Total Quality Management (TQM) – hmhub

Total quality management (TQM) is the continual process of detecting and reducing or eliminating errors in manufacturing, streamlining supply chain management, improving the customer experience, and ensuring that employees are up to speed with training. Total quality management aims to hold all parties involved in the production process accountable for the overall quality of the final product or service.

Total Quality Management is defined as a customer-oriented process and aims for continuous improvement of business operations. It ensures that all allied works (particularly work of employees) are toward the common goals of improving product quality or service quality, as well as enhancing the production process or process of rendering of services. However, the emphasis is put on fact-based decision making, with the use of performance metrics to monitor progress.

TQM was developed by William Deming, a management consultant whose work had a great impact on Japanese manufacturing. While TQM shares much in common with the Six Sigma improvement process, it is not the same as Six Sigma. TQM focuses on ensuring that internal guidelines and process standards reduce errors, while Six Sigma looks to reduce defects.

Total quality management (TQM) is a structured approach to overall organizational management. The focus of the process is to improve the quality of an organization’s outputs, including goods and services, through continual improvement of internal practices. The standards set as part of the TQM approach can reflect both internal priorities and any industry standards currently in place.

Industry standards can be defined at multiple levels and may include adherence to various laws and regulations governing the operation of the particular business. Industry standards can also include the production of items to an understood norm, even if the norm is not backed by official regulations.

TQM is considered a customer-focused process and aims for continual improvement of business operations. It strives to ensure all associated employees work toward the common goals of improving product or service quality, as well as improving the procedures that are in place for production.

Special emphasis is put on fact-based decision making, using performance metrics to monitor progress; high levels of organizational communication are encouraged for the purpose of maintaining employee involvement and morale.

While TQM originated in the manufacturing sector, its principles can be applied to a variety of industries. With a focus on long-term change over short-term goals, it is designed to provide a cohesive vision for systemic change. With this in mind, TQM is used in many industries, including, but not limited to, manufacturing, banking and finance, and medicine.

These techniques can be applied to all departments within an individual organization as well. This helps ensure all employees are working toward the goals set forth for the company, improving function in each area. Involved departments can include administration, marketing, production, and employee training.

Primary Elements Of TQM

TQM can be summarized as a management system for a customer-focused organization that involves all employees in continual improvement. It uses strategy, data, and effective communications to integrate the quality discipline into the culture and activities of the organization. Many of these concepts are present in modern quality management systems, the successor of TQM. Here are the 8 principles of total quality management:

1. Customer-focused: The customer ultimately determines the level of quality. No matter what an organization does to foster quality improvement—training employees, integrating quality into the design process, or upgrading computers or software—the customer determines whether the efforts were worthwhile.
2. Total employee involvement: All employees participate in working toward common goals. Total employee commitment can only be obtained after fear has been driven from the workplace, when empowerment has occurred, and when management has provided the proper environment. High-performance work systems integrate continuous improvement efforts with normal business operations. Self-managed work teams are one form of empowerment.
3. Process-centered: A fundamental part of TQM is a focus on process thinking. A process is a series of steps that take inputs from suppliers (internal or external) and transforms them into outputs that are delivered to customers (internal or external). The steps required to carry out the process are defined, and performance measures are continuously monitored in order to detect unexpected variations.
4. Integrated system: Although an organization may consist of many different functional specialties often organized into vertically structured departments, it is the horizontal processes interconnecting these functions that are the focus of TQM.
   1. • Micro-processes add up to larger processes, and all processes aggregate into the business processes required for defining and implementing a strategy. Everyone must understand the vision, mission, and guiding principles as well as the quality policies, objectives, and critical processes of the organization. Business performance must be monitored and communicated continuously.
5. Strategic and systematic approach: A critical part of the management of quality is the strategic and systematic approach to achieving an organization’s vision, mission, and goals. This process, called strategic planning or strategic management, includes the formulation of a strategic plan that integrates quality as a core component.
6. Continual improvement: A large aspect of TQM is continual process improvement. Continual improvement drives an organization to be both analytical and creative in finding ways to become more competitive and more effective at meeting stakeholder expectations.
7. Fact-based decision making: In order to know how well an organization is performing, data on performance measures are necessary. TQM requires that an organization continually collect and analyze data in order to improve decision-making accuracy, achieve consensus, and allow prediction based on past history.
8. Communications: During times of organizational change, as well as part of day-to-day operation, effective communications plays a large part in maintaining morale and in motivating employees at all levels. Communications involve strategies, methods, and timeliness.

The key principles of Total Quality Management

Commitment from the management:

• Plan (drive, direct)
•  Do (deploy, support, and participate)
• Check (review)
• Act (recognize, communicate, revise)

Employee Empowerment

• Training
• Excellence team
• Measurement and recognition
• Suggestion scheme

Continuous Improvement

• Systematic measurement
• Excellence teams
• Cross-functional process management
• Attain, maintain, improve standards

Customer Focus

• Partnership with Suppliers
• Service relationship with internal customers
• Customer-driven standards
• Never compromise quality

Benefits of Total Quality Management

The benefits arising from the implementation of Total Quality Management in an organization are:

• This will increase the awareness of quality culture within the organization.
• Special emphasis on teamwork will be achieved.
• TQM will lead to a commitment to continuous improvement.

Essential requirements for the successful implementation of TQM

• Commitment: Quality improvement (in all aspects) must be everyone’s job in the organization. An apparent commitment from the top management, breaking down the barriers for continuous quality improvement and steps required to provide an environment for changing attitudes must be provided. Training and support for this should be extended.
• Culture: There should be proper training to affect the changes in attitude and culture.
• Continuous Improvement: Recognize improvement as a continuous process and not merely a one-off program.
• Customer Focus: Perfection in service with zero defectives and full satisfaction to end-user whether it’s internal or external.
• Control: Ensure monitoring and control checks for any deviation from the intended course of implementation.

1. Plan
2. Do
3. Check
4. Act

This also referred to as the PDCA cycle.
Planning Phase: This phase is the most crucial phase of total quality management. Under this phase, employees have to come up with their respective queries and problems which need to be addressed. The employees apprise the management of different challenges which they are facing in their day to day operations and also analyze the root cause of the problem. They need to do the required research and collect significant data which would help them find solutions to all the problems.
Doing Phase: In this phase, a solution for the identified problems in the planning phase is developed by the employees. Strategies are devised and implemented to crack down the challenges faced by employees. The efficiency and effectiveness of solutions and strategies are also evaluated in this stage.
Checking Phase: Under this phase, a comparison analysis of before and after is done in order to assess the effectiveness of the processes and measure the results.
Acting Phase: This is the last phase of the cycle, in this phase employees document their results and prepare themselves to address other problems.

Beliefs about Total Quality Management

Following are the universal Total Quality Management beliefs:

• The satisfaction of the customer/owner is the measure of quality.
• Everyone is an owner.
• Continuous Quality improvement must be there.
• Analysis of the processes is the key to quality improvement.
• Constant TQM is not possible without consistent, active and enabling leadership by managers at all levels.
• It is important to incessantly improve the quality of the products and services which we are supposed to provide to our customers/owners.

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