Quality or innovation?

Abstract

Quality involves the removal of unwanted variations, the enforcement of strict standards and controls, the application of best practice and the elimination of waste and errors. Innovation involve exploring many radical ideas, deliberately deviating from existing standards and controls, experimenting with prototypes and devoting resources to projects which are likely to fail. So at first glance, quality and creativity look to be at odds. One is striving for the elimination of variation and error while the other is crying out for both. They are surely two opposing philosophies requiring very different mindsets and attitudes. Can they co-exist? A high performance innovation organization realizes that quality is a key dimension of value delivery and hence must be integrate in the innovation program and culture. Quality and innovation need not be in conflict; together they can be very successfully partners. Creativity and innovation must be mobilized to serve an organic and fair society based on intercultural dialogue and respect for nature and people's health and welfare worldwide. Crossing time is crucial to innovation: how to maintain quality and innovative nature of a practice when they are not made only by the employee? When you reach this point, motivational support and adequate resources allocated to governance are essential for success and sustainability process. Quality assurance should be included in the development process of firms. A key factor for an effective quality assurance, which improves the innovation at the microeconomic level, requires commitment of all firms in the same industry in quality assurance.