39 - Preventive Quality Management

Abstract

Preventive quality management (PQM) is based on the idea that possible mistakes have to be detected before they happen to prevent employees from learning the hard way. Knowledge management has now become the foundation of new business theory and corporate growth. Internal structures of organizations are fragmented and separated into functional silos, and this hinders knowledge management. Enterprises approach total quality management (TQM) to rectify organizational and methodological problems. Quality circles, process and product auditing, methods for preventive quality management, and extensive paper-based documentation systems are established to build up a company knowledge base. Analyzing knowledge base contents and taking appropriate actions can help in achieving the best practice for internal business processes. In a world in which decisions are usually made just in time, the ability to provide the right information at the right moment is a basic requirement. No paper-based or badly structured electronic information system is able to satisfy these essential requirements fully. This chapter aims to give knowledge engineers and managers an understandable and comprehensive outline for building an efficient knowledge-based tool in the field of preventive quality management.