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This ebook contains selected papers presented at the 5th Canadian Quality Congress that was held at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The theme of the congress was: The Energy Driving Change. This ebook includes a variety of interesting and challenging topics on the theme of the congress: the development of a culture-based design of business excellence system, a rigorous research study aimed at determining sustainability, a study of the resilience and robustness of enterprise systems, the search for a connectivity of financial indicators to improve healthcare organizations

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the scope of application of systems thinking and cybernetics for change management by presenting the case of a private university of Pakistan. Six Sigma has been tested as a possible solution to the problems faced by the institution.


Design/methodology/approach
– Stafford Beer's approach of running the system on trial at five levels has been used to estimate system's efficacy. The system analysis helped to identify lapses in the system as well as the leverage points for quality improvement. Six Sigma DMAIC tools have been applied for the possible improvement in the process of course management in a private university of Pakistan.


Findings
– Private universities in Pakistan are operated as a business and the business owners are busy to keep their system stable unmindful for the protocol for sustainability. What will make the system viable and sustainable is yet to be learnt by the private universities of Pakistan. There exists a sharp divide between bottom line approach of businessmen and the academia's confidence in the quality improvement. However, it has been learned that the organizational development is the job of every academic manager, and managing the process through creative innovation is the only solution.


Originality/value
– The case study is a unique contribution in theory and principles of quality management for checking the application of Six Sigma and lean techniques for organizational development of a private university.

The collection of papers in this e-book come from the "first" annual Canadian Quality Congress presentations held last August 2009. Under the theme, Quality, Innovation and Social Responsibility, approximately 200 delegates were in attendance from 23 countries from around the world. Healthcare dominated the agenda. There were many excellent papers and keynote speeches on a wide variety of healthcare topics. Many questions were raised and the papers that have been selected are attempts to answer a few of these questions

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to find determinants of the effectiveness of the business improvement processes that create value for services offered to patients in healthcare industries. The words patients and customers are used interchangeably throughout without any distinction. The features that distinguish medical services of different types and their inter-related factors are examined. The aim is to come up with a model of value vs cost that can help healthcare managers examine and use this exercise as an example of improvement micro-projects to help reduce cost and eliminate the patient's dissatisfaction gaps.


Design/methodology/approach
The list of factors or attributes influencing the creation of value of a given medical process or a single procedure is described. The factors in the value creation are examined that will help in the categories for the risk analysis to determine the value-added benefits for the patient outcome. The cost analysis is approached from two angles to include: the cost of the service, and the costs of poor quality of service.


Findings
The model describes the value for the patient satisfaction depending on the quality level or grade of the treatment or procedures used and the cost factor. The analysis is done at several levels with special reference to case examples. A search for various analogous models in similar service providing situation used in business process management of other process types is highlighted and discussed.


Originality/value
The model is an interesting generic illustration for considering value vs cost in all patient care strategies. It enables the position of various medical procedures that can be applied to the same disease in order to keep the variations as minimum as possible within the quality control specification limits. The importance in different aspects of check-points or hold points for inspection is also discussed.

Purpose
– The subjects considered in this research paper form the basic prerequisites for improving the effectiveness of organizational development. The author assumes that the effectiveness of any process depends on the size of the reserve of capacity of the resources used in the process (for details, see Appendix). The purpose of this paper is to determine the conditions for the effectiveness of improvement projects.


Design/methodology/approach
– The author has constructed an algorithm (called ABC) to control the capacity of resources. With its help, the author defines the strategy for improvement in an organization. The basic principle of this strategy is continuous improvement, and tactics to control resources refers to the ABC algorithm.


Findings
– The author shows that continuous improvement is a prerequisite for the effectiveness of this strategy. It is shown that the features of this strategy reflect sustainable development of the organization. Along with the algorithm ABC, it forms a basis for the sustainable development strategy. The author shows conditions for effectiveness and explains how the strategy shapes the sustainable development of the organization. The author also explains why commitment of top management is necessary, what it is, and how it can benefit the organization.


Practical implications
– This effort is symbolized by the involvement of resources in projects conducted to improve organizational functions. The result of the capacity growth is increased ability to confront new challenges.


Originality/value
– The author claims that the strategy for sustainable development is shaping the conditions for a gradual increase in the capacity of the resources used in the improvement process. The growth in resource capacity in the repeatedly run improvement projects can serve as a model of organizational learning. The learning process requires effort.

Purpose
– In May 2010, a new collaborative initiative was launched between the Portsmouth Business School and Hewlett Packard, wherein trained Black Belts (BB) were enabled to pursue an MSc in strategic quality management. Five years on from its commencement, the purpose of this paper is to explore the development and impact of this initiative.


Design/methodology/approach
– Inductive, exploratory, multi-viewpoint participant-observer case study that triangulates the academic, student and employer reactions to the programme.


Findings
– The paper evaluates how the academic dimension provided by the MSc has impacted on candidates' work as BB.


Practical implications
– Employee engagement and enthusiasm has been increased, as has the depth and breadth of the knowledge base among the participating BB, who are then applying these new skills in their improvement projects to make them more sustainable as well as financially valuable. They have been able to transfer knowledge to team members.


Originality/value
– This approach provides a model for accelerated development of groups of quality professionals within larger organisations. There is evidence that the community spirit that grows within and across cohorts has a multiplying effect that enhances the impact for the sponsoring organisation beyond the simple sum of the performance and skills improvement on a student by student basis.

Purpose– To achieve long-term customer retention a comprehensive and individual performance is increasingly important for companies from the manufacturing industry. A possibility to meet this challenge is given by Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS2). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of a current study on quality management for IPS².Design/methodology/approach– After a short introduction to the topic of IPS² the paper takes the study design as its structure. It gives an overview of the demography and results of the study and ends with a conclusion.Findings– Concerning the choice of products and services the results show that customer individual performances prevail. Closely related to that is the tender of services, which are meanwhile a part of the performance offer in all industries. All in all there are already first types of IPS². The quality perception exceeds the conformance of specific requirements. Reliability and perceived quality are becoming increasingly important. An integration of customers into the quality management is the exception. Regarding the quality management in value creation chains it can be outlined that quality goals are mostly company-wide but not for the entire value creation chain. Cross-company standardized processes exist in least cases. This also applies to cross-linked CAQ-systems. Communication of quality problems is handled mainly via e-mail. Quality management in value creation chains needs a common buildup of competencies by joint trainings. In practice it is barely there. Even if the potential is seen, partners and suppliers mostly will not be considered.Originality/value– The paper considers the study results from different angles and shows the potentials of the IPS² approach. Thereby it investigates different approaches to offer a combined product-service system.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to document the results of an implementation of the quality function deployment (QFD) tool in a process of a municipal administration involving: request for component support: family farming, urban and backyard agriculture that are part of the Rural Development Directorate of the Moroleón City Hall in the state of Guanajuato, México.


Design/methodology/approach
– The work is an exploratory study where the application of different quantitative techniques, database analysis, sample collection, field notes, participant observation, workshops and direct interviews were held and conducted to collect data.


Findings
– From the analysis of the requirements of quality characteristics are identified, simplified, response time reduced, assertiveness maintained and transparency in the resource allocations were assured. According to the calculations, customer expectations were clearly identified.


Originality/value
– The implementation of quality management methods such as QFD, in a municipal administration was used aimed at improving the services offered to citizens according to their expectations. It is expressed that mayors should be primarily concerned about giving the officials under their direction the necessary training to make their employment joyful with the help and use of the best tools available to provide quality results.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to employ quality function deployment (QFD) method for translating internal customer needs and expectations into appropriate service specifications to perform existing process assessments in relation to quality characteristics for increasing internal customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach– The integration of SERVQUAL into QFD has been used to set the success factors to improve quality in the textile industry. One of the largest textile companies in Turkey provided the sample. A SERVQUAL-type of questionnaire was used and a total of 32,938 questionnaires were distributed both manually and online, 24,551 usable were received, comprising a response rate of 77.31 percent.Findings– Findings of the QFD application suggest internal customer focus as having the highest weight score of almost 12 percent improvement. In addition, improvements in technical requirements of politeness and process communication have a 9 percent impact each on internal customer satisfaction criteria.Research limitations/implications– QFD technique is able to provide companies with a better understanding of internal customer expectations and translate these into appropriate service specifications and perform existing process assessment.Originality/value– This paper is a first attempt that applies this integrative approach to a different type of industry, thus offering practical and applied information for professionals engaged in academia and as practitioners.

Purpose– Top management commitment is considered a significant factor in improvement programmes, and many papers have been written about the role of top management commitment in implementing a quality management system. However, not considering other management levels' commitment, such as middle management, may lead to issues in achieving organisational development. Public organisations that work through vertical structures may face a lack of middle management commitment, which might have a negative impact on lower and non-management staff commitment to improvement programmes. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of middle management's commitment towards improvement initiatives in public organisations.Design/methodology/approach– Empirical research with a mixed-method design used semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire to explore the current practices of continuous improvement (CI) and examine employees' views from different management levels of the implications of current improvements in a Saudi public service organisation.Findings– The analysis indicated that the lower managers and non-management staff agree that, after the implementation of the quality management system, the organisation's middle management showed a lack of commitment to that system. Moreover, this lack of commitment is recognised in the analysis of participants' views of CI practices recorded in the questionnaire and interviews. This lack of commitment has caused poor employee commitment and thus a lack of problem solving in organisational departments. It is also responsible for a lack of employee involvement, the centralisation of decisions, deficiencies in terms of determining and applying training, inequality between employees and a lack of trust between employees and their managers. These issues could be managed and resolved through middle management and their commitment.Practical implications– Increasing middle managers' awareness of the importance of their commitment to improvement initiatives can have an impact on employees' commitment towards improvement initiatives, especially in those public organisations that have vertical/hierarchical structures. The level of commitment towards the implementation of improvement programmes needs further in-depth analyses to identify which factors influence public organisation leaders' commitment to improvement programmes.Originality/value– The results of this study could motivate middle managers in public organisations to review their policies and to facilitate CI initiatives.

Purpose
– The trend toward the indiscriminate use of natural resources and social decay has widened the gap between social classes, rich and poor, leaving the poorest unprotected. This situation, with the current financial crisis has also led to the creation of social organizations by the people in the highest levels of marginalization, through which they sell products manufactured by themselves and support enhance the economy and enhance a better quality of life for themselves. The paper aims to discuss these issues.


Design/methodology/approach
– A major development for growth of these organizations is the existence of responsible consumerism. Thanks to the technological advancements and the mass distribution of information, and the supply chain, the world population is beginning to get aware and becoming concerned by the effects of the hyper-consumption culture currently prevailing.


Findings
– The existing models of national indices based on consumer opinion and satisfaction merely include the characteristics of the products and services offered, but do not include variables that aid in determining their impact on a social enterprise. This research aims to fill that gap.


Originality/value
– The paper shares the results of a qualitative and quantitative survey performed during the first half of 2014 using a model of structural equations developed to test new hypotheses that include a variable which has been called "social responsibility."