In the mid-1980s, Kodak
Australia commenced its journey down the 'Quality Road' by
adopting Total Quality Management as the over-riding management
philosophy. In short, this demanded a radical change in approach:
inferior quality product was no longer to be caught at the
end of the production line, but rather high quality was 'built-in'
by refining and improving processes.
 This
was no easy task, and especially in its initial phases,
proved challenging and costly. Kodak persevered, however,
and after several years began to see a real turnaround,
with falling wastage levels and ever-improving quality delivered
to customers.
The culmination of the "first wave" of Quality at Kodak
was winning the inaugural Australian Quality Prize. Kodak
remains the only company in Australia to have earned this
accolade, which required a rigorous auditing of all facets
of company operations by a team of experts from the Australian
Quality Foundation.
In 1998, Kodak Australia began
its second quality program, this time under the banner of
"Six Sigma", a business approach which calls for a 10x reduction
in process errors year on year, until operations are virtually
error free. Six Sigma is more rigorous and more sophisticated
than TQM and the potential savings in terms of reduced wastage
and better processes are significantly greater.
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