Abstract

Quality improvement projects can consume too much time. The Juran Institute studied twenty projects of 10 clients in 5 industries. The average project took 68.1 weeks; 62.8% of that time could have been eliminated. Inadequate management preparation and support accounted for 38.6% of the time, and failure of the improvement team to use best practices took up 24.2% of the time. Of the six steps in quality improvement, the most excess time occurred in step 3, diagnosing root causes, and step 2, establishing the project. Factors contributing most to waste were the following. Teams spent too little time on the projects. A minimum of four hours per week is suggested. Executives who did not immediately confront resistance slowed down teams' efforts. Some projects began without any data about their problem. Vague mission statements wasted time. Teams were distracted by interesting but minor aspects of their problems. Too much time was put into unnecessarily complex flow diagrams. Training done on team time added to the length of the project. Premature and inadequate implementation wasted time in the long run. It is best to invest an adequate amount of time into proper planning of the implementation. To prevent wasted time, senior executives should be knowledgeable about the improvement projects, be sure teams are trained in best practices, and have facilitators and managers who can spot and correct potential delays.