Speaking to The Financial Express, Dr Fukuda said that policy deployment involves companies practising Management by Objectives and Management by Policy.

It is a top-down approach where the top management sets the goals to be achieved and also puts together the policy framework through which the objectives would be achieved.

Limiting factors such as time are also considered while evolving the plan of action. It is a methodology to manage company-wide activities to achieve policies and objectives.

Through an extension of this practice, it is possible to capture an employee's job responsibility, cross-functional linkages, overall contribution and relationship to the system as a whole.

Another tool for boosting quality is the structure to enhance daily activities through creativity (SEDAC). It is a methodology for managing improvement and standardisation of activities. It can also be used in idea generating techniques such as brain storming etc.

It is a bottoms-up approach which aims at involving all employees of the organisation. One of the features of SEDAC is that it can be used in combination with other techniques.

Policy deployment and SEDAC are structures that enable organisations to improve and transform themselves. These methodologies facilitate an organisation's efforts to continuously develop and strengthen its intellectual creativity and accomplish its business objectives, says Dr Fukuda.

Indian companies can absorb the best quality practices available in Japan, he adds. In India, he is associated with TAO Systems Consultants, Chennai.