A Government for Quality

DEMING'S FOURTEEN POINTS FOR QUALITY

1. Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service.

2. Adopt the new philosophy.

3. Cease dependence on mass inspection.

4. End the practice of awarding business on the price tag alone.

5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service.

6. Institute training.

7. Institute leadership.

8. Drive out fear.

9. Break down barriers between staff areas.

10.Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce.

11.Eliminate numerical quotas.

12.Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.

13.Institute a vigorous program of education and retraining.

14.Take action to accomplish the transformation.

Government leaders will find that in public service Points 1,2,4,5,6,7,9,10,12,13,and 14 applies most relevantly and should be adopted vigorously.

Everyone in the Executive branch of government from Barangay leaders to the President of the Republic should be made to undergo an intensive, rigorous,disciplined and serious training in the Quality Methodology.

STRATEGY FOR EXECUTION OF A "GOVERNMENT FOR QUALITY"

1. Elect a president of the utmost moral integrity and character. (Never mind if his competence is less than top notch.)

2. He should be a strong-willed and decisive president.

3. The President shall form a cabinet of skilled and competent technocrats who shall immediately be subjected to a rigorous program of education and training in the Total Quality Methodology. The aim is distinction in govermnment service and the elimination of VARIATION in the process quality of their services to the citizens.

4.All cabinet members should then initiate reform in their respective departments and implement the Quality Transformation with a top down approach. Total Customer Satisfaction should be the new dominant mantra. And Who is the customer ? The Filipino Citizen !

5. All members of the Executive branch of the government should marshal their people and resources to achieve the Quality Transformation.

6. Execute "KAIZEN" or continuous process improvement in all areas of the government. Bureaucrats should now focus on a mindset of being process-oriented and data-driven as part of their management practice.

7. Execute the fourteen points for quality with the same intensity as how Manny Pacquiao and his team trains to prepare for his huge fights,

or how China as a country executes its export-driven, economic growth recently of up to 11 % at such a blistering pace.

It is a fact that in the Philippines implementation of laws and programs is a weakness in government.Corruption, patronage, "ningas cogon" in the execution of projects has become an art form. Can things change ? I believe so. It all takes a president and his technocrat team to grab the bull by its horns and execute without agenda or ulterior motive to make money from government. In my next posting a clear lesson of how a country executes its programs will be found in China and the former prime minister of Singapore indicates where differences in our political will and culture with his country lie and may illuminate the issues why it is so difficult to get things done in the Philippines.