New words are generated in quality & productivity every year. Some words point to basis & the words have an advertisement aspect for management consultant firms. Apart from these words, considering that the most important goal of any organization is obtaining (acquisition) high possible productivity or optimum productivity. We should have comprehensive & adequate acquaintance of organizational culture & present situation for making a choice of the best way of increasing productivity. We can say the way of increasing productivity is different in each organization considering important difference in organizational culture & present situation. In this chapter we explore productivity topic (subject) & practical mechanism for productivity establishment & ways of increasing productivity, then we survey established EFQM model (TQM) on Hasheminejad Hospital (Tehran, Iran) as a case study. Ultimately the first place (step) in attainment way toward excellence quality & productivity organization is presented based on output of questionnaire by utilization MADM methods.
Top1. Introduction
Complexities of modern organizations are somewhat difficult to describe. The changes in the environment bring uncertainty and hence demand the organizations to have new capabilities and plans. Utilizing the dynamic changes in the environment, management has a unique position nowadays and to deal with the environmental and non-environmental challenges, it seeks novel approaches. One of the major fundamental changes in the Management is the change in the attitude toward the organization (Wendell, 1995). Until a few decades ago, it was thought that organizations have been intellectual tools for the coordination and control of people to achieve their goals which are hierarchical and they are all based on the relations of power. But nowadays our managers pay attention to the satisfaction of their employees. Customers point to the fact that it is a big movement towards building a culture of quality within organizations (Shimon & Randall, 1987). Creating the culture of quality is the result of the informed choice of an appropriate management philosophy in the organization. Just the choice that is based on belief and knowledge can release the energy for the orientation of the new organizations.
Any organization's survival and doom relies on the extent to which it can produce wealth (added value), that is, its “outcome value” exceeds its “consumed resource value” (Abtahi & Kazemi, 1996). Boosting productivity enables organizations and institutions to extend their international competition and growth, and improve their own cooperation. A low productivity shows that the organization is wasting its resources, and this will eventually result in loss of its international competition and thus reduction of its mercantile activities (Rena, 1997). Robins believes that a productive organization is one that achieves its objectives as soon as possible and with the least cost (Appelbaum et al., 2005).
The more productive an industry is, the better its competitive status is; since it will have less cost. When productivity increases, businesses can pay higher wages without causing inflation. Productivity is a way of bettering the standards of life. Simply, productivity improvement means achieving more output than input, which does not mean enhancing production via increasing such resources as time, money, materials or individuals, but it means doing better with what we have. Improving productivity does not mean working harder, but means working more subtly and cleverly.
Manpower, as the clever possessions of organizations, is considered to be the biggest capital of any organization. Organizations view manpower as a competitive edge on the basis of their knowledge, capability and qualification (Abel & Movaffaghi, 2007). Therefore, managers are supposed to recognize, motivate, and optimize the hidden big power of their organizations' human talents.
On the other hand, in the world economy, most companies are not able to compensate the increase in the costs of materials, staff and other production resources merely through augmenting the products' prices.
Recognizing the related factors to productivity and their impact amount is essential to achievement of productivity improvement mechanisms. As Lema (1995) stated, it is necessary to study the factors affecting productivity (all the factors with positive or negative effects), as it is possible to recognize and make use of the positive factors and leave out the negative ones, and thus pave the way for an increase in productivity (Ema, 1955).