Total Quality Management Strategic Approach | Edward Deming 14 Points Explained

Total Quality Management Strategic Approach

A Strategic approach is one that is critical to the future of the organization, an issue that must be addressed in order for the organization to carry out its mission.

Quality in the workplace has gone beyond creating a better-than-average product at a reasonable price and now refers to achieving increasingly better products and services at progressively more competitive prices; this includes doing things right the first time, rather than making and correcting mistakes

What is Total Quality Management?

Total Quality Management (TQM) is the name given to programs that seek to ensure that goods are produced, and services are supplied of the highest quality. TQM thus is an organization-wide approach to continuously improving the quality of all the organization‘s processes,  services and products. TQM culture are aimed at identifying and reducing, or eliminating causes of wasted time and effort.

An increasingly vital issue in this respect is the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM is an organizational cultural commitment to satisfying customers by using an integrated system of tools, techniques, and training. TQM involves the continuous improvement of organizational processes, resulting in high-quality products and services.

Concept of Total Quality Management

TQM rests on the following concepts

• The firm adopts a customer orientation such that a quality product or service must be related to what the customer wants – both internal and external customers. Suppliers are chosen on the basis of quality, consistency, and reliability of their product. Price is a secondary consideration.
• Design quality: TQM also requires that organizations pay attention to product design and aim to get quality right the first time. The basic principle is that the costs of getting things right the first time are less than the costs of correction.
• Conformance to quality. The organization should also ensure that the production system is designed in such a manner as to ensure that the final product conforms to the design specification. With TQM, inspection should be used primarily for improving production processes rather than for detecting and correcting errors.
• There is an absolute commitment by the chief executive and all senior managers to doing what is needed to change the culture.
• TQM requires that employees and suppliers be adequately trained so that all parties know what is expected of them
• TQM requires management to encourage education and self-improvement at every level. They should remove barriers to workmanship by providing adequate equipment and encouraging pride in one‘s work.
• In TQM, communication is critical and multi way.
• There is a commitment to improvement in all processes. Attention is focused first on the processes and second on results.

Implementing TQM

There is no one best way to implement TQM; each organization has to implement it to suit it the most.

Many firms start with an awareness program to educate both managers and other employees on what TQM means and how it will affect their jobs. This involves encouraging managers to attend seminars and discussions on TQM, read about TQM, and visit another firm already practicing TQM, also refered to as Benchmarking.

The next step is a customer survey to determine their expectations about the firm and identify areas where these expectations aren‘t being met. The results of the survey will form the starting point of implementing a quality program.

Implementation will be done step-by-step, beginning with departments of greatest weakness.

The process of TQM

The process of TQM is guided by the following

• Analysis of customers’ needs. They may need quality products, efficient services, etc. A needs assessment may be carried out through a market survey using interviews and a questionnaire.
• Assessment of the degree to which these needs are being met.
• Establishment of the gap between the current state and the desired.
• Establishment of quality standards capable of satisfying customers‘needs.
• Putting in place programs necessary to meet the standards. These programs may include training and development, incorporating quality objectives into strategic plans, forming quality teams (quality circles), and rewards for quality improvement

Key Elements of Total Quality Management

To be successful in incorporating TQM culture, here are key elements that organizations must have;

• There is an absolute commitment by the chief executive and all senior managers to doing what is needed to change the culture. Alongside this is a total commitment to the program at every level.
• Quality is everybody‘s responsibility, and it is customer-driven, not organization driven.
• There is customer satisfaction.
• There is a real commitment to a continuous improvement of all processes.
• Communication is critiacl and multi-way.
• Attention is focused first on the process and second on results.
• Strict control systems are followed.

According to W. Edwards Deming, the view that an unwavering focus on an organization’s mission of ―continuously and forever‖ improving the quality of goods and services- combined with statistical quality control and achieving ―joy in work-is necessary for competitive survival.

Moreover, Deming believes that the manager ‘s job is to seek out and correct the causes of failure, rather than merely identify failures after they occur.

Edward Deming 14 Points Explained

 

The goal of Deming‘s fourteen points lie in altering the behavior of managers and employees so that companies can become low-cost, high quality, and highly productive suppliers of goods and services and places of work that honor and support the contributions of all organizational members.

Create constancy of purpose for product and service improvement:

Management must maintain an unwavering commitment and shift its focus from the short-term to the long-term.

Quality, not profit, should lie at the heart of the organization ‘s purpose.  According to Deming, profit is a consequence that naturally follows when an organization targets quality.

Adopt the New Philosophy:

The recognition that we are in a new era in which ever-increasing quality is necessary for corporate survival is based on maintaining the constancy of purpose. Management must reject inferior materials, poor workmanship, defective products, and slack service.

It is not enough that defects are minimized: they should be eliminated. Reliable service reduces costs while delays and mistakes raise costs. The traditional system should be dismantled and replaced. The new culture must be supported by all employees and should reflect the commitment to quality.

Cease Dependence on Mass Inspection:

Deming recognizes that once errors occur, efficiency and effectiveness have already been lost. Therefore, mass inspections to catch errors after they have occurred need to be replaced by building in quality from the start. Continuous process improvement reduces costs incurred when errors are made and then corrected. The completion of high-quality products also enhances employee satisfaction because it enables employees to feel a sense of accomplishment and enables them to take pride in their work-no on enjoys producing junk.

End the Practice of Awarding Business on Price Tag Alone:

Deming encourages companies to end adversarial relationships with their suppliers and instead develop long-term relationships with them. He argues that price is not relevant until it is linked to measuring the quality being purchased. Statistical tools are very important in enabling companies to evaluate the quality of vendors and purchased parts.

Continually and Forever Improve the System Of Production And Service:

Management‘s obligation to seek out methods for quality improvement is never-ending. He believes that improvement follows from studying the process itself, not the defects, and that process improvement is management’s responsibility.

Institute Modern Methods of Training on The Job:

Training encompasses more than merely teaching employees how to use tools, such as statistical quality control, for improving quality. Training also translates into making sure that workers get adequate knowledge and skills for the jobs in which they are responsible.

Institute Leadership:

Supervisors’ traditional actions are not adequate-supervisors merely tell workers what to do and make sure they do it. They administer rewards and penalties and provide discipline when necessary. They do not see their jobs as providing leadership.

On the other hand, leaders begin with the assumption that workers aim to do the best job they can and endeavor to help workers reach their full potential. For lower-level managers, this entails coaching and arranging for training. Top managers must, in turn, help design and implement a strategic vision that grounds a TQM culture and make sure their own behavior exhibits the values that support such a culture.

Drive Out Fear:

Fear mustn’t prevent employees from asking questions, reporting problems, or expressing ideas. Employees must feel secure in order for quality to be pursued successfully in the workplace. A culture of openness, where people are not afraid of telling the truth, remains essential

Break Down Barriers Between Staff Areas:

Barriers between functional departments are counterproductive. Employees can improve productivity by learning from one another and coordinating efforts, regardless of their operational expertise. Traditional organizational structures tend to encourage competition between departments. Employees recognize that, regardless of their expertise, they all share the same overriding objectives. Competition should be with other organizations, not within their own.

Eliminate Slogans, Exhortations, And Targets for The Workforce:

A continual improvement as a general goal should replace supposedly motivational or inspirational signs, slogans, etc. Companies that attempt to motivate employees through speakers and inspirational tracts merely frustrate employees to be encouraged to do things the existing management system prevents them from doing.

Eliminate Numerical Quotas:

Quotas should be removed because they end up encouraging people to focus on quantity, often at the expense of quality. Companies should focus on quality issues instead of blindly pursuing numbers.

Remove Barriers to Pride of Workmanship:

Annual ratings or merit systems should not be used as incentive systems for good performance. Instead, assistance in overcoming obstacles imposed by inadequacies in materials, equipment, and training. Systems that endeavor to remove such obstacles should replace systems that attempt to coerce performance by making workers feel that they are always being judged, ranked, and rated.

Institute A Vigorous Program of Education and Training:

Training should include a thorough foundation in the tools and techniques of quality control and additional instruction in teamwork and the philosophy of a TQM culture.

Take Action to Accomplish the Transformation:

The entire organization must work together to enable a quality culture to succeed. As top managers design and implement the strategy, workers can then cooperate in pursuing a TQM culture.

Critical Components of Total Quality Management

The main ideas around Total Quality Management (TQM) are:

• A Systems Approach:

Managers must be responsible for three systems-the social or cultural system, the managerial system, and the technical system.

• The Tools Of TQM:

These include statistical quality control, fishbone diagram (diagram used to organize and show the possible causes of a problem or event visually; cause-and-effect diagram; Ishikawa diagram), and benchmarking (the process of finding the best available product features, processes, and services and using them as a standard for improving a company‘s own products, processes, and services).

• A Focus On Customers:

If customer needs are not the starting point of the quality management process, using quality tools may result in products and services that no one wants to buy.

Quality refers to ―fitness for the use-the ability of a product or service to satisfy a customer‘s real needs. By focusing on real needs, managers and workers can concentrate their efforts where it really matters.

• The Role Of Management:

Many managers begin with the assumption that where there is a quality problem, the workers or some individual (manager or worker) is to blame. However, TQM implies that when there is a quality problem, it begins in the boardroom and in the senior managers’ offices, and others who do not take quality seriously enough.

For instance, until the system that is the cause of a particular failure in quality can be identified, management cannot do its job. Every manager‘s job is to seek out and correct the causes of failure, rather than merely identify failures after they occur and affix blame to someone.

• Employee Participation:

Having the support and attention of senior management remains a necessary condition for doing quality management work in an organization, but it won‘t go very far without empowered employees. Empowerment stands for a substantial change that businesses are implementing. It means letting employees make decisions.

Benefits of Total Quality Management in An Organization

Among the perceived benefits of TQM include:

• The connection of quality management systems to organizational processes
• The encouragement of a natural progression towards improved organizational performance, through:

1. The use of the Quality Management Principles
2. The adoption of a “process approach.”
3. Emphasis of the role of top management
4. Requirements for the establishment of measurable objectives at relevant functions and levels
5. Being orientated toward “continual improvement” and “customer satisfaction,” including the monitoring of information on “customer satisfaction” as a measure of system performance
6. Measurement of the quality management system, processes, and product
7. Consideration of statutory and regulatory requirements
8. Attention to resource availability

• Consideration of the needs of all interested parties/stakeholders.
• Enables the organization to meet the customers ‘needs hence achievement of objectives and objectives.
• Improves the competitive strengths of the organization.
• Promotes interpersonal relations and team spirit among the employees.
• Enhances communication between managers and subordinates.
• Improves employee motivation through better terms and conditions of services, e.g., improved salaries.
• Strengthens long-term operations of the organization.

Total Quality Management [TQM] Introduction to TOQ & Principles of TQM