Quality Mix

Quality Mix is a concept of multitasking in quality culture management with the aim of overcome competition. In 1986, the founder of Business Initiative Directions (BID), Jose E. Prieto, created the pioneering Quality Mix concept.

In past decades, through its continued process of innovation, Business Initiative Directions has succeeded in becoming one of the first four world-wide organizations to implement Quality Culture in top local, national, continental and global companies.

The Quality Mix concept is made up of six groups of actions which blend to achieve a process of constant quality improvement.

This process consists of a systematic analysis of the entire life cycle of a product or service, in order to have an advantageous position facing competitors.

1. QC 100: A Model of Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management was created out of necessity. In several studies, researchers such as Deming, Juran, Feigenbaum and Ishikawa have revealed weaknesses in many aspects of the organization of companies.

Addressing this weakness, the QC100 model presents a management strategy which the main objective is the continuous improvement of quality.

This is possible by having a better knowledge and control of systems, including the design of the product or service, providers, materials, distribution, and information, involving internal procedures, customer and provider service, delays and after-sales service.

Hence, the main idea is to increase awareness of quality in all organizational processes of the company. When this is taken into consideration, it becomes totally clear: the organization has an enormous capacity for improving benefits and profitability if its quality standards are improved.

By doing this, the company will consistently provide its customers, internal or external, with products and services that satisfy their needs. High quality standards improved in productivity levels at a lower production costs made the company’s overall costs also reduced. This renders to the company more competitive, not only due to its higher quality but also due to its reduced costs.

The Total Quality Management model has been widely used in manufacturing, education, government and service industries. It is considered “total” as it involves all the employees of the company as well as the organization as a whole.

The TQM model is composed of three main principles, as its name suggests:

Total: It involves all the people and processes.
Quality: Excellence, innovation and technology.
Management: Leadership, planning, taking action, supervision and implementation.

The concept of quality includes customer satisfaction and is applied to the product and to the organization. Total quality goal is to obtain benefits for all the members and areas of the company, including manufacturing, sales, working conditions and training of its employees.

Experience has shown that after the implementation of a quality system, the following results can be achieved:

Increase in customer satisfaction
Higher efficiency in internal work
Increase in productivity
Increasing profits
Cost reduction
Higher quality products or services.

Quality is, therefore, a result of how a company is organized.

2. The Award

3. Communication and Media

4. Marketing Boomerang

5. Image Endorsement

BID Quality Mix model constitutes a breakthrough in marketing and communication, by combining organizational goals with a public opinion approach to internal and external communication. This allows the BID Quality Mix program to promote the core concepts of Total Quality Management under a cultural approach, creating and sustaining an organizational culture, that helps the leaders focus their personnel actions towards excellence, improve the organization’s relations with their stakeholders and community, and establish strong media support to sustain the continuous improvement ideology.

The Quality Mix program is meant to offer media support for good, efficient managerial practices, internal organizational policies to increase productivity, and external brand prestige. This delivers a clear, strong message both to the competition, and to the clients: A BID Quality Mix organization is one which is fully committed to excellence.

Hence, BID Quality Mix model transmits Quality Culture utilizing a visual format similar to that used by the large public opinion campaigns. The Quality Mix model uses the following methodology:

– Organizing conventions in emblematic places around the world (conventions)

– National and international media coverage (press, TV format interviews and the Internet)

– Awarding high growth rate companies (top companies)

– Discovering and reinforcing new business leaders (new faces in business)

– Defending quality culture as a differentiation element between BID awardees and their competitors

Under the BID Quality Mix model, leaders receive validation, organizations increase prestige and personnel is rallied into a common goal: to pursue continuous improvement, excellence and achieve Total Quality Management.