History Of Quality Management

Introduction:

Milliken Denmark’s great fortune was that its parent company had a couple of years’ lead and was thus able to set an example. The quality process starts with measurements.

Employees’ safety:

• Milliken gives top priority to employees’ safety.
• The firm’s basic principle is that all accidents can be prevented. Every safety problem is followed up until an acceptable solution has been found.
• Milliken keeps statistics on accidents which result in sick leave, on minor accidents where sick leave has not been necessary and Milliken Denmark has also been required to keep statistics on irresponsible behaviour which could have led to an accident.

The company barometer:

• The ‘Company barometer’ is an annual customer satisfaction survey.
• A sample of customers is questioned by a bureau on a wide range of things connected with how they rate collaboration with Milliken Denmark and its competitors.
•  If the survey shows that Milliken’s competitors have come out on top, or if Milliken has achieved a lower score than in previous years, then corrective measures are taken.
• This measurement is regarded as the most important measurement of all.

Customer satisfaction and Hoshin planning:

The following seven business fundamentals are evaluated in the customer satisfaction survey:

1. Quality

2. Cost

3. Delivery

4. Innovation

5. Morale

6. Environment

7. Support

Each of these seven parameters is evaluated on a scale from 1 to 10 and a comparison with the most important competitors is made.

Keeping delivery dates:

• The third area which Milliken Denmark has paid particular attention to from the start of its quality process is keeping delivery dates.
• Every morning at 9 a.m., all office staff are informed about how successful they have been in fulfilling the delivery d
• When analyzing the measurements of on time delivery Milliken has, for several years, used a control chart which has been a valuable tool giving signals when the delivery process is out of control deadlines promised to customers.
• If there have been any delays, a full account of why they have occurred is given

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT TEAMS:

Milliken Denmark is one of the Danish companies which was able to motivate employees to form quality improvement teams in the 1980s and still succeed with this ‘philosophy of work’.

The team activities started in 1989 with the so-called ‘workshop groups’, i.e. quality improvement groups established in production.

Milliken’s TEAM

REGISTRATION classify improvement teams into the following four different types of teams:

1. supplier action teams;

2. customer action teams;

3. corrective action teams;

4. process improvement teams.