Conference article

For a long time there have been discussions about if quality or production should be focused on; especially during the 1980’s and 1990’s; when Total Quality Management was introduced. On one hand; people within organizations (private companies as well as public organizations) might say that quality work is important; but that they have to prioritise production. Hence; the focus might be on production output in a short term perspective; e.g. number of units or metric tons. In this view; continuous improvement and other support activities might be seen as something necessary evil that disturbs production. On the other hand; people within the quality field might emphasize aspects such as customer focus; improvement work; or routine documentation too strong. Hence; quality proponents might neglect the fact that production results in something that is offered to the customers. In summary; sometimes there is a too far distance between production of goods and services on one hand and supporting activities; such as continuous improvement and maintenance; on the other. However; in order to be both efficient and effective; there is a need to focus jointly on production and systematic quality work. To some extent an integration of the two views have been taken within the manufacturing industry; e.g. through methodologies like Six Sigma and Total Productive Maintenance. However; we believe that there still is a great scope for further integration. Hence; the purpose of this paper is to describe a holistic model that integrates the quality and maintenance fields with production activities; in order to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency.

Total Quality Management; quality work; production activities; maintenance; integration