Global trade is growingly embedded within supply chains and is increasingly governed by standards that define quality and other requirements. Despite trade liberalization and globalization in recent years, many exporters from developing countries, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) face substantial challenges to meet and demonstrate conformity with market entry requirements, as well as technical barriers to trade that hinder their ability to access markets. SME in developing countries have major obstacles to overcome in marketing their products and services – whether competing against foreign imports in their domestic markets, or gaining access to international markets. A number of factors bear on this – finance and investment issues, international trading regulations, meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), etc. Standards compliance and proof of conformity are essential.
A demand-driven quality culture and infrastructure, including the necessary conformity assessment services, support SME to achieve and demonstrate conformity with market requirements, compete on national and international markets and comply with relevant national and international standards and technical regulations. However, the interconnectivity of economic, social, environmental and technological developments requires a holistic Quality Management System (QMS) that considers integrated approaches in strategies, processes, methods and standards, including cross-cutting elements such as good governance, health and safety, energy and environmental protection. These aspects provide the basis for SME to incorporate the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their company strategy and their organizational processes.
The quality framework of SME, therefore, should aim at:
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Quality of products and services;
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Adherence to international, national and regional standards;
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Environmental sustainability;
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Pace and breadth of innovation;
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Effectiveness and efficiency of workforce;
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Gender equality and intergenerational equity for young people and future generations;
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Consumer and stakeholder engagement;
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Using the power of communication technologies and digitalization.
Achieving high quality will involve the entire company, as well as including the perspectives of customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. Above all, it requires the active participation of the management team. However, every function in the company, and every member of staff can and should support a sound quality culture and the Quality Management System.
Quality Management may not in itself be sufficient to ensure competitiveness, but it is certainly an indispensable factor and plays a crucial role in a company's growth as well as for economic and social development. It is a key resource in the competition for customer relationships, by meeting customer needs and expectations and striving to deliver a superior customer experience. The end goal is to enhance customer satisfaction and drive business growth. This, in turn, fosters economic competitiveness and social inclusiveness in national and international markets, as a basis for prosperity, health and well-being.
The e-learning Training Programme
‘A Roadmap to Quality’ is a newly developed and state-of-the-art e-learning training programme to promote understanding and facilitate the implementation of Quality Management effectively throughout the company. In 9 Modules all aspects of the concept of Quality Management are described. The focus is on the specific quality and standards requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in developing countries. Furthermore, as topics such as social and environmental responsibility, sustainability and good governance are increasingly capable of generating a competitive advantage, the impact of these key drivers for business and economic development on Quality Management have been tackled.
The 9 Modules provide clear theoretical and practical guidelines for the full range of Quality Management activities.
Module 1: Context to Quality Management
This training module is aimed to facilitate the following learning objectives:
- Understand the key drivers for economic growth, and their impact on business growth and quality management
- Learn about the main indicators of relevance to address today’s economic and business challenges, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the impact on quality management
- Understand the basis of a nation’s Quality Infrastructure System (QIS) and its impact on quality and international standardization
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Module 2: International Standardization
This training module is aimed to facilitate the following learning objectives:
- Describe the characteristics of standardization and standards, and how standards can be classified
- Clarify the benefits of using standards to support global value chains
- Demonstrate relevant organizations and the processes of standards development
- Explain how to find a standard on international, regional or national level
- Get insight into UNIDO's Department of Digitalization, Technology and Innovation (DTI) programmes on standardization support
Module 3: Introduction to Quality Management
This training module is aimed to facilitate the following learning objectives:
- Learn about the history and major development phases of quality management to understand the origin of the different concepts of quality management
- Get to know the basic concepts of quality and quality management
- Get familiar with the differences in quality in manufacturing quality in services
- Learn about the fundamentals of quality inspection, quality control, quality assurance, Six Sigma, quality management and the quality management system
- Become acquainted with the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Excellence
- Understand the major benefits of quality management
Module 4: Quality Management System Models, Implementing Quality Management & Quality Awards
The purpose of this module is to provide an overview of a quality infrastructure system (QIS). By the end of this module you will be able to:
- Get to know the ISO 9000 family of standards
- Learn about the principles, core concepts, implementation process and certification of ISO 9001:2015
- Get familiar with the process of implementing quality management as well as its main barriers and critical success factors
- Discuss the essence of achieving successful changes in corporate culture during the implementation of quality management; and how to avoid resistance to change
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Module 5: Leadership and Quality Policy Deployment
This training module is aimed to facilitate the following learning objectives:
- Understand the concept of leadership and the central role and key tasks of the top management in quality management
- Get to know the basic concept and the main steps of the quality policy deployment process
- Learn about the fundamentals of corporate vision, mission, values, strategy, objectives and key performance indicators (KPI) and their interrelations
- Get familiar with the implementation of a quality policy and strategic quality planning
- Learn about the common used tools for quality policy deployment
- Become acquainted with the concept and how to conduct a management review
Module 6: Organizing and Managing People
The purpose of this module is to provide an overview of the key features and factors for organizing and managing people. By the end of this module you will be able to:
- Understand the concept of people management
- Learn about the central role and key tasks of top management and management for people management as part of quality management
- Get to know the different quality roles, i.e. Quality Manager, Quality Assurance Manager, Quality Control, Internal Quality Auditors
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Module 7: Managing the Supply Chain through Process Management, Customer Relationships, Supplier Management, Stakeholder Engagement & Day-to-Day Business
The purpose of this module is to:
- Understand the concept of supply chain management
- Become acquainted with the concept of process management and its application (process mapping, process modelling, process analysis, process optimization and improvement)
- Get familiar with the core concept of a process-based organization and the main process management maturity models
- Learn about the fundamentals and methodologies of Lean management, Six Sigma and Statistical Process Control (SPC)
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Module 8: Managing Good Governance, Sustainability, Risk, Environment, Food, Health and Safety & ICT
The purpose of this module is to:
- Get familiar with the concepts and main international standards on good governance and sustainability
- Become acquainted with the main international standards on health and safety, food management, environmental protection, energy management
- Understand the concept of Quality in ICT
- Learn about the fundamentals of Digitalization and Industry 4.0 and the impact for SME
- Get to know the basic standards related to Quality in ICT
- Get insight into the main international standards on information security, cybersecurity and data protection
Module 9: Performance Evaluation & Conformity Assessments
The purpose of this module is to:
- Understand the concept of performance evaluation of quality management and a quality management system as well as its central roles
- Learn about the fundamentals of conformity assessments
- Get to know the basic conformity assessment techniques (testing, calibration, inspection, peer assessment / peer evaluation, auditing, self-assessment, accreditation, market surveillance) and the related statements of conformity
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