Power List 2020 – Bharat Bijlee

Evolving technologies in products and digitisation enable companies to deliver quality more consistently – this enables marketplace differentiation. Differentiation will take place via providing “innovative” solutions. These will address unmet, even unrecognised, customer needs, and offer solutions that minimise or eliminate limitations that the customer had taken for granted.

Innovation is a progression from the established discipline of quality management and quality thinking, even though innovation involves behaviours – creativity, risk-taking, willingness to fail – seemingly contrary to those demanded for quality. Innovation calls for more non-linear thinking, and both creativity and execution. If the role of the quality function is perceived to be value-adding rather than only to “reduce variation”, then innovation and
quality cultures can reinforce each other so that there is simultaneously flexibility for innovation, and order for quality.

As customers grow globalised and demanding, the traditional definition of quality – “fit for purpose” – has become a fast moving target. Companies must develop a culture for continuous improvement across systems and processes.

Enhancing value to the customer can take place through: consistently uniform products and services by benchmarking; reducing variation, COPQ, and waste; reducing the number of defects; improving service response and delivery performance, etc., with each one being measurable. There is a well-developed body of knowledge in the quaality profession on these “technical” aspects, and the quality function can drive these initiatives in a structured manner. However, equally important are the “social” or “cultural” aspects: fostering a culture of ongoing improvement through participation, knowledge-
sharing, and fact-based analysis.