TQM (total quality management) plays the role in any kind of field or any kind of business for improvement in that. Total Quality Management TQM, is a method by which management and employees can become involved in the continuous improvement of the production of goods and services. It is a combination of quality and management tools aimed at increasing business and reducing losses due to wasteful practices.
Important Points
TQM views an organization as a collection of processes. It maintains that organizations must strive to continuously improve these processes by incorporating the knowledge and experiences of workers. The simple objective of TQM is “Do the right things, right the first time, every time.” TQM is infinitely variable and adaptable. Although originally applied to manufacturing operations, and for a number of years only used in that area, TQM is now becoming recognized as a generic management tool, just as applicable in service and public sector organizations. There are a number of evolutionary strands, with different sectors creating their own versions from the common ancestor. TQM is the foundation for activities, which include:
- Commitment by senior management and all employees
- Meeting customer requirements
- Reducing development cycle times
- Just in time/demand flow manufacturing
- Improvement teams
- Reducing product and service costs
- Systems to facilitate improvement
- Line management ownership
- Employee involvement and empowerment
- Recognition and celebration
- Challenging quantified goals and bench marking
- Focus on processes / improvement plans
- Specific incorporation in strategic planning
Principles
Management Commitment
- Plan (drive, direct)
- Do (deploy, support, participate)
- Check (review)
- Act (recognize, communicate, revise)
Employee Empowerment
- Training
- Suggestion scheme
- Measurement and recognition
- Excellence teams
Fact Based Decision Making
- SPC (statistical process control)
- DOE, FMEA
- The 7 statistical tools
- TOPS (Ford 8D – team-oriented problem solving)
Continuous Improvement
- Systematic measurement and focus on CONQ
- Excellence teams
- Cross-functional process management
- Attain, maintain, improve standards
Customer Focus
- Supplier partnership
- Service relationship with internal customers
- Never compromise quality
- Customer driven standards
TQM encourages participation among shop floor workers and managers. There is no single theoretical formalization of total quality, but Deming, Juran and Ishikawa provide the core assumptions, as a “…discipline and philosophy of management which institutionalizes planned and continuous… improvement … and assumes that quality is the outcome of all activities that take place within an organization; that all functions and all employees have to participate in the improvement process: that organizations need both quality systems and a quality culture.”
