8600-318 Understanding Quality Management in the Workplace

Unit Overview

8600-318 Understanding Quality Management in the Workplace is a unit that focuses on improving the ability of managers to facilitate quality management techniques and approaches within their areas of responsibility. This is a unit within the ILM Level 3 that focuses on improving the leadership and capability management within the organisation. In the modern world, quality management has become a critical aspect that influences the performance of the organisation both in achieving the desired levels of competitive advantage as well as achieving the desired goals and objectives that are set for the organisation.

Leaders must be able to strategically position themselves in a place where they conclusively influence the process of quality management. This involves overseeing the production to ensure that the employees are able to deliver quality products as well as ensuring that the services provided to the customers me the set and expected quality standards within the organisation and from the market level perspective.

Quality management focuses on understanding both the standards of production and ensuring that processes within the organisation are monitored to facilitate success in the accomplishment of objectives and facilitating evaluation of the efficiency of the selected approaches and strategies for achieving quality standards. The main purpose and aim of the unit are to develop the knowledge and understanding among the potential and practising managers on the role that quality management plays in improving the performance of the organisation and its market share. The unit is taught in 6 hours of guided learning and contributes 2 credit values in the completion of the Level 3 ILM module in general.

Suitability of the Unit

Quality management is a principal role of managers and leaders within the organisation. Each leader should ensure that they are able to facilitate success within their areas of responsibility by ensuring that the areas they lead, whether teams, departments or the organisation in general, adapt quality management techniques that facilitate success. 8600-318 Understanding Quality Management in the Workplace is, therefore, a unit that focuses on achieving the desired goals in terms of providing the learners with the desired knowledge on approaches that boost their understanding and management of quality within the organisation and teams that they lead.

The unit is designed to cater for the learning needs of the managers in the lower levels of leadership.It perfectly suits the learning needs of first-line managers, junior managers and team leaders within the organisation who lead project teams to ensure that they deliver products and services to the customers, both internal and external customers. the unit is also significantly suitable for other leaders within the organisation.

While managers on the first level of leadership are responsible for facilitating the performance of teams to deliver organisational services and products, executive managers and line managers have a duty of facilitating the establishment of practices and policies that focus on quality management in the higher levels of organisational leadership and could therefore contribute in improving the sustainability of quality management approaches. Other stakeholders, including employees and external consultants, can also benefit from the knowledge and skill acquired through the process of completing this unit.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learner should be able to:

• Understand why quality is significant to internal and external customers within the Workplace

• Show understanding of the concept of total quality management

• Identify the differences between design quality standards and process quality standards

• Understand the cost of quality within the Workplace

• Describe the quality systems that are implemented within their place of work

• Identify standards that are set for the Workplace

• Identify tools that can be used to effectively monitor quality within the Workplace

• Understand the role of keeping proper records in maintaining quality within the Workplace

• Develop a plan that is practice and positive presenting steps to improve quality standards within the Workplace

Key Learning Areas

8600-318 Understanding Quality Management in the Workplace helps the learner to appreciate the role that effectively managing and handling quality plays in improving the performance of the organisation. The unit thereof recovers critical principles of quality management. Some of the main areas of focus in the unit include:

Understanding Quality

This area of learning helps the learners to understand critical principles that help to boost awareness towards quality management. The learners are introduced to the concept of quality and understand the role that improving the quality within the organisation plays in handling the process of meeting obligations to both internal and external customers within the organisation. They also helped to differentiate between various concepts such as quality assurance and quality control, design quality, and process quality standards. Through the unit, the learner is helped to appreciate the cost of quality and introduced to the term total quality management.

Principles and Theories of Quality Management

This area focuses on providing critical information and support on the concept of quality management. The area builds on Total Quality Management and introduces different quality systems, such as continuous improvement. Kaizen, Kanban and others. Within this area of learning, the learners are introduced to the different elements of quality standards, including the legal frameworks and the labelling of different quality standards within the market.

They are also helped to understand the advantages and benefits associated with accreditation against quality standards and the strategies that they can use to gain accreditations in their areas of responsibility. Lastly, the learners are guided to develop effective practical and actionable steps that they can use to implement the interventions that they have selected in determining quality practices and policies within the organisation. This involves being able to identify the levels of performance within the organisation and in their areas of responsibility as well as facilitate effective monitoring and improving of quality within the organisation.

Evaluation

Upon completion of the unit, the learners are assessed to determine the achievement of learning outcomes in 8600-318 Understanding Quality Management in the Workplace. The assessment involves providing responses to a template by addressing the questions provided. The learners are assessed on the theoretical knowledge and practical application of concepts in case studies, simulated exercises and supervised practice.