My Personal Goals And Expectation As A Student Essay

It has been 20 years since I have been in school and I want to be here at The University of Phoenix to finally get the degree that I have put off for so many years. I realize there may be road blocks ahead of me that I am not aware of at this time, but I am making a commitment to myself to be successful. The road I have chosen is long overdue, but I believe it is the right choice and something I strongly desire. I selected the U of P due the accelerated program offered, the high caliber of educators, and recommendations by friends. After just one class, I’m very excited about my choice and look forward to the challenges ahead. At the U of P, I hope to obtain the knowledge and tools to help me be successful and to finally make things â€Å"right† with myself and my employer. I say this as, in the past, I have misled my former and current employers that I have an education beyond high school. Through hard work and dedication, I have been able to produce and prosper in my professional life, even without an education beyond high school. But I feel with a â€Å"real† degree in hand, I’ll be more confident and proud of myself for the hard work and dedication it will take to accomplish this goal. Also, the dark cloud of my misrepresentation will finally be lifted. I believe I will finally be proud of myself and gain the honor and integrity I desire. My personal goal is to obtain a Bachelors degree in Business Management. As I pursue my goal at U of P, I must dedicate myself. To achieve this goal, there must be commitment, discipline, desire and expectations. There will be many challenges that lie ahead of me as I steadily make my journey to achieving a degree. But I feel I can overcome any obstacles and face any challenge, due to my maturity level and positive outlook. Twenty years ago, I did not feel the need or have the desire as I do now. Other than the obvious goal of obtaining a degree, I hope to finally have the skills, knowledge and tools to obtain further success in my professional life. I also feel a degree will give me more confidence in myself both personally and professionally. The education that I will receive will help me tremendously in my professional career. I feel I will be much more marketable to my present employer as well as future employers. Advancement  opportunities will come to fruition as I go through the educational improvement process. Throughout this new learning process, I hope to develop the skills to be a better communicator, both orally and in written communications. I’ve always somewhat lacked confidence in writing and I hope to gain the skills to write effective letters and reports. I hope to develop leadership skills and have confidence in myself and in the decisions I make. I hope to learn how to set priorities and manage my time better both at home and at work. Just making the decision and taking the steps to further my education feels liberating and eases the anxiety I’ve always felt about not furthering my education. I feel my fears about â€Å"not measuring up† will subside and a sense of camaraderie will develop with my associates at work. Since beginning classes, I hope the stimulation I feel now will continue to grow and ease the fears I’ve always had about â€Å"learning† again. I expect my confidence level to rise and as I get more confidence, my mind will open up to new ideas and better ways of doing things. I hope this stimulating environment will foster new ideas that I can use in my professional life. Above all, I believe this journey will bring to me a sense of accomplishment, pride, and confidence. In my personal life, I realize I must make many sacrifices. The time I must invest in obtaining a degree will require I give up the very little free time I currently enjoy with my family. My work schedule is extremely full now and leaves very little time with my family. Taking classes will totally eliminate any time I had to spend with them, but they are very supportive and understand the rewards we will all reap from this undertaking. I’m doing this for all of us, as I know the personal and professional growth and successes will be invaluable for our future.

Middle School Speech Essay

I have been at Englewood School for four years. I am pleased to say that during these years I have created new friends and lived many exciting experiences. As a new student in third grade, my classmates and teachers made me feel as if I was among my family. From class time discussions to Christmas plays, we have enjoyed every single day within this community. Days filled with joy, laughter, and even sometimes sorrows have been our foundation to move to our next step. Our teachers have completed their mission and successfully prepared us for middle school. Our future experiences will be influenced from the exciting and moving moments that we cherish from the elementary years. Although we cannot go back to relive the moments we have spent together, we will remember them forever. During the upcoming years we will encounter difficult tasks but those will only make us stronger. We have to look forward to this new beginning. We must work hard, enjoy and above all, we must always stand together and united as we are today. The change we will face is not an easy one. As every other class before us we have been the oldest and the roles models for the little ones. Now, we will enter a new stage in which we will be the youngest and the new kids on the block. As we live new experiences, we must be prepared to win or lose. As long as we make the best of it, we will not regret it when looked back. Today we close a chapter of our school life. Tomorrow we begin writing another. Let us make that writing on our new chapter an interesting one. Thank you for being part of this class and let’s enjoy our future together.

John Locke outlinect Essay

â€Å"Rationalism is the thought that appeals to reason or intellect a primary or fundamental source of knowledge or justification. † â€Å"It is typically contrasted with empiricism, which appeals to sensory experience as a primary or fundamental source of knowledge or justification. † John Locke argues that, â€Å"We come to this world knowing nothing whatsoever. † (Warburton 74). He believes that experience teaches us everything we know. This view is usually known as empiricism, in contrast to innatism, (the theory that some of our knowledge is in born), and to  rationalism (the strife that we can achieve knowledge of the world by the power of reason alone). ?Locke’s essay â€Å"Human Understanding† published in 1689, soon became a philosophical bestseller. He produced four editions of it in his lifetime, and it had already reached its eleventh by 1735. This book is complex and wide ranging work; its main focus is the origin and limits of human knowledge. He tries to answer these questions. * what can we know? * What is the relation between thought and reality? These are real the perennial questions of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or the theory of knowledge. ?Locke described his role as that of an underlabourer , clearing away conceptual confusions so that the scientists, or natural philosophers, as they were then known, could carry on their important work of adding to human knowledge. (Warburton 75). ? No innate principle 1. Locke does not believe that it makes sense to say that someone could be having a thought without their knowing what that thought was about. He rejects any idea of unconscious thoughts as nonsensical. A) One argument he uses to support his claim that there are no innate principles is that it is obvious that there is not total agreement about what the supposedly innate  principles might be. If we were all born knowing that, for example, we should keep our promises, then everyone would recognize this as fundamental principle. But, as Locke points out, there is no such general agreement. (Warburton 76). Nor do children immediately recognize the principle as one binding on them. Locke continues to argue that there is no innate principle aside from the principle that is taught and learnt. ?Locke supports his idea by saying, if there were innate principles then children must strongly abide by them since adults have already influenced by the culture and people. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ These and other arguments lead Locke to reject the view that there are any innate principles. This led him with the task of explaining how it is that the human mind comes to be furnished with thoughts, beliefs, and knowledge of the world. His answer is that all our ideas come from experience. Ideas Locke uses the word idea to mean whatever it is that anyone thinks about. When you look out of your window, what you see – a tree perhaps, or a sparrow – is not the tree or sparrow itself, but rather representation of it, an idea, something like a picture in your head. (Warburton 76). Locke believes that not all our ideas are received from immediate sensation of the world. Some of them are ideas of reflection, such as when we reason, or remember or will do something. Locke believes that all our ideas ultimately come from experience, so that the contents of our thoughts, even when we are reflecting rather than perceiving, all come from sensation. Example: A child locked away would have no more idea of scarlet and green than he would of the taste of  oyster or pineapple if he had never tried them. Ideas can be combined in several ways, so that once we have the idea of scarlet and the idea of a coat, we can imagine a scarlet coat, even if we’ve never actually seen one. But the simpler ideas from which the complex ones are built all originate in perception by one or more of the five senses. ( Warburton 77). Primary and Secondary Qualities When we say that a snowball is greyish-white and cold and round, what we mean is that it can produce in us ides of these properties. Locke distinguishes primary and secondary qualities , giving a very different account of each. -Primary qualities are inseparable from objects. The primary qualities of a snowball would include its shape and solidity, but not its color or its coldness. Solidity and shapes are more likely to remain constant at place over time. – Secondary qualities would be color and coldness because its coldness can be changed at a different room temperature while different light settings can give shade to whatever object of your concentration that in a way gives you an illusion view of what you’re actually watching. Personal Identity.

Possible Problems in Air Arabia's Future Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Possible Problems in Air Arabia's Future - Essay Example and Europe tourist trade, where travelers are more affected by high oil prices than are local travelers. Low-cost airlines have been able to supply routes previously unserved or underserved by traditional network airlines, with local customers taking advantage of low cost. What are the factors that allow an airline to compete successfully with ticket prices It is necessary for an airline like Air Arabia to look to their competition and find ways to offer lower prices than any other airline and still maintain customer satisfaction (Sector; Air). 1. "No frills" services such as not serving food on board or by charging customers for food and drink. Air Arabia maintains competitive pricing by offering a single class with a simple fare structure, and by charging money for on-board food, drinks, and headsets through agreements with various companies to sell consumer items on board, thereby providing a good complimentary income to the low cost model. By focusing on short direct flights, it might not even be necessary to offer food at all (Air 19). 3. Creating package deals through cooperation with hotels and car rental companies.

Assesment instrumnt in diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Assesment instrumnt in diversity - Essay Example On the other hand, Pre-employment Assessment gives the company an idea or a glimpse on the nature of the person that they are about to hire. All if not majority of companies are using pre-employment assessment to prevent hiring mistakes and losing their money down the drain. In a survey of recent college graduates, 95% said they would be willing to make a false statement in their rà ©sumà ©s in order to get a job. Forty-one percent admitted they had already done so, according to a report in Nations Business (Profiles International, 2010). Now let us compare and contrast the two forms of assessment. Both gives a glimpse on the personal and professional performance of a certain individual. It shows the individual’s strength and weaknesses. The difference of career exploration assessment from the Pre-employment assessment is the purpose of the assessment. The purpose of the career exploration assessment is to give the individual a glimpse on what kind of career would suit his or her personality and skills. It was taken by the individual himself/herself through self-efficacy – usually for his/her own professional growth and career choice. While the Pre-employment was given by the company to the individual who wants to be a part of that profession. The purpose of this assessment is to let the company have a glimpse whether the individual that they are about to hire has the skills, personality, and attitude needed for the job. Two issues that may be encountered in using a career exploration assessment are: it’s fairness in a multi-cultural setting and it’s validity and reliability. First, is it’s fair when we look in the light of a multi-cultural setting? What is the assurance that the questionairres that is being used gathered the same kind of data no matter what the culture of a certain test taker is? Would the result be true across culture? Secondly, is it’s validity and reliability. There are times when the test

Marketing Planning and Strategy (M7_1) Assignment

Marketing Planning and Strategy (M7_1) - Assignment Example This has the effect of cost reduction and improved productivity through learning and experience curve and overall increased market command from brand consistency. Most customers in all products in the world opt for a user friendly products and the car manufacturing industry is not an exceptional. In the car firms, comfort, safety, reliability and convenience rules the market. In that respect, Sync technology is a superb feature that is incorporating all the above stated factors plus many others that no any car firm in the globe can rival. It should therefore be noted that this is has given Ford a competitive edge above the others (Pride & Ferrell, 2012).Due to the increasing social economics adjustments in the society, women are rapidly joining the work force and they wield a lot of influence with their particular influence in the market for small car. The rising cost of fuel is also pushing people to go for the small cars as a cost cutting strategy and all these has made Ford invest in small cars hence greater market

Human resource management policies implemented by Watsons Engine Assignment

Human resource management policies implemented by Watsons Engine Components - Assignment Example However there are factors which resist effective management of human resource. In this study, theoretical frameworks have also been incorporated to better analyze HRM policies and functions. A critical perspective for human resource management helps in determining the need for strategic HR planning to enhance company performance. The report will even highlight certain recommendations for Watsons at the end which can be implemented to reduce problems observed within the organization. Various approaches of human resource management are outlined in this study and each of them has a significant impact on workforce productivity. Human resource management is an organizational function structured to maximize employee performance. The major objective of this function is to meet objectives of employer. Management of human resource is related to developing systems and policies for effectively managing workforce in an organization. The units and departments of HR are responsible for employee re cruitment, performance appraisal, training and development and even rewarding. HR is associated with industrial relations, or rather balancing governmental laws and collective bargaining regulations with organizational practices. In 20th century, human relations movement framed the concept of human resource management. Researchers worked on this concept and stated that strategic management of workforce can create competitive advantage for a business.

Reflective log of report Outline Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflective log of report - Outline Example udgment is essential for making entrepreneurial marketing decisions, specifically for marketing decisions that impact customer dimensions, opportunity analysis, levels of provided services, and product ranges. In relation to the report, this competency helps in the identification of market opportunities for the Audi E1, as well as the ability to assess opportunities with scarce resources. In addition, judgment competency helps the entrepreneur to weigh the market opportunity for the Audi E1 against other alternatives that could emerge. Judgment in making this decision for entrepreneurs is usually based on experience, intuition, and hunch, which means that the entrepreneur must show high product knowledge levels (Uslay & Ndubisi, 2014: p16). Another competency required for entrepreneurial marketers in the decision-making stage is the experience competency, which is linked to the previous judgment competency. This competency is important in relation to specific business fields, for instance knowledge of who major players in the electric vehicle industry. Moreover, another important aspect of this competency can be seen in the level of confidence that an entrepreneur’s experience wealth will allow them to make predictions on whether customers of electric cars might react unfavourably or favourably in specific circumstances (Bjerke & Hultman, 2012: p24). This vital competence and how it is expressed is refreshing in this case because it is indicative of the entrepreneur ability to utilize, enrich, and enhance their experience via proactive marketing. Therefore, this competency is dynamic in that it can be enriched and refined constantly with every marketing experience. As a result, previous entrepreneurship marketin g experience came into play during the present activity, increasing the entrepreneur’s competency to deal with increasing numbers of marketing decisions. When the workload is heavy, for example, the competency of experience enables accurate

Love is Submission and Sacrifice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Love is Submission and Sacrifice - Essay Example If a person who reads this story is doubtful of Mabel's and Jack's love for each other simply because they do not believe in love at first site, one must consider the fact that, in actuality, they did know each other since long though their previous encounters were formal until they meet at the stream. This story leads us to wonder how long they had really harbored this love for each other. How long had these feelings thrived before bursting at its seams, surprising even Mabel and Jack who experienced them It is very hard to believe their love would unfold so suddenly and dramatically after they seemed to have known each other for so long. There are many different ways their love, if it truly was love, could have manifested. In order to understand Mabel and Jack's capability of love, we must first understand them as people, what their lives were like and the circumstances in which they lived. Mabel in particular seems to have had a harsh life. The author describes her as being a short, sulky young woman with an impressive fixity to her face. He also describes her as being "alone." Since she wasn't friendly with her brothers, there was a lack of affection between them; this is evident when the author states; "There was a strange air of ineffectuality about the three men", ".keeping the home together in penury for her ineffectual brothers" (Lawrence). The author also shows the hatred of the three men towards their sister when, the brothers address Mabel with harsh language "go as a skivvy", " the sulkiest bitch that ever trod." The author has attributed this to her tolerating nature when he states " they had talked at her and around her for so many years, that she hardly heard them at all" (Lawrence). Sad ly, to add to Mabel's depressing situation, she had no friends or colleagues of her own except her sister Lucy, who had married and moved away. Mabel's loneliness did not seem to trouble her because before their father died and left them in huge debts, she was still alone; the only difference was that she was well off financially, and that made her proud and reserved, "but so long as there was money, the girl felt herself established and brutally proud, reserved." She had many servants earlier who used to take care of the house but now that she was left alone in all these years of poverty, she managed to look after the house until the debt their father had left to them had prevailed and everything, including their house was taken over. Mabel had felt self-sufficient but now that everything had come to an end she still has a certain pride "animal pride" that was unstealable. She has a strong character that would never compromise how harsh and difficult situations may be. "Still she would not cast about her, she would follow her own way just the same, and she would always hold the key of her situation". Even now when the situa tion was forcing to give away her pride and asking her to submit herself to others, she made her mind to end life and never bend down in front of others to what the author has described as " glorification of herself ". The pride in her had taken over her sensibility so much that death seemed more appealing then her current situation. However, in the end it is evident that her new life had softened her, she had lost her pride in the pond and now wanted to submit herself for love "she shuffled forward on her knees, put her arms around him." She had changed completely in her new

Fascist Government Essay Example for Free

Fascist Government Essay Fascist government is better compared to a communism government in that it seeks the reality of the society on strength and weaknesses of nations.   Historically, fascist governments opposed the class conflicts and emphasized that they would forever exist. Though fascists have been used pejoratively in the present setting, it is clear that communism was worse in history as it advocated for classless and stateless society that declared allegiance to the Marxism-Leninism a notion that was impossible to apply.   It is no doubt that communism orientation of social organization where totalitarians dominated and above all, the self perpetuating political party system was the major cause for excessive anarchy like that experienced under the soviet rule. Overview This paper explores fascist government as the better option to communism with greater focus on the historical events.   Through use of questions and answers, the paper explores the principles and theoretical considerations of the two systems of government.   It compares the major occurrences under the two systems of the government to support the thesis statements.   With reference to the period of application, the paper gives a clear analysis of the logistics behind the fascists’ governments as opposed to the communist administration. Questions and answers What are the principles of communism and how effectively did communism governments apply them? Communism government is guided by the main principle of a society that is egalitarian and classless mainly based on common ownership and control of the production means. The principles call for a stateless society with a form of government that declares allegiance to Marxism-Leninism.   Application of communism has and is always controversial in that the well outlined principles form a reciprocating platform for abuse by the same governments. Remarkably, it is communism that has made USSR to be remembered for its ruthlessness when dealing with the community.   In 1928, Joseph Stalin application of communism which he claimed to be directly under his predecessor Lenin innovation, were borne of mayhem and anarchy.   It was marred with extra judicial killings, spying and elimination of the political opponents (Lauren, 173-177). As indicated by fascism, it was important to acknowledge the need for the classes in the society as they were the ones that bore them.   Fascist governments therefore applied the correct principles of the time that were bound on the desire to grow and expand beyond their boundaries.   Though application of the survival for the fittest in the human realms was a major shenanigan, fascism has been credited for creating nationalism and enhancing identity.   Sir Osward Mosley, the leader of British Union of Fascists emphasized that communism was a major cause of suppression for democracy it claimed to advocate (Daniels, 38-45). What were the consequences of communism and abolishing private property ownership to ensure equality? Communism was mainly directed at seeking communal ownership of the production systems in the society.   Under this system however, the government was given a better operating platform to practice massive corruption to the people.   Though the concept was initially well thought of, its application mostly presented the reciprocal a notion that made the whole system to become a failure.   The death of Karl Marx at end of the 19th century has been cited to be the possible end of real communism. Historians indicate that fascist governments rose as a response to the events of World War I, a notion that cited the possible fallouts in democracy and liberalism for their favor of individualism or internationalism.   Historically, this concept was faulty and saw the establishments of the fascist governments like in Italy (Furet and Furet, 178-188). How effective was the system and what were the repercussions? Application of communism was a bloody notion that had far much reaching implication even to the current society.   During the World War II, the communists consolidated power through massive blood shed in most of the Eastern Europe.   In Russia, the struggle by many countries to get independence never bore fruits until the international community intervened later in the 20th century.   Though communist governments claimed to be borne by the people themselves, it is however ironical that most of the third world colonies that adopted the communist ideals like Cambodia, Lao, and Angola are still among the poorest in the world. Though fascist government promoted the growth of their empire beyond their own territories, they supported the nationalism and were mainly driven by charismatic leaders.   This gave the notion of the great capacity of the fascism governments to rationally reason out their application policies.   Nakano Seigo of Japan noted that fascist governments had the capacity to practice democracy than did communist governments (Furet Furet Deborah, 186-190).

Unions And The Hotel Industry Management Essay

Unions And The Hotel Industry Management Essay While trade unions have been a significant factor for workers in the United States, beginning in the late 18th century and peaking in 1945 when 35 percent of the non-agricultural workforce was unionized, it is no secret that the membership of trade unions in the private sector has significantly been declining. The reason for decline may be the globalization of products, completion with overseas competition with overseas manufacturers causing a decline in sales; and work may be. Several studies point to compositional changes in the U.S. labor force in terms of demographic, industrial, or occupational factors (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). In addition, the cost of union workers have also become so expensive that it may be difficult for some industries to compete. Recently both Chrysler and General Motors went through bankruptcies primarily to regain the ability to compete by disavowing union contracts which impose specific wages and benefits that the company said they could no longer afford. While the service/hospitality industry in the past was a weak section of the union movement, it is now seen a ripe target for the unions to increase their membership (Source.. BLS). Given the low wages, poor job security, lack of trust of corporations and managers, and for many English not being their first language (which often increases the fear of asking for something), it was only a matter of time that hotel workers would embrace the idea and welcome someone coming in and saying they can make their life better with increased, wages, benefits and working conditions. It should be noted that even with the decline of numbers, unions are still an influential force. (Silverman, Jacob. how Labor Unions Work. June 2007. How Stuff Works.http://money.how stuff works.com/labor.union.htm June 26 2010 and it hopes to be an influential force within the hospitality industry. John Wilhelms said What workers in this industry need, what the country needs is a permanent campaign to do in the service sector what we did in the manufacturing 70 years ago: transform low-wage work into decent jobs that give people the opportunity to make it into the middle class. (Source). With all this being said the large percentage of hotel workers are not union members yet. In fact approximately 8% of hospitality workers are union members. However, with the new CARD CHECK, and the feeling of powerlessness in their employment, time is coming. But the question is why? Every hotelier knows that people are our business and people are our greatest resource to profits, yet many in the hospitality industry have forgotten about their prime asset, their workers This paper reviews certain key human relations practices at leading luxury hotel companies and the goals and methods of the leading trade union representing hotel and hospitality workers in the United States and Canada. The purpose is to assess whether the HR practices employed by leading luxury hotel companies are compatible with the goals and methods of the leading hospitality union. In this paper we will look at the unions within the hospitality industry, goals of the employees and the methods the leading trade union representing hotel and hospitality workers in the United States are using. We will also look at leading luxury hotel companies, some of which have been named in the top 100 companies to work, and assess whether the HR practices employed by leading luxury hotel companies are compatible with the goals and methods of the leading hospitality union. (Fortune). The objective herein is to assess whether the human resource practices employed by these hotels are compatible with those of the unions is to provide an understanding of unions within the hospitality industry as well as to assess whether these leading luxury hotels human resource practices are compatible with the goals of the unions. The questions are: a) with good human resource practices do we need unions and b) if unions are here to stay, can we work as partners with benefit to both industries. To achieve these goals, this paper will first provide a short history of unions which will include the methods of which they are presently using to increase membership of the hotel workers. We will look at the specific goals of the employees and how it relates to unions within the industry; how lack of attaining these goals may be impacting the industry. The luxury hotels we focus on are Marriott and the Four Seasons. Review of Union History Unions in the United States date back to the 18th century, with its first strike by the printers in New York City, in 1794. The issues then were not much different from today; a shorter work week and an increase in wages. The idea of coming to together to achieve a common goal was began to take hold in the 1800s. Workers as a Federation were seeking shorter work hours, from a 12 to 10 hour work week. In the beginning of the 20th century the union membership rose to 6.78 percent of workers to 13.24 percent in 1936. In 1945, shortly after World War II and a booming economy, the unions reached their peak with 35% of the industrial and manufacturing work force becoming members. Even the great hotels in large American Cities were unionized at that time. (Summer 2006). Unions and the Hotel Industry While during the peak of the labor movement, great hotels in American Cities were unionized, today approximately 8% of hotel workers belong to a union. Even considering the general decline in union members, the gap is quite significant. What happened? Characteristically hotel workers are low paid, work for tips, and due to large turnover they are not around long enough to be in a bargaining position throughout their career. Considering that at that time they did not fit the conventional union pattern, unions went on to the automotive, industrial, and manufacturing sectors. However, with the outsourcing of materials, competitive products from overseas and loss of dominance from many of the manufacturing and industrial industries, these industries are not as prominent as they once were. It appears that what once caused the service industry to be neglected by unions, now may be become their holy grail (Sherwyn, Eigen and Wagner, 2006à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.The Hotel Industrys Summer of 2006) UN ITE AND HERE joined forces to become UNITE HERE in 2004 and are putting 50% of their national budget to organize the non organized as that is their goal and main focus. ((Sherwyn, Eigen and Wagner, 2006à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.The Hotel Industrys Summer of 2006) UNITEs John Wilhelms said What workers in this industry need, what the country needs is a permanent campaign to do in the service sector what we did in the manufacturing 70 years ago: transform low-wage work into decent jobs that give people the opportunity to make it into the middle class. (Source). Why do the workers of the hospitality industry want to organize? Everyone wants their fair share of the pie and power comes with numbers. What they want is improved wages, better working hours, better working condition, benefits and job security. It is interesting to note that while the hospitality membership is growing in the United States, Great Britain still has difficulty unionizing this group. The reasons are similar, low pay, low j ob security, high labor turnover and arbitrary management. Current interviews with managers in Scotland concurred early studies that there is tension by the managers as well as reluctance to accept a need for union for union representation. In fact they believe that unions are irrelevant. What do hotel workers want that they feel the unions can get for them? What do they want and what goals does the Union have for them? Better Wages, job security, safe environment to work and respect. Since the 1980s the hotel industry has been steadily growing. Even with the glitch after 9/11, the industry is growing, yet the salaries of hotel workers are not keeping up. The median salary of most hotel workers like, housekeepers, doormen, servers, bell hops have not kept up with the median salary of the average U.S. worker. (This of course is without tips). Moreover, the gap between the high earner and low earner in this industry has grown wider and wider, creating more anger and distrust towards management. Back in 2000, for hotel service workers, the median wage was $8.62 per hour, $3.41 per hour below the overall median hourly wage of $12.03 (These wages may not include tips for such workers as waiters and waitresses, bartenders, and bellhops.) The wage gap between high- and low-wage hotel workers has grown during the last two decades. In 1979, high-wage hotel workers earned 240 percent of what their low-wage counterparts earned and in 2000, 325 percent of what their low wage counterpart workers earned. Moreover, the disparity between high and low wage earners was larger in the hospitality industry that in several others even if the overall wage levels are similar, including meatpacking, nursing homes, building services, laundry services, department stores, grocery stores, and child care. (Bureau of Statistics) Even more disparaging are the non-supervisory hotel employees salary with the CEOs of a number of chains these people work for. For example, the Hyatt CEO earns 3,670,913 per year which calculates to $1,835.46 per hour; Starwoods ($ 8,240,034 per year/ $4,120.02 per hour); Marriott ($4,280,311 per year/$2,140.16 per hour) and Wyndham ($6,095,801/ $3,047.90 per hour. Source: Proxy Statements for annual meetings filed with US Securities and Exchange Commission available at: www.sec.gov With regards to a safe environment; blue collar and service workers have a higher risk of injury, work related injuries and exposure to chemicals. (Public Health Reports/September 2007/Volume 122 670-679). Without a union, many service workers may never get the opportunity to express their concerns and needs regarding their job related health issues. However, with the union behind the worker, a 40 year old immigrant from Aguascalientes, Mexico was able to do just that. As part of a campaign to raise awareness regarding health perils in the hotel housekeeping, she will be able to improve her workplace environment and will not have to trade their health for any wage. Housekeepers have a high rate of pain with some having to take pain pills before going to work. In addition the rate of injury among housekeepers is almost twice as much as other service workers. Because this worker is in a unionized hotel, she can now seek medical health, where others working in a non unionized environmen t have no insurance, thus impeding their ability to obtain care. Opportunities to improve the health of a worker is a benefit to not only management but to the public as well. This was further demonstrated in a study reported by in Public Health Reports. (Public Health Reports/ September October 2007. Even though every employer has to follow the Occupational Safety Health Act, the environment can sometimes be unsafe and unhealthy; such has cleaning materials and second hand smoke. Union Contract Provisions Reviewing the union contract between Sunstone Hotel Properties, Inc. and UNITE HERE Local 21 of Rochester, Minnesota for the period September 5, 2005 through August 31, 2010, a number of the hotel workers goals were addressed with standard provisions concerning wages, overtime, benefits, seniority, termination only for cause, and grievance procedures. In addition, there are some provisions which reflect the unique nature of hotel operations. A Guest Service addendum states that premiere guest service is essential to the success of the hotel and provides progressive discipline up to discharge for poor, rude or discourteous guest service. This addendum also requires the hotel to train the employees in providing premiere guest service and allows termination of employees who fail the course or tests concerning the hotels service standards. ( Conflicts with between union and employer Successful luxury hotels such as Four Seasons and Marriott know that their employees are their greatest asset. They seek to embrace their employees into their family and have a culture of caring, open communication, fair resolution of disputes, innovative staffing initiatives and supportive management. Unions also consider the employees as their asset and seek to insinuate into the relationship and communication process between the employer and the employee and tend to stifle creative problem solving by the formal grievance procedure and the desire for uniformity. Creative staffing is also more difficult due to the union work rules. The hotels want to embrace their employees into their corporate culture and family. The union seeks to have the employees consider the union as their family and necessary to protect them from the employer. Some hotels have more difficult labor relations than others. In its 2009 initial public offering prospectus, Hyatt Corporation identified one of the major risk factors of its business as, Negotiations of collective bargaining agreements, or changes in labor legislation, could disrupt our operations, increase our labor costs or interfere with the ability of our management to focus on executing our business strategies. Hyatt is now the subject of a nationwide boycott due to the firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston after replacing them with minimum wage temporary workers. Resource Functions and Unions Impact A review of the literature notes via surveys, conferences, that human resource issues remain the most frequently noted area of concern. Much of the literature suggests that human resources is the central area of concern. Among a number of the issues within this area are retention and job satisfaction. According to one survey conducted in 2008, hotel managers. What one or two problems or concerns are most troubling to you as a manager? A total of 243 individuals from over sixty countries participated and the most frequently identified area of concern is human resources issues, such as attraction, retention, training and development of the industrys workforce Human resources are key to grown the overwhelming sentiment, similar to a paper written seven years earlier. (March 2009; Cornell Hospitality Report) A major human resource concern in the hospitality industry is the large turnover. Every time an employee leaves there are costs connected to new training, loss of productivity and loss of knowledge (Tracey Hinki 20606). With this in mind it would only behoove the companys to provide an exit interview to find out where the problem lies. (Tracey Hinkin, 2008) In another study indicated that while job satisfaction, extrinsic rewards, constituent attachments, organizational commitment and organizational prestige were the most frequently mentioned . However, what it is noteworthy is that those employees who were non hourly and high perormers were more likely to endorse advancement opportunities and prestige as reasons for remaining with the firm. On the other hand, low performers and hourly employees were more likely to choose extrinsic rewards as the reason or staying. With regards to unions and its impact on retention, non union personnel were more likely to leave if they were not satisfied, while union employees may indicate poor satisfaction but with no intent to leave. This indicates that the voice given to employees by the union was significant (Friedman, etal 2007) People are our most important commodity. Steven Porter, urged accountability from HR and senior leadership on people-related issues..Its not the bricks and morter. Its not the creativity. Its the people He also basically told more than 600 people that if this industry does not pay well we should at least do a better job of respecting individuals, engaging the heart of employees and expanding their horizons. On partnering with Unions interests are much great stated Christopher T. Chee, managing director of an equity firm that invests heavily in the hotel industry and further stated that partnership with unions is more productive than not. labor is a huge issue in hotels President of UNITE-HERE said both employers and unions will be losers unless they join together to create good public policy. And the (Human Resource Executive Online-Story:2010) Our employees are our most important commodity, satisfied employees..satisfied customers result is increased revenue. People are our most important resource If we are in the people business, shouldnt we know how to make our own employees satisfied and committed; do we need unions for this? Conclusion To provide superb customer service luxury hotels must motivate their employees to give more than the minimum level of effort to their jobs. They must build a culture where each employee is motivated to provide an extra level of effort. Although unions are seeking the best for their members the union culture with its us versus them confrontational style is not designed to encourage the level of engagement need by luxury hotels. If a hotel is focused on the employees well being, open communication, and a general sense of care and really direct their energy on taking care of their employees first, then the entire purpose of the union would cease to exist.  Not every hotel is willing or able to provide employees with the types of benefits and environment that will increase employee job satisfaction and retention.  This may due to competitive reasons or the desire to generate superior economic returns for the owners and management.   The unions may be able to help the employees of s uch ventures.  Ã‚  They will not be successful at luxury hotels with progressive employee relations models.

Web-base Quality Management Systems

Web-base Quality Management Systems Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Defining Quality, History and Achieving International Quality Standards Quality is a perceptual, conditional and somewhat subjective attribute and may be understood differently by different people in different spheres of life. It is a degree or grade of excellence or worth, a characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of something or totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. In recent years, many organisations have adopted quality management systems to improve the quality of both goods and services through the application of efficient quality management methods and principles (Feigenbaum, 2000). The reason why so many organisations have started on the journey is either because of customer pressure for ISO 9000 certification or because the firms themselves have realised the strategic advantage of having this certificate, i.e. it would give them an edge over their competitors. Most of the firms which started out on the journey to ISO 9000 still may not have completed that journey. In general, it takes 2 years, and obtaining this coveted certificate is only a first step towards the ultimate goal: total quality management (TQM). Reaching this goal may take at least 5 years. In the next sections of the dissertation we will take a closer look at the characteristics of the different quality management systems. In this section, we concentrate on the concept of quality itself. We start with the two types of quality, namely: Objective quality, which is simply the products total number of quality attributes. Subjective quality, which is a result of the consumers experience of the products objective attributes. Subjective quality is thus defined as the degree of fulfillment of consumers expectations (Feigenbaum, 2000). Beyond the customers desirable expectations, there are always the customers latent expectations. Manufacturers and the service providers must therefore find the hidden expectations in order to keep the customer satisfied. It is subjective quality which matters to the company, and it is this definition which Deming used in his renowned eight-day quality seminars for Japanese top managers in 1950. Demings message to them was simple but powerful: The consumer is the most important part of the production line. The idea that customers should be seen as a part of the production line was in itself a revolutionary one at that time. A logical conclusion is that quality production is only possible if it is systematically and continuously based on customer desires and needs. It is simple in theory but difficult in practice because there are many obstacles to overcome along the way. Demings 14 points, which we have taken the liberty of calling stations along the way, are among the most important means of overcoming these obstacles. You may ask this important question: Why have the Japanese been better at understanding Demings message than the Western world? There are many reasons for this, but one of the most intriguing reasons may be found in the Japanese language, and thus in Japanese culture. In the Japanese language, quality management can be translated as quality is equal to the attributes of the things (i.e. what peoples talk about). This interpretation results in the following definition of quality management: Control of the attributes of a product which consumers talk about. To understand why consumers talk about a products attributes, we will delve into motivation theory. Herzberg has divided motivation into two factors: Factors which create satisfaction (satisfiers). Factors which create dissatisfaction (dissatisfiers). Similarly, many objective attributes of a product or service can be categorised. We may talk about the basic attributes that the consumer expects when he/she buys the product. If these are not present in sufficient quantities, the consumer experiences dissatisfaction. If the expected attributes are present, naturally the consumer is satisfied, but the interesting and crucial thing is that the degree of satisfaction will not necessarily be particularly high. The experience will be more or less neutral. Apart from the attributes which the customer expects to find, it is always possible to build attributes into the product or service which the customer does not expect to find, i.e. attributes which will delight or satisfy him/her. The more of these attributes that are present in the product or services, the greater the satisfaction, and this satisfaction will, in many cases, increase significantly. We call these attributes value-added quality. However, in Japan they use the term charming quality, whereas in the US they interpret this as exciting quality. We believe that value-added quality covers both. One example of expected quality in air travel is safety. Korean Air lost its reputation as a quality airline in the wake of the tragic incident of a passenger airline being shot down over Soviet territory. Prior to this incident, Korean Air was rated as one of the top quality airlines in the world. Afterwards, Korean Airs quality ratings dropped significantly. In our view, the only thing which can adequately explain this is that Korean Air had failed to deliver the customers expected quality. As an example of value-added quality, let us consider the added service offered by ISS Laundry Service, a subsidiary of International Service Systems (ISS). This company which, among other activities, changes bed-linen in hotel rooms, suddenly had an idea. As they were there to change the sheets, they might as well see if anything else needed doing, e.g. small repairs, changing light-bulbs, etc., and report this to the hotel management. This unexpected service, which hardly costs ISS anything, created an enormous amount of goodwill for the company among its customers. The understanding behind Demings assertion, that the consumer is the most important aspect of the production line, lies precisely in the subjective definition of quality, which we will be discussing in this dissertation. The introduction of quality management theory towards the end of the 1980s led to the development of a new concept called total quality. This concept was defined as follows (Kanji, 2002): Qualityis to satisfy customers requirements continuously. Total qualityis to achieve quality at low cost. Total quality managementis to obtain total quality by involving everyones daily commitment. These definitions will become clearer as we proceed through the dissertation. The objective of TQM is to improve continuously each and every activity in the company focusing on the customer. Every product has some deficiency, i.e. risks for making customers dissatisfied. These deficiencies must be continually eliminated and, at the same time, the firm must ensure that its product or service always incorporate the quality attributes which satisfy its customers. 1.2 Total quality management The concept of TQM is a logical development of total quality control (TQC), a concept first introduced by A. V. Feigenbaum in 2000 in a book of the same name. Though Feigenbaum had other things in mind with TQC, it only really caught on in engineering circles, and thus never achieved the total acceptance in British companies that was intended. TQC was a hit in Japan, on the other hand, where the first quality circles were set up in 1962, which later developed into what the Japanese themselves call company-wide quality control (CWQC). this is identical to what people in the West today call TQM. One of the main reasons for the failure of TQC in British companies was a management misconception that responsibility for implementing TQC could be delegated to a central quality department. In doing so, management overlooked one of the most important points in TQC, namely managements wholehearted commitment to quality improvements. The aim of the new concept, TQM, is to ensure that history does not repeat itself. Thus, management have been directly included in the definition of the concept, making it impossible for them to avoid their responsibility. To include the word management here sends an unmistakable signal straight into executive offices that this is a job for top management, including the board of directors. TQM will be further discussed in following chapters. Chapter 2 Quality Perspectives The inadequacy of traditional management in UK Japan Traditional British forms of management are based on a philosophy which divides responsibility for decisions into strategic, tactical and operational levels, i.e. the so-called management pyramid. We now know that this management conception is totally inadequate for modern, complex companies, since it does not give the connection between top management and the main processes at the bottom responsible for customer satisfaction. As a result, the management is ignorant of the real problems on the operational level, and do not provide the support and backing that the operation level needs for the creation of customer satisfaction (Feigenbaum, 2000). The decisions which cascade down from top management are often exclusively budgetary in nature, containing instructions which are forced on lower levels without due consideration of their problems. Many local branches of a bank have similar experiences. A typical example of this was noted after some Danish bank mergers took place at the, end of the 1980s. Branch managers of these banks received orders by internal post to cut staff numbers by a certain figure with no indication of how this could be achieved without drastically reducing the quality of products and services offered to their customers. Hiromoto (2002) describes this as management by terrorism. In discussing British and Japanese management philosophy, Konosuke Matsushita, founder of one of the worlds biggest companies, Matsushita Electric (Panasonic, National, Technics, etc.), said: We are going to win and the industrial West is going to lose out: theres nothing much you can do about it, because the reasons for your failure are within yourselves. Your firms are built on the Taylor model; even worse, so are your heads. With your bosses doing the thinking while the workers wield the screwdrivers, youre convinced deep down that this is the right way to run a business. For you, the essence of management is getting the ideas out of the heads of the bosses into the hands of labour. (p). Hoinville (2002) feels that the emphasis of managements commitment has its origin in the system, the reason for quality defects. It has been estimated that 85% of all defects are caused by system errors, i.e. errors which only management has the authority to change. Management must show by its actions that it has understood the message. It must constantly strive to reduce system errors by setting up quality goals, drawing up quality policies and quality plans, and participating actively in the follow-up auditing phase. Finally, management must concede its own lack of knowledge in the quality field and take the lead in acquiring new knowledge. If management does all this, it will have created a firm foundation on which future quality can be built. Conversely, there would be little point in building quality on a shaky foundation. We have already pointed out that the customer is the most important part of the production line. Deming (2002) introduced this idea to top Japanese managers in 1950 by means of a basic outline of an arbitrary production system, or part of a production system. This outline, which must today be considered traditional, shows that both customer and supplier are part of the production system, and that information for improving this comes from two sources: consumer research and process tests. Since this outline also applies to an arbitrary sub-system, it shows that customer and supplier concepts embrace much more than just external customers and suppliers. Internal customers and suppliers, i.e. employees, are at least as important as the external ones. Any person, or process, which forms part of the production system must recognise that it serves a number of internal customers, and the quality of the output delivered to these customers is crucial to the end result, i.e. the quality of the output delivered to the external customer. Deming (2002) himself concedes that, in 1950, this was a formidable challenge for the Japanese top managers, but they accepted the challenge, and the result is there for us all to see today. In Demings words: A new economic age had begun. Today it is difficult to understand that such a simple message presented the Japanese with such a difficult challenge. Our experience of top managers is that they accept the message without question. However, this does not lessen the difficulty of the challenge, because it implies that firms traditional information systems are totally inadequate. A culture must be established to ensure that internal customer research functions just as well as external. Here, it is important to point out that internal analysis is based on entirely different principles from external analysis. Communication and team-building are the key words here. Obviously, the participation of top management is necessary in building up this culture. It can be seen that the Focus on the customer and the employee is much more comprehensive than just the focus on the customer, which is the norm in service management. The latter refers solely to external customers. The former, while including these, also stresses the internal customer/supplier relationship. This relationship is one of the most important innovations which TQM has introduced. Quality Management In Todays Era As we have discussed above that how the management of quality is vital to the output product of any organization it has made clear that without an excellent quality management system an organization can not implement total quality management. In todays era new ways of quality management have been introduced that can make quality management a much easier and effective job for the management body. Technology has been quiet advance in todays world and every organization is trying to get its hand on the most advance technology that can take it to a much higher level from its competitiors. A new emerging technology for managing quality in well established organizations is the use of Web-Based Quality Management Systems. Why this technology is vital today is beacuse of organizations expanding their businesses worldwide or operating at different geoghraphical locations. It is much easier to manage the quality in an organization that is operating at one location but if it has its operations going on at different locations it is much harder to implement and manage total quality management. But these new systems have overcome this gap by providing a centralized hub to manage the quality. No matter how scattered the operations of the organizations are and how many stake holders are involved, by implementing these systems organizations need not to worry about the distance and communication gap. Competition and cost consciousness on the one side an increasing demand for quality and reliability on the other side are contrary requirements in present production engineering. This must be considered also from the point of view of the international standards about quality management and quality assurance. The origins of quality management and quality assurance in a modern sense began in manufacturing organizations at about the beginning of the twentieth century [1], and many of the tools for quality analysis and improvement were developed for manufacturing problems. Through the 1980s, this manufacturing emphasis dominated the profession. In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, business began to recognise the importance of quality service in achieving customer satisfaction and competing in the global marketplace. In the late 1990s also the public domain and governmental departments became aware of the general importance of quality issues. In a very important sense, this recognition has expanded the definition and  concept of quality to include nearly any organisational improvement such as the reduction of manufacturing cycle time and improved worker skills. And also the public sector is now starting to take care of quality management within its structures. In addition to industrial organisations and the manufacturing industry also service organisations build up quality systems. Ancillary services in manufacturing companies as well as stand-alone service organisations such as hospitals and banks are beginning to realise the benefits of a focus on quality. A number of different industries are successively doing business around the globe and the quality systems that are availaible in the market does not mostly cater a specific industry and all of them provide different features, tools and options, so it is a complex decision to choose the best availaible solution from a wide range of variety. In this dissertation different availaible web-based quality management systems are reviewed and their shortnesses are pointed out and a model is proposed in the end that covers all gaps in the currently availaible systems. Chapter 2: Literature Review In this chapter literature review is carried out and analyzed that which tools and schemes are imperative for the management of quality and how they cooperate in the quality management. This will enable to know how different branches of an organization can be indulged with quality by using what sort of tools and how these tools can benifit any organization. â€Å"The approach to quality most extensively adopted by Western companies in recent years has been the application of national and international (ISO 9000 or equivalent) quality management standards. This approach is following firmly along the quality assurance path. It is more proactive than reliance on detection/inspection and allows for the use of quality tools primarily to stop non-conforming products being produced or non-conforming services being delivered in the first place. Hence there is a switch implied from detection to prevention via quality systems, procedures and a quality manual.† [18] 2.1 Quality Management Tools Techniques Numerous definitions and methodologies have been created to assist in managing the quality-affecting aspects of business operations. Many different techniques and concepts have evolved to improve product or service quality. Tools and techniques like charts, graphs, histograms and complex tools like Statistical Process Control, Quality Function Deployment, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis and Design of Experiments have been used for quality management for a number of years. All of these tools are very effective for quality evaluation and implementation when applied rightly and at correct situation. Juan Jose Tari and Vicente Sabater {Quality management tools} in their research on â€Å"Quality tools and Techniques† has outlined few important tools and techniques that can be luminously helping in managing and increasing organizations quality standards. The very basic tools, the management tools for quality and techniques for quality management are outlined in the table below: Basic Quality Management Tools Management Tools Techniques Cause Effect Diagram Affinity Diagram Benchmarking Check Sheet Arrow Diagram Design of Experiments Control chart Matrix Diagram FMEA Graphs Matrix Data Analysis Fault Tree Analysis Histoghram Process Decision Poka Yoke Pareto Diagram Program Chart Quality Costing Scatter Diagram Relations Diagram QFD Statistical Process Control Table 1 Quality Management Tools and Techniques Each indivisual tool has its own speciality and benifits the organization in its own manner. The implementation and benifits of few of these tools are discussed in the next section. 2.2 Quality Control, Assurance and Improvement The scholars of quality assume that the computer is only the linking force and they put less emphasis on it, and frequently do not consider at all, the modern practices linked to quality management such as employee involvement or continuous quality improvement. Indeed, they concentrate their attention on the computer integration/automation model.† But for quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement insists on involving all these aspects. {Good one} Quality control is defined as operational with activities aimed both at monitoring a process and eliminating causes of unsatisfactory performance for relevant stages of the quality loop to achieve economic effectiveness. Quality control is a technique to achieve, maintain and improve the quality standard of products and service. Defects or failures in constructed facilities or products can result in very large costs. {500} the emphasis on quality control is clear to achieve complete quality management and for this quality control tools are vital to be implemented. Quality improvement requires improvement of processes in process based quality improvement approach. To improve the quality hence several inspection tools can be applied to access the processes and find the ways to improve it to get better and better results. Also the basic goal of using quality control techniques is to streamline the manufacturing system by minimizing the occurrence of quality related problems. Most of the time, problems related to quality of products have many controllable sources, be it the vendors of raw materials, equipment used to process such materials, methods used for processing, the personnel involved or any other specific source as identified by the organization. {800} has suggested following significant tools for the quality management in respect of each quality component: Quality Control Quality Assurance Quality Improvement Statistical process control Regression Process capability analysis, Rule-based reasoning (Expert Systems) Factor analysis Pareto analysis Model-based reasoning and case-based reasoning Cause and effect diagram Process mapping, design of experiments Failure Mode and Effect Analysis Quality function deployment Design of Experiments Design of experiments Analysis of variance Table 1 Above mentioned tools when used in combinations as best suitable for the processes and enterprise could produce massive increase in overall performance of the organization. Few of these tools and their significance in quality managemet is illustrated below: 2.3 Statistical Process Control The appearance of computers on the shop floor has enhanced the increased adoption of SPC. Computers have greatly reduced the efforts required by production personnel to collect and analyze data.{very good journal} â€Å"High quality products and services, far from being random or probabilistic events, are actually anticipated and managed outcomes that can contribute to organizational survival in the marketplace. This realization has encouraged organizations to embrace and implement numerous approaches, some novel and some re-discovered, aimed at achieving the objective of continuous quality improvement. One popular and widespread implementation in the name of quality management is that of statistical process control, or SPC. [19] Statistical Process Control or SPC can be used in a organization for the quality control purpose. It when applied to a process gives the stability of that process which can eventually help in identifing the root causes and take corrective actions.â€Å"The basic goal of using quality control techniques is to streamline the manufacturing system by minimizing the occurrence of quality related problems. Most of the time, problems related to quality of products have many controllable sources, be it the vendors of raw materials, equipment used to process such materials, methods used for processing, the personnel involved or any other specific source as identified by the organization.†[20] SPC is an effective tool for controlling quality of a manufacturing process rather it can be applied to most of the processes in any organization and can aid in controlling the quality as per requirements. It identifies the sources that affects the quality of the process outputs and hence can be eradicated as identified. But there lies a problem with the use of it that is interpreting the results of SPC which can be only well understood by quality control specialists. This can create communication gaps and a lot of other misconceptions about its use. But still SPC is being used to control quality from a number of years and it has proved itself to be giving enormously positive results to the organizations. â€Å"The popularity of SPC as a quality management practice has been fostered, in part, by a wealth of publications ascribing quality and cost benefits to it. The literature is dominated by anecdotal â€Å"success† stories, attributing higher market share, lower failure costs, higher product quality, and higher productivity to the implementation and practice of SPC (Dondero, 1991). Reports of SPC failures, on the contrary, have been few and, again, case-oriented (Dale Shaw, 1991; Lightburn Dale, 1992).†[22] Evans and Lindsay (1989, pp. 313-3 14), define SPC to be a methodology using control charts for assisting operators, supervisors, and managers to monitor quality of conformance and to eliminate special causes of variability of a process a technique to control quality using probability and statistics to determine and maintain the state of statistical control.[23 Hence the advantages and effectiveness can well be understood from the above discussion and its can be c oncluded that SPC can play a major role in controling any process and eliminating any cause that disturbs the process as its main idea is to enable the quality of conformance to be monitored and special causes of process variability to be eliminated. 2.4 Failure Mode and Effect Analysis Failure Mode and Effect Analysis is tool that can be used to analyse the failures that can occur in the near future or after the implementation of the system and identify the effects that it would cause to the system. â€Å"Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is known to be a systematic procedure for the analysis of a system to identify the potential failure modes, their causes and effects on system performance. The analysis is successfully performed preferably early in the development cycle so that removal or mitigation of the failure mode is most cost effective. This analysis can be initiated as soon as the system is defined: FMEA timing is essential.† [24] 1 below shows some random forms as an example of FMEA version 1, 2 3 charts. For FMEA to be effective its is very important to use this tool in the early development phase as catching errors and fixing them in earlier stages is more effectual and less costly. FMEA can be implemented to the highest level of block diagram to the functions of the of the discrete components. Also FMEA can be used again and again as the design is developed. â€Å"The FMEA is an iterative process that is updated as the design develops. Design changes will require that relevant parts of the FMEA be reviewed and updated.† [24] Hence FMEA could play an imperative role in going for the process changing for improvement. The change planned for the process for improving it can be verified by the application of this technique. 2.5 Quality Function Deployment (QFD) QFD has been used along with the integration of other effective tools to achieve quality in processes and products, reducing cycle times and improving performance. {600} found out that in the span of the first seven years, between 1977 and 1984, the Toyota Auto body plant employed QFD and claimed that with its use: Manufacturing startup and pre-production costs were reduced by 60%. The product development cycle (that is, time to market) was reduced by 33% with a corresponding improvement in quality because of the reduction in the number of engineering changes. Quality function deployment QFD is based on the concept of companywide quality control. The company wide quality control philosophy is characterised by customer orientation, cross functional management and process rather than product orientation. Also the roots of Japanese companywide quality control are the same concepts of statistical quality control and total quality control as originated in the USA. 2.6 Quality Improvement A Need or A Neccessity In the technological advanced manufacturing industry today, organziations are trying their level best to imorove their quality standards yet reducing their cycle times and time to reach the market. This pushes them to adopt the latest availaible technologies to manage and inject quality into their products and processes, so that the production time is not effected by increasing concern of quality management. Nowadays there is a tough competition in every . Aberdeen Group has done an extensive research on Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence and it says that the best in class organzaitions are â€Å"ensuring that continuois improvement programs yeild the expected results help to unlock hidden capabilities as well as allows for greater flexibility in altering schedule to meet shifting demands. It is essential that executives are provided visibility across plants, product lines and demand when making decisions on delivery, discounts and staffing. Many companies can manufacture the sam e product in mutiple facilities and are continually evaluating the most cost effective loaction to manufacture based on a mutitude of factors. Finally, establishing key performance indicators mapped to corporate goals allows shop floor process across different plants to be standardized and alligned to the goals of senior management.† [27] The focus is on ensuring continuous improvement programs and establishing key performance indicating targets that eventually supports corporate goals. Also what is part of best in class manufaturers strategic goals is to provide visibility across the plants, production lines and demands, This would help the exectives of the organzaition to understand monitor the performanc of ongoing processes. In the survey carried out by aberdeen group following percentage was calculated of the best in class organizations of the top three strategic actions taken by them: The above research indication shows the top three strategic actions of the Best-In-Class organizations and all of these actions are quality related. This very well proves that for the organizations that wants to be included in the best in class list or that wants to stay in best in class list must improve their quality standards as per the market and industries requirements. Hence quality improvement could be termed as the necessity of todays era and to survive in todays market an organization needs to update it quality management systems. All the indicators from research above points towards the advancements in quality management and that lead us to the topic of quality management systems of today that is Web-based quality management. CHAPTER 3 Quality Management Systems From time to time quality gurus and scholars have only been focusing and trying to develope appropriate control charts for processes, but now due to the advancements in technology and shifting towards real time quality management Web-base Quality Management Systems Web-base Quality Management Systems Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Defining Quality, History and Achieving International Quality Standards Quality is a perceptual, conditional and somewhat subjective attribute and may be understood differently by different people in different spheres of life. It is a degree or grade of excellence or worth, a characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of something or totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. In recent years, many organisations have adopted quality management systems to improve the quality of both goods and services through the application of efficient quality management methods and principles (Feigenbaum, 2000). The reason why so many organisations have started on the journey is either because of customer pressure for ISO 9000 certification or because the firms themselves have realised the strategic advantage of having this certificate, i.e. it would give them an edge over their competitors. Most of the firms which started out on the journey to ISO 9000 still may not have completed that journey. In general, it takes 2 years, and obtaining this coveted certificate is only a first step towards the ultimate goal: total quality management (TQM). Reaching this goal may take at least 5 years. In the next sections of the dissertation we will take a closer look at the characteristics of the different quality management systems. In this section, we concentrate on the concept of quality itself. We start with the two types of quality, namely: Objective quality, which is simply the products total number of quality attributes. Subjective quality, which is a result of the consumers experience of the products objective attributes. Subjective quality is thus defined as the degree of fulfillment of consumers expectations (Feigenbaum, 2000). Beyond the customers desirable expectations, there are always the customers latent expectations. Manufacturers and the service providers must therefore find the hidden expectations in order to keep the customer satisfied. It is subjective quality which matters to the company, and it is this definition which Deming used in his renowned eight-day quality seminars for Japanese top managers in 1950. Demings message to them was simple but powerful: The consumer is the most important part of the production line. The idea that customers should be seen as a part of the production line was in itself a revolutionary one at that time. A logical conclusion is that quality production is only possible if it is systematically and continuously based on customer desires and needs. It is simple in theory but difficult in practice because there are many obstacles to overcome along the way. Demings 14 points, which we have taken the liberty of calling stations along the way, are among the most important means of overcoming these obstacles. You may ask this important question: Why have the Japanese been better at understanding Demings message than the Western world? There are many reasons for this, but one of the most intriguing reasons may be found in the Japanese language, and thus in Japanese culture. In the Japanese language, quality management can be translated as quality is equal to the attributes of the things (i.e. what peoples talk about). This interpretation results in the following definition of quality management: Control of the attributes of a product which consumers talk about. To understand why consumers talk about a products attributes, we will delve into motivation theory. Herzberg has divided motivation into two factors: Factors which create satisfaction (satisfiers). Factors which create dissatisfaction (dissatisfiers). Similarly, many objective attributes of a product or service can be categorised. We may talk about the basic attributes that the consumer expects when he/she buys the product. If these are not present in sufficient quantities, the consumer experiences dissatisfaction. If the expected attributes are present, naturally the consumer is satisfied, but the interesting and crucial thing is that the degree of satisfaction will not necessarily be particularly high. The experience will be more or less neutral. Apart from the attributes which the customer expects to find, it is always possible to build attributes into the product or service which the customer does not expect to find, i.e. attributes which will delight or satisfy him/her. The more of these attributes that are present in the product or services, the greater the satisfaction, and this satisfaction will, in many cases, increase significantly. We call these attributes value-added quality. However, in Japan they use the term charming quality, whereas in the US they interpret this as exciting quality. We believe that value-added quality covers both. One example of expected quality in air travel is safety. Korean Air lost its reputation as a quality airline in the wake of the tragic incident of a passenger airline being shot down over Soviet territory. Prior to this incident, Korean Air was rated as one of the top quality airlines in the world. Afterwards, Korean Airs quality ratings dropped significantly. In our view, the only thing which can adequately explain this is that Korean Air had failed to deliver the customers expected quality. As an example of value-added quality, let us consider the added service offered by ISS Laundry Service, a subsidiary of International Service Systems (ISS). This company which, among other activities, changes bed-linen in hotel rooms, suddenly had an idea. As they were there to change the sheets, they might as well see if anything else needed doing, e.g. small repairs, changing light-bulbs, etc., and report this to the hotel management. This unexpected service, which hardly costs ISS anything, created an enormous amount of goodwill for the company among its customers. The understanding behind Demings assertion, that the consumer is the most important aspect of the production line, lies precisely in the subjective definition of quality, which we will be discussing in this dissertation. The introduction of quality management theory towards the end of the 1980s led to the development of a new concept called total quality. This concept was defined as follows (Kanji, 2002): Qualityis to satisfy customers requirements continuously. Total qualityis to achieve quality at low cost. Total quality managementis to obtain total quality by involving everyones daily commitment. These definitions will become clearer as we proceed through the dissertation. The objective of TQM is to improve continuously each and every activity in the company focusing on the customer. Every product has some deficiency, i.e. risks for making customers dissatisfied. These deficiencies must be continually eliminated and, at the same time, the firm must ensure that its product or service always incorporate the quality attributes which satisfy its customers. 1.2 Total quality management The concept of TQM is a logical development of total quality control (TQC), a concept first introduced by A. V. Feigenbaum in 2000 in a book of the same name. Though Feigenbaum had other things in mind with TQC, it only really caught on in engineering circles, and thus never achieved the total acceptance in British companies that was intended. TQC was a hit in Japan, on the other hand, where the first quality circles were set up in 1962, which later developed into what the Japanese themselves call company-wide quality control (CWQC). this is identical to what people in the West today call TQM. One of the main reasons for the failure of TQC in British companies was a management misconception that responsibility for implementing TQC could be delegated to a central quality department. In doing so, management overlooked one of the most important points in TQC, namely managements wholehearted commitment to quality improvements. The aim of the new concept, TQM, is to ensure that history does not repeat itself. Thus, management have been directly included in the definition of the concept, making it impossible for them to avoid their responsibility. To include the word management here sends an unmistakable signal straight into executive offices that this is a job for top management, including the board of directors. TQM will be further discussed in following chapters. Chapter 2 Quality Perspectives The inadequacy of traditional management in UK Japan Traditional British forms of management are based on a philosophy which divides responsibility for decisions into strategic, tactical and operational levels, i.e. the so-called management pyramid. We now know that this management conception is totally inadequate for modern, complex companies, since it does not give the connection between top management and the main processes at the bottom responsible for customer satisfaction. As a result, the management is ignorant of the real problems on the operational level, and do not provide the support and backing that the operation level needs for the creation of customer satisfaction (Feigenbaum, 2000). The decisions which cascade down from top management are often exclusively budgetary in nature, containing instructions which are forced on lower levels without due consideration of their problems. Many local branches of a bank have similar experiences. A typical example of this was noted after some Danish bank mergers took place at the, end of the 1980s. Branch managers of these banks received orders by internal post to cut staff numbers by a certain figure with no indication of how this could be achieved without drastically reducing the quality of products and services offered to their customers. Hiromoto (2002) describes this as management by terrorism. In discussing British and Japanese management philosophy, Konosuke Matsushita, founder of one of the worlds biggest companies, Matsushita Electric (Panasonic, National, Technics, etc.), said: We are going to win and the industrial West is going to lose out: theres nothing much you can do about it, because the reasons for your failure are within yourselves. Your firms are built on the Taylor model; even worse, so are your heads. With your bosses doing the thinking while the workers wield the screwdrivers, youre convinced deep down that this is the right way to run a business. For you, the essence of management is getting the ideas out of the heads of the bosses into the hands of labour. (p). Hoinville (2002) feels that the emphasis of managements commitment has its origin in the system, the reason for quality defects. It has been estimated that 85% of all defects are caused by system errors, i.e. errors which only management has the authority to change. Management must show by its actions that it has understood the message. It must constantly strive to reduce system errors by setting up quality goals, drawing up quality policies and quality plans, and participating actively in the follow-up auditing phase. Finally, management must concede its own lack of knowledge in the quality field and take the lead in acquiring new knowledge. If management does all this, it will have created a firm foundation on which future quality can be built. Conversely, there would be little point in building quality on a shaky foundation. We have already pointed out that the customer is the most important part of the production line. Deming (2002) introduced this idea to top Japanese managers in 1950 by means of a basic outline of an arbitrary production system, or part of a production system. This outline, which must today be considered traditional, shows that both customer and supplier are part of the production system, and that information for improving this comes from two sources: consumer research and process tests. Since this outline also applies to an arbitrary sub-system, it shows that customer and supplier concepts embrace much more than just external customers and suppliers. Internal customers and suppliers, i.e. employees, are at least as important as the external ones. Any person, or process, which forms part of the production system must recognise that it serves a number of internal customers, and the quality of the output delivered to these customers is crucial to the end result, i.e. the quality of the output delivered to the external customer. Deming (2002) himself concedes that, in 1950, this was a formidable challenge for the Japanese top managers, but they accepted the challenge, and the result is there for us all to see today. In Demings words: A new economic age had begun. Today it is difficult to understand that such a simple message presented the Japanese with such a difficult challenge. Our experience of top managers is that they accept the message without question. However, this does not lessen the difficulty of the challenge, because it implies that firms traditional information systems are totally inadequate. A culture must be established to ensure that internal customer research functions just as well as external. Here, it is important to point out that internal analysis is based on entirely different principles from external analysis. Communication and team-building are the key words here. Obviously, the participation of top management is necessary in building up this culture. It can be seen that the Focus on the customer and the employee is much more comprehensive than just the focus on the customer, which is the norm in service management. The latter refers solely to external customers. The former, while including these, also stresses the internal customer/supplier relationship. This relationship is one of the most important innovations which TQM has introduced. Quality Management In Todays Era As we have discussed above that how the management of quality is vital to the output product of any organization it has made clear that without an excellent quality management system an organization can not implement total quality management. In todays era new ways of quality management have been introduced that can make quality management a much easier and effective job for the management body. Technology has been quiet advance in todays world and every organization is trying to get its hand on the most advance technology that can take it to a much higher level from its competitiors. A new emerging technology for managing quality in well established organizations is the use of Web-Based Quality Management Systems. Why this technology is vital today is beacuse of organizations expanding their businesses worldwide or operating at different geoghraphical locations. It is much easier to manage the quality in an organization that is operating at one location but if it has its operations going on at different locations it is much harder to implement and manage total quality management. But these new systems have overcome this gap by providing a centralized hub to manage the quality. No matter how scattered the operations of the organizations are and how many stake holders are involved, by implementing these systems organizations need not to worry about the distance and communication gap. Competition and cost consciousness on the one side an increasing demand for quality and reliability on the other side are contrary requirements in present production engineering. This must be considered also from the point of view of the international standards about quality management and quality assurance. The origins of quality management and quality assurance in a modern sense began in manufacturing organizations at about the beginning of the twentieth century [1], and many of the tools for quality analysis and improvement were developed for manufacturing problems. Through the 1980s, this manufacturing emphasis dominated the profession. In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, business began to recognise the importance of quality service in achieving customer satisfaction and competing in the global marketplace. In the late 1990s also the public domain and governmental departments became aware of the general importance of quality issues. In a very important sense, this recognition has expanded the definition and  concept of quality to include nearly any organisational improvement such as the reduction of manufacturing cycle time and improved worker skills. And also the public sector is now starting to take care of quality management within its structures. In addition to industrial organisations and the manufacturing industry also service organisations build up quality systems. Ancillary services in manufacturing companies as well as stand-alone service organisations such as hospitals and banks are beginning to realise the benefits of a focus on quality. A number of different industries are successively doing business around the globe and the quality systems that are availaible in the market does not mostly cater a specific industry and all of them provide different features, tools and options, so it is a complex decision to choose the best availaible solution from a wide range of variety. In this dissertation different availaible web-based quality management systems are reviewed and their shortnesses are pointed out and a model is proposed in the end that covers all gaps in the currently availaible systems. Chapter 2: Literature Review In this chapter literature review is carried out and analyzed that which tools and schemes are imperative for the management of quality and how they cooperate in the quality management. This will enable to know how different branches of an organization can be indulged with quality by using what sort of tools and how these tools can benifit any organization. â€Å"The approach to quality most extensively adopted by Western companies in recent years has been the application of national and international (ISO 9000 or equivalent) quality management standards. This approach is following firmly along the quality assurance path. It is more proactive than reliance on detection/inspection and allows for the use of quality tools primarily to stop non-conforming products being produced or non-conforming services being delivered in the first place. Hence there is a switch implied from detection to prevention via quality systems, procedures and a quality manual.† [18] 2.1 Quality Management Tools Techniques Numerous definitions and methodologies have been created to assist in managing the quality-affecting aspects of business operations. Many different techniques and concepts have evolved to improve product or service quality. Tools and techniques like charts, graphs, histograms and complex tools like Statistical Process Control, Quality Function Deployment, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis and Design of Experiments have been used for quality management for a number of years. All of these tools are very effective for quality evaluation and implementation when applied rightly and at correct situation. Juan Jose Tari and Vicente Sabater {Quality management tools} in their research on â€Å"Quality tools and Techniques† has outlined few important tools and techniques that can be luminously helping in managing and increasing organizations quality standards. The very basic tools, the management tools for quality and techniques for quality management are outlined in the table below: Basic Quality Management Tools Management Tools Techniques Cause Effect Diagram Affinity Diagram Benchmarking Check Sheet Arrow Diagram Design of Experiments Control chart Matrix Diagram FMEA Graphs Matrix Data Analysis Fault Tree Analysis Histoghram Process Decision Poka Yoke Pareto Diagram Program Chart Quality Costing Scatter Diagram Relations Diagram QFD Statistical Process Control Table 1 Quality Management Tools and Techniques Each indivisual tool has its own speciality and benifits the organization in its own manner. The implementation and benifits of few of these tools are discussed in the next section. 2.2 Quality Control, Assurance and Improvement The scholars of quality assume that the computer is only the linking force and they put less emphasis on it, and frequently do not consider at all, the modern practices linked to quality management such as employee involvement or continuous quality improvement. Indeed, they concentrate their attention on the computer integration/automation model.† But for quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement insists on involving all these aspects. {Good one} Quality control is defined as operational with activities aimed both at monitoring a process and eliminating causes of unsatisfactory performance for relevant stages of the quality loop to achieve economic effectiveness. Quality control is a technique to achieve, maintain and improve the quality standard of products and service. Defects or failures in constructed facilities or products can result in very large costs. {500} the emphasis on quality control is clear to achieve complete quality management and for this quality control tools are vital to be implemented. Quality improvement requires improvement of processes in process based quality improvement approach. To improve the quality hence several inspection tools can be applied to access the processes and find the ways to improve it to get better and better results. Also the basic goal of using quality control techniques is to streamline the manufacturing system by minimizing the occurrence of quality related problems. Most of the time, problems related to quality of products have many controllable sources, be it the vendors of raw materials, equipment used to process such materials, methods used for processing, the personnel involved or any other specific source as identified by the organization. {800} has suggested following significant tools for the quality management in respect of each quality component: Quality Control Quality Assurance Quality Improvement Statistical process control Regression Process capability analysis, Rule-based reasoning (Expert Systems) Factor analysis Pareto analysis Model-based reasoning and case-based reasoning Cause and effect diagram Process mapping, design of experiments Failure Mode and Effect Analysis Quality function deployment Design of Experiments Design of experiments Analysis of variance Table 1 Above mentioned tools when used in combinations as best suitable for the processes and enterprise could produce massive increase in overall performance of the organization. Few of these tools and their significance in quality managemet is illustrated below: 2.3 Statistical Process Control The appearance of computers on the shop floor has enhanced the increased adoption of SPC. Computers have greatly reduced the efforts required by production personnel to collect and analyze data.{very good journal} â€Å"High quality products and services, far from being random or probabilistic events, are actually anticipated and managed outcomes that can contribute to organizational survival in the marketplace. This realization has encouraged organizations to embrace and implement numerous approaches, some novel and some re-discovered, aimed at achieving the objective of continuous quality improvement. One popular and widespread implementation in the name of quality management is that of statistical process control, or SPC. [19] Statistical Process Control or SPC can be used in a organization for the quality control purpose. It when applied to a process gives the stability of that process which can eventually help in identifing the root causes and take corrective actions.â€Å"The basic goal of using quality control techniques is to streamline the manufacturing system by minimizing the occurrence of quality related problems. Most of the time, problems related to quality of products have many controllable sources, be it the vendors of raw materials, equipment used to process such materials, methods used for processing, the personnel involved or any other specific source as identified by the organization.†[20] SPC is an effective tool for controlling quality of a manufacturing process rather it can be applied to most of the processes in any organization and can aid in controlling the quality as per requirements. It identifies the sources that affects the quality of the process outputs and hence can be eradicated as identified. But there lies a problem with the use of it that is interpreting the results of SPC which can be only well understood by quality control specialists. This can create communication gaps and a lot of other misconceptions about its use. But still SPC is being used to control quality from a number of years and it has proved itself to be giving enormously positive results to the organizations. â€Å"The popularity of SPC as a quality management practice has been fostered, in part, by a wealth of publications ascribing quality and cost benefits to it. The literature is dominated by anecdotal â€Å"success† stories, attributing higher market share, lower failure costs, higher product quality, and higher productivity to the implementation and practice of SPC (Dondero, 1991). Reports of SPC failures, on the contrary, have been few and, again, case-oriented (Dale Shaw, 1991; Lightburn Dale, 1992).†[22] Evans and Lindsay (1989, pp. 313-3 14), define SPC to be a methodology using control charts for assisting operators, supervisors, and managers to monitor quality of conformance and to eliminate special causes of variability of a process a technique to control quality using probability and statistics to determine and maintain the state of statistical control.[23 Hence the advantages and effectiveness can well be understood from the above discussion and its can be c oncluded that SPC can play a major role in controling any process and eliminating any cause that disturbs the process as its main idea is to enable the quality of conformance to be monitored and special causes of process variability to be eliminated. 2.4 Failure Mode and Effect Analysis Failure Mode and Effect Analysis is tool that can be used to analyse the failures that can occur in the near future or after the implementation of the system and identify the effects that it would cause to the system. â€Å"Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is known to be a systematic procedure for the analysis of a system to identify the potential failure modes, their causes and effects on system performance. The analysis is successfully performed preferably early in the development cycle so that removal or mitigation of the failure mode is most cost effective. This analysis can be initiated as soon as the system is defined: FMEA timing is essential.† [24] 1 below shows some random forms as an example of FMEA version 1, 2 3 charts. For FMEA to be effective its is very important to use this tool in the early development phase as catching errors and fixing them in earlier stages is more effectual and less costly. FMEA can be implemented to the highest level of block diagram to the functions of the of the discrete components. Also FMEA can be used again and again as the design is developed. â€Å"The FMEA is an iterative process that is updated as the design develops. Design changes will require that relevant parts of the FMEA be reviewed and updated.† [24] Hence FMEA could play an imperative role in going for the process changing for improvement. The change planned for the process for improving it can be verified by the application of this technique. 2.5 Quality Function Deployment (QFD) QFD has been used along with the integration of other effective tools to achieve quality in processes and products, reducing cycle times and improving performance. {600} found out that in the span of the first seven years, between 1977 and 1984, the Toyota Auto body plant employed QFD and claimed that with its use: Manufacturing startup and pre-production costs were reduced by 60%. The product development cycle (that is, time to market) was reduced by 33% with a corresponding improvement in quality because of the reduction in the number of engineering changes. Quality function deployment QFD is based on the concept of companywide quality control. The company wide quality control philosophy is characterised by customer orientation, cross functional management and process rather than product orientation. Also the roots of Japanese companywide quality control are the same concepts of statistical quality control and total quality control as originated in the USA. 2.6 Quality Improvement A Need or A Neccessity In the technological advanced manufacturing industry today, organziations are trying their level best to imorove their quality standards yet reducing their cycle times and time to reach the market. This pushes them to adopt the latest availaible technologies to manage and inject quality into their products and processes, so that the production time is not effected by increasing concern of quality management. Nowadays there is a tough competition in every . Aberdeen Group has done an extensive research on Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence and it says that the best in class organzaitions are â€Å"ensuring that continuois improvement programs yeild the expected results help to unlock hidden capabilities as well as allows for greater flexibility in altering schedule to meet shifting demands. It is essential that executives are provided visibility across plants, product lines and demand when making decisions on delivery, discounts and staffing. Many companies can manufacture the sam e product in mutiple facilities and are continually evaluating the most cost effective loaction to manufacture based on a mutitude of factors. Finally, establishing key performance indicators mapped to corporate goals allows shop floor process across different plants to be standardized and alligned to the goals of senior management.† [27] The focus is on ensuring continuous improvement programs and establishing key performance indicating targets that eventually supports corporate goals. Also what is part of best in class manufaturers strategic goals is to provide visibility across the plants, production lines and demands, This would help the exectives of the organzaition to understand monitor the performanc of ongoing processes. In the survey carried out by aberdeen group following percentage was calculated of the best in class organizations of the top three strategic actions taken by them: The above research indication shows the top three strategic actions of the Best-In-Class organizations and all of these actions are quality related. This very well proves that for the organizations that wants to be included in the best in class list or that wants to stay in best in class list must improve their quality standards as per the market and industries requirements. Hence quality improvement could be termed as the necessity of todays era and to survive in todays market an organization needs to update it quality management systems. All the indicators from research above points towards the advancements in quality management and that lead us to the topic of quality management systems of today that is Web-based quality management. CHAPTER 3 Quality Management Systems From time to time quality gurus and scholars have only been focusing and trying to develope appropriate control charts for processes, but now due to the advancements in technology and shifting towards real time quality management