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Southwest Tennessee Community College
and
The Greater Memphis Chamber have a winning recipe for economic
growth within the Mid-South. One of the secret ingredients is called
the Mid-South Quality-Productivity Center (MSQPC).
The origin of MSQPC-The Quality Center began with an introduction
of the Total Quality Management (TQM) movement during the late
1980's. Under the visionary leadership of the presidents of the
Memphis Regional Chamber and the former college known as State
Technical Institute at Memphis, a Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR)
grant was applied for and was awarded to develop the only Center of
Emphasis in Quality and Productivity in the State of Tennessee.
The close alliance that was forged between The Chamber and The
College during late 1985, made possible the formulation of one of
the nation's first public-private partnerships devoted to improving
quality and productivity within a major metropolitan area of the
nation. A formal dedication of MSQPC occurred on April 21, 1988,
with the assistance of Dr. Myron Tribus, a national leader in the
quality movement.
The Mid-South community derives extraordinary benefits through
MSQPC as a total quality-productivity improvement resource. The
Center is unique in its program offerings to service, manufacturing,
educational, small business, governmental and not-for-profit
organizations. The Center has maintained a reputation as a cutting
edge resource center for Mid-South organizations by providing
innovative consulting, training and public workshops in ISO 9000,
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Assessments, benchmarking
trips to world-class organizations and teleconferences featuring
nationally renowned quality-productivity experts. |
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MSQPC promotes continuous learning with Mid-South businesses by
offering college credit courses through our partnership with
Southwest Tennessee Community College. Taught by distinguished
faculty, these courses allow individuals in area businesses to
expand their knowledge of quality and productivity "best practices"
while earning college credit.
The road to quality for MSQPC is never ending. A group of area
quality professionals known as "Consulting Associates" - independent
consultants, trainers, and facilitators - work with MSQPC to assist
area organizations in their quality improvement efforts.
In addition to providing training and consulting services to
Mid-South organizations, MSQPC includes among its national and
international clients:
Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corporation, the U.S. Air Force, American
Management Association (AMA), the Republic of Mauritius, Hong Leong
Management Corporation, (Kualu Lampur, Malaysia), Federal Express
Corporation, (Dubai) and ISK Biosciences (a Japanese Holding
Company), and Naval Support Activity-Midsouth.
MSQPC launched a service line of benchmarking trips to assist
Mid-South organizations in their continuous improvement efforts
during 1995. "Quality Journeys" to Saturn Corporation in Spring
Hill, Tennessee, were conducted.
Participants learned first-hand the processes Saturn has
developed and implemented to address extensive training of their
workforce and their successful development of self-managed work
teams.
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The Center has offered over 50 national teleconferences over the
past twelve years, conducted over 50 Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award Assessments of Mid-South and national organizations
during the past eight years, delivered ISO 9000 training to over 800
Mid-Southerners and hosted over 1000 participants on benchmarking
trips. This Center has conducted thousands of hours of consulting,
training, and public workshops through the Consulting Associates
network and helped over 70 Mid-South organizations to apply for and
win state, city, national and international quality awards.
MSQPC through the Memphis Regional Chamber and Southwest
Tennessee Community College is helping Memphis and Mid-South
organizations compete in the global market place. The Center's
offerings contributed to The Chamber's mission of building a
thriving economy through leadership in economic growth for Memphis
and the Mid-South. |
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