3.3.6 Total Quality Management

Introduction to TQM

TQM provides the overall concept that fosters continuous improvement in an organisation. The TQM philosophy stresses a systematic, integrated, consistent, organisation-wide perspective involving everyone and everything. It focuses primarily on total satisfaction for both the internal and external customers, within a management environment that seeks continuous improvement of all systems and processes. TQM emphasises use of all people, usually in multifunctional teams, to bring about improvement from within the organisation. It stresses optimal life cycle costs and uses measurement within a disciplined methodology in achieving improvements. The key aspects of TQM are the prevention of defects and emphasis on quality in design. TQM is a necessity. It is a journey. It will never end. It makes Japanese industry a miracle. It is the way to survive and succeed. What does it entail, then? TQM is the totally integrated effort for gaining competitive advantage by continuously improving every facet of an organisation's activities. If we look at the meaning of each word, TQM can be defined as:

Total - Everyone associated with the company is involved in continuous improvement (including its customers and suppliers if feasible),
Quality - Customers' expressed and implied requirements are met fully,
Management - Executives are fully committed.

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Why is TQM Useful

"In order to compete in a global economy, our products, systems and services must be of a higher quality than our competition. Increasing Total Quality is our number one priority here at Hewlett-Packard."

-- John Young, President of Hewlett-Packard

From the four examples of corporate visions and mission statements below, it is apparent that all these companies want to provide good quality goods and services to their customers. The end result is that they will enjoy prosperity and long-term growth.

Example 1: Matsushita Electric (by K. Matsushita, Founder)
Vision:
"Profits are linked to growth and that investments which promote growth will eventually pay off in the long term."
Mission Statement:


Example 2: Leicester Business School, De Montfort University (by J. Coyne, Head of School)
Vision:
"By the year 2000 we want to be recognised amongst the leading Business School in Britain. With our critical mass and full range, full function approach to Business we aim to be 'The Best of the Big.'"
Mission Statement:

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How to Implement the TQM?

If an organisation has already implemented ISO 9000, it should still go back to the first step, the 5-S practices, in order to develop a total quality environment. One task of the 5-S is to throw away the rubbish, including the obsolete documents and paperwork generated from the ISO 9000 system. The 5-S keeps on insisting to look into the root of the problem - why there are so much wasteful documents created in the first instance?

Then BPR will help to re-focus the business, making it more customer-oriented. This should then be built into the ISO 9000 system during management review meetings.

QCCs will contribute continuous improvement by mobilising everybody in quality initiatives. The 5-S provide good agenda for improvement. Furthermore, QCCs are good organisations to review the effectiveness of the ISO 9000 system and help communicate and understand the requirements of the Standard. This will lead to simplification of the quality manual. TPM, when developed, will improve quality and productivity dramatically. This will be an important help towards TQM. If you walk into an efficient factory or office with conducive environment, you do not have to look at their ISO 9000 system before you can tell whether it is a quality organisation.

Finally, TQM is a process, not a destination. As Deming said, "We have to do it forever." When TQM is built upon 5-S, BPR, QCC, ISO and TPM, it will guarantee continuous improvement and customer satisfaction, no matter how demanding that could be.

Firms can acquire the TQMEX Model through a series of training and implementation programmes. Figure 10.20 shows a rough-cut estimate of the time of the resource person who may be an experienced quality manager of the organisation or a quality consultant. The size of the organisation is assumed to be medium. The larger the organisation, the longer will be the time required for training.

The TQMEX Training & Implementation Programme is a proven approach to achieve TQM. It also provides an important opportunity for firms to improve themselves. Organisations which have gone through some stages of improvement can tailor the programme to their special needs.

Brief Description Man-days (*)
A. A.1 Training/Consultancy Requirement Studies
A.2 Establish Quality Council		 5
5
B. Conduct Training & Implementation on:-
B.1 Housekeeping Through 5-S Practices
B.2 Business Process Re-engineering
B.3 Quality Data Collection & Seven QC Tools
B.4 QCC & Problem Solving
B.5 ISO 9000 Quality Manual Documentation
B.6 Internal Quality Audit
B.7 TPM Implementation
B.8 TQM Implementation
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
10
C. Documenting & Implementing ISO 9001/2 QMS20
TQMEX Training/Implementation Programme
(*) This is a rough estimate of the time of the resource person who may be an experienced quality manager of the organisation or a quality consultant.

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