Total Quality Management (TQM): Meaning, Principles, Implementation Approaches & Strategies

Total quality management

TQM is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes. It is used around the world. TQM functions on the premise that the quality of products and processes is the responsibility of everyone who is involved with the creation or consumption of the products or services offered by an organization. In other words, TQM capitalizes on the involvement of management, workforce, suppliers, and even customers, in order to meet or exceed customer expectations.

Considering the practices of TQM as discussed in six empirical studies, Cua, McKone, and Schroeder (2001) identified the nine common TQM practices as cross-functional product design, process management, supplier quality management, customer involvement, information and feedback, committed leadership, strategic planning, cross functional training, and employee involvement.

Total quality management is a management system for a customer focused organization that involves all employees in continual improvement of all aspects of the organization. TQM concepts are an integrative system that uses strategy, data, and effective communication to integrate the quality principles into the culture and activities of the organization.

A core concept in implementing TQM is Deming’s 14 points, a set of management practices to help companies increase their quality and productivity:

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.

The term “Total Quality Management” has lost favour in the United States in recent years: “Quality management” is commonly substituted. “Total Quality Management,” however, is still used extensively in Europe.

Principles of TQM

1. Is Customer focused: whatever you do for quality improvement, remember that ONLY customers determine the level of quality, whatever you do to foster quality improvement, training employees, integrating quality into processes management, ONLY customers determine whether your efforts were worthwhile.
2. Insure Total Employee Involvement: This done after you removes fear from work place, then empower employee ... you provide the proper environment
3. Process Centered: Fundamental part of TQM is to focus on Process thinking.
4. Integrated system: All employees must know business mission and vision must monitor the process. An integrated business system may be modelled by MBNQA or ISO 9000.
5. Strategic and systematic approach: Strategic plan must integrate quality as core component.
6. Continual Improvement: Using analytical and creative thinking in finding ways to become more effective.
7. Fact Based Decision Making: Decision making must be ONLY on data, not personal thinking or situational.
8. Communication: Communication strategy, method and timeliness must be well defined.

TQM Implementation Approaches 

No one solution is effective for planning and implementing TQM concepts in all situations. Following are generic models for implementing total quality management theory:

1. Train top management on TQM principles.
2. Assess the current: Culture, customer satisfaction, quality management system.
3. Top management determines the core values and principles to be used and communicate them.
4. Develop TQM master plan based on steps 1, 2, 3.
5. Identify and prioritize customer needs and determine products or service to meet those needs.
6. Determine the critical processes to produce those products or services.
7. Create process improvement teams.
8. Managers should support effort by planning, training, time.... to the team.
9. Integrate changes for improvement in daily process management and standardizations take place.
10. Evaluate progress against plan (step 8) and adjust as needed.
11. Constant employee awareness and feedback on status are provided and a reward/ recognition process is established.

Strategies to develop TQM

1. TQM elements approach: Take key business process and use TQM Tools to foster improvement. e.g.: quality circles, statistical process control, taguchi method, quality function deployment.
2. The guru approach: Using the guides of one of the leading quality thinker.
3. Organization model approach: The organization use Benchmarking or MBNQA as model for excellence.
4. Japanese total quality approach: Companies want to get Deming prize use Deming principles.

Related Posts

Sandeep Ghatuary

Finance & Accounting blogger simplifying complex topics.

View full author profile →

Previous