Quality Management Committee

• 2012 Commitment to Quality Award - Nomination Form

The Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce created the Quality Management Committee in 1993 during my term as Vice President, Finance.  I also had the honour of being the first of the several people who have been Chair of this very active committee.  The initiative originated in 1992 with Jim Carnegie, Executive Director of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.  The Executive Committee of our Chamber were very quick to see its potential for the economic climate in Thunder Bay.

It appealed to the Board of Directors of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce as well.  They felt that if we were successful in promoting a general improvement in the quality of goods and services produced and provided in Thunder Bay, everyone would benefit.  For that reason they felt that developing this program would be a good investment of time and money.

The early discussions about this initiative at the Board and Executive Committee level revealed that there were some fears.  First of all the board wanted to avoid any conflict between Chamber members and insisted on a very clear and fair process by which the Quality Management Committee would determine which members were “quality producers”.  They also wanted to make sure that the award only went to businesses that we were sure were good corporate citizens in the broadest sense.

The other thing that they were concerned with was the inadequacies of the questionnaire that had been developed by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.  They insisted that the committee develop a better one so Thunder Bay businesses could feel confident that those who received the award had really earned it. 

In order to avoid bias they also insisted on no less than two committee members meet with a senior officer of each nominated business and jointly conduct an audit based on clear and precise standards.  We had to ensure that the audits would be fair and equal and refer all the nominees we selected to them for approval.

Canadian Pacific Forest Products, now Bowater, at that time employed one of the few quality management professionals and had only recently received ISO 9000 certification.  The committee sought their help in establishing appropriate criteria and a suitable interview guide.  The time and effort that they so generously provided contributed in large measure to the success of this Chamber project and we continue to be very grateful.  They not only helped us create our working documents, they also received our first Commitment to Quality Award in 1993.

A Quality Management Committee report to the Chamber Board of Directors on May 25, 1993, advises them the detail of the changes in the wording of the award criteria and interview guide that had evolved from our meeting with Canadian Pacific Forest Products.  The first paragraph of the memorandum reads as follows:

“The Board of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce has authorized this committee of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with the Thunder Bay Economic Development Corp., to take immediate steps to educate and inform business people about the opportunities and benefits of improving the quality of their functions, products or services, and furthermore that they institute a method of recognizing the initiative of companies that are able to demonstrate that they have established a system of managing quality improvement and reviewing results”.

Our original interview guide had ten standards and a business had to be able to convince the audit team that they had achieved all of them to receive the Commitment to Quality Award.  In recent years these standards have changed substantially as the result of experience and the involvement of quality management professionals as members of the committee.

In addition to Great Lakes Forest Products, the first group to receive this award in 1993 were Leo Sakata, Earnway Industries and Sportop Marketing Inc.  Since then, over 35 awards have been made to Thunder Bay businesses, from some of the smallest to the very largest.  Under the leadership of a series of very capable chairmen, the committee has continued to develop the process by which Thunder Bay businesses are nominated, audited and recognized for their commitment to quality.

During the first few years, we concentrated on recognizing businesses that had demonstrated their commitment to quality.  It was felt that they would be good examples and encourage others to take similar action, which would satisfy our need to educate.  A couple of years ago we made the decision that we should be putting more time and effort into education.  Some of the examples of this activity are holding information workshops, making presentations at Chamber “Lunch and Learn” sessions and involvement in Chamber Small Business week After Business event, which occurs during October and which coincidentally is Quality Month.  We have not worked as closely with Development Thunder Bay as originally planned and perhaps that is an activity which will receive some attention in the future.

During our first year, we developed a nominating form which contained the following definition of quality:

• A documented quality policy developed through an employee-employer participatory approach.
• An action plan with adequate resources allocated to carry out the plan.
• An evaluation process for continuous improvement.
• Customer and supplier involvement in the evaluation process.
• Fiscal viability and compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.
• We reaffirmed the following Mission Statement in September, 1999:

“To promote quality management awareness, recognize achievement and educate Chamber members and the community about the benefits that can be derived from providing good quality products and services”.

Our future efforts will continue to focus on recognizing businesses in both the manufacturing and service sectors, from the smallest to the largest, that can show a high level of commitment to quality.  In order to achieve that goal, our committee thank the following people who have shown their interest in promoting quality by volunteering their names, their time and their efforts: