Corporations may scour the globe
searching for the best examples of how to run a business, but Memphians can find examples
of best practices in their own backyard. At least, that's the view of a local
organization, MSQPC - The Quality Center. As proof, the Center is starting "best
practices" tours that will highlight selected processes at five very different
organizations. Tours beginning in September will shine the light
on best practices at Federal Express, Harrah's Entertainment, Smith & Nephew, St. Jude Children's
Research Hospital and Saturn corporations. Saturn's automobile manufacturing site is in
Spring Hill, Tenn., about 215 miles east of Memphis, but it is being adopted for the
tours.
"We think Memphis is a best practice city," said Donald C.
Fisher, executive director of The Quality Center, formerly known as the Mid-South
Quality-Productivity Center. "We honestly do think that the story is not told about
Memphis. We have some really best-practice organizations here," Fisher said.
Instead of hiding their secrets to success, these organizations are
sharing the steps they take that make them outstanding models in various ways. The
practice of teams at Saturn, human resource management at Harrah's, workforce development
at Smith & Nephew, employee recognition at FedEx and fund-raising at St. Jude are
examples of the processes to be displayed. Tours of the organizations will focus on at
least four best practices at each one. Any company, regardless of its service or product,
can learn from the best practices of another, Fisher said.
Hospitals' patient care and hotels' guest care, he said for example, may
both benefit by surveying customers. "In manufacturing, you can apply some of the
human relations management and some of the training initiatives that Harrah's is doing or
FedEx is doing. So it's just such a crossover that is really neat because a few years ago
people couldn't think out of the box. They couldn't cross over," Fisher said. The
center's best-practices tours are themselves an example of creative thinking.
Lisa Higgins, director of bench-marking for the American Productivity &
Quality Center in |
Houston, said she knows of a
fellow in Europe who takes British groups and an organization in Korea that takes Koreans
on best-practice tours in the United States. Similar tours in a local area seem to be a
relatively new twist.
Benchmarking, Higgins said, is the process used to identify best
practices. No organization can be the best at everything. Those that want to change and
improve - and survive - learn from others, she said. "You can be of the old school
that says we're going to figure it out for ourselves," Higgins said. "Or you can
be of the school that says I think we'll learn from somebody who has already done it and
therefore reduce cycle time in being great at it."
Generally speaking, one company isn't usually a model of best practices in
several areas, Higgins said. Purists reserve the best-practice label for only the best.
"There's a difference between truly quantified best practices and best practice
tourism," she said. "It's hard to be good at baseball, football, soccer and
volleyball all at the same time. It takes too much attention. Because if you don't
practice, you're not going to get good."
For example, APQC recently visited Smith & Nephew in Memphis after a
customer of the medical device and implant manufacturer suggested it is a best-practice
company. The Houston organization agreed that Smith & Nephew is very good in a couple
areas, she said, order fulfillment being one of them.
The Quality Center's best practices tour of Smith & Nephew will
spotlight a broader list, including the firm's workforce development, best manufacturing
practices, community involvement and leadership involvement.
Best practices at FedEx to be highlighted by the local tour include the
Memphis-based company's use of Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award standards as an
internal assessment for an organization. Even though FedEx won the Baldrige award in,
1990, Higgins did not agree the company is the best at using the Baldrige for internal
assessment. |
"They are in my mind definitely not the
best. There's a whole lot more that are more mature and more sophisticated," she
said. Purists, Higgins said, could be satisfied with a name change. Instead of
best-practices tours, call them "successfully demonstrated" practices. Fisher,
noting that the Memphis best-practices tour is an outside-of-the-box or creative idea, wasn't surprised at a purist's comments.
The organizations
selected for tours have national or international reputations for their highlighted
processes, he said. Fisher is in a good position to know about such things. As a judge for
the 1997 President's Quality Award Program, he helped choose outstanding agencies within
the federal government. He has also been a judge for the Rochester Institute of
Technology/USA Today Quality Cup Award and a veteran examiner for the national Baldrige
award (he has authored or co-authored five books on using the Baldrige criteria to assess
an organization).
Internationally, he's helping the island nation of Mauritius practice quality and
helped conduct a seminar in Malaysia. In Tennessee, he's been a board member and judge for
the Tennessee Quality Award program and has trained the examiners for the Greater Memphis
Award for Quality.
The Memphis best-practices tour program will include a separate seminar, offered about
four times a year, explaining the significance and uses of benchmarking and best
practices. That seminar will be led by Willa Martin Bailey, a senior vice president for
the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce. Bailey said she is a benchmarking practitioner with
20 years of experience with General Motors. ....
He said the local best- practices tours should provide an opportunity for companies
scouring the world for models, as well as local ones that don't know what's in their
backyard. "We're trying to make Memphis a showcase for business and industry,"
he said, "because we're world class."
BEST-PRACTICES TOURS
Call 901-543-3530 for information and prices. |
