The Role of Continuous Improvement in Quality and Safety
Continuous improvement is necessary for a business to thrive, compete, address the inevitable challenges, and adjust to external changes; thus, management teams must include the relevant practices during strategic planning processes. The quality upgrade is achieved through operations and recourses optimization and implementing of new tactics to deliver better customer outcomes (Menanno et al., 2021). For instance, outsourcing a time-consuming part of production would reduce the load on employees and increase their efficiency in more valuable aspects.
Safety improvement ensures teams that their daily operations would not harm them physically or mentally, and organizations must address high-quality welfare standards. Replacing the hazardous or potentially dangerous tools with alternatives and controlling the workload are examples of decreasing harmful risks in an organization (Menanno et al., 2021). To ensure continuous improvement is occurring, monitoring and problem-solving approaches might be integrated into operations. For example, managers may be assigned to select the indicators of quality and safety and collect the relevant data to provide sufficient quantitative evidence when the changes are necessary. Employees may be asked to share feedback and report issues that disrupt their safety or damage the quality of work.
The Approaches for Employee Development in Quality and Safety
Multiple approaches for employee development in quality and safety might be integrated into organizational operations. Indeed, managers and their subordinates should be involved in continuous improvement and understand the benefits of maintaining high work and service delivery standards. Development in quality requires proper leadership and rewarding systems to exist in a company and encourage employees to offer initiatives and optimize their daily tasks (Ladewski & Al-Bayati, 2019). For example, providing workers with an opportunity to rotate their job or switch their position for a short period is a workable approach to help them revise their operations and identify aspects that require improvement.
Open communication with executive teams and reporting options are crucial for employee development in safety. Awareness that their opinion matters enables the workers to be more willing to identify and share the threats to their job (Ladewski & Al-Bayati, 2019). I would integrate employee development in quality and safety into the onboarding and training events to make a new company representative understand our values, their responsibilities, and opportunities to improve or adjust the daily operations. I would also ensure that proper reporting practices are established and managers are assigned to address the complaints.
The Role of Technology in Quality and Safety
Technology is used throughout all operations in most modern companies and significantly impacts the quality and safety of processes and involved employees. Computers and algorithms maintain the high efficiency of machines, and the latest innovations, such as artificial intelligence, allow companies to make better products with fewer recourses (Maier et al., 2019). Technology’s role in quality improvement may also be viewed through the software used for the timely identification of defects or difficulties in achieving strategic goals. Safety is maintained through security and threat detection systems, and employees must be aware of the protection programs’ functioning and signals.
Quality and safety improvement require tracking, and technology may help teams report the problems and collect the evidence necessary to make significant changes. For example, an internal database that every team member can access to receive support or fill a complaint about an issue is helpful for overall improvement and critical information collection. However, employees might lack training on using the latest software, and managers must ensure that educational practices are integrated before the novel technologies are implemented (Maier et al., 2019). To help the teams stay on track, I would develop printable manuals for all comprehensive programs and assign an administrator.
References
Ladewski, B. J., & Al-Bayati, A. J. (2019). Quality and safety management practices: The theory of quality management approach. Journal of Safety Research, 69, 193-200.
Maier, D., Maftei, M., Maier, A., & BiĹŁan, G. E. (2019). A review of product innovation management literature in the context of organization sustainable development. Anfiteatro Economic, 21(13), 816-829.
Menanno, M., Savino, M. M., & Ciarapica, F. E. (2021). Exploring continuous improvement for safety management systems through artificial neural networks.International Journal of Product Development, 25(3), 213-241.