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Define the term strategy?

In order to understand the concept of strategic management, first we need to understand the literal meaning of the word strategy. The definition is mentioned below: 1. The science and art of using all the forces of a nation to execute approved plans as effectively as possible during peace or war. The science and art of military command as applied to the overall planning and conduct of large-scale combat operations. 2. A plan of action resulting from strategy or intended to accomplish a specific goal. 3. The art or skill of using stratagems in endeavors such as politics and business What is the relation of Strategic Planning and Total Quality Management? When an organizations chooses to make quality a major competitive edge (differentiation), it becomes the central issue in strategic planning. This is especially reflected in vision, mission and policy guidelines of an organization. An essential idea behind strategic quality planning is that the product is customer value rather than a physical product or service. This feat cannot be achieved unless an organization creates a culture of quality and no strategy and plan can be worthwhile unless it is carefully implemented. What do you understand by the term quality statements? Elaborate them with examples. Quality statements are part of strategic planning process and once developed, are occasionally reviewed and updated. There are three types of quality statements: 1. Vision statement 2. Mission statement 3. Quality policy statement The utilization of these statements varies from organization to organization. Small organization may use only the quality policy statement

1. Vision Statement: The vision statement is a short declaration what an organization aspires to be tomorrow. A vision statement, on the other hand, describes how the future will look if the organization achieves its mission. Successful visions are timeless, inspirational, and become deeply shared within the organization, such as:

IBMs Service Apples Computing for the masses Disney theme parks the happiest place on the earth, and Polaroids instant photography

2. Mission Statement: A mission statement concerns what an organization is all about. The statement answers the questions such as: who we are, who are our customers, what do we do and how do we do it. This statement is usually one paragraph or less in length, easy to understand, and describes the function of the organization. It provides clear statement of purpose for employees, customers, and suppliers. An example of mission statement is: Ford Motor Company is a worldwide leader in automatic and automotive related products and services as well as the newer industries such as aerospace, communications, and financial services. Our mission is to improve continually our products and services to meet our customers needs, allowing us to prosper as a business and to provide a reasonable return on to our shareholders, the owners of our business. 3. Quality Policy Statement: The quality policy is a guide for everyone in the organization as to how they should provide products and services to the customers.It should be written by the CEO with feedback from the workforce and be approved by the quality council. A quality policy is a requirement of ISO 9000. A simple quality policy is: Xerox is a quality company. Quality is the basic business principle for Xerox. Quality means providing our external and internal customers with innovative products and services that fully satisfy their requirements. Quality is the job of every employee. How an organization can do strategic quality planning? The process starts with the principles that quality and customer satisfaction are the center of an organizations future. It brings together all the key stakeholders.

The strategic planning can be performed by any organization. It can be highly effective, allowing the organizations to do the right thing at the right time, every time. There are seven steps to strategic Quality Planning: 1. Discover customer needs 2. Customer positioning 3. Predict the future 4. Gap analysis 5. Closing the gap 6. Alignment 7. Implementation 1. Customer Needs: The first step is to discover the future needs of the customers. Who will they be? Will your customer base change? What will they want? How will they want? How will the organization meet and exceed expectations? 2. Customer Positioning: Next, the planners determine where organization wants to be in relation to the customers. Do they want to retain, reduce, or expand the customer base. Product or services with poor quality performance should be targeted for breakthrough or eliminated. The organizations needs to concentrate its efforts on areas of excellence. 3. Predict the future: Next planners must look into their crystal balls to predict the future conditions that will affect their product or service. Demographics, economics forecasts, and technical assessments or projections are tools that help predict the future. 4. Gap Analysis : This step requires the planner to identify the gaps between the current state and the future state of the organization. An analysis of the core values and concepts is an excellent technique for pinpointing gaps. 5. Closing the Gap: The plan can now be developed to close the gap by establishing goals and responsibilities. All stakeholders should be included in the development of the plan. 6. Alignment: As the plan is developed, it must be aligned with the mission, vision, and core values and concepts of the organization. Without this alignment, the plan will have little chance of success. 7. Implementation: This last step is frequently the most difficult. Resources must be allocated to collecting data, designing changes, and overcoming resistance to change. Also part of this step is the monitoring

activity to ensure that progress is being made. The planning group should meet at least once a year to assess progress and take any corrective action.
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Write about Juran Trilogy TQM MODEL.

Ans. There are three phases of Juran Trilogy viz. (i) Quality planning (ii) Quality control (iii) Quality improvement.

(i) Quality planningIt involves analysis of customer needs, product and process interpretation for implementing quality control. Defects do not just happen, they are caused. There is a long list of conscious patterns- Marginal product design, incomplete process engineering, poor vendor quality, lack of employee training, inadequate tool maintenance, employee carelessness, insufficient feedback of inspection data, sale of wrong applications etc. Some defects are the result of a sudden sporadic flarelip of a process that is normally well behaved. What has gone out of control, put it back in place. Other defects are chronic in nature. They may be continued because there is permanent cause which we have not yet remedied or even discovered. Process needs to be improved.

(ii) Quality ControlIt involves operational techniques and activities aimed both at monitoring a process and at eliminating causes of unsatisfactory performance at relevant stages of quality loop in order to result in economic effectiveness. The objective of quality control function at operators level, foremens level, inspectors and managers level is to involve with operational techniques and activities carried both at monitoring a process and at eliminating causes of unsatisfactory performance. Thus quality control is concerned with the feedback of the comparative information in order to regulate the process. The entire process of quality control is centered around the basic idea that process limits are so set that the process be read just before the outgoing product reaches to a limit of rejection.

(iii) Quality Improvement ApproachIt identifies sources of unacceptable variation and adjustment are made in product design, process procedures etc. thereby eliminating sources of poor quality. The new

zone of quality control translates to improve customer satisfaction, increased sales, lower unit material and labur cost, increase overall process capacity, a more motivated and secure workforce with greater self esteem etc. As the improvement process progresses, lessons learned provide feedback to improve the planning process.

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