6. Conclusions and reflections
By analysing the Boeing case, it has been demonstrated that this world-class company not only uses a BEM (the MBNQA) to guide the operations of the company, but also uses a variety of management tools and techniques in its operation. Besides the BEM and the management tools and techniques, it has been demonstrated that the company uses specific mechanisms/programmes to cultivate its organisational culture and characteristics towards excellence. The case study has illustrated that all the three dimensions of the proposed overall BEF have been used in order to achieve a successful implementation of BEM with all employees actively involved.
However, it is important to understand that the overall BEF is a very flexible model for
adaptation, but that all the three dimensions of the model as well as their interrelationships should be understood, respected and practiced. The result of, for example, ignoring the
Figure 8. Analyses of Argument 3: integration in the operational level.
culture dimension will, without doubt, lead to a lack of spirit (Figure 4) at shop floor levels as well as at the middle management level and will, with a high probability, lead to failure if the company decides to implement TQM and BEM.
BAS has shown how it was possible to build a desired organisational culture, and they understood that the chosen BEM has to be complemented with management tools/tech- niques as well as elements for building a new organisational culture.
It is interesting that the case analysis coincides with the finding of a review of the recent 25 years of quality research publications (Dahlgaard-Park, Chen, Jang, & Dahl- gaard, 2013). The finding revealed that the quality movement is now shifting from an initial focus on TQM and BE to the management tools, techniques and core values needed for building a quality and BE culture.
The BAS case has also demonstrated how the overall BEF may serve as a flexible
guiding framework to achieve excellence. The main message with the proposed overall BEF is that organisations need to work with all three parts: (1) the chosen BEM, (2) suit- able tools and techniques and (3) suitable core values for building a desirable organis- ational culture. The proposed BEF complements existing BEMs by guiding companies
in the adaptation and use of such models. We may then call the suggested overall BEF a
POKA YOKE (failure safe) tool for implementing BEM.