Total Quality Management (TQM)

An Introduction to TQM
Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach

that seeks to improve quality and performance which will meet or exceed customer expectations. This can be achieved by integrating all qualityrelated functions and processes throughout the company. TQM looks at the overall quality measures used by a company including managing quality design and development, quality control and maintenance, quality improvement, and quality assurance. TQM takes into account all quality measures taken at all levels and involving all company employees.

Cont.
At its core, Total Quality Management (TQM) is 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.

History of TQM
The methods for implementing this approach

come from the teachings of such quality leaders as Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran. The term Total Quality Management has lost favor in the United States in recent years: Quality management is commonly substituted. Total Quality Management, however, is still used extensively in Europe.

Points to Implement TQM

A core concept in implementing TQM is Demings

14 points, a set of management practices to help companies increase their quality and productivity:
Create constancy of purpose for improving products

and services. Adopt the new philosophy. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier. Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production and service.

Cont.

Institute training on the job. Adopt and institute leadership. Drive out fear. Break down barriers between staff areas. Eliminate slogans and targets for the workforce. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system. Institute a vigorous program of education and selfimprovement for everyone. Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation.

Origins of TQM
Total quality management has evolved from the

quality assurance methods that were first developed around the time of the First World War. The war effort led to large scale manufacturing efforts that often produced poor quality. To help correct this, quality inspectors were introduced on the production line to ensure that the level of failures due to quality was minimized.

Cont.
After the First World War, quality inspection

became more commonplace in manufacturing environments and this led to the introduction of Statistical Quality Control (SQC), a theory developed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. This quality method provided a statistical method of quality based on sampling. Where it was not possible to inspect every item, a sample was tested for quality. The theory of SQC was based on the concept that a variation in the production process leads to variation in the end product. If the variation in the process could be removed this would lead to a higher level of quality in the end

Cont.
After World War Two, the industrial manufacturers

in Japan produced poor quality items. In a response to this, the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers invited Dr. Deming to train engineers in quality processes. By the 1950s quality control was an integral part of Japanese manufacturing and was adopted by all levels of workers within an organization.

Cont.
By the 1970s the concept of total quality was

being discussed. This was seen as companywide quality control that involves all employees from top management to the workers, in quality control. In the next decade more non-Japanese companies were introducing quality management procedures that based on the results seen in Japan. The new wave of quality control became known as Total Quality Management, which was used to describe the many quality-focused strategies and techniques that became the center of focus for the quality movement.

TQM & organizational Cultural Change

Traditional Approach
Lack of communication Control of staff Inspection & fire fighting Internal focus on rule Stability seeking Adversarial relations Allocating blame

TQM
Open communications Empowerment Prevention External focus on customer Continuous improvement Co-operative relations Solving problems at their

roots

Books Recommended
Total Quality Management (3rd ed) by Dale H.

Besterfield, Carol Besterfield-Michna, Glen H. Besterfield and Mary Besterfield-scare. Total Quality Management (2006) by Poornima M. Charantimath, published by PEARSON Education. Total Quality Management (an introductory text) by Paul James.