07-12-94 Ford and Ohio State form partnership on quality 7-12-94 FORD AND OHIO STATE FORM QUALITY PARTNERSHIP COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Building on a long history of cooperation, Ford Motor Company and The Ohio State University have formed a Continuous Quality Improvement Partnership to encourage the development and communication of knowledge that will accelerate the practice of Total Quality Management. The announcement was made here Tuesday (7/12) by John T. Eby, executive director of Ford's Corporate Strategy Office -- and an Ohio State alumnus -- and E. Gordon Gee, president of the university. Ford's Continuous Quality Improvement Partnership with Ohio State is one of 36 such linkups across America, pairing business leaders in quality with universities and colleges. Under the cooperative agreement, Ford will assist Ohio State in implementing a Total Quality system in the university environment, encourage the development and inclusion of Total Quality concepts and processes in various college curricula, and develop a long-term relationship with the university for continued research in the methodologies associated with Total Quality. The concept of Total Quality partnerships was conceived in 1991 by Robert Galvin, chairman of the executive committee of Motorola Inc., and then enthusiastically adopted by companies and universities that are -- or desire to be -- in the vanguard of the Total Quality effort. Total Quality is a people-focused management system that aims to continually heighten customer satisfaction via improved quality, increased productivity and reduced costs. Total Quality concepts include serving all customers -- both internal and external -- exceptionally well, adapting to change, doing things right the first time, continuously improving in all aspects of the business, working together in teams, making decisions based on facts, measuring outcomes, and managing by collaboration and facilitation. "Industry, by necessity, has led in the development of quality principles, techniques and tools," said Eby. "To be competitive and successful players in today's global market, business and industry need the educational and research resources of the American university system to improve capabilities in the evolving areas of Total Quality and customer satisfaction. "In addition, American universities supply the private and public sectors with their greatest and most unique resource -- educated people. Through such programs as the Total Quality partnerships, business and industry will be working with universities to ensure that their graduates are ready to 'hit the ground running' -- and that they will not only understand quality principles and concepts, but also be able to help us, their employers, to move forward in our delivery of quality goods and services." In remarks announcing the association, Gee said: "Like Ford, Ohio State is committed to quality, and we are pleased to join Ford in this important partnership. With advice and experience provided by Ford, we will offer opportunities to our students to learn the concepts of Total Quality and will apply the concepts to the operations of the university itself. "The four colleges represented in this partnership -- Business, Engineering, Agriculture and Medicine -- each will bring the unique challenges of their diverse disciplines to this dialogue on quality." In addition to Ohio State, Ford is partnering with four other universities in the Total Quality initiative: Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Howard University and the University of Texas at Austin. Launch of the Ford partnerships will begin with a Total Quality Symposium for Ohio State Sept. 11-14, 1994, in Dearborn, Mich. Symposia for the other universities will be conducted through 1995 and conclude with the University of Texas in Spring 1996. Ford selected The Ohio State University as its first partner because Ford has had a long and rewarding history with the university. The company historically has recruited there, particularly for technical and business graduates, and now boasts nearly 500 Ohio State alumni among its ranks. A number of them occupy senior management positions, including Edward Hagenlocker, president, Ford Automotive Operations (FAO); Robert Rewey, group vice president -- Marketing and Sales, FAO, and Murray Reichenstein, vice president-controller, FAO. Ford also recently funded a $1.25-million chair in electro- mechanical systems for Ohio State's College of Engineering. Ohio is known informally as Ford's "second home," with major manufacturing and assembly facilities in Lorain, Avon Lake, Brook Park (three), Walton Hills, Maumee, Lima, Sharonville, Batavia and Sandusky. Ford has more than 24,000 employees in the state, making the company one of Ohio's largest private-sector employers. # Contact: Jerree Martin, Ford Public Affairs, (313) 322-1300 or Steve Sterrett, Ohio State University Communications, (614) 292-8472 COLLEGE DEANS SUPPORT OHIO STATE'S PARTNERSHIP WITH FORD MOTOR COMPANY Four colleges are representing The Ohio State University in a Continuous Quality Improvement Partnership with Ford Motor Company. The partnership will encourage teaching and research in the practice of Total Quality Management. Representing Ohio State are the College of Engineering, the College of Medicine, the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the Max M. Fisher College of Business. The deans of these four colleges offered the following comments on the new partnership: Jose B. Cruz Jr., dean of the College of Engineering (who serves as coordinator for the college deans in this partnership) "Our main product (as a college) is to have better educated engineers and architects. When we can improve our product, both our graduates and the companies that employ them are better off." "In looking at how we can improve this process of producing better engineers, we'll undoubtedly be looking at the concepts which are predominant in industry for improving total quality. This partnership is very important to us because we can call on Ford's experience and expertise." "As you can imagine, these concepts do not readily transfer to an academic setting. When you talk about how to improve teaching and research using Total Quality Management principles, there will be some problems of discovering exactly how we can apply these principles. Part of our partnership is to extend the frontiers of knowledge and the applicability of these principles." "All organizations are involved in change. We must be able to change more effectively. One of the things Ford wants research on is how you affect cultural change in an organization. That's very similar to what we've been going through in restructuring the university. Ford hopes to get something out of this, too." "Continuous Quality Improvement is very similar to strategic planning -- planning and having an agenda for ourselves. The whole thing is to continue to strive to improve our engineering education process. That's the bottom line." Joseph A. Alutto, dean of the Max M. Fisher College of Business "From the college's point of view, we have an interest in quality from at least two different perspectives. The first is that quality improvement processes are important to what we teach, both from a substantive and research point of view. From an instructional-programmatic point of view, we hope to leverage on the relationship with Ford, since they are, in many ways, a world leader in applying quality improvement concepts. That's one issue." "The second issue is that we have an interest in quality improvement processes from an operational point of view: looking at the way we function as a college, trying to improve the quality of our processes and our product, and learning from the interaction we have with Ford." "It will probably be a learning experience for us, as well as for Ford. They will see the extent to which some of their improvement principles work and the boundaries that limit how they can apply these concepts. It will work for both parties." Bobby D. Moser, vice president for agricultural administration and dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences "I'm looking forward to learning from a company like Ford, which has already implemented this particular management style, and in seeing how we can take some of those principles and apply them in an academic setting." "I'm very interested in quality, even though Ford is turning out cars and trucks and we're turning out students, research projects and extension education programs. Quality to us is very important. If we can learn from Ford and apply those principles to our setting, then I think it will give us a different focus on who our customers are and how we can focus on achieving this quality." "Some of the things that we do in our extension programs right now use these same types of principles. We basically do a needs assessment -- asking the customers what are their needs. We do this when we have a group of agriculture people around the table and say, 'What kind of programs do we need this year to be of benefit to you?' We assess the needs and then develop educational programs to meet those needs. We can take those same kinds of principles and broaden and apply them to our teaching program and to our research program." Manuel Tzagournis, vice president for health services and dean of the College of Medicine "We don't know for sure what our part is going to be, except that we, first of all, want to learn about quality improvement and then, secondly, try to apply it to the areas here that we feel might be most useful, based on some of the experiences of industry. We will look forward to learning what the specifics of that will be." "We have implemented quality improvement practices in University Hospitals. For example, there are teams that have gotten together to develop some of the principles of Total Quality Management. So we've already made a start." "What is new and will represent a new level of quality management, or quality improvement, is in the academic arena. >From the perspective of formal quality improvement measures, we've done relatively little at that level." "Through this partnership with Ford, we want to learn about quality improvement and try to apply it where it will be most effective." # [Submitted by: STERRETT (sterrett@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu) Tue, 12 Jul 1994 17:29:50 -0500 (EST)] All documents are the responsibility of their originator.