Defence Research Agency (Hansard, 20 January 1994)

§ Mr. Aitken

This is a matter delegated to the Defence Research Agency under its framework document. I have therefore asked the chief executive to reply directly to the hon. Member.

Letter from J. Chisholm to Dr. David Clark, dated 20 January 1994:

In today's written answer the Minister of State for Defence Procurement informed you that I would be replying to your question about formal quality and project management improvements in the Defence Research Agency.

When the Agency was set up in April 1991 it had no formal customer/supplier relationship and no requirement for formal quality certification. It became clear from the results of the satisfaction surveys we carried out that our customers' perceived our ability to manage their programmes and our lack of formal quality certification as a weakness. We decided that if the DRA was to survive as a trading organisation in a competitive environment what was needed was a strong quality culture within the DRA and a major reorientation in our work practices so that customer care and management of customer programmes became key drivers. I will deal with the quality initiative first.

The key to effective change is establishing the mechanisms that empower people at all levels in the organisation to contribute to improving effectiveness and efficiency. The Total Quality Process initiative we instituted in 1992 is the vehicle that allows this to happen. This initiative is not just about achieving formal quality standards such as BS 5750 though these are important to our customers; it is about identifying, developing and implementing the simplest and most cost effective ways of carrying out our business. The DRA has made a promising start and our goal is to establish TQP throughout the organisation by March 1995 and formal quality BS 5750 certification by December 1996.

The changes we have introduced to the way we manage our research projects are based on the need to respond flexibly and quickly to customer requirements; to put together teams to address particular issues or tasks; and to empower those teams to manage their projects efficiently. A major element in all this is a comprehensive training programme to equip our managers with the necessary commercial and project management skills to do 823W the job effectively; this should be completed by the end of April. We are also looking at the best way of identifying and addressing any weaknesses or problems in the way we manage our projects.

Both these initiatives are unlikely to yield quick results but we believe we have laid the foundations which will provide a lasting improvement in efficiency and effectiveness that will be of considerable benefit and value to our customers.