The concern of every industrial management today, is to initiate and adopt a sustainable Quality Control Management program. The advent of the WTO and the heavy importance on the various aspects of presenting a superior product has made top management in various countries, including Pakistan, to get into high gear on the avenue of Quality Control. The doomsday scenario presented by some analysts regarding the eventual rejection of exports of Pakistany manufactured items if the conditionalities of ISO 9000, etc, are not strictly followed has led to the initiation on a war-footing basis the complete re-structuring of the Quality Control system prevalent in the manufacturing units all around the country.

There is the need to understand the intricacies of a successful improvement regime so that the inherent flaws in the QC are highlighted and procedures adopted to control and tackle

these deficiencies. Masao Nemoto, a top executive of Toyota Motors, Japan, calls it "Improvement After Improvement", something he likes to refer to as his credo.

There are many types of improvement that can effectively transform the way the industry is being managed, and essentially, bring into focus the internal and external factors that can lead to a noticeable change in the work environment and also create the desired and acceptable quality demanded by the discerning customer.

There are six types of improvements which require explanation :

Control-based Improvements : The management looks into avenues of improving productivity, harnessing costs, eliminating frivolous workloads, fine tuning the work process, and adjusting ways to reduce defects.

Dynamism-based Improvements : The management lays emphasis on improving quality and workability of products, initiating market strategies to boost sales, highlighting the positive features of products, revamping and bettering products thru innovative methods, introducing state-of-the-art operational equipment, and developing clientale loyalties.

Localized Improvement : The management makes full use of viable suggestions and proposals presented by the workforce to improve the products, the workplace, and the process mechanisms.

Preferential Improvements : The management takes full advantage of the cooperation of company personnel to introduce systematic development on a worthwhile basis to eliminate bottlenecks and other pending problems that hinder the smooth performance of production and quality control.

Purpose-oriented Improvement : This entails the philosophy of the company in attaining its objectives of superior quality products, financial controls, low inventory network, faster and efficient delivery of goods, upgrading in machines and processes, and enhancement in profit ratios.

Process-oriented Improvement : The management undertakes organizational rationalization, redefines the work processes, streamlines the company-beneficial standards and rules, and shows more concern for human resources.

There are, however, many obstacles that put a dent to the achievement of the objectives of improvement as visualized or planned by the top management hierarchy. In today’s rapidly advancing technological era, the management cannot afford to be complacent, and it is imperative that the negative factors that impede the attainment of the company’s aims are identified and efforts made to overcome or eliminate them.

It is an almost universal process that those companies that adopted a "wait-and-see" attitude, or that they would "cross the bridge when we come to it" or even those companies that acted rashly and followed a policy of "crossing a stone bridge without checking it" have fallen down or dropped out of the race. What, then, are some of the factors that hampered the company’s march on the road to improvement ?

The foremost handicap is the non-positive attitude of the management, right from the top man down to the executives on the lower strata of the hierarchy. They tend to believe that everything is rosy and that the problems are just superficial or unimportant, and that they do not require valuable management time to solve them. The tendency not to rock the boat and the insecure feeling of self-preservation, the unflinching desire to maintain the status quo, and the unwarranted dependence on one’s own experience and deeming it to be the easiest and the best are some other features of obstacles to improvement.

The human element is strong too. The conflicts of interest, the personality clashes, the feelings of envy and jealousy, the innermost craving for believing in oneself and adhering to one’s own area of responsibility, the abhorrence to the acceptance of external stimulation and advise, and the scourge of ethnicity, parochialism, and sectarianism, play a dominant role in the downslide of an organization.

It has also been the norm that the management is a victim of inadequate operational knowledge, and has on its rolls, those who are deficient in intellectual capabilities, in original thinking, in pragmatic judgment of issues and analyses, and those who are unable to fully grasp the practical aspects of managing the sectors and personnel under their control.

There is always the inconsistency factor too, especially in the person’s attitudes towards accepting the need to change because the possibilities of failure are more so when the process of change is initiated. It has been generally assumed that the superiors are niggling when it comes to praising their subordinates, and have been ineffective in imparting the required training and dissemination of information to their underlings, a process that can maintain the smooth devolution of authority and at the same time prepare the subordinate for the next upward step on the management chart.

One another reason, and that too a very important reason, is the lack of understanding by the union leaders. There is an inborn distrust by the unions in those areas where the management wants qualitative change and where it can seem to be percieved as something which will upset the union’s gravy train. This leads to a hiatus in the management’s plan to bring forth improvements that can effect and cause the necessary betterment in the company’s operational structure.

What can management do to remove the bottlenecks and hindrances for improvement after improvement, and at the same time maintain the delicate edifice of the company. The basic conditions that can be effective tools in the hands of management are mainly a question of people’s attitudes and how confidently they can be motivated to assist the management.

The first premise and the one which is most important is that the management must take the obvious lead and impress upon all personnel, its policy for improvement. The company policy must be accented and properly enumerated. This can be commensurate with a show of management’s zeal and spirit of eagerness. The lower hierarchy and the unions must be made to understand that the company intends to go thru this program and it desires credible cooperation. It is essential that the top management delegate authority and place the right qualified persons into positions that can optimally utilize their talents and expertise. It also requires for the superiors to accept the mistakes of their departments and subordinates, and they must lead the drive for quality and workplace improvement procedures. Many companies lack a forceful system of attending to buyer complaints and there is seldom a defined route to ascertain the cause of the complaint or to channelize the information of product complaints downstream to the shop floor. There is an immediate need to commence this system, and also to maintain an up-to-date record of all complaints and customer feedback information data.

The management should encourage and push forward an employee-suggestion system and also allow for brainstorming sessions during company time to elicit proposals based on creativity and practicality from the personnel. A liberal awards program be fashioned which will induce the company personnel to take this seriously and provide valuable suggestions and advisories.

There should also be a well planned system of personnel reshuffling and rotation, as this will expose the people to various other sectors of the company. This will also provide insight into the person’s capabilities and interest. The management must lay down an awards and punishment system with more stress on the awards and prizes. This must be well clarified and winners be publicized, and at the same time, the personnel must be encouraged to participate in this earnestly.

The people in the organization must be given ample opportunities to display a sense of camaraderie and team spirit. They must experience the joys and benefits of cooperation and loyalty to the company and its objectives. They should be made receptive to ideas espoused by outside sources, those that can be of help to them in their work and in their own lives. They should be motivated and stimulated by conveying to them the notion that they are part of the team. This can take many courses, such as informing them about company products, presentation of training films, organization of picnics and outings, assistance with certain personal matters such as medical, legal, and social responsibilities, etc. There is a need to impart educational facilities to the personnel. This is a must if there is going to be emphasis on quality control and quality awareness in the company.

The dedication of the management and the personnel in achieving the preferred improvement will result into a better product, better environment, and a better company. After all, the basic idea behind introducing a successful improvement program is really the plan’s contribution to the improvement and development of the organization, respect for the people who work there by making it a lively place of work, and to attract the display of human resources and capabilities, a factor so vital and pivotal in making the enterprise successful, thriving, and prosperous.

As Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, a former Emeritus Professor at the University of Tokyo, put it brilliantly "We should all strive to create a lively, cheerful atmosphere within our companies and to build happy lives for our countries and the world".