I believe that risk and quality will never resolve, one into the other. Though they may be related, each will always have its own identity and purpose.
PURPOSE OF RISK MANAGEMENT
The purpose of risk management is not, and should not be, to manage quality. Quality should not be driven by risk. Of course, risk as it pertains to quality must be recognized and adequately managed by successful organizations, or they would not be successful. Were risk not being managed to some degree to ensure delivery of quality product, it seems an organization would not develop to the point of needing enterprise-wide risk management. If poor quality puts an organization out of business, there would be no business.
QUALITY MANAGEMENT IMPROVES QUALITY
Yes, they would have failed to recognize the risk and consequences associated with poor quality. But managing risk is not going to help improve quality, is it? Quality management improves quality.
What brings organizations to success is not so much their ability to manage risk, but their ability to do whatever they do for a living well (which includes risk). Quality drives organization to success, it seems risk management does not.
PDCA drives organizations to success by keeping promises and improving performance of what an organization does for a living. This is driven by a will to do a good job and succeed, not by a will to manage risk. Quality management is about what an organization does for a living—the primary purpose of the organization—and how it is being done. Quality is about the heart of organizational operations.
Let’s say an ISO standard comes out for Human Resource management. Here would be another facet of business with pervasive, organization-wide application. Since people are needed to manage quality, and people are needed to manage risk, would we view quality and risk as being part of HR? Would HR be the future of quality and risk?
Risk management has a place in quality management, and vice versa. PDCA can be applied to risk management processes, too. PDCA can be applied to HR processes, too. I don’t think any of these resolve into the other. They all have their own intent and purpose and all are available to top management to drive the organization forward.
What do you think?
Bio:
T. D. (“Dan”) Nelson is a quality management consultant, author, and trainer specializing in the process approach, ISO 9001, and related sector schemes. Dan has roughly 20 years of experience with ISO 9000 and over 15 years’ experience with the process approach. Dan holds an MA in Business Administration from the University of Iowa. Dan can be reached at:
dan@tdnelson.com
319.210.2642