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    MMK Plastics ABThe importance of good management when

    implementing a management system

    Kevin M Daghouz

    [email protected]

    The work covers 15 credits and is included as a compulsory element in the Master degree in industrialmanagement and quality 60 credits

    Nr /2010

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    MMK Plastics AB The importance of management whenimplementing a managementsystem

    Kevin M Daghouz ,[email protected]

    Masters dissertation thesis

    Subject: Leadership

    Hgskolan i BorsInstitutionen Ingenjrshgskolan501 90 BORSTel: 033-435 4640

    Examiner: Andreas Svensson

    Supervisor, name: Martin Jarhult

    Company address: MMK Plastics AB/ Sdra vgen 30

    S-515 70 Rydboholm

    Constituent: MMK plastics AB, Gran Khler Rydboholm

    Date: datum fr godknnande

    Key phrases: ISO 9001, Quality, Quality management systems, Leadership

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    Abstract

    Can a person really make a difference?Is it the leader who makes the difference, or is it the people who work under him who makes

    it? What are the implications of the decisions and actions made by the leader of the company?

    With this case study the author hopes at least that the management of MMK plastic will seehow their behavior is affecting the company and its employees.

    According to many researches for a quality system to be successful the organization'smanagement and culture is of most importance. The researches show that even iforganizations are certified, the certification can cause more problems than benefits.Many of the companies stated that they failed in such things as establishing a good enoughmonitoring program and conducting management reviews at regular intervals.There are other studies that also show that many companies never reap the benefits of thesystem due to unsuccessful implementation.

    When companies tries to implement and become ISO 9001 certified the culture of the wholecompany must changes radically. Unfortunately the changes needed are easier said than done.Many employees may see the ISO standard as an inconvenience rather than an opportunity forthem and the company.

    The CEO is convinced that if you want to do something right do it yourself. Even if he fails in

    many of the tasks he takes on, he refuses to delegate. Every problem, task or non conformitieswe faced during the short improvement process, he would always say, I will do this or I willfix this

    Even though the author of this paper sees the CEO of MMK as the biggest threat against thecompany, the employees are not just innocent victims.

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    Contents

    1. Introduction...........................................................................................................................1

    1.1 Problem.............................................................................................................................1

    1.2 Purpose..............................................................................................................................21.3 Delimitation......................................................................................................................22. Research Method...................................................................................................................3

    2.1 Research method...............................................................................................................32.1.1 Qualitative..................................................................................................................32.1.2 Quantitative................................................................................................................3

    2.2 Data collection..................................................................................................................42.2.1 Primary data...............................................................................................................42.2.2 Secondary data...........................................................................................................4

    2.3 Working procedure...........................................................................................................43. Literature...............................................................................................................................5

    3.1 Total Quality Management TQM.....................................................................................53.1.1 Focus on customer....................................................................................................53.1.2 Management Commitment.........................................................................................53.1.3 Focus on Processes.....................................................................................................63.1.4 Improve continuously................................................................................................73.1.5 Let everybody be committed......................................................................................73.1.6 Base decision on facts................................................................................................8

    3.2 ISO 9001 principles..........................................................................................................83.3 Obstacles when implementing ISO 9001..........................................................................83.4 What should have been done............................................................................................9

    4. Empirical..............................................................................................................................12

    4.1 Internal audit...................................................................................................................124.2 Intervjuer.........................................................................................................................134.3 Implementation of the management system...................................................................15

    4.3.1 Time schedule .........................................................................................................154.4 What was done................................................................................................................16

    4.4.1 Employee meeting....................................................................................................174.4.2 Information sheet.....................................................................................................174.4.3 Problems...................................................................................................................18

    4.5 A case study comparison ...............................................................................................194.6 MMK Plastics.................................................................................................................20

    4.6.1 Communication........................................................................................................224.6.2 Lack of training........................................................................................................224.6.3 Trust ........................................................................................................................224.6.4 Fear...........................................................................................................................234.6.5 Bad followers...........................................................................................................24

    4.7 A company comparison..................................................................................................255. Discussion.............................................................................................................................27

    5.1 Continued study..............................................................................................................296. Reference..............................................................................................................................30

    6.1 Litterateur........................................................................................................................306.2 Articles............................................................................................................................30

    6.3 Electronic source.............................................................................................................30

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    The internal audit report. Appendix 1Survey Appendix 2Information sheet Appendix 3Assignment given to the CEO from the Project leader Appendix 4Organization chart Appendix 5

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    As the initial part of this report sets out the background and problem description ofthesis on MMK Plastics AB, and the purpose and boundaries which are made to reach areasonable result.

    1. Introduction

    Can a person really make a difference?Is it the leader who makes the difference, or is it the people who work under him who makesit? What are the implications of the decisions and actions made by the leader of the company?

    The answer to, what makes a good leader? is not straightforward.There are no sets of rules that can be followed. There are different theories concerning

    leadership all of which fail individually to provide a convincing definition, but combined,conclusions can be drawn.There are good leaders that can be identified with and there are bad leaders from whomimportant lessons can be drawn (www.wrg.org.uk, 20100216).

    There are many different opinions on how a leader should be.(Kjel Ekstam 2003) says that now it is no longer the best professional man (or woman) who isgiven as chief of operations. Instead, it is about to lead the business towards given objectivesin an ever-changing reality. It no longer works to administer an activity for smoothest

    possible way. It is instead about how you as a leader get your employees to want to do theirbest and thus do great things. This means to lead rather than boss.

    Leadership is a manager who spends time treating each employee in a caring and unique way.For some employees, the leader gives strong affiliation; for others, the leader may givespecific directives with a high degree of structure. (Peter G. Northouse)

    The leader is the inspiration and director of the action. He or she is the person in the groupthat possesses the combination of personality and skills that makes others want to follow hisor her direction. (Susan Ward)

    Leadership is the quality of the behavior of individuals whereby they guide the people or theiractivities. (Chester Barnard)

    1.1 Problem

    In 2008 MMK Plastics AB moved the company from Villhemina to Rydboholm. Of thepersonnel, the CEO and owner was the only one that followed the company.The company was already ISO 9001 certified when it was located in Villhemina and the CEOtook the certification with him to the new location.When Swedish Technical Research Institutes (SP) made an audit of the companysmanagement system, MMK Plastics AB failed. It was stated on the audit report that themanagement system is not working properly as they wished. This is due to one of its largestcustomers ItPac is undergoing reorganization and has some debts to MMK Plastics.Furthermore ItPac has a remaining part of its old stock in MMK; s facility. This makes the

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    company's space to a certain extent limited and leads to their products and tools fall intodisarray. Which in turn leads to that it takes a lot of moving and finding tools.Some parts of the management system is in the computing environment, and some in loose

    papers and records which should really be linked to the respective folder (chapters) ismissing. These problems have meant that the management system was difficult to revise and

    the employees have not been able to follow the management system which should have beenavailable.SP recommendation was that MMK Plastics should seek outside assistance to control thesystem and perform one or more internal audits and then let SP do a post-audit.

    1.2 Purpose

    The purpose of the thesis is to;

    Update the management system. Implement the new management system.

    Do an internal audit and correct the non conformities

    1.3 Delimitation

    The author of the thesis is going to act as a consultant to the company. His tasks are to helpthe management with the problems associated with the quality management system, by telling

    them;

    What to do

    How to do it

    Why they should do it

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    This chapter presents how the thesis has been completed with the election of methodologyand approach.

    2. Research Method

    With this case study the author hopes at least that the management of MMK plastic will seehow their behavior is affecting the company and its employees.

    2.1 Research method

    According to Holme & Solvang (1996) when doing research there are two methods to choosefrom. The qualitative and the quantitative method.

    2.1.1 Qualitative

    The aim of qualitative research is to obtain an in-depth understanding ofhuman behaviorandthereasons that makes him behave that way. The method not only investigates the what,where, when but also the why and how ofdecision making.When using the qualitative method only information on the particular cases studied is

    produced, any more conclusions are only hypotheses. (www.en.wikipedia.org, 2010.10.05).

    The qualitative methods to be used in the thesis work are interviews and planned meetings

    with management and the employee. During the interviews the author will try to seek out howthe communication and working environment is within the company.Because an observation from an outside perspective is an important information source, it will

    be utilized in order to be used in the analysis part of the thesis.

    2.1.2 QuantitativeOne of the most important tools when conducting market research nowadays is accurate andmeaningful surveys.If appropriate and correct questions are asked, the survey will give the appropriate answersthat the decision making will be based on. But for the decision making to be good enough the

    survey must have the right structure so that the various components of the results can be seenclearly, which in turn will make the decision makers adapt their activities in the action plan.(www.experiment-resources.com , 2010.01.13).

    Questionnaire survey will be the only quantitative method used in this thesis work. It will bedone to get a better idea of the staff's feelings towards the company

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    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_behaviorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_makinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_makinghttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/http://www.experiment-resources.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_behaviorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_makinghttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/http://www.experiment-resources.com/
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    2.2 Data collection

    2.2.1 Primary data

    Data collected by the person conducting the examination is called primary data.The advantage of such data is that it can be adjusted based on the specific subject and that itcan be easier to control the quality of the obtained data. (Eriksson & Wiedersheim-Paul,1997).

    In collecting primary data, the author chose to conduct personal semi structured interviewsand sending out a questionnaire. The author found that a combination of both methods wasthe best option; where a survey would provide comprehensive information about thecompany. While the interviews could provide a more controlled and detailed information.

    2.2.2 Secondary data

    Data gathered and compiled by someone else is called secondary data; it can be everythingfrom existing reports, articles, literature and interviews (Bergman & Klefsj 2003).

    The author has collected secondary data from literature, earlier essays and information fromthe Internet. Since the quality of secondary data can vary, he has been studying the collecteddata critically and used only of what he thought were good quality and what was relevant tothe investigation.

    2.3 Working procedure

    The author started to read past essays that talk about similar topic as he would write about forideas on writers, and to see how they have written their thesis.He used Bors University's library catalog, and Libris, to get the literature he needed. Butthe most important aspect of the project was the weekly meetings with the management ofMMK, because that was where the important decisions were taken place.When the author had acquired sufficient knowledge about the company and its staff, themeetings with the management started. And along with the management the group meetingswith employees were booked.Because of lack of time, group meetings were decided to be a better choice than having ameeting with one employee at a time.Prior to the meetings a questionnaire survey was sent out to all employees to answer beforethe meetings took place.Semi-structured interviews with employees at their workplace also took place before themeetings. The choice of interviewing the employees in their working environment was

    because the author thought the interviewees would feel safe if they were in a place they feltsecure in.Through all the interviews, the author got a picture of how different the management and theemployees felt about the working relation in the organization.

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    This chapter presents the theories that have been used when writing the thesis

    3. Literature

    3.1 Total Quality Management TQM

    Total Quality Management is a concept of quality work in an organization. Where youcontinually strive to meet and exceed customer requirements, needs and expectations withminimal resource consumption.TQM is a consistent improvement throughout the organization to focus on all processes to beimproved by using the tools and dedicated employees.

    (Bergman & Klefsj 2003) interpret TQM as a continuously endeavor to fulfill or exceed thedemands and expectations of the customers at lower and lower costs in allprocesses whichcontinuously are being improvedand to which everybody is committed. Here external as wellas internal customers are to be considered.

    Figure 3.1 The cornerstones of Total Quality Management (Bergman & Klefsj 2003)

    3.1.1 Focus on customer

    Organizations are depend on their customers and should therefore understand their need,

    today and future. The organization should strive to meet and preferably exceed customerexpectations. (Bergman & Klefsj 2003)

    It is important not to forget the internal customers, the employees. Quality improvements areessentially a matter of providing the employees with better opportunities to do a good job andto feel happy their performance. This creates a breeding ground for satisfied externalcustomer in the long run.

    3.1.2 Management CommitmentManagerial involvementis essential when working with Total Quality Management. In orderto make everybody committed, the leadership in an organization needs to show how importantis to work towards better quality. To be able to successfully implement a system of this sort

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    Focus onprocessess

    Focus onprocessess

    Base decisionson factBase decisionson fact

    ImproveContinuously

    ImproveContinuously

    Let everybodybe committed

    Let everybodybe committed

    Committed leadershipCommitted leadership

    Focus on

    customers

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    everybody in the organization needs to be involved and committed, and that will be possible ifthe management leads the way.

    www.managementhelp.org

    3.1.3 Focus on Processes

    The purpose of the process is to use as little resources as possible, at the same time satisfy thecustomers with the end result produced.The process is the part of the activity that links the past with the future. The process generatesdata that indicate how well the process satisfies the need of the customers. See figure 3.2(Bergman & Klefsj 2003)

    Figure 3.2 Activities are repeatedly executed in time.By focusing on HOW we do,instead of WHAT we do, we can become better. (Bergman & Klefsj 2003)

    There are three types of processes:

    Main process: whose task is to fulfill the need of the external customers and to improve the

    products provided by the organization, examples of this type are production and distribution

    Support process: their task is to provide resources for the core processes. These processeshave internal customer. Examples of this are maintenance and recruitment.

    Management process: their task is to make decisions on targets and strategies of theorganization, and to implement improvements in the other organizational processes. These

    processes too have internal customer. This category is where procedures for strategicplanning, targeting and revision process belong.

    (Bergman & Klefsj 2003)

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    A system is a network of independent components (methods, equipment,materials, environments, and people) that work together to accomplish the aimof the system.

    (Deming)

    Supplier ProcessCustome

    r

    Quality Improvement always starts at theManagement level. Leadership is key

    element in successful implementation oflarge-scale change

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    3.1.4 Improve continuously

    Continuous improvements are vital for an organizations survival today. Not only is importantin regard to external pressure, it can also be justified as a good reason for cutting costs.Having a process approach when working with continuous improvements an organizations

    production cycles and process are short and repetitive which makes it possible to act fast to

    make improvements. Anyone who stops to improve soon stops being good. (Bergman &Klefsj, 2003).

    Continual improvement. This including A) Corrective action. When problems occur, fix theunderlying process responsible for the defect. The thoroughness of each solution depends onhow costly or unsafe the actual or possible problems are. B) Preventive action. The sameactions described above for corrective actions must be considered for problems that have yetto occur. This is called preventive action. Effective preventive action involves identifying the

    potential problem, examining the root cause, putting a plan in place to prevent occurrence ofthe problem, evaluating the effectiveness of the plan, recordingactions taken, and reviewingthe preventive actions taken. A written procedure is required to describe the preventive action

    process.

    (Bergman & Klefsj 2003)

    3.1.5 Let everybody be committedTo make people feel that they are needed, giving them the chance to be responsible, and

    providing them with information are key factors to create commitment (Carlzon 1987).

    If an organization really is to reap the benefits of working with a quality Management Systemand continuous improvements, everyone needs to be committed. If seeing the work withmanagement systems as the why we work or a culture of an organization, it is critical thateverybody has the same vision.

    By working actively with communication, delegation and training as quality andenvironmental management systems suggests, it will create motivation, job satisfaction and acommitted work force as well as higher quality of products and processes. Figure3.3 showsthe effects of above.To focus on improving quality for employees and their work environment as well asimproving employees competence is, in the future, likely to be as important as improving

    product and process quality.( Bergman & Klefsj 2008).

    Figure3.3 A vicious circle and a good circle. Key words here are communication, delegation and training.

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    The basic rule of Continuous Improvements

    There is always a way to get improved qualityusing les resources

    Improved results

    Top management hasconfidence

    Delegate responsibilityand authority

    Employeesmotivated

    Inferior results

    Top management lackconfidence

    Inspections and control ofdetails

    Employees losemotivation

    Vicious Circle Virtuous Circle

    http://www.simplyquality.org/2000%20Summary/req_4-0.html#recordshttp://www.simplyquality.org/2000%20Summary/req_4-0.html#recordshttp://www.simplyquality.org/2000%20Summary/req_4-0.html#records
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    3.1.6 Base decision on facts

    Measurability and the ability to accurately measure and record quality and defects are alsokey factors when working with the management system. To be able to work with continuousimprovements, in any area, and base decisions on facts, it is necessary to have measurabledata from the processes within the organization. (Bergman & Klefsj,2003)

    3.2 ISO 9001 principles

    There are eight quality management principles that have to be followed to get certified

    Customer focus

    Organizations depend on their customers and should therefore understand their need, todayand future. Org should strive to meet and exceed customer expectations (external, in-house,authorities).

    LeadershipLeaders establish the direction of the organization, what should be done and why. Theyshould create and maintain an environment in which the employees get fully involved,motivated and committed to work towards the objectives. Vision goals follow-up.

    Involvement of people

    People at all level are the essence of an organization.

    Process approach

    Systematic way of analyzing what is done and why and then evaluate efficiency, risks etc.

    System approach to managementUtilizing the process approach and seeing interrelated actions and processes as a system, willcontribute to the harmonization, simplification, rationalization and focus on the key processes.Put the effort on the right things.

    Continual improvementAlways strive for, have goals and also recognize and acknowledge improvements

    Factual approach to decision making

    Effective decisions are based on analysis of data and information that are balanced withexperience and intuition.

    Mutually beneficial supplier relationshipsAn organization and its suppliers are interdependent and a good relationship should benefit

    both

    3.3 Obstacles when implementing ISO 9001

    According to many researches for a quality system to be successful the organization'smanagement and culture is of most importance.

    One quantitative research that had 146 organizations participated, wanted to see what are thebenefits with ISO 9000?

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    The organizations said that they had some advantage of the certification, but what was moreinteresting was that they said they had significant problem with it as well.The research shows that even if organizations are certified, the certification can cause more

    problems than benefits.Many of the companies stated that they failed in such things as establishing a good enough

    monitoring program and conducting management reviews at regular intervals.There are other studies that also shows that many companies never reaps the benefits of thesystem due to unsuccessful implementation. The result of that is often because of lack oflong-term commitment by top management. In many cases the management underestimatesthe costs, resources and most important, the time an implementation takes. (Rastetter, 1985;Widmer, 1979). Tsiotras and Gotsamani (1996) went so far as to assert that the greatestreason for the failure of ISO 9000 programs is a lack of management commitment throughoutthe organization.Many studies say that ISO 9000 is ineffective because organizations certification processresults in a "pursuit of quality certificates, as opposed to a pursuit of quality." In other wordsorganizations are striving to get the certificate to show off to their customers rather than

    trying to get the quality aspect behind the certification. Companies in China are a goodexample of that. China is world leading in ISO 9000 certification (ISO Survey ofCertifications, 2005) but still they are notorious all over the world for producing cheap andlow quality products(www.asq.org).

    When making changes in a company, the primary problem they face especially smallbusinesses today is limited resources. Most companies, when asked, would say money,personnel and time are their most difficult resources. Now days the financial stability of manysmall companies is teetering between solvency and bankruptcy, which limits the financialresources that can be focused on areas like training, education and ultimately, implementationof an ISO 9000 quality system.

    The challenge for those kinds of companies becomes in finding ways not to overburden theiremployees due to lack of resources.Even though it does not look like it in the beginning, an ISO 9000 quality system may be theanswer for many companies. Just to name a few aspects, the ISO standard allows companiesto focus on problem areas, help to simplify processes and eliminate duplication of tasks.(www.qualitydigest.com, 2010.03.16)

    www.qualitydigest.com

    3.4 What should have been done

    Figure 3.4 illustrates how the PL1 was going to go about with the implementation. It also

    illustrates the important aspects that need to be considered in every step when working with1 PL is a abbreviation for project leader, the author

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    The company's management representative, working from a position of power, candrive the entire organization to change to a more participative management style withopen communication paths. However, without that kind of authority sanctioned byexecutive management, efforts to manage culture change inevitably are doomed."

    Mullins

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    the implementation of the management system. Each following chapters will give adescription of what needs to be done in the implementation process to be successful.

    Figure 3.4 The steps of implementing the management system (www.premier-oil.com)

    Policy and strategic objectives

    The responsibility of writing the policies is the top managements. They must ensure that thepolicies are appropriate to the purpose of their organization. It should not be too large andhard to understand; the employees must understand what the policies means and stands for aswell as be able to translate the meaning of the policies into the way they work.

    Organization, resources and documentation

    The organization is responsible to determine and provide the resources needed to implementand maintain the management system.

    Resources can be divided in three groups. The first group is infrastructure where buildings,workspace, process equipment and supporting services are included.

    The second group is human resources. It is important that training is provided and actionstaken to achieve the necessary competence in the organization. Furthermore the topmanagement must show how important their personnel are. It needs to be communicated that

    the employees are the greatest asset in the organization. The personnel must know that theyare contributing in an important way to achieve the companys objectives.

    Work environment is the last group. Here the organization must determine and manage thework environment needed to achieve conformity to product requirements.

    Proper documentation is also needed; the organization cannot have a successful qualitymanagement system without documentation. The documentations have to include a qualitymanual, documented statements of the visions and objectives, and records that the companyfinds necessary to ensure the effective planning, operation and control of its processes. Thedocuments have to be controlled regularly so they can be updated and so that outdated

    documents can be removed. Though the above is important, it is vital to remember that the

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    work with management systems is not about the documentation in its self. (ISO 9001; 2008standard)

    Evaluation and risk management

    Risk is evaluated on the probability of harmful event occurring. Evaluation and revision isvital for effective risk management program. The purpose of the risk management programs isto improve the problematic area. Through the evaluation the problems are identified and toachieve the desired outcome some type of follow-up is determined.

    Planning

    Measurements have to be made to ensure that the quality aspect is the key focus for themanagements systems in the organization. It is in the planning the quality action plans arecarried out to achieve the objectives consisting in the policies which include timeframe,means and responsibilities.

    Implementation and monitoring

    Implementation is the step where the organization actually execute the strategy they planned.Key questions need to be asked whether they carried out the strategy as they intended with thequality they intended and to gather information that will help to understand their strengths andareas for improvement.

    Review

    To maintain the effectiveness of the quality and environmental management system and forcontinuous improvement, the organization should review the management systems at regularintervals. The effectiveness of the review should be comprehensive.

    Audit

    Different internal audits shall take place throughout the whole process of planning,developing and implementing the management system. Beforehand the criteria, scope,frequency and methods of the audit shall be decided. If previous audits have been made theresults shall also be considered when conducting a new audit. By doing audits and follow upthe results it will indicate if the project of implementing the system goes according to plan. Italso enables corrective action, if needed.

    Leadership

    Leadership is required from the top management to organize a companys objectives, targets,audits mechanism and commitment for continuous improvement. Without the fullcommitment of the top management the implementation of the systems will fail before itstarts. Top managers must show that they are willing to change, before they can expectchange from their employees. They must inspire the staff to change not force them

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    This chapter will discuss what was done in the company and what tools was used in differentstages of the whole process. It will also show what the outcome of the tools used was.Furthermore a comparison between two other companies will also be discussed in this chapter

    4. Empirical

    4.1 Internal audit

    When SP recommended the company to a look over their quality management system, thecompany thought it would be best to do an internal audit of the entire company with itsdifferent processes. This to see how big the problem really was.

    When doing the internal audit I used the internal audit plan that is shown in figure 4,1

    Figure 4.1 Internal audit plan (From the course quality & environmental management)

    Plan

    After being informed by the management on what they wanted me to audit, the planning ofthe audit began. Because it was small company with 25 employees, four days was sufficientto make the audit, i.e. from preparation to submission of the audit report.

    Corrective measures and follow ups are not included because the non conformities vary insize and number.

    Prepare

    Because the company had not done any internal audit after the move to Rydboholm, therewere no old reports to look at. Instead I looked at SP's report to get an overview of what nonconformities they found and what their recommendation was.To know what their processes are, what is included in the processes and who was responsiblefor each process, I read all the documents belonging to the management system.For the employees not to wondering why I walk around on site and ask them questions, I told

    the management to inform all of them that I would be on site during the audit period to

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    conduct an audit of company. Furthermore I told them to inform everybody that some of theemployees will have to answer some questions regarding their duties in the company.

    Do

    I started the audit by first investigating if the management was working in accordance withthe management system and the written procedures. This was done by comparing whatresponsibilities the management has every year according to the system, with document frommanagement stating what they have done.When management controls were carried out, I went down to production site. I started byobserving how the staff in the different stations conducted their work. I observed if theyworked according to the management system procedures or not. Then I interviewed a coupleof the employees to see what they knew about the company and management system.I completed the audit by looking at how it looked on the production area, i.e. is the workenvironment safe for the employees?

    Report

    Because system elements are missing or being handled wrongly, all the non conformities aredefined as major ones.Figure 4.2 shows all the non conformities found during the audit. The conclusions and the result of the report can be seen on (appendix 1)

    4.2 Intervjuer

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    The management system is notupdated.

    Internal audit has not been done for

    2009.

    Quality assurance manager is notappointed.

    Communication betweenmanagement and employees aremissing.

    Quality System (routines) is notavailable for all.

    Employees do not know anythingabout the management system.

    Employees do not know anythingabout company policy, vision, orgoals.

    Unsafe working environment andvery messy site.

    Performance appraisals have notbeen done for 2009.

    Customer evaluation has not been

    done for 2009.

    Supplier Evaluation has not beendone for 2009.

    Plan for quality objectives aremissing.

    Reject Report is has not been donefor 2009.

    Work wear are not available for theemployees.

    Education records of the employeesare missing.

    No one is following themanagement system.

    Theupdat

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    Figure 4.2 The non conformities found during the audit

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    Management review and corrective actions

    After the internal audit was conducted the results showed that the management system wasnever implemented on the new staff after moving to Rydboholm. For the implementation to

    be successful it was decided that the implementation was to take place after the

    communication problem was handled between management and employees.

    4.3 Implementation of the management system

    After doing the internal audit as SP recommended, it became noticeable that the company'smanagement system and the failure in the audit were due to negligence from the management.When the company moved location from Villhemina to Rydboholm, the only person whofollowed with the company was the owner, who also was the CEO. He is at present time theonly one in the company that the management system has been implemented on.Their quality certification is just something that exists on paper. In addition to SP certificatehanging on the wall, there is no evidence that the company is working with any kind ofquality work.

    For the implementation to be successful it was decided that the implementation of themanagement system on the entire staff will take place after the communication problem ishandled between management and employees.

    4.3.1 Time schedule

    A time schedule was made by the PL showing the different steps and the time it will take toimplement the system.

    As figure 4.3 shows it will take a proximately five months from updating the system, toimplementing it and to having the external audit conducted by SP.Factors that affect the time aspect are the size of the organization, what documentation thatcan be used and already is available as well as what kinds of resources are available.

    Month 1 2 3 4 5

    Updating the systems.

    Policy and strategic objectives.

    Organization resources and doc.Evaluation and risk

    management.Planning.Implementation andmonitoring.

    Review (internal audits).

    External audits.

    Figure 4.3 Time frame of implementing the management system

    Some comments to the time schedule:Planning should not only be in the beginning of the project, it should also be before the

    implementation period. The reason for that is because many factors can go wrong during thattime. If you do not have a proper plan of how the different processes should be carried out its

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    more likely you would fail.The evaluation and risk management is also before the implementation period. It is a goodidea to take a look at policies and objectives before implementing, to see if they meet theobjectives of the management system.

    Even if the real implementation period starts in the 5th month, it is important for the topmanagement to make the transition for the employees as smooth as possible. That is why thepre implementation should be integrated in the previous steps.

    4.4 What was done

    In chapter 3.4 the author discussed about how an implementation should be done. In thischapter we are going to discuss about what was done.

    During the first meeting of the project, the project leader asked the management what the staffknew about the management system and the company. The answer he got was that all knowabout the management system, they are very positive to it and they know why they have it andknow where to find it.To find out what the employees really knew about the system, the company and itsmanagement, the project leader made a survey (see appendix 2) and distributed it to allemployees.After having compiled the responses from the survey it became obvious that the managementhad a different view then the employees on what they knew about the company and itsmanagement and the management system. The survey showed that employees did not knowanything about the company's quality management practices, policies, vision or anything

    about the company at all. Furthermore the level of dissatisfaction among them has grownstronger over time.The PL called for a "crisis meeting" with management to discuss results of the survey. Whenhe showed the results to the management, the CEO was surprised and refused to believe inthem. He started shouting at the project leader that the results are incorrect and that it is just alie. He demanded to know the names of those who responded that way. But after showing himall the questionnaires of all employees of the company (without any names on them), hecalmed down and realized that it really was in that way.The quality coordinator had the opposite reaction when he saw the results of the survey. Theonly thing he said was that he assumed it was in this way.To show the employees that the management wants a better relationship with the employees,

    where the communication works well in both directions and to give the employees moreinformation about what a quality system is and how they can work with quality, the projectleaders recommendation was to concentrate on the employees first before concentrate ontaking care of the non conformities they got from the internal audit and from SP.The management accepted the recommendations and decided to have group meetings with 6employees at a time. Having less than 8 people at the meetings was because the PL wantedeverybody to be able to have the opportunity to say what was on their mind. The PL wasafraid that by having more people it would maybe make the employees feel uncomfortableand reluctant to speak what was on their mind.

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    4.4.1 Employee meeting

    The PL started the employee meetings by informing the staff of the situation of the companyand why they were there. He made it very clear that the meetings are conducted because themanagement wants to know what they can do better for the employees to feel happy about

    working in the company. Furthermore he emphasized the importance that every person in themeeting must tell how they feel and what they want to get better without any retaliation orconsequence from the management.For the employees to see that the management really takes the dissatisfaction as an important

    problem that has to be solved, the CEO and the quality coordinator were both attending everymeeting.The PL did not want to ask the employees any questions during the meeting; he did not wantthem to feel that they were in an interrogation. Instead he wanted the employees to speak andhe and the management to listen. Unfortunately that did not work at the beginning.At the beginning of every meeting there were only a few employees that dared to speak aboutwhat they were dissatisfied with. For everybody to be involved in the discussions the PL used

    the survey as a reference. He asked each employee, one at the time, the same questions thatwere on the survey. By doing so they gradually all were eager to have their opinions heard.

    The outcomes of having these meetings were positive for the management as well as for theemployees. The management who has not had these kinds of meetings with the staff since thecompany moved to Rydboholm said that they got the opportunity to really understand whatthe employees thought was missing and needed to get better in the company. But mostimportant of all the CEO now really understood that the result of the survey was not a lie ashe had thought earlier.The employees said that they got for the first time in a long time see that the managementtook what they said seriously but now it was up to the management to prove them self. Even

    though they were positive, there was still a lack of trust towards the management. Theemployees did not think that they were going to hold up on what they promised.

    To show that the management can be trusted, two of the requests the staff had were fulfilledwithin a two week period. One morning meeting in the beginning of the week was the firstrequest. The employees did not feel they got enough information about what needed to bedone during the week.The employeessaid that they just wanted to feel that they were a partof the company the second request they had was about work wear. They were not happy abouthaving to buy their own work wear, when it actually is the companys responsibility to

    provide work and protection clothing to them.

    4.4.2 Information sheet

    The result of the meeting gave the PL a very important insight in the level of knowledge thestaff had about quality work and management systems. Because the company only had a twohour course about quality work that was held over a year ago, and all new staff since thenhave not gotten any introduction in the management system. The staffs knowledge was toolow for implementing any kind of management system on. The PL tried to convince themanagement that all the staff needed proper education in quality and quality work, but due tolack of resources and time they refused.For the staff to get a sense of what they were going to work with and why, the PL made aninformation sheet (see appendix 3) that he sent out to everyone,explaining in short the

    importance of a quality management system, what is included in it and why having one.

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    He emphasized to the management that without any education, the information sheet itselfwill not help the employees that much.

    4.4.3 Problems

    Usually there are employees taking some kind of education or training in the ISO 9000standard when companies acquire the ISO 900 Certification. These people will act as a linkbetween the standard and other staff members. They will train fellow employees on how toimplement and use ISO 9000 procedures.Unfortunately it is well know that it is difficult to change peoples old habits. And resistantthrough all the implementation is a fact. Making them follow new procedures is rarelywelcomed with open arms.Before starting the project, the PL made it clear to the management that the project will not bea success if they are not fully committed.At first the management was fully committed but after a while the CEO, a key person in the

    project, started to lose interest in the project, he started to miss or be late to meetings andwhen he was attending, he did not do the assignments that were assigned to him.When starting to attend to the non conformities it became noticeable that if the PL werent inthe company and making the wheel spin all the time, nothing would have been done.The management did not understand that it was their responsibility to do the change and thatthey are the ones that have to work with continues improvement. The PL duties were as stated

    before, be an adviser that tells the management;

    What to do

    How to do it

    Why they should do it

    The major problem that made the project fail was when the PL gave the CEO an assignment(see appendix 4) with six tasks in it that had a ten days deadline. During the ten days the PLwould not be in the company pushing him to do the tasks. The PL thought that this was agood strategy to use to show the management that it is their responsibility to make the projectsuccesses.Even though tasks five and six were almost impossible to do in such a short time, the PLwrote them anyway just to see how the CEO would handle them. By seeing the end result ofthe assignment, he could show the CEO that he in the case of this project; prioritize less

    important tasks rather than more important ones.All the assignments had to been done for the company to pass the audit and continuo to beISO 9001 certified. But some assignments had to be prioritized before others to make theimplementation successful.Assignments 1-3 were of higher prioritize because they involved the employees.The appraisal discussions have to be done due to three reasons. First of all, in the MS it isstated that appraisal discussions shall take place once a year. But it has been more then thatsince the last one.The second reason is that by having appraisal discussions, the management will have a goodopportunity to see what the employees are satisfied with and what they think could be betterin the company when it comes to the working environment, production, processes etc.Third of all and maybe the most important reason is that the employees will see that the

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    management care about them and their opinions, which will in turn lead to the companyhaving satisfied employees that will do a good work.

    4.5 A case study comparison

    When companies tries to implement and become ISO 9001 certified the culture of the wholecompany must changes radically. Unfortunately the changes needed are easier said than done.Many employees may see the ISO standard as an inconvenience rather than an opportunity forthem and the company.A case study made by Mohammed A. Salem Hiyassat about a construction company in Jordanthat had implemented the ISO 9001 standard, shows that the mistakes the Jordanian companydid are being done by MMK Plastics.A one-page questionnaire was prepared in Arabic by Mohammed, containing five yes or notypes of questions.

    The first question was how long the respondent had been in the company, the second questionwas if they knew the definition of the ISO standards and the rest of the questions askedwhether the job was deemed easier and more efficient before implementing the standards, andwhether they thought the ISO-9000 necessary. The questionnaire revealed that 16, 1% of theemployees were not aware of what the ISO standard were.In the table below you can see the awareness in the different division groups.

    You can clearly see how the percentage of employees awareness of implementing ISO 9000is shrinking when we go to a lower level in the companys hierarchy.We can see that the information flow inside the company is not good at all; importantdecisions are not properly communicated to the lower level in the company's hierarchy. Whenimplementing ISO 9000 system everybody should be involved if not involved at least awareof it.

    With regard to the third question: Was your job easier before implementing the ISO-9000Standards?As the table above shows, the upper management says there is no difference

    between post implementation and after implementation. The answers of the next group whichwere analyzed were those of the project managers and the planning and quality assuranceengineers. Forty-five percent of the group agreed that their job was easier before

    implementing the standards. These results show that first; there is a great resistance in thelower management to the implementation of the ISO-9000 Standards. Second, as previously

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    stated, there is a serious problem in the way the standards were implemented. In this regard, itseems that the objectives and the goals of implementing the ISO-9000 standards were notclearly defined by the upper level management nor did the consultant make an effort to ensurethat these objectives were understood by everybody in the company.In answering the fourth question: Was your work more efficient before implementing the

    ISO-9000 Standards? 94.2% of whole sample surveyed said no while the remaining 5.8%said yes. It is interesting to note that all employees who were unaware of the meaning of theISO-9000 Standards replied with no to the answer whether their job was more efficient

    before implementing the standards.In answering the last question: Do you think the ISO-9000 Standards are necessary to thecompany? all employees but one indicated that it was necessary. Again, all employees whowere not aware of the meaning of the ISO-9000 Standards replied that it was necessary.(www.sciencedirect.com2010.04.01)

    4.6 MMK PlasticsIn the beginning of this paper there were some definitions of how a leader should be and act.If the author could define a leader, he would define him as a father figure. A good father issomeone you get inspired by; you want to be like him. He gives you credit when you havedone something good and he tells you when you have done something wrong. He tries to leadyou in the right path by giving you advice. He knows that you can make mistakes and dont

    judge you if you do.Unfortunately the leader of MMK plastics does not fit that definition.

    The author has used an atypical method of analyzing the CEO. The author thinks a SWOT

    analysis is an appropriate tool to use in this case. Choice of tools depends on the authorsbelieves that the CEO in this case is the company; it is his actions that affect the company forthe worse. The author believes that if the CEO is aware of his strengths, weaknesses,opportunities, and threats, a useful strategy for ensuring organizational success will becomeevident to him.One minor change that will be done to the SWOT-analysis is that it will only be concentratedto the internal factors not the external.

    The subjective analysis is based on observations that have been done by the author during athree month period

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    Figure 5.1 subjective SWOT-analysis of the CEO of MMK-plastics AB

    As said before initially the purpose of the thesis was to;

    Update the management system.

    Implement the new management system.

    Do an internal audit and correct the non conformities

    After doing the internal audit as SP recommended, it became noticeable that the company'smanagement system and the failure in the audit were due to negligence from the management.

    By comparing the TQM and the ISO 9001 (see chapter 3), against the company problems, itwas obvious that MMK has not followed any of the guidelines and rules that are suggested.Their quality certification was just something that existed on paper. In addition to SPcertificate hanging on the wall, there was no evidence that the company was working with anykind of quality work. They see ISO 9000 just a badge to be worn nothing more.

    None of the eight quality management principles that need to be followed to get certified hasbeen followed by MMK. There was neither vision nor policy written for the company. There

    were goals set by the management, but they were not informed to the employees.Their biggest problem in present time is the management.After talking with more the half of the employees it became obvious that they weredissatisfied with the company and its management. This has lead to the working environmentnot being on a satisfied level.The major problems the company has for failing in implementing the quality managementsystem are

    Management commitment

    Communication

    Trust

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    - He loves his work.

    - He wants to change.

    - The employees want tochange, easy to implementchange.

    - No trust from theemployees.

    - No rhetorical skills.

    - No leadership skills.

    - Aggressive.

    - Diff. for him to change.

    PositiveNegative

    Strengths Weaknesses

    ThreatsOpportunities

    SWOT- Analysis

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    Lack of training

    4.6.1 Communication

    The employees knows that the company is ISO 9001 certified. But they do not know what

    that means and why they are certified. The quality hand book, which should be on everystation in the production area and in every office, is nowhere to be found. The only placewhere the hand book can be read is on the quality coordinators computer and even then, it ishard to find what you are looking for.Bergman & Klefsj (2003) tells us that one of the most important tasks of top management isto create a well formulated, challenging and shared vision of the companys future. Thisvision should then be deployed to long-term goals and supplemented with strategies for howto achieve these goals.The first question I asked the employees when interviewing them was, what do you knowabout the company?This simple question tells what level of communication the company has with the employees

    and the level of involvement the employees have with the company.The answers I received were all the same, to earn money!They did not know anything about the vision, goals or policy of the company. This isunderstandable when there is no vision, goals and policy set by the management.The management has goals and policy for the quality part of the company, but not for thecompany in general. But even then, not one employee knew what the policy was and meantand what the goals were.When asking the management why there were no vision? I did not get a straight answer. They

    just did not know why there was no vision. It became obvious that the management did notunderstand the power of a vision.

    4.6.2 Lack of trainingThe machines in production have in several occasions stopped to work due to insufficientmaintenance. There are only two employees that have the training to those maintenances butthey are often busy taking care of other problems. This had led to many machines beingstopped for as much as two weeks in a row before they are working again.In the management systems routines it is written that maintenance should be handled by anemployee. But the employees are not getting the training needed for them to do their job.They have in several occasions asked the management for training but been refused. Insteadthe CEO who has the most experience with the machines tries to do the maintenance when hehas the time, which in turn leads to him neglecting other more important duties he as CEO

    has. The CEO say that lack of training is first of all due to lack of time and second of allbecause most of the employees do not need any specific training to do their job.

    4.6.3 Trust The CEO has repeatedly promised things that he had not kept. This has led to the employeesdo not trust him at all. They say there is much talk and little action in the case of the CEO.At all scheduled meetings the author held with management the CEO failed to attend morethan half of them. There were always excuses as to why he could not attend. I have anothermeeting, I have to repair the machine and I must go and buy parts for machinery and so on.When it was time for one of the main elements of the project, to update the management

    system, the CEO was not in place. He believed that there were more important things to takecare of than to be in place and help the quality coordinator with the quality system.

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    The management has not delegated any responsibility to the employees. Every majorresponsibility is handled by one person, the CEO. As you can see on the organization chart(see appendix 5) he is responsible for most of the departments in the company. Even thoughhe is not in those departments every day, he refuses to delegate responsibility because he donot trust that anyone can do a better job than him.

    By not delegating responsibility to the employees, they have started to feel that themanagement does not trust them at all. This has resulted in them not doing their job properlyand to not care if the job is handled properly. Furthermore they feel that the CEO is makingdecisions in the different departments without consulting those who actually work there. Theyfeel that he should not be making decisions without consulting them, because he is not thereat all time, which make him not knowing what is going on there at all time.

    The flight of wild geese gives us a good example to illustrate the CEO; s lack of leadershipand teamwork skills.Geese fly in a V formation to reduce the amount of effort each goose needs to becomeairborne and fly. In the right direction; as a result they have a 71% better flying range than if

    they flew alone. When the lead goose becomes tired, it rotates back into the formation andanother goose flies to the front. Leaders need to be prepared to let others help! Geese information communicate with each other. Geese will encourage their leader to lead on. Thisspurs on those at the front with the knowledge that they have the support of their flock to dowell. Leaders must also remember to encourage all in their group in the same way by giving

    praise. (www.wrg.org.uk, 2010.02.16)

    The CEO is convinced that if you want to do something right do it yourself. Even if he fails inmany of the tasks he takes on, he refuses to delegate. Every problem, task or non conformitieswe faced during the short improvement process, he would always say, I will do this or I willfix this. He is what Ichak Adizes (Leadership pitfalls, 1995) refers to as a lone wolf. Someone

    who sees each task as his own and thus opposed to delegate power and responsibility to hissubordinates.My recommendation to him was to appoint two employees that he trust will have the skills to

    become production and stock managers. This way he could focus more on the companysmarket position and more importantly focus on being a CEO. But his lack of trust towards hisemployees has made him having a hard time delegates responsibilities. This has in turn led to

    bad or no loyalty and trust from them and him not having time to solve even small problemsin the company.

    www.drfd.hbs.edu

    4.6.4 Fear

    Ichak Adizes also claims that there are four different roles a company management shouldhave to function, theproducer, administrator,entrepreneurand the integrator. The CEO hassome of the producers role in the company. Why do I say some of the role? That is becauseeven if his knowledge in his field surpasses others in the company, he is not at all good at

    ensuring that the produced products are fulfilling the company and the customersrequirements.

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    Leadership is the ability to exert influence onother peoples thoughts and actions

    Zaleznik

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    A good example of that, is when the employees were asked about why they approve and sendthe products they know are defective to the customer? The answer was quite surprising.It turned out that they initially did not accept defective products, but when the CEO came andyelled at them for rejection the products they became afraid that he would yell at them againif they continued to reject what they thought were defective products. This fear has made

    many of the employees feel that it is better to be quiet about a problem then to talk with himabout, because they are afraid of how he will react towards them.Demings claims that a person who feels unsafe, who is afraid to ask questions or who is tooshy to point out misunderstandings, will never do a good job.When the employees do a good job, they feel that they dont get praised for it, but whensomething goes wrong he is the first person to come and shout at them.

    Furthermore I believe that the CEO is governed more by what (Kjell Ekstam, 2003) refer to asthe paleo cortex. This means that when he feels threatened, he reacts with fear and aggression.He takes an aggressive defensive position and starts to yell even though the actual situation inno way justifies such a feeling. He is one who reacts more or less instinctively, quickly

    without thought. This has led to him often creates problems for himself in the form of poorworking environment for employees.Instead of hearing other people solutions or opinion to a

    problem he wants people to accept his own solutions.

    4.6.5 Bad followers

    Barbara Kellerman (2003) states that leaders whether good or bad, cannot exist withoutfollowers. Place some responsibility on the followers that empower and enable bad leaders.She asks, Why do we follow bad leadership who behave badly? The answer: bad followers.This answer begs a follow-up question: Why do bad followers exist? Her answer: Badfollowers exist because even bad leaders often satisfy our most basic human needs, in

    particular, safety, simplicity, and certainty. She continues: Groups go along with badleaders because even bad leaders often provide important benefits. In particular, leadersmaintain order, provide cohesion and identity, and do the collective workBecause bad followers enable bad leaders, leaders should be looked at only in tandem withtheir followers. The phenomenon of bad leadership arises from the combination of both badleaders andbad followers. Without followers nothing happens, including bad leadership.Together, leaders and followers can bring out the best in people or they can amplify whatsworst in people. Thus, leaders and followersshare responsibility for leadership, bad as wellas good (www.theocentric.com, 2010.02.16).

    Even though the author of this paper sees the CEO of MMK as the biggest threat against the

    company, the employees are not just innocent victims. The diagram in figure 6.2 shows thesummary of the survey (see appendix 2) that was done early in the project.A closer look at question 5 shows that they feel that they have someone to talk with if they aredissatisfied with anything regarding the company. Question 6 tells us that they feel safe tospeak whats on their mind without being afraid of any consequence. Even though they saidthat they felt that way in questions 5 and 6, they were still silent about their feelings. Insteadof letting the management know about their feelings they kept them inside which in turn leadthe working environment not being on a satisfied level. The reason for that in the opinion ofthe author is that they are too afraid of the CEO, as were written about earlier in chapter 6.1.4.

    The author thinks that in this case the employees are bad follower because they were too

    silent. If they would not have accepted how things were handled in the company and and saidsomething about it, things may have been a bit different.

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    Figure 5.2 Diagram of the survey made by the author in the beginning of the project

    4.7 A company comparison

    The flight Train in Norway has a corporate culture that MMK plastics and other companieswith similar problems should emulate. This comparison will give the reader an idea of how acompany with good leadership should be.

    Each year Great Place to Work Institute crowns Norway's best workplaces. This year therewere approximately 120 companies competing and over 10 000 employees answered thequestionnaire the competition is based on. The flight train came this year in third place.

    In an interview carried out by Go to gate magazine the HR manager of flight Train, KariSkybak was asked about why they got such high scores in the area of employee satisfaction?The answer she gave was the following "This award is based on a questionnaire sent to all

    employees, as well as documentation on how the various HR processes are implemented inthe company. The study revealed that we have a focus on continuous development of theorganization, leadership, competence structure and content of the training we have. That is thereason for our high figures. She went on to say "Our starting point is a good product andsatisfied customers. But a strong company culture that is based on the company's values areequally important.

    The management knows that it takes time to build trust among the workers, that's why theysince the beginning of the company in 1998 has worked to built up the strong corporateculture in which strong service and safety are key elements.All new employees receive training in what they can expect from the company, but also what

    the company expects of them."Our corporate culture is based on mutual obligation. We believe it is important to have agood balance between company and employee needs, "said Skybak.

    WOW is a concept and tactics the company use. By WOWing their employees with a newand sometimes unpredictable activity, stimulates the employees in a positive way.Family day with the staff, their family and the company is an example of WOW.

    Of course they would not be in third place unless they had good leadership. Skybak says thatgood leadership is also a key to their success. She explains that they constantly work todevelop themselves as leaders and to follow up with employees in a way that gives them the

    motivation to perform to their utmost every day.When asked what kind of leadership is characterized company. Ryback replies the following;

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    "We carry a value and principle-based leadership. In addition, we are clear on what isrequired and can be expected." She also emphasizes that visibility and accessibility areimportant. For example the management always meets new groups people on their first day at

    work, they always celebrate new colleagues at the end of training and the also helps in varioussituations when it is required. (Article from the magazine Go to gate)

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    The following chapter contains the author's analysis and thoughts on the results obtained fromthe study and compared to some extent with the results from this study. Some advice to themanagement on what they should do when trying to get the ISO 9001 certification next time

    is also presented in this chapter. Furthermore appropriate future studies in the subject ofleadership are given as well.

    5. Discussion

    The quality system which the company has is well written. The problem is that it is notimplemented and followed by anyone. Management has failed miserably with the introductionof the management system in the company.The reason for this is first of all the lack of understanding from management to why a

    management system is important to a company. Second of all, the management only wants thecertificate to show their customer that they are certified. The management and specially theCEO are not willing to do the hard but necessary work that is required for having andmaintaining a good quality system.In many cases when implementing a management system the obstacles a company has isresistance from the employees. They are usually the ones that do not like changes. But in thiscase it is the management that are the obstacle and that are making resistance.The management is not willing to put the time and effort need for developing, implementingand continues improve the system.

    In order for the company to succeed with the implementation and recertification of ISO 9001,

    education and training are as this thesis has shown the issues the company must invest itsresources on. Furthermore, the management needs to get some kind of leadership trainingwhere much emphasis is placed on communication and the change process. Then themanagement must get the employees to become more involved in the company, in a larger

    proportion than they are today. They should start by give them training in the ISO 9001standard. It is important for the Employees to know what standard can do for them, they mustknow in what way the standard helps them do their job much more efficiently and at the sametime easier.Usually it is difficult to get employees to change themselves, but in the case of MMK Plastics,it is quite the opposite. Every individual in the entire company would like things to change.Many people I have talked to say they are willing to do anything to get it working as it once

    did.

    Gaining the trust of employees and make them feel better, do not cost much money and time,a recommendation I would give the management is to set small milestones along with theemployees. It does not have to be major milestones; it can be small things that the employeesfeel they lack, such as new clothing, an information board, and more meetings withmanagement etc. If the employees sees that some of their wishes are getting fulfilled, theywill be satisfied and the trust in management will slowly be rebuilt, which in turn will create a

    better work environment where everyone are happy.

    The question I have asked myself throughout the process is, is it really profitable for the

    company to be certified? Is it not enough to try to have good quality without certification?At the beginning of the project, my answer would be YES! The standard has been made to

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    ensure that all companies that want to be certified gain something from it. You just need tofollow the standards guidelines to the letter, the company will gain something from thecertification.If I would get the same question now, my answer would be NO! Small companies such asMMK Plastics take a big gamble when they try to certify themselves. Not only in economic

    terms, but also mentally.Implementation and certification process is both long and demanding. Should the companyfail, as MMK Plastics unfortunately have done, the mentality of the employees would drop toworrying levels.Take the World Cup as an example. Suppose you are playing World Cup with the Braziliannational team. You are playing the finals; you lead with a 2-1 with five minutes remaining ofthe match. All of a sudden two quick goals are made by the other team, taking home thevictory and win the World Cup.What you have struggled with for almost two years disappears in less than five minutes. The

    psychological impact of the loss will remain with each player long after the World Cup ends.The same goes for a company that fails with the implementation and certification process.

    The difference between the soccer team and the company is that the company cannot afford tosuffer the psychological effect of failure.If you're wondering why I choose the Brazilian national team is because before the WorldCup starts they are the favorites to win the tournament. It is almost expected for them to win.The same goes for certification. Companies who begin working on certification, expects to

    become certified.

    I would like to end the thesis with some advice to the management on what they should dowhen trying to get the ISO 9001 certification next time.

    To make sure that staff knows why they should work with quality work, it is important for themanagement to present and "sell" the concept in a convincing manner. Management mustdemonstrate the positive impact of quality work on the company and its future. They mustalso explain what is required of the company and its employees for successful quality work.In addition to that, the management and employees must understand that quality work is awork in constant development, ie there is no project that has a beginning and an end, but it isa lifelong process that is constantly renewed.To succeed in this process they must all know what their responsibilities and powers are, andknow how the organization and working groups shall operate under quality work.

    Management must create a we-feeling within the company; they have to make everyone feelthat they are in a team where they together struggle to maintain quality work. For off-munityfeeling does not occur in the organization, it is important to get everyone involved in thework. Management must provide training to the employees as well as be an informationsource for them, where they can get answers to everything related to quality, the managementsystem, ISO etc. In addition, the management must also be there to encourage and support thestaff, both during and after the change

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    5.1 Continued study

    I cannot understand how SP; a renounced certification body can let a company with that muchof negligence towards quality still be certified. This makes me ask the question, is SP just

    another company that care about profit or do they care about quality as they should?A study trying to answer the question; if the certification bodies really makes an different inthe pursuit of quality or are they just another company that are in it for the money?

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    6. Reference

    6.1 Litterateur

    Barbara Kellerman (2004)Bad leadership. What It is, How It happens, Why It mattersKalmar: StudentlitteraturISBN 1-59139-166-0

    Bo Bergman & Bengt Klefsj (2003) Quality from customer needs to customer satisfaction.Bors: StudentlitteraturISBN 978-91-44-04166-7

    Lars Torsten Eriksson & Finn Wiedersheim-Paul, (1997) Att utreda, forska och rapporteraISBN 91-47-04023-8

    Idar Magne Holme, Bernt Krohn Solvang (1996) Forskningsmetodik: om kvalitativa ochkvantitativa metoder

    Bors: StudentlitteraturISBN 91-44-31741-7

    Ichak Adizes (2003)Ledarskapets fallgroparBors: StudentlitteraturISBN 91-47-04298-2

    Kjell Ekstam (2002)Ledarskapets hrnstenar fyra framgngsfaktorer.

    Bors: StudentlitteraturISBN 91-47-06560-5

    6.2 Articles

    Go to Gate magazine 2010.04.01

    6.3 Electronic source

    http://www.techsociety.com/cal/soc190/fssba2009/ParticipantObservation 2010.01.05

    http://www.experiment-resources.com 2010.01.13

    http://www.pmhut.com/six-sigma-vs-total-quality-management 2010.01.28

    http://humanresources.about.com/cs/strategicplanning1/a/strategicplan.htm , 2010.02.07

    http://www.theocentric.com/ecclesiology/leadership/ badleadership.html 2010.02.11

    http://www.wrg.org.uk/prh/leadership_skills.pdf 2010.02.16

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    http://www.techsociety.com/cal/soc190/fssba2009/ParticipantObservationhttp://www.experiment-resources.com/http://www.pmhut.com/six-sigma-vs-total-quality-managementhttp://humanresources.about.com/cs/strategicplanning1/a/strategicplan.htmhttp://www.theocentric.com/ecclesiology/leadership/%20badleadership.htmlhttp://www.wrg.org.uk/prh/leadership_skills.pdf%202010.02.16http://www.techsociety.com/cal/soc190/fssba2009/ParticipantObservationhttp://www.experiment-resources.com/http://www.pmhut.com/six-sigma-vs-total-quality-managementhttp://humanresources.about.com/cs/strategicplanning1/a/strategicplan.htmhttp://www.theocentric.com/ecclesiology/leadership/%20badleadership.htmlhttp://www.wrg.org.uk/prh/leadership_skills.pdf%202010.02.16
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    http://www.skagitwatershed.org/~donclark/leader/leadchr.html , 2010.02.16

    http://www.qualitydigest.com/aug97/html/cover.html, 2010.03.17

    http://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/iso-9000/overview/is-it-worth-it/iso-9000-ineffective.html 2010.04.15

    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science 2010.04.20

    http://www.bokforingstips.se/artikel/ekonomistyrning/total-quality-management.aspx ,2010.04.20

    http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=res&facId=7234 , 2010.04.23

    http://www.skagitwatershed.org/~donclark/leader/leadchr.htmlhttp://www.qualitydigest.com/aug97/html/cover.htmlhttp://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/iso-9000/overview/is-it-worth-it/iso-9000-ineffective.htmlhttp://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/iso-9000/overview/is-it-worth-it/iso-9000-ineffective.htmlhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/sciencehttp://www.bokforingstips.se/artikel/ekonomistyrning/total-quality-management.aspxhttp://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=res&facId=7234http://www.skagitwatershed.org/~donclark/leader/leadchr.htmlhttp://www.qualitydigest.com/aug97/html/cover.htmlhttp://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/iso-9000/overview/is-it-worth-it/iso-9000-ineffective.htmlhttp://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/iso-9000/overview/is-it-worth-it/iso-9000-ineffective.htmlhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/sciencehttp://www.bokforingstips.se/artikel/ekonomistyrning/total-quality-management.aspxhttp://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=res&facId=7234