The Current Situation, Trends and Innovation Paths of Quality Management in China
I. Development Achievements and Realistic Dilemmas of Quality Management in China
After more than 40 years of introduction, digestion, and practice, China's quality management has shifted from "trailing behind" to "running side by side" with others. As of the end of 2023, over 500,000 enterprises across the country had passed the ISO 9001 Quality Management System certification, covering almost all industries such as manufacturing, services, and construction. Selection mechanisms like the "China Quality Award" and "Provincial Governor Quality Award" have guided enterprises to shift from "passively meeting standards" to "actively striving for excellence". The popularization of tools such as Six Sigma and lean management has enabled enterprises to shift their quality control from being "experience - driven" to "data - driven". These achievements have laid the foundation for China's economy to shift from "quantity expansion" to "quality improvement".
However, it cannot be denied that there is still a core problem of "similar in form but different in essence" in current quality management:I. There is excessive mechanical application and insufficient localization. Some enterprises regard foreign standards as the "universal template" and copy the documents of ISO 9001 without integrating them with their own processes. For example, an electronics enterprise completely copied the "incoming material inspection process" of a foreign company, but due to neglecting the characteristics of "small batches and a wide variety" of domestic suppliers, the inspection efficiency decreased by 30%, and the probability of defective products flowing into the production line actually increased.II. Procedures have replaced innovation. Many enterprises have turned "system compliance" into a "form - filling game". From raw material warehousing to product delivery, 7 - 8 record sheets need to be filled at each step, but no one pays attention to "the actual quality problems behind the forms". For instance, all the "process inspection records" in a machinery factory are marked as "qualified", but the actual defect rate of the production line is as high as 8%. The reason is that the inspectors didn't conduct serious inspections in order to complete the "form - filling task".III. Maintaining the status quo is more common than making breakthroughs and innovations. The quality management of most enterprises remains at the stage of "putting out the fire after the fact" by "correcting defective products" and lacks the "pre - event planning" to "prevent problems from occurring". For example, an appliance enterprise spends 5% of its revenue on "after - sales maintenance" every year but is reluctant to invest 1% of the cost to optimize the production process, resulting in a vicious cycle of "repairing every year but still having problems every year".
II. Future Trends in Quality Management: From "Technical Tools" to "Strategic Core"
Whether at the international or domestic level, the positioning of quality management is undergoing a fundamental change:
International trend: Quality has been upgraded from "the entry threshold of the supply chain" to "the core competitiveness of a brand". Against the backdrop of global supply chain integration, the EU's CE certification, the US's FDA approval, and Japan's JIS standards are essentially using "quality thresholds" to screen suppliers. Chinese enterprises need to not only "meet the standards" but also "exceed the standards" to enter the international market. For example, the battery pack of a new energy vehicle enterprise has not only passed the EU's "IP68 waterproof certification" but also added an additional "low - temperature endurance test at minus 40 degrees Celsius", thus obtaining orders from the European market.
Domestic trends: High-quality development has become a national strategy, and quality management has been elevated from corporate behavior to national behavior. The 14th Five-Year Plan for Building a Quality-Powered Country clearly puts forward the goal of promoting the development of the economy in terms of quality and efficiency, and links quality improvement with industrial upgrading and technological innovation. For example, a certain province has included the quality index in the performance evaluation of local governments, forcing enterprises to shift from high energy consumption and low quality to low energy consumption and high quality.
Future trends: Quality management will shift from the "operational level" to the "strategic level". In the past, enterprises focused on "how to make good products", while in the future, they should focus on "how to gain sustainable competitive advantages through quality". For example, the Performance Excellence Model is no longer limited to "product quality" but covers seven dimensions: "leadership, strategy, customers, measurement and analysis, employees, processes, and results", guiding enterprises to shift from "short - term profitability" to "long - term sustainable development". A leading home appliance enterprise rebuilt its strategy using the Performance Excellence Model, taking "customer satisfaction" as the core indicator. Within two years, the customer repurchase rate increased from 35% to 55%, and the market share expanded from 18% to 25%.
III. Five Major Paths for Quality Management Innovation: From "Concept" to "Action"
To break through the current predicament, it is necessary to carry out systematic innovation in five dimensions: approach, mechanism, concept, awareness, and culture.
(I) Innovation in quality management methods: From complex and cumbersome to simple and efficient
The core of quality management is to "solve problems" rather than "create problems". The key to method innovation is to "simplify complexity and integrate for optimization".
1. Flattening of organizational structure: In the information age, "middle - level managers" are no longer "megaphones" but "coordinators". For example, a mechanical manufacturing enterprise has compressed its original four - tier structure of "general manager - department manager - workshop director - team leader" into a three - tier structure of "general manager - workshop director - team leader". It uses the ERP system to transmit production line data in real - time. Senior management can directly see "which production line has an increasing defect rate", and the workshop director can directly coordinate and solve the problem. The response time for quality issues has been shortened from 3 days to 8 hours, and the solving efficiency has increased by 60%.
2. Simplify management means: Simplification does not mean streamlining processes, but rather optimizing processes. For example, in the customer complaint handling process of a certain service enterprise, there were originally four steps: operator - supervisor - manager - after - sales service. After review, it was found that the supervisor review step was redundant (the supervisor had no decision - making power and only signed). It was directly changed to two steps: operator - after - sales service. The response time was shortened from 24 hours to 4 hours, and customer satisfaction increased by 25%.
3. System integration: To address the "polarized" trend in quality management (solving specific problems at the micro - level and constructing strategic systems at the macro - level), it is necessary to combine the "basic system" with the "strategic goals". For example, a food enterprise uses ISO 9001 to standardize the basic process of "raw material procurement - production - sales", formulates a "five - year quality strategy" (focusing on "customers' health needs") with the Excellent Performance Model, and at the same time introduces Six Sigma tools to solve the specific problem of "short product shelf - life". Three years later, the product defect rate has dropped from 12% to 2%, customer satisfaction has increased from 75% to 90%, and the market share has expanded from 10% to 18%.
(II) Innovation in the quality management mechanism: From "enterprises acting alone" to "social collaborative governance"
Quality management is not a "one-man show" for enterprises. The government, the market, and society need to jointly establish a "collaborative mechanism":
Create a fair - competition market environment: Local protectionism is a "stumbling block" to quality improvement. A certain province once stipulated that "local projects must use local cement", which led local cement enterprises to survive by "connections" and their products failed to meet the strength standards (only meeting the lower limit of the national standard). Later, the provincial government cancelled this regulation. High - quality cement enterprises from other regions (whose product strength exceeded the national standard by 20%) entered the market. As a result, local enterprises were forced to introduce new equipment to improve quality and even became the "industry leaders". Fair competition does not mean "eliminating enterprises", but "forcing enterprises to make progress".
Provide external support and services: Small and medium-sized enterprises lack the "technical capabilities" for quality improvement and need the government and intermediary organizations to "build bridges". For example, in the "Quality Improvement Project" of a certain county, the government funded the Quality Association experts to train the "QC groups" (Quality Control groups) of small and medium-sized enterprises. The QC group of a certain garment enterprise used the "fishbone diagram" for analysis and found that the reason for "seam breakage" was "insufficient thread tension". After replacing the thread with high-strength ones, the defect rate dropped from 15% to 2%, saving 1 million yuan in costs.
Guide the society to participate jointly: Consumers and the media are the "last line of defense for quality supervision". For example, the 315 Gala exposed a certain brand's "inferior sockets" (the insulation layer thickness did not meet the standard, which was prone to causing fires), forcing the enterprise to recall 1 million products. At the same time, it promoted the entire industry to increase the "insulation layer thickness" from "0.8mm" to "1.2mm". A certain mobile phone brand collected the problem of "insufficient battery life" through the "Customer Feedback APP", quickly optimized the battery management system, extended the battery life from 12 hours to 16 hours, and increased the sales volume by 30%.
(III) Innovation in quality concept: From "product qualification" to "grand quality ecosystem"
The connotation of quality is expanding from a "single dimension" to a "multi-dimensional ecosystem":
Quality from conformity to competitiveness: In the past, enterprises only needed to meet the national standards, but now they have to meet the individualized needs of customers. For example, for custom furniture enterprises, they not only have to meet the environmental protection standard (comply with the E1 grade standard), but also design according to the customer's housing layout (such as the folding bed for a small bedroom) and adjust according to the customer's habits (such as the low bed edge for an elderly person's room) — this is competitive quality: You can do what others can't; You can do better than others when they can do the same thing.
Quality from the "product level" to the "big quality level": "Big quality" covers all fields such as "product, service, operation, economic growth, and environment". For example, regarding the "operation quality" of an enterprise, we should not only look at "revenue growth" but also at "the stability of the supply chain" (for instance, the "localization rate" of the supply chain of an automobile enterprise increased from 60% to 80%, avoiding the risk of "chip shortage"); regarding the "economic growth quality" of a region, we should not only look at "GDP growth rate" but also at "the proportion of high - tech industries" (a city transformed from a "steel city" into a "new energy city", with the GDP growth rate dropping from 8% to 6%, but the proportion of high - tech industries rising from 20% to 45%).
Quality: From "Corporate Responsibility" to "Social Consensus": Quality has become "Everyone's Moral Code". For example, the "quality responsibility" of food enterprises is not "not breaking the law", but "making consumers feel at ease". A meat enterprise uses "blockchain technology" to record the entire process of "breeding - slaughtering - transportation - sales". Each piece of meat has an "ID". Consumers can scan the code to see "the pig's breeding location, slaughter time, and test reports". Such "transparent quality" makes consumers willing to pay 20% more for the products.
(IV) Innovation in quality awareness: From "passive compliance" to "active pursuit"
Quality awareness is the "ideological foundation" of quality management. The innovation awareness should focus on the "Three Transformations".
1. From "It doesn't matter" to "Sense of": Enterprises without a sense of about quality will surely be eliminated by the market. A certain household appliance enterprise used to occupy the market with a "low - price strategy". Later, due to the problem of "aging refrigerator door seals" (which led to cold air leakage and increased power consumption), it was rated as the "worst brand of the year" by consumers, and its sales volume plummeted by 70%. Later, the CEO put forward the slogan "Quality is life", established a "Quality Committee", held "Quality Reflection Meetings" every quarter, and spent 3 years launching a "high - end series" (the door seals are made of "silicone rubber material", and the service life has been extended from 3 years to 10 years), and only then did it regain the market.
2. From luck mentality to legal awareness: Quality laws and regulations are the bottom line and must not be violated. The Food Safety Law stipulates that food enterprises must establish a traceability system. A dairy enterprise was fined 500,000 yuan for failing to establish a traceability system. Later, it used Internet of Things technology to achieve full - process traceability from milk source to shelves, which not only avoided the problem of expired milk but also enhanced consumers' trust.
3. From selling products to building brands: The core of a brand is quality trust. Lao Gan Ma has become an international famous brand with its consistent taste (even though its price is 20% higher than similar products, consumers are still willing to buy it). Huawei's Mate series has increased its market share in the European market from 5% to 15% thanks to its high - quality cameras (certified by Leica) and smooth system (HarmonyOS). A brand is not built by bombarding with advertisements but by accumulating high - quality products.
(V) Quality culture innovation: From "institutional constraints" to "conscious awareness"
Quality culture is the "soul" of quality management, and its core is "to make quality an instinct of employees".
The "three - layer structure" of quality culture: The surface layer is "visible" (such as the "quality slogans" in the workshop and the "defective rate charts" on the walls). The middle layer is "institutional" (such as the "Regulations on Quality Rewards and Penalties" and the "Control Procedure for Non - conforming Products"). The core layer is "invisible" (such as the "quality awareness" of employees). For example, the core - layer culture of a certain automobile enterprise is "Every car is driven by oneself". Employees will actively check "the torque of every screw" (even without the supervision of leaders) because they believe that "the cars they make may be sold to their own families".
Centered around "zero defects": "Zero defects" does not mean "no defects", but rather "preventing defects". A certain aviation enterprise used "FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)" to analyze in advance the causes of "engine blade breakage", and found that "the high - temperature resistance of the blade material was insufficient". So, it replaced the material with "rhenium alloy material" (resistant to high temperatures of 1800°C), thus avoiding the risk of "in - flight shutdown". "Prevention" is more important than "correction", because "correction" costs 10 times as much.
Guided by the principle of "customer-centric": "Customers are gods" is not just a slogan, but an "action". A hotel uses the "CRM system" to record the preferences of each customer: "Mr. Li prefers a hard bed", "Ms. Wang likes lavender aromatherapy", "Mr. Zhang likes to have milk delivered at 10 p.m.". When the customers check in next time, the hotel will make preparations in advance. Such "personalized service" has turned customers' "satisfaction" into "loyalty", and the repeat check-in rate has increased from 40% to 65%.
Conclusion: The essence of quality management is "putting people first"
Whether it is innovation in methods, mechanisms, or in concepts, awareness, and culture, the core of quality management has always been "people" - the quality awareness of employees, the quality culture of enterprises, and the social consensus on quality all ultimately need to be implemented in "the actions of each individual". As the quality management master Philip Crosby said, "Quality is free, but it is only free when you do things right the first time." For China's quality management to achieve the leap from "following" to "leading", the key is not "introducing more tools" but "making quality the instinct of everyone". When employees actively check every screw, when enterprises actively optimize every process, and when society actively supervises every product, the goal of building a "quality - powerful country" will no longer be far away.