understanding of how things work and what causes things to break down. It is only through process control that total quality is achieved on a consistent basis. Our result is that only orientation has driven quality out. System thinking requires management to expand their thinking to encompass all aspects of an operation and to manage the relationships between functions. We have been inundated with various quality approaches that have not been integrated. This session will show the integration and connections vital to continuous improvement and total quality control. The fundamental work system model shows the relationship of process thinking and system thinking and ties together most of the various techniques (JIT, SPC, QFD, TPM, QCC) in one easily understood package.

© 1990 Optical Society of America