QDM Principles
Learn the 6 Principles essential to QDM success
Quality Driven Management (QDM) is a unique FedEx approach to quality that helps us generate cost savings, grow revenue and improve customer experiences.
“QDM empowers all team members to become the architects of great change at FedEx,” FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith explains. “The result is superior business performance through the elimination of waste, cost and unnecessary work, as well as better speed to market and customer satisfaction.”
The foundation of QDM
The QDM Principles are the philosophy that underpins the QDM methodology. They set the tone for thinking and working effectively.
Learning and acting on the Principles can help teams get the most out of quality improvement initiatives. They're practical reminders that can help build and maintain a culture of customer-focused quality in any business.
Principle #1: Customers define quality
Take an outside-in perspective. See performance and progress through the eyes of customers. Applying this principle helps keep the focus on what’s truly important.
Principle #2:
Be scientific
When your business is at stake, it's no time for guesswork. Analyze challenges and identify root causes to solve foundational, rather than surface-level, challenges.
Principle #3: Measure, measure, measure
It's impossible to gauge success without measurement. Set a target and track your progress. Analyze the results and adjust the approach based on these insights.
Principle #4: Optimize business performance
Work to understand evolving customer needs and deliver the level of value and services that customers want. Streamline activities that do not add value or satisfy other critical business requirements.
Principle #5: Quality involves teamwork
Quality involves everyone — from the front line to the corner office. View work as a collaborative process: See the bigger picture, consider how people and processes interact with one another, and break down silos to accomplish breakthrough results.
Principle #6: View failures as opportunities
Help people see failure differently — through the lens of process, not blame. When people are less fearful, they take the kinds of chances that can change the game!
See how the Principles helped FedEx teams solve quality challenges.