Company-Wide Quality Control
The reference model for total quality in Frescura

The new mentality
Before being able to introduce theToyota Production System managerial model, we had to strive to instil a new cultural model which would bring about a revolution in the way of thinking for our whole company. We needed a new behavioural model for tackling problems, for identifying priorities, for thinking about quality, for orientating the whole company towards the market. This model is universally known as Company-Wide Quality Control.
CWQC is made up of an intricate network of concepts, behaviours, methods and management tools which form the backbone of the most innovative guide in our business.

• “Right first time” quality: no compromise on quality. Every activity, every task, every action must immediately reach the maximum level of quality required by the market.
• Market-in: the market, the customers and their needs and requirements enter into every business activity. Indeed, every activity is focused completely upon satisfying the customer, with no compromises. In this case, it is customer satisfaction that becomes the fundamental value which must guide all business activities. In this scenario, product quality comes to the fore in order to satisfy the customer, so much so as to create the saying: quality equals customer satisfaction.
• Concentrate on the few important things: in every situation, there are few factors that are truly important which should be taken into consideration to solve the problem. In doing so, the effectiveness of individual actions significantly increases the benefit of the achieved results.
• Process checks: Checks must no longer be concentrated solely on the results of a production process, but on the individual stages of the process. Only in this way will the action be focused on preventing defects, so as to gradually reduce variability until the highest level of quality in the finished product is achieved.
• Upstream checks: We have learned that what happens in a production process is not sufficient to control it effectively. It is always necessary to go back upstream to discover the factors which influence the process and to keep them under control.
• Cause-effect relationships: Quality excellence can only be achieved if you have full control of these relationships which require the ability to research and identify all causes that lead to an effect (problem).
• Highest priority on quality: The process is the essence of the organisational unit. All our processes are currently run by “priority”, in accordance with the basic principles of Total Quality, the highest priority in critical business processes must always be given to “quality”. All other choices must derive from this. In processes, there are countless sources of problems and it is these that are the causes of changes in key variables.

By implementing new operating criteria known as “the nine managerial tools”, we have started apply CWQX within Frescura. These standards are:

• customer orientation;
• industrialisation of improvement;
• focus on processes;
• recognising efforts of personnel;
• upstream and downstream quality;
• quality as integration;
• visual management;
• product management;
• the “creation” of new products