Using a Quality Improvement Priority Matrix in a

Using a Quality Improvement Priority Matrix in a University Department Stuart A. Umpleby The George Washington University Washington, DC

History of the Priority Matrix • Described by GTE Directories in their 1995 Baldrige Award presentation • Used by Armstrong Building Products Operations in their 1996 Baldrige Award Presentation • Used by faculty and student projects at GWU for several years

Advantages of a Priority Matrix • Can be used to improve any organization or any product or service • Is a way to do “data-driven decisionmaking” as opposed to “fire-fighting” • Easy for everyone to understand • Technically simple – Excel is sufficient • Customer priorities become clear • Shows managers where to focus attention

How the matrix aids managers • Provides an agenda for subordinates to work on • Priorities in different departments can be compared • Performance in different departments can be compared which aids benchmarking

Comparing matrices over time • Effects of improvements on customer or employee satisfaction can be measured • New demands by customers become visible

How to present the results • Focus on the items in the high importance, low performance quadrant • List items in decreasing order of importance and increasing order of performance • Use bar graphs to show changes in importance and performance • Show with arrows how the ratings have changed • Plot the differences in scores on a “change matrix”

Observations • Very few items are rated low on importance • When performance improves, importance usually declines • When importance increases, performance usually decreases • The matrix receives high approval ratings