NUST MISIS and the Russian Quality System have signed a cooperation agreement. A laboratory for quality management, where the innovative methods of business process management will be developed, will be created based on NUST MISIS’s plans.
Improving the quality of goods and services through effective management is one of the key tools of the Russian Quality System’s work. NUST MISIS also has many years of experience in this field, as the topic has been taught for over 20 years at the University.
“I am confident that with NUST MISIS`s base for scientific developments in the field of quality management systems and our practical experience, we can bring quality management not only into education but also [take management] in other industries to a new level”, Maxim Protasov said at the meeting with University management.
For this purpose, the Russian Quality System together with NUST MISIS will develop educational programs in the field of quality management for both students and enterprise managers. NUST MISIS and the Russian Quality System are especially devoted to improving the quality and quantity of skills Russian managers have as judged by experts for the Government Award.
“In 2000, NUST MISIS became Russia`s first university to win the Government Award in the field of quality. Jointly with the Russian Quality System, the University has organized a competition to assess the quality of graduate training at educational institutions of vocational education, which was based on the Government Award model. Today, cooperation between NUST MISIS and the Russian Quality System is reaching a new level: thanks to the signed agreement on multi-disciplinary cooperation, we will be able to carry out joint training of specialists in the field of quality management”, said Alevtina Chernikova, Rector of NUST MISIS.
This year, almost 300 Russian organizations have applied to participate in the Government Award. The qualitative composition of applicants has changed. Last year, only 26 organizations reached the second stage — the face-to-face assessment carried out by the experts — but this year saw that number nearly double. This means that companies are improving both in terms of business process management and in terms of applying the methodology of self-analysis. Its results are necessary for the first stage of participation in the competition. With the advent of joint training programs by the Russian Quality Systems and NUST MISIS, companies will be able to develop in these two areas even more effectively.
The increase in the number of participants who reached the face-to-face stage led to the expansion of the pool of experts. Their training is another important component of the University`s cooperation with the Russian Quality System.
Work with quality management started at NUST MISIS in 1996, when several NUST MISIS professors were included among the first expert panel of the Government Award for the quality. Since then, the University has been developing the scientific base of “smart management”.
“NUST MISIS is perhaps the leader among educational institutions in terms of its scale of work with enterprises. We partner with over 1,600 companies. To raise the level of qualification of specialists in the field of quality together with the Russian Quality System, we would love to expand this circle to work with new enterprises, where quality departments or directorates exist”, said Vladimir Sapuntsov, Candidate of Technical Sciences and Head of the NUST MISIS College of Lifelong Learning.
Today, about 40 educational institutions have been awarded the Government Award in the field of quality. Over the past two years, the number of applications for the Government Award from educational institutions has dramatically increased. The participants of the meeting also spoke about the development of quality management in the field of educational.
Alexander Kochetov from the Russian Academy for Quality Problems stressed the high importance of NUST MISIS and the Russian Quality System`s joint work: “The tasks for increasing the competitiveness of our country`s economy and the viability of our state, which are now at the highest level, clearly define the position that has been formed throughout our history. And it is the fact that quality and competitiveness are synonyms. To say that we are a competitive country in the world market without having serious systematic approaches to quality— is simply illiterate”.
The head of the Russian Quality System noted that a stable quality management system has been a norm for many developed countries for a while. Returning to the topic of education, he also cited the example of Spain. Educational institutions in Spain have to apply for the EFQM Award to meet the National University Assessment criteria.
“Advanced technologies in business processes give an impetus to the introduction of innovative solutions in enterprises, and from a completely different approach to personnel management, they even have a beneficial effect on the environment. In such a high-tech context, we can`t use previous educational methods. We will have to invest time, knowledge and experience to eventually get a qualitatively new management system in every sector of the country”, summarized Maxim Protasov.
