TOTAL QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME.

Abstract

IBM's Manufacturing Facility at Havant embarked upon an ambitious and fundamental programme to establish a new cultural attitude to quality across the whole workforce called EXCEL, which has now been running for four years. The workforce are demonstrably committed to 100 per cent defect-free operations. Suppliers of parts and assemblies are achieving quality levels well in excess of 99 per cent defect-free, and the quality and reliability of Havant-produced computers and peripheral equipment in customer's offices has improved by a factor of five times over the past three years. Most important of all, the performance of this factory appears to be matching anything that is being achieved in Japan or the rest of the Far East.