Kevin Braley
Senior Media Relations Specialist
kbraley@asq.org
ASQ
600 N. Plankinton Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53203
t: 800-248-1946, x7587
www.asq.org
New ASQ Global State of Quality Report Provides In-depth View of Quality Discipline Worldwide
“Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities 2013” expands on high-level “Discoveries 2013” release
MILWAUKEE, Wis., Aug. 27, 2013 — ASQ has released its “Global State of Quality Research: Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities 2013” report that provides greater insight into the way organizations around the world govern, manage, measure and support the quality discipline.
“Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities 2013” is the second of three reports being released as part of the ASQ Global State of Quality Research. “Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities” provides comparative data based on organization location, sector and size. The report expands on the data that was first presented in the “Global State of Quality Research: Discoveries 2013” report, which was unveiled at ASQ’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement in May. The reports are based on data collected from 1,991 organizations in 22 countries.
“’The Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities’ report is a perfect continuation of the high-level view of data presented in ‘Discoveries 2013,’” said John Timmerman, chair of ASQ’s board of directors. “This new report provides further context to the data and provides comparisons based on region, industry and company size.”
To conduct the Global State of Quality Research, ASQ partnered with APQC, an internationally recognized resource for process and performance improvement. The ASQ Global State of Quality Research provides baseline data about the current state of practices quality professionals and organizations use. This research provides new information about the reality of the quality discipline with expansive results both in breadth and depth. The “Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities 2013” report and the “Discoveries 2013” report can be downloaded at globalstateofquality.org.
Smaller organizations work with, share quality with customers
According to the “Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities 2013” report, smaller companies tend to share more product or service quality with customers than larger organizations.
Eighty-five percent of organizations with annual revenues of less than $100 million work closely with customers on product performance compared with just 72.6 percent of companies with revenues of more than $10 billion, according to the “Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities 2013” report.
Nearly 75 percent of organizations with annual revenues of less than $100 million share service or product quality performance with customers, whereas only 60 percent of companies with more than $10 billion in revenue share product or service quality performance with customers. According to the data, 67.3 percent of all respondents share product or service quality with their customers.
Quality leaders: Cultural factors dictate transparency
Besides exploring the role between customers’ and organizations’ quality, the “Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities” report dives deeper into quality leadership at organizations by country.
Nearly 75 percent of all organizations surveyed said their senior quality position reports directly to the CEO or equivalent. The Czech Republic claims the highest percentage of senior quality positions that report to the CEO at 94.9 percent, and Australia maintains the lowest percentage of 58.6. According to the results, all European countries rate higher than the average of 74.9 percent, whereas the United States and the United Kingdom fall eight to nine percentage points below the average.
Like the statistic related to reporting standards, the Czech Republic also leads all countries in the availability of an organization’s quality measures to all staff at 72.2 percent. The average of all respondents worldwide is 51 percent. Just more than 47 percent of U.S. respondents said their company makes its quality measures available to all staff.
Input from quality leaders and research advisors included in the new report suggest that cultural factors may dictate the comfort level associated with transparency.
Manufacturing, services organizations differ vastly
“ASQ’s Global State of Quality Research: Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities Report 2013” also delves into differences by broad industry categories — comparing manufacturing and services organizations.
Of the three demographic characteristics explored in the “Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities” report — company size, location and industry — industry has the most significant impact on the variability of quality practices. The report shows manufacturing and services organizations apply and use quality practices differently.
In a previous benchmarking study conducted by ASQ and APQC, one of the most often-cited practices that had an impact on the quality culture and quality performance was daily access to quality measures for frontline staff.
According to the “Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities” report, 46.4 percent of manufacturing companies report quality measures to frontline staff daily while 16.9 percent of services organizations report quality measures to frontline staff on the same frequency. Furthermore, nearly 23 percent of services organizations share no quality measure with frontline staff, compared with less than 5 percent of manufacturing organizations.
In addition to the release of the “ASQ Global State of Quality Research: Analysis, Trends, and Opportunities” report, ASQ will release a series of Spotlight reports that will provide details and context from industry leaders on specific topics, including the role of the customer in the quality process, the culture of quality, training and competencies, and more.
About ASQ
ASQ is a global community of people dedicated to quality who share the ideas and tools that make our world work better. With millions of individual and organizational members of the community in 150 countries, ASQ has the reputation and reach to bring together the diverse quality champions who are transforming the world’s corporations, organizations and communities to meet tomorrow’s critical challenges. ASQ is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., with national service centers in China, India, Mexico and a regional service center in the United Arab Emirates. Learn more about ASQ’s members, mission, technologies and training at www.asq.org.
About APQC
APQC, a 35-year-old nonprofit organization located in Houston, Texas, USA, is an internationally recognized resource for process and performance improvement. APQC helps organizations adapt to rapidly changing environments, build new and better ways to work, and succeed in a competitive marketplace. With a global focus on productivity, knowledge management, benchmarking, and quality improvement initiatives, APQC works with its member organizations to identify best practices, discover effective methods of improvement, broadly disseminate findings, and connect individuals. Founded in 1977, APQC is a member-based nonprofit serving more than 350 of the Fortune 1000 global companies and numerous government organizations worldwide. Learn more at apqc.org.
