Getting it all Into one Total Quality Management System

Total Quality Management (TQM) is not an easy concept to introduce into businesses - particularly those that have not traditionally concerned themselves too much with understanding customer needs and business processes. In fact - many attempts to introduce TQM fail!

One of the reasons for the challenge of introducing TQM is that it has significant implications for the whole business.

For example, it requires that management give employees a say in the production processes that they are involved in. In a culture of continuous improvement, workforce views are invaluable. The problem is - many businesses have barriers to involvement. For example, middle managers may feel that their authority is being challenged.

So "empowerment" is a crucial part of TQM. The key to success is to identify the management culture before attempting to install TQM and to take steps to change towards the management style required for it. Since culture is not the first thing that managers think about, this step has often been missed or ignored with the resultant failure of a TQM strategy.

What is Total Quality Management?

Total quality management is a popular "quality management" concept. However, it is about much more than just assuring product or service quality. TQM is a business philosophy - a way of doing business. It describes ways to manage people and business processes to ensure complete customer satisfaction at every stage. TQM is often associated with the phrase - "doing the right things right, first time". This revision note summarises the main features of TQM.

Like most quality management concepts, TQM views "quality" entirely from the point of view of "the customer".

All businesses have many types of customers. A customer can be someone "internal" to the business (e.g., a production employee working at the end of the production line is the "customer" of the employees involved earlier in the production process).

A customer can also be “external” to the business. This is the kind of customer you will be familiar with. When you fly with an airline you are their customer.

TQM recognises that all businesses require "processes" that enable customer requirements to be met. TQM focuses on the ways in which these processes can be managed - with two key objectives:

Zero Defects = Customer Satisfaction

Quality Control Versus Quality Assurance

Here are some definitions and explanations to clarify some terminology concerning quality management:

Quality control (QC): Quality control, or QC for short, is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. This approach places an emphasis on three aspects:

Elements such as controls, job management, defined and well-managed processes, performance and integrity criteria and identification of records

Competence, such as knowledge, skills, experience and qualifications

Soft elements, such as personnel integrity, confidence, organizational culture, motivation, team spirit and quality relationships.

Supplier quality assurance (SQA): Confidence in a supplier's ability to deliver a good or service that will satisfy the customer's needs. Achievable through an interactive relationship between the customer and the supplier, it aims at ensuring the product's 'fit' to the customer's requirements with little or no adjustment or inspection.