The application of process approach in quality management in terms of Slovak Republic.
Paulova, Iveta ; Kucerova, Marta ; Mlkva, Miroslava 等
1. INTRODUCTION
The reason for the implementation of process approach to quality
management was an attempt to improve the business processes so that they
are effective and achieve the highest added value for the customer,
because the cause of bad results of corporate activities are inefficient
ongoing business processes. International Standard ISO 9001:2008
promotes the adoption of process approach during elaborating,
implementing and improving the effectiveness of quality management
system in order to increase customer satisfaction. The advantage of a
process approach is the continuous management of the linkages among
individual processes within the system processes, as well as management
of links among individual processes within the system of processes as
well as the management of combinations and interactions of processes
that this approach provides.
The goal of the standard is to improve the quality of products and
services being provided to the consumer to fulfill also requirements for
certification (Fidlerova, 2005).
The term process approach means the desired outcome, which will be
achieved more effectively if the activities and related resources are
managed as a process. Therefore, all activities in a plant have to be a
part of a process. Due to better understanding of the procedural
approach it is necessary to define the concept of process.
The main objective of the procedural approach is to encourage
efficiency and effectiveness of the organization in achieving the stated
objectives, which may occur in the following areas:
* in the integration and harmonization of processes in achieving
the intended results,.
* in the ability to focus efforts on the effectiveness and
efficiency of processes,
* in providing confidence to customers and other interested parties
in the continued performance of an organization,
* in transparency of the ongoing activities of the organization,
* at lower costs, shorter time cycles and more efficient use of
resources
* in the improved, sustainable and predictable results,
* in the provision of opportunities for a concentrated and
considered improvement initiatives,
* in support of the involvement of people and clarification of
their responsibilities (Nenadal, 2008).
The basis of process managed enterprise is the change in
understanding the performance of the administrators of activities to the
owners of processes, therefore except a simple rebuilding of processes
should be changed the corporate culture in shaping the management
process of the enterprise. The main problem with the process management
is that companies tend to approach the transition from functional
management to process management as a technical change. The process
management is not only the adjustment of the existing system, but it is
a transformational change between two principally different ways of
management. Therefore, the success in the implementation process of
management is early recognition that a key factor in this implementation
is primarily a human and not a technical factor.
2. AIM
The main aim of the contribution is to highlight the level of
management process application in selected organizations in Slovak Republic. Presented topic is the part of the research project VEGA
No.1/0229/08 Perspectives of quality management development in coherence with requirements of Slovak republic market, the aim of which is to
examine the implementation level of 8 basic principles of quality
management in business practice.
In the first stage of a research task, we conducted a survey to
assess the current state of applying the basic principles of quality
management in selected industrial enterprises in Slovakia. The gained
information formed the basis to assess the current state and compare the
level of meeting the individual requirements in different branches of
industry. The survey was conducted through questionnaire. Subject of
survey were manufacturing organizations of small and medium-size mostly
of the automotive and engineering industry. The questionnaire included
questions on the application of fundamental principles of quality
management and evaluation of data was taken from 124 companies.
To assess the current state of management process application were
established, certain groups of questions, which identify the level of
fulfilling the fundamental objectives of process management. In this
contribution are stated the most important results found to the
following questions:
1. Are the processes in the organization identified and described?
2. Is there for each process stated the owner of the process
including responsibilities and competence?
3. Are the sequence and interaction among individual processes
defined?
4. What is the involvement of top management into management
processes, including improvement?
5. What do you consider as the benefits of process management?
6. With what indicators are monitored the effectiveness of
processes?
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Based on the results of the survey may be stated that in the
process management, respectively process approach, the attention is
devoted mostly to implementation processes (process in production). They
are also quite clearly identified and described. From the monitored
group of enterprises up to 84% reported that it has identified and
described processes. Based on the results of the survey may be stated
that in the process management, respectively process approach, the
attention is devoted mostly to implementation processes (process in
production). They are also quite clearly identified and described. From
the monitored group of enterprises up to 84% reported that it has
identified and described processes. However, in a more detailed analysis
and interviews with competent staff, it was found that the principles of
process management are often only theoretical, since it is not applied
the system approach to the process, so the principles of processes are
not fulfilled i.e. there are not identified all indicators, the
measurement and monitoring of many processes that affect product quality
are not performed.
In the process approach the key issue is defining the individual
processes and stating their owners (Bily, 2005). Figure 1 shows the
determination of the level of the owners of processes, including its
competences. The results show that 75% of companies have identified the
owners for all processes, including defining their responsibilities and
powers, which confirms the real procedural approach to management.
Despite the fact that nearly all businesses support the implementation
of process approach, not all are created to do this.
Deficiencies in this area are e.g. insufficient identification of
the owners of processes, flimsy involvement of top management, partial
identification and description of processes.
One of the important conditions of process management is an active
support, attendance and involvement of top management. As is evident
from Figure 2, management is involved in management processes and their
improvement only in selected processes or exclusively it is involved
only in managerial processes. Implementation processes are largely in
the competency of the representatives of middle management in
manufacturing, who are also owners of the processes. However, to enable
the organization to operate effectively, it is necessary to monitor the
results of the mutual connections between the management, implementation
and support.
The important aspect is monitoring the effectiveness of processes
and thus the effort to increase efficiency, which is expressed in the
corporate practice especially by financial indicators.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
It was found from the survey that the effectiveness of the
processes was largely observed by analyzed organizations and also
through other indicators such as reducing the cost of rejects,
complaints, downtime, etc.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
4. CONCLUSION
The aim of the contribution was to assign the current state of
application of process management in selected organizations in Slovak
Republic. Positively can be assessed the fact that the studied
organizations see the benefits of procedural access in particular to
improve the efficiency of processes but also the greater involvement of
staff responsible for processes. It can be stated that in organizations
there is the real direction of the application of process approach, but
the deficit is a non systemic approach without observing the interaction
of all processes and a clear definition of responsibilities and powers
of management of all identified processes in organization. Following our
research we investigated some differences in its use in various industry
sectors in Slovakia. Within first part of our research project we
detected some important aspects that will be the objectives of our
research issues in future. Continuous improvement is an important factor
by which competitiveness is influenced in whole enterprises. Therefore
it is a necessary to find out possibilities for quality improvement of
processes as a prevention and use more proactive approach, not only
solve problems. In our further research we will concern with trends and
perspectives of quality management in enterprises on present turbulent
and global market.
5. REFERENCES
Bily, M. (2005). Using a procedural approach in management
systems.. In:Quality,2005. No.1, 7-10, ISSN 1335-9231
Fidlerova, H. (2005). Requirements for implementation of integrated
management system. Proceedings of Management of human potential in
enterprise. International scientific conference. 2., pp. 76-78, ISBN 80-8070-360-4, Zilina, March 2005, EDIS, Zilina
Nenadal J. and collective (2008). Modern quality management.
Management Press, ISBN 978-80-7261-186-7, Praha
ISO 9001:2008, Quality Management Systems--Requirements.
ISO TS 16949 Quality management systems--Particular requirements
for the application of ISO 9001:2000 for automotive production and
relevant service part organizations
