The extended process

Ø 1) Before reading the text answer the questions:

a) Are customers always paid attention to by various organizations in our country?

b) Have you ever had to wait in a store while a shop assistant ignores you and is talking on the telephone?

c) Have you ever got a rude or indifferent answer to your question?

d) Why isn’t it possible to buy a bus ticket by phone?

e) All these examples show the negligent attitude to a customer, don’t they?

Organizations consist of manpower, methods, materials, and machines. These components make up the system and its process, within the organization.

However, under the Deming philosophy, the company’s process expands to include suppliers, customers, investors, and the community. This is known as the extended process. It starts with the needs of the consumer being communicated to the organization.

The consumer is the most important element of the extended process because customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, purveyors of goods and services seem to have forgotten that. How many times have you waited in a store while a clerk talks on the telephone and ignores you? How many times have you had to spend your own time rectifying mistakes made by others which impact on the way you do business? Organizations are not always paying attention to customers’ needs. Under the Deming philosophy, firms perform consumer research to conceive and design their products. However, this research doesn’t stop there. It is an ongoing process that determines how the products are performing and what new specifications would improve the customers’ satisfaction.

At the other end of the extended process are the firm’s suppliers. In order for the firm to produce quality goods, it not only has to surpass the customers’ specifications but it also has to communicate these needs to its suppliers. Suppliers then have to demonstrate that they are committed to providing materials that will enable the firm to surpass the customers’ needs.

Ø 2) Answer the questions on the text:

a) What components make up the system and the process within an organization according to a traditional point of view?

b) What does the company’s process include according to the Deming philosophy? What is it called?

c) What is the most important element of the extended process? Why?

d) Do all organizations pay attention to customers’ needs?

e) What is the characteristic feature of research under the Deming philosophy?

f) Who else should be taken into account, when speaking about the process, according to Dr. Deming?