Quality practices of most companies are still traditional (at least in the area that I’m currently located, Philippines) in a compelling way that most of the departments are still in a functional silos. More and more companies are now beginning to adopt the new concepts of Quality Management from Quality Management Systems into varying business management concepts or systems where it addresses and incorporates the whole business into a complex and dynamic construct of linked and integrated processes, including those that generate value through the realization and provision of products and services, those that provide support and those that provide strategic direction, planning and control.
These processes must be understood fully to be able to be more effective having in mind a “systems thinking” or approach or what we call a holistic point of view where everybody is functioning and knows the what, why, and how of their functions and how it will affect the other functions (or departments) not only in point of view of quality but looking at the total operation of the business as a whole.
Essential to all this is the management of knowledge and deliverables, not the supervision of activities. The business management system approach focuses on the use of knowledge management to understand and manage “dynamic complexity” where the knowledge in this context includes technology (physical and intellectual) and systems applied to achieve strategic objectives, including customer satisfaction, competitive advantage and, ultimately financial returns.


The role of quality management in the business management system context is directly engaged in all other business functions and processes including strategic planning, marketing and sales, project management, design and process engineering, procurement, staffing and data processing, with the quality function serving a facilitative role. There is a considerable need for the quality function to evolve its support processes on an enterprise scale since the scope of the business management system extends very well. Therefore we must address these needs and opportunities by considering each major component of a business management system such as the operating system which is the brain and nervous system where we should align the strategic performance objectives with the requirements of customers and stakeholders; an integrated management system where the essential knowledge and core competencies reside in its value generating processes and must be strategically and continuously develop; and the quality’s new role which facilitate the development, implementation, assessment and continual improvement of the system. This approach is essential if the business is to effectively align its support, management and system processes with its value generating processes. The role of quality could involve enterprise-wide training, facilitation of process definition, documentation, monitoring and control, etc. It could also guide the application of quantitative tools, analysis and continual improvement methods throughout all the business activities – from analyzing customer requirements and monitoring performance, process and product data to setting objectives and enhancing product and process development methodologies.

Most (if not all) Philippine local companies in general just merely adopt and conducting audits just for the sake of complying to the standards (or determining compliance vs. non-compliance) and not really for making the current operation more competitive and value generating (though some are actually getting benefits by improving the “bottlenecks” but painstakingly slow). Audits are supposed to pinpoint where are we now vs. the desired result/s right? Finding the value-adding activities and eliminate non-value adding activities to make the business process more efficient and effective, thus saving considerable if not enormous amount of savings for the company (here lies the financial returns we are talking about).

The big Q: Is there a hope for Quality in the 21st Century? (as was asked by a dear colleague, jphatala, though I might write a separate blog about this one, but in the meantime, my two cents.)

The small or big A (as you, readers view it): Yes. In fact, a big YES! Reasons? There are infinite. There will always be a better way, a new way, a million ways to improve (continuous improvement). Our nature, as human, we always seek for perfection, and we view the world imperfect, that passion alone is the driving fuel that makes us raving to “perfection” not just for Quality alone but more of a general context (this relates to the “learning curve” which I would also try to blog soon). It is just now a question of how fast we reach there before anyone does. Speed (or should I say velocity – which includes the right direction) vs. Quality and coping up to the exponentially changing world is now, more than ever, a global issue in most organizations.

In the Philippine scenario/context (which I hate to say it), it will follow. Slowly. Factors? There are again infinite. Cultures, beliefs, political issues, corruption, etc.

Next sequel: The International Growth of Quality in the Global Economy context.