QUALITY AND TOTAL

QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Photo by: donskarpo

Although quality and quality management does not have a formal definition,
most agree that it is an integration of all functions of a business to
achieve high quality of products through continuous improvement efforts of
all employees. Quality revolves around the concept of meeting or exceeding
customer expectation applied to the product and service. Achieving high
quality is an ever changing, or continuous, process therefore quality
management emphasizes the ideas of working constantly toward improved
quality. It involves every aspect of the company: processes, environment
and people. The whole workforce from the CEO to the line worker must be
involved in a shared commitment to improving quality.

Therefore, in brief, quality and total quality management (TQM) in
particular can be defined as directing (managing) the whole (total)
production process to produce an excellent (quality) product or service.

It differs from other management techniques in the attitude of management
toward the product and toward the worker. Older management methods focused
on the volume of production and the cost of the product. Quality was
controlled by using a detection method (post production inspection),
problems were solved by management and management’s role was
defined as planning, assigning work, controlling the production. Quality
management, in contrast, is focused on the customer and meeting the
customer’s needs. Quality is controlled by prevention, i.e.,
quality is built in at every stage. Teams solve problems and everyone is
responsible for the quality of the product. Management’s role is to
delegate, coach, facilitate and mentor. The major quality management
principles
are: quality, teamwork, and proactive management philosophies for process
improvement.

ORIGINS

Quality management in is not derived from a single idea or person. It is a
collection of ideas, and has been called by various names and acronyms:
TQM, total quality management; CQU, continuous quality improvement; SQC,
statistical quality control; TQC, total quality control, etc. However each
of these ideas encompasses the underlying idea of productivity initiatives
that increase profit by improving the product.

Though most writers trace the quality movement’s origins to W.
Edward Deming, Joseph M. Juran and Philip B. Crosby, the roots of quality
can be traced even further back, to Frederick Taylor in the 1920s. Taylor
is the “father of scientific management.” As manufacturing
left the single craftsman’s workshop, companies needed to develop a
quality control department. As manufacturing moved into big plants,
between the 1920s and the 1950s, the terms and processes of

quality engineering

and

reliability engineering

developed. During this time productivity was emphasized and quality was
checked at the end of the line. As industrial plants became larger,
post-production checks became more difficult and statistical methods began
to be used to control quality. This was called

reliability engineering

because it moved quality control toward building quality into the design
and production of the product. Taylor was the pioneer of these methods.
Although some writers consider Taylor’s methods part of classical
management in opposition to the quality management system, both Deming and
Juran both used statistical methods for quality assurance at Bell
Telephone laboratories.

In the decades that followed World War II, the U.S. had no trouble selling
everything made. This demand had the effect in the U.S. of driving
industry to increase production, which resulted in less quality control.
U.S. manufacturers became complacent, thinking that they could sell any
product and that the consumer did not want or demand quality. The post
World War II situation in Japan was just the opposite. The war had left
the country devastated, and it needed to rebuild its means of production.
In addition, Japanese manufacturers needed to counteract the shoddy
reputation they had that products “made in Japan” were of
low quality.

Japan began focusing on serious quality efforts. Japanese teams went
abroad to visit foreign countries to learn how other countries managed
quality, and they invited foreign experts to lecture in Japan on quality
management. Two of these foreign experts were Americans W. Edward Deming
and Joseph Juran. They each had a profound influence on Japanese quality
processes, encouraging quality and design,

built in,

and zero defect programs. It took twenty years of concerted effort to
revamp Japan’s industrial system. The strategies used involved
high-level managers as leaders, all levels and functions were trained in
managing for quality, continuous progress was undertaken, quality circles
were used, and the entire workforce was enlisted. By the early 1980s
Japanese products, particularly automobiles and electronic products, were
superior in quality to U.S. products. U.S. companies lost markets in the
U.S. and in the western world to the Japanese and went in search of the

Japanese secret.

They found W. Edward Deming.

DEMING’S CONTRIBUTIONS

Deming was an American who worked in the 1930s with Walter A. Shewhart at
Bell Telephone Company. Shewhart was a statistician who had the theory
that product control could best be managed by statistics. He developed a
statistical chart for the control of product variables. Deming developed a
process, based on Shewhart’s, using statistical control techniques
that alerted managers of the need to intervene in the production process.

He then utilized these techniques during World War II while working on
government war production. In 1947 Douglas MacArthur and the U.S. State
Department sent Deming to Japan to help the war-devastated Japanese
manufacturing plants. He introduced these “statistical process
control” methods in a series of lectures on statistical methods to
Japanese businessmen and engineers. The Japanese were an attentive
audience and utilized Deming’s ideas readily. They found him
charming and considerate and listened to his ideas. His concept of
employees working toward quality fit well into their personal ideas. His
philosophy went beyond statistical quality control and encouraged building
quality into the product at all stages.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s

Definition of Total Quality

Total Quality (TQ) consists of continuous improvement activities
involving everyone in the organization—managers and
workers—in a totally integrated effort toward improving
performance at every level. This improved performance is directed
toward satisfying such cross-functional goals as quality, cost,
schedule, missing, need, and suitability. TQ integrates fundamental
management techniques, existing improvement efforts, and technical
tools under a disciplined approach focused on continued process
improvement. The activities are ultimately focused on increasing
customer/user satisfaction.

Deming developed the chain reaction: as quality improves, costs go down
and productivity goes up; this leads to more jobs, greater market share,
and long-term survival. He stressed worker pride and satisfaction and
considered it management’s job to improve the process, not the
worker. Quality circles, a central Deming theme, are based on the
importance of employees meeting regularly in groups to comprehensively
discuss product quality. The GDP in Japan rose steadily from 1960s by more
than 10 percent per year. By 1951 the Japanese had named their quality
prize in his honor. Deming’s book,

Out of the Crisis,

emphasized improving quality of the product as more important than
short-term financial goals. He de-emphasized quantity, and emphasized
quality. He believed that “statistical process control” was
an invaluable instrument in the quest for quality. Deming developed
fourteen points for management which can be summarized as:

1. Create a plan; publish the aims and purposes of the organization.
2. Learn and adopt the new philosophy of quality.
3. Understand the purpose of inspection; stop depending on inspection.
4. Stop awarding business based on price alone.
5. Improve the system constantly.
6. Institute training.
7. Teach and institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear, create trust, and create a climate for innovation.
9. Optimize the efforts of teams, groups and staff areas.
10. Eliminate exhortations, and targets for the work force; provide methods
    of achievement.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the work force.
12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride for workmanship.
13. Encourage education and self improvement for everyone.
14. Make action to accomplish the transformation, make it everyone’s
    job.

Besides the fourteen points, Deming is known for the

Deming Cycle

and the

Seven Deadly Diseases.

The Deming Cycle is illustrated in Figure 1. It involves five steps:
consumer research and planning of the product (plan), producing the
product (do), checking the product (check), marketing the product (act),
and analyzing how the product is received (analyze.)

The Seven Deadly Diseases can be summarized as:

1. Lack of constancy of purpose to plan products and services.
   
2. Emphasis on short-term profits.
3. Personal review systems for managers and management by objectives.
4. Job hopping by managers.
5. Using only visible data in decision making.
6. Excessive medial costs.
7. Excessive costs of liability driven up by lawyers that work on
   contingency.

JURAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS

Joseph M. Juran, like Deming, went to Japan in 1954 and assisted the
Japanese in their quest to achieve quality. Like Deming, Juran emphasized
planning, organizing and controlling. However he emphasized customer
satisfaction more than Deming did and focused on management and technical
methods rather than worker satisfaction. Juran was a prolific author,
publishing over a dozen books. His most influential book

Quality Control Handbook

(later called

Juran’s Quality Handbook

)was published in 1951 and became a best seller.

By 1960 Japan was using quality control circles and simple statistical
techniques learned and applied by Japanese workers. Juran developed basic
steps that companies must take, however he believed there was a point of
diminishing return, a point at which quality goes beyond the consumer
needs. For example, if the consumer trades his car in after 50,000 miles,
the car need only be built to perform trouble-free for 60,000 miles.
Building a better car would drive up costs without delivering the expected
product. This is called the

Pareto Principle,

or the Juran 80/20 rule: 80 percent of the trouble comes from 20 percent
of the problems. The rule is named for Vilfredo Pareto,
an economist, but it was Juran that applied the idea to management. It
can be expressed as: “concentrate on the ‘vital few’
sources of problems; don’t be distracted by less important
problems.” Juran’s trilogy involves:

1. Quality planning (determine customer needs, develop product in response
   to needs).
2. Quality control (assess performance, compare performance with goals, act
   on differences between performance and goals).
3. Quality improvement (develop infrastructure, identify areas of
   improvement and implement projects, establish project team, provide
   teams with what they need).

Juran’s ten steps to quality improvement are:

1. Build awareness of opportunities to improve.
2. Set goals.
3. Organize to reach goals.
4. Provide training.
5. Carry out projects to solve problems.
6. Report progress.
7. Give recognition.
8. Communicate results.
9. Keep score.
10. Maintain momentum by making annual improvement part of the systems and
    processes of the company.

The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) considered
Juran’s vision of top-to-bottom quality management even more
important to their quality turnaround than Deming’s insights. JUSE
asked Juran if it could name its top-level award, a ‘super-Deming
award’ after him, but he declined. This medal is called the Japan
Quality Control Medal.

CROSBY’S CONTRIBUTIONS

Philip Crosby, author of

Quality is Free,

founded the Quality College in Winter Park, Florida. Crosby emphasized
meeting customer requirements by focusing on prevention rather than
correction. He claimed that poor quality costs about 20 percent of the
revenue; a cost that could be avoided by using good quality practices. He
pushed for zero defects. His “absolutes” are: (1) quality is
defined as conformance to requirements, not

goodness;

(2) the system for achieving quality is prevention, not appraisal; (3)
the performance standard is zero defects, not

that’s close enough;

and (4) the measure of quality is the price of non-conformance, not
indexes.

Crosby’s method does not dwell on statistical process control and
problem solving techniques that the Deming method uses. He stated that
quality is free because prevention will always be lower than the costs of
detection, correction and failure. Like Deming, Crosby had fourteen
points:

1. Manage commitment, that is, top level management must be convinced and
   committed and communicated to the entire company.
2. Quality improvement team composed of department heads, oversee
   improvements.
3. Quality measurement are established for every activity.
4. Cost of quality is estimated to identify areas of improvement.
5. Quality awareness is raised among all employees.
6. Corrective action is taken.
7. Zero defects is planned for.
8. Supervisor training in quality implementation.
9. Zero defects day is scheduled.
10. Goal setting for individuals.
11. Error causes are removed by having employees inform management of
    problems.
12. Recognition is given, but it is non-financial, to those who meet quality
    goals.
13. Quality councils meet regularly.
14. Do it all over again (i.e., repeat steps one through thirteen).

Looking at the history of quality management, we see several stages of
development. The first was

quality control,

which involved setting up product specifications and then inspect the
product fore for leaves the plant. The second state is

quality assurance,

which involved identifying the quality characteristics and procedures for
quantitatively evaluating and controlling them. The next phase is the true

total quality control,

a term actually coined by Feingenbaum in 1983. At this stage the quality
became a total organization effort. It effected production, profit, human
interaction and customer satisfaction. The fourth stage is

total quality management.

In TQM the customer is the center and quality is an organization-wide
effort.

QUALITY PRIZES

The top three quality prizes are the Deming Prize, the Baldrige Award and
the European Quality Awards. Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers
have annually awarded the Deming Prize since 1951. For three decades it
was

the

quality award and is still the

QUALITY IN THE U.S.

most prestigious award. The Deming Prize is given to a person or group of people who have advanced the practice and furthered awareness of TQC. The Deming Application Prize goes only to companies based on successes attributable to implementing TQC. The second major quality prizes was established by Congress in 1987 (Public Law 100-107) and is called the Baldrige Award. The award set a national standard for quality and companies use the criteria as a management guide. Applicants must address seven specific categories: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management, and business results. Winners are required to share their successful strategies. U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology administer the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The third award is the awarded by The Foundation for Quality Management with support from the European Organization for Quality and the European Commission. It is called the European Quality Award and was first awarded in 1992.

The U.S. was slow to see the advantages of TQM, although the American
Society for Quality Control (now known as American Society for Quality)
was formed in 1946. Huge markets for American-made products after World
War II kept American industries producing products with little change in
manufacturing methods. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that U.S.
manufacturing came up against foreign competition and the trade deficit,
and at that time it became obvious that Japanese companies were far ahead
of U.S. companies in quality.

One of the first companies in the U.S. to grasp and utilize TQM was
Motorola. In 1981 Bob Galvin, Motorola’s chairman, called for an
across-the-board improvement of 10:1 in five years. To accomplish this
they needed a breakthrough technique. This breakthrough is detailed in the
Six Sigma process:

• Faith that the improvement target could be achieved.
• Total customer satisfaction.
• Powerful new tools, especially design of experiments.
• Cycle-time reduction.
• Designing for ease of manufacturing.
• Manufacturing innovations.
• True partnerships with key suppliers.
• Training for all employees.

Within five years Motorola had achieved their goal. In 1988 they were
awarded the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award for their impressive
Six Sigma process. Keki R. Bhote nurtured the Six Sigma project for eleven
years at Motorola and then went on to consult with other companies.

In the early 1980s when Donald Petersen was CEO of Ford, Ford executives
were investigating the secret of the Japanese success. They discovered W.
Edwards Deming’s holistic blend of statistics and management.
Deming’s ideas came to Detroit. Ford was in serious trouble because
of Japanese competition.
Deming introduced the statistical methods needed to improve processes.
These are the foundation of what became known as Six Sigma, a statistical
measure that refers to 3.4 defects per million. Besides this scientific
method of improving quality, Deming emphasized that all employees needed
to work toward quality. He advocated teamwork and cross-department
collaboration, close work with suppliers and employee training. Other
companies that adopted the Deming quality methods were General Motors,
Florida Power & Light, and Procter and Gamble.

Not all U.S. attempts at quality improvement have been successful.
Frequently cited reasons for failure are poor leadership, team-mania
(setting up teams before management or employee have been trained in team
work), and lack of integration of quality efforts into the whole
organization. Obstacles and barriers to success have been researched by
Robert J. Masters. He lists eight common problems that lead to failure:

1. Lack of management commitment. Management must commit time and resources
   and clearly communicate the importance and goals to all personnel.
2. Inability to change the organizational culture. Change takes time and
   effort. In order for the culture to change, the employees need to want
   change and be willing to participate. This requires reasons that
   management must convey. The change will only occur if the employees
   trust the management. It cannot occur from a state of fear.
3. Improper planning. Planning must involve all parts of the organization
   and be communicated clearly to employees.
4. Lack of training. The most effective training comes from senior
   management. Informal training needs to occur on a continual basis.
5. Organizational structure problems and isolated individuals or
   departments. Multifunctional teams will help break down some of these
   barriers. Restructuring is another method.
6. Ineffective measurement and lack of data. Effective decisions require
   that the employees have access to the necessary data.
7. Inadequate attention to internal and external customers.
8. Inadequate empowerment, lack of teamwork. Teams require training. Their
   recommendations should be followed whenever possible. Individuals need
   to be empowered to make decisions.

IMPLEMENTING TQM

Although different authorities on total quality management emphasize
different techniques and use different terminology, all share three common
ideas: quality, teamwork and process improvement. Although many books have
been written to guide U.S. companies through TQM, one of the major writers
was Joseph Jablonski. In

Implementing TQM,

he identified three characteristics: (1) participative management; (2)
continuous process improvement; and (3) utilization of teams.

Participative management is the opposite of the hierarchical management
style of the early twentieth century businesses. It involves all employees
in the management process and decision making by having managers set
policies and make key decisions based upon the advice and ideas of
subordinates. This method provides management with more information from
the front line and motivates the workers as they have some control of the
decisions. Continuous process improvement is one of Deming’s major
ideas and involves small steps toward the ultimate goal. This involves
patience on the part of management. Teamwork refers to cross-functional
teams of workers that share in problem solving.

Jablonski went on to list six attributes necessary for success: (1)
customer focus; (2) process focus; (3) prevention versus inspection; (4)
employee empowerment and compensation; (5) fact-based decision making; and
(6) receptiveness to feedback.

U.S. companies have long relied upon company organization by functions.
TQM emphasizes a decentralized structure to encourage leadership and
creativity. The purpose of this change in structure is to change the
behavior of the employees. This is a major change for most U.S. companies.
However, successful companies have more functional integration and fewer
layers of hierarchy.

QUALITY AND THE 1990S AND BEYOND

In the 1980s many U.S. companies implemented total quality management
systems in order to be competitive in the global market place. Successes
lead them to be interested in hiring managers and engineers with some TQM
training. This prompted universities to start teaching quality methods. To
help universities in this, the University Challenge program was developed
by a group of companies that had implemented TQM successfully. Their goal
was to encourage universities to commit to integrating TQM in their own
operations and courses. Initially eight universities with both business
and engineering schools were chosen. Milliken worked with North Carolina
State University and Georgia Institute of Technology. IBM worked with
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and Rochester Institute of Technology. Motorola worked with Purdue
University. Procter & Gamble Company worked with University of
Wisconsin at Madison and Tuskegee University. Xerox worked with Carnegie
Mellon.

Another area of transformation by TQM since 1990 is in human resources.
Numerous studies have indicated that human resource practices that improve
the corporate culture lead to better profits. Therefore many companies
have extended TQM to the HR department. Yet another area of development of
TQM in American firms is in the area of ethical philosophy and behavior of
top management. Recent corporate scandals have increased interest from the
public in corporate responsibility and accountability. Corporate
responsibility is defined as how a company’s operating practices
affect its stakeholders, such as consumers, and the natural environment.
This is new quality movement is being called total responsibility
management. It involves responsible vision and values, leadership build on
these values.

TQM has had a wide acceptance in the U.S., which has been growing since
the 1970s. Quality management principles have had a remarkable influence
on every sector of American business and are spreading to non-profit
organizations and universities. It is essential that this trend continue
for U.S. companies to be competitive in the global market and to meet
consumer demands.

Judith


M.


Nixon

FURTHER READING:

Besterfield, D., C. Besterfield-Michna, G.H. Besterfield., and M.
Besterfield-Sacre.

Total Quality Management.

2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NY: Prentice-Hall, 1999.

Bou, J.C., and I. Beltran. “Total Quality Management,
High-Commitment Human Resource Strategy and Firm Performance: An
Empirical Study.”

Total Quality Management

16, no. 1 (2005): 71–86.

Chen, A.Y.S., and J.L. Rodgers. “Teaching the Teachers
TQM.”

Management Accounting

76 (1995): 42–46.

Creech, B.

The Five Pillars of TQM.

New York: Truman Talley Books/Dutton.

Davids, M. “W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993) Quality
Controller.”

Journal of Business Strategy

20, no. 5 (1999): 31–32.

Deming, W.E.

Out of the Crisis.

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986.

Gallear, D., and A. Ghobadian. “An Empirical Investigation of the
Channels That Facilitate a Total Quality Culture.”

Total Quality Management

15, no. 8 (2004): 1043–1967.

Goetsch, D.L., and S.B. Davis.

Total Quality Handbook.

Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001.

Hoyer, R.W., and B.Y. Hoyer. “What Is Quality? Learn How Each of
the Eight Well-Known Gurus Answers This Question.”

Quality Progress

34, no. 7 (2001): 52–62.

Jablonski, J.R.

Implementing TQM.

2nd ed. Albuquerque: Technical Management Consortium, 1992.

Juran, J. M.

Juran on Leadership for Quality.

New York: Free Press, 1989.

——.

Juran on Planning for Quality.

New York: Free Press, 1988.

Masters, R.J. “Overcoming the Barriers to TQM’s
Success.”

Quality Progress

29, no. 5 (1996): 53–55.

Mouradian, G.

The Quality Revolution.

New York: University of Press of America, 2002.

Port, O. “The Kings of Quality.”

Business Week,

2004.

Ross, J.E., and S. Perry.

Total Quality Management: Text, Cases and Readings.

3rd ed. Boca Raton, St. Lucie Press, 1999.

Saad, G. H., and S. Siha. “Managing Quality: Critical Links and a
Contingency Model.”

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

20, no. 10 (2000): 1146–1163.

Strach, P., and A. Everett. “Is There Anything Left to Learn From
Japanese Companies?”

SAM Advanced Management Journal

69, no. 3 (2004): 4–13.

Waddock, S., and C. Bodwell. “Managing Responsibility: What Can
Be Learned From the Quality Movement.”

California Management Review

47, no. 1 (2004): 25–37.

Washbush, J.B. “Deming: A New Philosophy or Another
Voice?”

Management Decision

40, no. 10 (2002): 1029–1036.