Wednesday 26 September 2012

Total Quality Management - Department purpose analysis

What is it?
 Department purpose analysis (DPA) is a process for applying the concepts and principles of management in a practical way. It is designed to ensure that a department, team or group is achieving goals that contribute to the company's strategy and overall goals, and that the department's activities add value. A key step in the process is a clear focus on agreeing, measuring and meeting customer (internal and external) requirements.

When to use it?

  •  As part of an ongoing improvement plan 
  • Where there is confusion over roles, responsibilities or purpose 
  • To highlight opportunities for improvement 
  • To identify staffing requirements 
  • When considering organisational changes so that roles and customer/supplier requirements are clearly understood 
What does it achieve?
DPA takes management concepts and principles and allows them to be applied in the work environment. The key ones are:

  • Role/goal clarity 
  • Meeting customer/supplier requirements 
  • Clear performance standards (no 'license to fail') 
  • Appropriate measurement 
  • Focus on failure so that improvement opportunities are identified and actioned 
  • Building in prevention of problems 
  • Value-added job for all 
  • Continuous improvement 

Key steps

 DPA is a five-step process, the objective is to ensure that a department 'Does it right first time'

Step 1 - key activity statement

  • List department key skills 
  • Identify and agree departments top ten activities 
 Step 2 – Purpose and goals

  •  Identify company/group function, mission and strategies 
  • Check that operations match organization, mission, goals and priorities 
  • Check that management agrees 
 Step 3 – Customer and supplier review

  •  Identify and talk to your customers and suppliers 
  • Identify and agree requirements 
  • Agree measurements 
 Step 4 – Time and skills analysis

  •  Capture information on current activities 
  • Track time and resource spent 
  • Identify value-added activities 
  • Focus on failure and identify opportunities for improvement 
 Step 5 – Action plan

  •  Check value-added activities against mission, goals, priorities and customer/supplier requirements 
  • Prioritise improvement opportunities and identify project(s) 
  • Implement project(s) using 5 stage project approach 
  • Identify and display key measurements 
  • Review and monitor progress 

REMEMBER, DPA IS ONLY GOOD MANAGEMENT COMMON SENSE