The adoption of the FNQ’s (National Quality Foundation) Model of Excellence in Management has definitely contributed to maintain and enhance management by quality at Volvo do Brasil.
“We are part of an industrial group with a history of search for excellence that dates back to the establishment of the company in the 1920s. In Brazil, Volvo has always striven to maintain and enhance quality-driven management”, affirms Tommy Svensson, president of Volvo do Brasil, bearing in mind that the Brazilian subsidiary is fully integrated to the brand’s global quality system. The FNQ Model of Excellence in Management was adopted in Brazil in 2003.
“The implementation of these criteria helps us to improve our performance in the search for excellence in different areas of the organization”, declares Paulo de Deus, Management System Manager at Volvo do Brasil. “And also contributes to making us more competitive, associating the organizational growth to the sustainable development and social-environmental responsibility”, completes Ivilásio Coelho, Management Systems Coordinator.
Based on the core values of quality, safety and respect for the environment, Volvo has always been ahead of its time in these areas. Quality, for instance, is in the “DNA” of the brand and is a process under permanent improvement. This pursuit for excellence is present even in the relations among people. The Volvo Way – as it is known – is the company’s internal philosophy that reflects the values and the corporate culture of the organization. “Energy, passion and respect” is a motto very well known by employees, and is also part of the Volvo corporate culture.
In this ongoing search for improvement and for excellence, Volvo organized itself to work through councils structured according to the FNQ model of excellence and management. This model is divided in the areas of “Leadership”, “Strategy and Planning”, “Customers”, “Society”, “Information and Knowledge”, “People” and “Processes”. As a result of this work, the company has been achieving excellent results in every business area.
This progress is also reflected in a number of different recognitions and awards given by the own society. This year, Volvo was considered one of the best companies to work in Brazil in a serious survey undertaken every year by Exame-Você S/A magazines, from Abril Publishers. This year Volvo do Brasil was also recognized as the Most Admired among the country’s truck manufacturers, for the third consecutive year.
Many are the examples of the enhancements implemented in the last six years as a result of the adoption of the FNQ Model of Excellence in Management: benchmarking, the use of comparative references, management of intellectual capital, better alignment of the indicators with the strategic objectives and the definition of a learning model are a few examples of these improvements.
Recognized internationally as a world reference institution in this area, next to the North American Malcolm Baldrige and the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management), FNQ maintains a systemic model of management adopted by a large number of world class organizations. “To be nominated for the PNQ (National Quality Award) is the highest recognition in Brazil that a company is managed by quality”, highlights the president of Volvo do Brasil.
FNQ, the largest Brazilian center for study, debate and dissemination of knowledge about excellence in management, employs the Criteria for Excellence - as they are known - that incorporate in their requirements the latest and most successful techniques of corporate management.
Curitiba, October 30th, 2009.
For further information please contact:
Newton Chagas - Volvo do Brasil
Press Officer – Corporate Communication
Tel.: +55 41 3317 8296 – Fax: +55 41 3317 8403
E-mail: newton.chagas@consultant.volvo.com
