Campus drills global quality management

Improving the quality of industrial America is the focus of a new engineering class introduced this semester at Cal State Long Beach.

Engineering 375I, "Total Quality and Continuous Improvement," teaches students "a set of fundamental principles and concepts [that] are structured with specialized tools and methodologies into an overall philosophy of managing," said Mihir K. Das, associate dean of instruction from the College of Engineering.

Through class projects, students receive first-hand experience on how these fundamental principles can improve the quality of American business, Das said.

The class emphasizes global competitiveness and how totalquality management can be used for America's economic survival. It also reviews how a decline has occurred in the quality of American business and what can be done about it. The total-quality management approach has been used successfully by Japan and European countries in creating successful industrial markets.

"The gap is narrowing," Das said. "Our production is getting more like international quality through total quality management." One of the main principles of the approach is the assessment of customer needs, which is being practiced at CSULB. Plant operations created customer-notification cards that are distributed to departments on campus, informing them about work performed in their areas.

"We have gotten a lot of positive feedback," said Jeanne O'Dell, director of plant operations, who said her department is the only one on campus that embraces these principles.

Das said that to be successful, it is important to know whether "the customer is happy."

"Total Quality and Continuous Improvement" is open to all students.