Non-conformances should be encouraged as they can reveal opportunities for improvement. Senior management should create an environment where employees feel comfortable reporting issues and should listen to proposed solutions from employees. A successful quality management system requires cultural change with leadership that empowers employees, promotes involvement at all levels, and prioritizes people development and continuous improvement.

1. Quality Management System Non-conformances 101

2. NONCONFORMANCES ARE GOOD THINGS! You want everyone to generate them and you want lots of them! Yes you will have to sort through some outlandish stuff, but underneath will be a treasure chest full of continual improvement opportunities that make the organization work more efficiently and cut costs.

3. Senior Management listen up you need to get comfortable with the fact that your workers probably know about a lot of the things going wrong in your organization, and that they know about some you don’t. You need to create an environment where they will tell you about them.

4. Senior Management listen up And here’s an even more outlandish suggestion Senior Management – they probably know how to fix many of them as well. You need to listen to them by providing an opportunity and method for them to tell you.

5. Senior Management listen up This does not mean that your employees know what’s best for your company and you should do everything they say, but it is a greatly underutilized source of information which is often found to be right on the money.

6. “Vision is not rhetoric”, Continuous streams of action by organization leaders to back the vision are the keys to a successful business management system. Such leadership action involves setting direction, aligning people and motivating them in accordance with the vision.

7. Focus on change Leaders focus on initiating change, not just controlling it. As change leaders, senior managers assume responsibility for the strategic process and for providing a sense of overall direction without stifling creativity in implementation.

8. Empowering and involving employees Encourages workforce participation in work process redesign, system changes and work team goals as key components of business performance improvement. A major shift from a control-oriented to an involvement-oriented management paradigm must occur.

9. Promote a culture of involvement Involvement and participation are central to a successful business management system. A much greater contribution from each individual is both the driving force and the additional resource to achieve change. Promote a culture where people are involved in the business through decision making; ideas are sought from everyone”.

10. Cultural change Real change happens down in the guts of the organization, in the execution of work. Senior executives need to create and promote a culture in which, for example, people can work in teams and with other teams, mistakes are freely admitted, involvement is sought at all levels and people development is a priority.

11. In a Nut Shell If you want a business management system that actually adds value and provides for real cost savings, you, as the leaders have to walk the walk and talk the talk. Lead, coach, and participate and you will be successful.