What is Total Quality Management?

Total quality management is a philosophy which should be in place in all organizations both public and private.?It is a concept that involves or should involve everyone in an organization or company.?The basic philosophy of TQM is:?A term first used to describe a management approach to quality improvement. Since then, TQM has taken on many meanings. Simply put, it is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. TQM is based on all members of an organization participating in improving processes, products, services and the culture in which they work.

The core definition of TQM is A core definition of total quality management (TQM) describes a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. In a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving processes, products, services, and the culture in which they work.

The information provided in the subsequent paragraphs I found on the Internet from ASQ (American Society for Quality).?Additional comments regarding some or all of the elements will be provided to explain in real word terms the impact of a TQM system.?The paragraphs that are underlined are my additional comments or explanations.

There are eight (8) primary elements of TQM which are identified and discussed below:

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.

In any organization or company the focus must be on the customer for if this is not the case it may not continue to exist or make a profit if that is the objective.?Keeping customers in a business environment is significant for if this does not occur competitors may take away customers.?Customers want to be appreciated and respected. Quality of products or service must or should exceed the level customers expect?

Total quality 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.

As the paragraph above identifies it is imperative that an environment exist which gets all employees involved in total quality involvement within an organization or company.?The main goal of an organization is to not only survive but create a quality product or service to the customers they expect to serve.?Creating an environment and system where the entire organization is involved utilizing some team or individual opportunities to focus on various situations which sometimes surfaces.?There must be an environment and/or process in place create a high-performance work system.?

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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 variation.

Processes exist within an organization or company and the philosophy of TQM.?Processes sometimes need to be revised based on current business environments.?A process has an ending and there must be individual steps that make sense to arrive at the end goal.?In a manufacturing environment it is important that processes and their relationship to the next step in the cycle of creating a product or developing a service.?When processes develop issues they must be examined not only for the process involved but how changes will impact the next step in the manufacturing or service development.

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

• Micro-processes add up to larger processes, and all processes aggregate into the business processes required for defining and implementing 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.
• An integrated business system may be modeled after the Baldrige Award?criteria and/or incorporate the ISO 9000 standards. Every organization has a unique work culture, and it is virtually impossible to achieve excellence in its products and services unless a good quality culture?has been fostered. Thus, an integrated system connects business improvement elements in an attempt to continually improve and exceed the expectations of customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

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Integration is a key element as discussed in the previous element.?Integration within a company must or should be clearly defined from one portion, function or step within a manufacturing or service cycle.?Each step in a process impacts the next step in a cycle for a product or service.?What employees do in one place impacts the next in the cycle.?Understanding the impact of all elements of a company to others must be understood by all employees for it to work efficiently.

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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.

Companies or organizations must or should have a strategic approach to the function of their organization or company.?This is needed to ensure an efficient structure to accomplish their or objectives within the organization.?

Continued 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.

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

Making decisions based on facts should be engrained within an organization or company.?The best decisions to be made must be based on facts not opinions.?All the facts associated with the decision to be made must be available otherwise the decision to be made may fail or be flawed based on incomplete data.?Within any organization as systems or methods develop within an industry changes must be made to make improvements within processes or instructions that have developed within an industry.

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, method, and timeliness.

Effective communication is essential within an organization or company.?It can and does plays a large part in maintaining morale and motivation for employees at all levels.?They need to involve strategies, methods and timeliness.

Edward Deming’s 14 points on quality management are provided below:

1. Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
4. End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier.
5. Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production and service.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Adopt and institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between staff areas.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.
12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.
14. Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation.

Benefits of TQM

• Strengthened competitive position
• Adaptability to changing or emerging market conditions and to environmental and other government regulations
• Higher productivity
• Enhanced market image
• Elimination of defects and waste
• Reduced costs and better cost management
• Higher profitability
• Improved customer focus and satisfaction
• Increased customer loyalty and retention
• Increased job security
• Improved employee morale
• Enhanced shareholder and stakeholder value
• Improved and innovative processes

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Generic strategy model for implementing TQM systems

·?top management learns about and decides to commit to TQM. TQM is identified as one of the organization’s strategies.

??The organization assesses current culture, customer satisfaction, and quality management systems.

??Top management identifies core values and principles to be used, and communicates them.

??A TQM master plan is developed on the basis of steps 1, 2, and 3.

??The organization identifies and prioritizes customer demands and aligns products and services to meet those demands.

??Management maps the critical processes through which the organization meets its customers’ needs.

??Management oversees the formation of teams for process improvement efforts.

??The momentum of the TQM effort is managed by the steering committee.

??Managers contribute individually to the effort through hoshin planning, training, coaching, or other methods.

??Daily process management and standardization take place.

??Progress is evaluated and the plan is revised as needed.

??Constant employee awareness and feedback on status are provided and a reward/recognition process is established.

From Deming’s 14 points to the benefits and generic model for implementing TQM systems are or can be critical to the success of an organization.?TQM must be understood and based on the information contained in this article if not already implemented or if various points discussed do not exist companies need to evaluate their system which really should continually take place.?