TQM is the process of achieving customer satisfaction through continuous process improvement, employee empowerment, and a quality-focused culture. Let’s understand Total Quality Management (TQM) and its use to achieve competitive advantage.
What is Total Quality Management (TQM)?
TQM is a philosophy of management that is driven by the constant attainment of customer satisfaction through the continuous improvement of all organizational processes.
It requires employees to rethink their actions and become more involved in workplace decisions. TQM is the application of quantitative methods and human resources to improve the material and services supplied to an organization, all the processes within an organization, and the degree to which the customer’s needs are met, now and in the future.
Total quality management is a management philosophy of continuous quality improvement along with cost reduction in an environment of participative management through self-directed team development and employee empowerment and a quality-supportive culture where trained human resources would focus on monitoring process variations by using necessary tools and techniques for gaining competitive advantage through customer satisfaction.
It is a top-down process and a means to an end, not an end in itself. Features of TQM are:
- It is a management philosophy with a specific focus on the customer.
- It is a set of guiding principles that create the foundation of a continuously improving organization.
- it is the application of quantitative methods and human resources of an organization to improve everything that it does.
- It integrates fundamental management techniques and technical tools under a disciplined approach.
- It emphasizes employee empowerment and teamwork.
The major issues in TQM are discussed in the remainder of this section.
Total Quality Management (TQM) includes;
- Totality– a company-wide effort that includes all employees, suppliers, customers, and technology used to produce products or provide services
- Quality– attributes or features of the products or services that meet or exceed customer expectations.
- Management– The process to ensure the proper utilization of the resources and to ensure the success of the organization.
No universally acceptable standard definition of TQM is available. Hundreds of definitions exist in the numerous TQM literature, offered by different persons and organizations to their own needs and peculiarities.
We would like to present here some definitions given by persons of different statuses in society- academicians, engineers, practicing executives, and management consultants- a few of whom are quality experts in management. And then, we will try to mention our own definition of TQM.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a total approach to putting quality in every management aspect. TQM is an evolving system of practices, tools, and training methods for managing companies to provide customer satisfaction in a rapidly changing world.
TQM is a cooperative form of doing business that relies on the talents and capabilities of both labor and management to improve quality and productivity using teams continually.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a top-down philosophy focused on monitoring process variation, employee involvement, and continuous quality improvement to meet customer needs.
The operative part of total quality is exceeding customer expectations. We hope we will maintain and sustain a competitive advantage through our commitment to exceeding their expectations.
TQM is both a philosophy and a set of guiding principles that represent the foundation of a continuously improving organization.
The key to an effective TQM program is to listen to the voice of the customer. Total quality is a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability at low cost and suited to the market.
TQM is a corporate business management philosophy recognizing that customer needs and business goals are inseparable. It ensures maximum efficiency and effectiveness within a business.
TQM conveys a total, company-wide effort that includes all employees, suppliers, and customers and that seeks continuously to improve the quality of products and processes to meet the needs and expectations of customers.
It is a continuous and top-down process and a means to an end achieved through proper utilization of resources.
TQM as a Management Philosophy
Generally, philosophy refers to an individual or group’s most general beliefs, concepts, and attitudes. TQM is often viewed as a philosophy of management or a guiding set of principles that allows someone to manage better.
Concomitant to this view follows the suggestion that TQM requires the transformation of organizational cultures.
Thus, a sharp difference exists between traditional management philosophy and TQM philosophy (see Table 10.1 for a brief comparison between the two).
Some of the differences are macro, and some are more micro, but all entail a different way of looking at organizations, change, and management-employee relations.
TQM and Traditional Management Practices
Traditional management and TQM are two philosophies. Both are essential for a successful organization. Every organization – large and small, private and public, product-oriented and service-oriented- tries to practice the principles of traditional management willingly or unwillingly.
However, a few organizations are trying to practice the principles of TQM in their own environment. There are some distinguishing features between TQM and Traditional Management approaches.
The following table shows the differences between the Traditional Management Approach and the TQM Approach:
7 key elements constitute the basic underlying philosophy of TQM. These are:
- Quality is a primary organizational goal.
- Quality is determined by an organization’s customers.
- Customer satisfaction drives the organization.
- Variation in processes must be understood and reduced.
- Change is continuous and is accomplished by teams and teamwork.
- Top management commitment is a must to promote a culture of quality, employee empowerment, and long-term perspective.
- Participation of contractors and suppliers in the TQM program.
A Comparison between Traditional Management and TQM
| Traditional Management | TQM (Total Quality Management) |
|---|---|
| Organization has multiple competing goals. | Quality is the primary organizational goal. |
| Financial concerns drive the organization. | Customer satisfaction drives the organization. |
| Management and professionals determine what quality is. | Customers determine what quality is. |
| The focus is on the status quo- “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. | The focus is on continuous improvement. |
| Change is abrupt and is accomplished by champions batting the bureaucracy. | Change is continuous and is accomplished by teamwork. |
| Employees and departments compete with each other. | Employees and departments cooperate with each other. |
| Decisions are based on gut feelings. It is better to do something than to do nothing. | Decisions are based on data and analysis. It is better to do nothing than to do the wrong thing. |
| Employee training is considered a luxury and a cost. | Employee training is considered an essential and an investment. |
| Organizational commitment is primarily top-down. | Organizational communication is top-down, down-up, and sideways. |
| Contractors are encouraged to compete with each other on the basis of price. | Long-term relationships are developed with contractors who deliver quality goods and services. |
History and Evolution of TQM
TQM is no longer thought of as a concept. It is a philosophy. The evolution of TQM is traced to understand the concept. The evolution of TQM, as it has emerged in industries. It started with inspection (INS), followed by quality control (QC), quality assurance (QA), and then total quality management (TQM).
TQM Evolution [Suganthi and Samuel (2006)] The main focuses of each of these stages are :
Inspection
- Identifying non-conformities
- Salvaging
- End of pipe approach
- End justifies means
Quality Control
- Process performance data
- Quality planning
- Statistical tools
- Control instrumentation
Quality Assurance
- Quality manuals
- System certification
- Quality costs
- Documentation
Total Quality Management
- Customer focus
- Employee involvement
- Continuous improvement
- Performance measurement
To understand the importance of quality in business today, we must review some history. The history of quality control dates back to the ‘craft era.’ This era extended from the Stone Age to the 18th and 19th centuries Industrial Revolution.
Before the Industrial Revolution, skilled craftspeople served both as manufacturers and inspectors, building quality into their products through their considerable pride in their workmanship.
Customers expected quality, and craftspeople understood it. They could maintain quality because of their ‘profound knowledge’ of materials and skill in developing processes.
They used the best tools and techniques to work on the materials. Their attitudes toward work and customers were positive. However, the focus gradually shifted to mass production, beginning with the first industrial revolution in Great Britain.
In the USA, Whitney, the cotton gin inventor, introduced in 1787 A.D. the concepts of interchangeable parts and division of labor. These concepts eventually led to statistical methods of control and factory assembly lines, respectively.
The concept of upper and lower tolerance limits for each part (in the production process) was introduced between 1840 A.D. and 1870 A.D. This concept allowed the workers more freedom to do their jobs at a lower cost, staying within the tolerance limits.
The next advancement centered around the development of the concept of ‘inspection of defective parts’ for the prevention (or rejection) of defects.
Around the turn of the 19th century, the ‘statistical sample’ was first used to avoid testing every piece of parts/output. Frederick Winslow Taylor, the “father of Scientific Management”, gave new emphasis to high quality by including product inception, increased productivity and lower cost.
During the early part of the 20th century, the application of statistical quality control became popular mainly because of rapid growth in standardization, the ideological shift from the notion of exactness of science to probability and statistical concepts, and the factory and assembly line systems.
In 1924, Shewhart developed the “control chart” to deal with the issue of variation, which could be used to monitor production.
Emphasis on quality continued in the auto industry in the 1990s when the Saturn automobile ranked first in customer satisfaction (1996).
In addition, ISO 9000 became the worldwide model for a quality management system. ISO 14000 was approved as the worldwide model for environmental management systems. The new millennium brought about increased emphasis on worldwide quality and the Internet.
The history of TQM in Islam is as old as its creation. Allah has created all the creatures up to the best level, and there is no inconsistency. Allah says, “We have certainly created man in the best of stature.”
“You do not see any inconsistency in the creation of the Most Merciful. So turn your vision [to the sky]; do you see any breaks? Then, turn your vision twice again. Your vision will return to you humbled while it is fatigued.”
One of the purposes of the creation of man on earth was to test who was the best in their deeds. As Allah says, “He Who created death and life to test you whom of you is best in deed and He is the exalted in might, the forgiving.”
15 Principles of Total Quality Management (TQM)
Like other philosophies, TQM is also based on some principles prescribed by numerous authors and practitioners. The well-accepted principles of TQM are stated below:
- Customer Focus
- Internal customers
- Strategic Planning and Leadership
- Continuous Improvement
- Competitive Benchmarking
- Employee Empowerment
- Team-work Approach
- Vertical
- Horizontal
- Inter-organizational
- Decisions Based on Facts Rather than Opinions
- Knowledge of Tools
- To Ensure Quality from the Source
- Champion
- Suppliers are the Partners in the Process
Customer Focus
The customer is the judge of quality. Quality systems must address all product and service attributes that provide value to the customer (external and internal) and lead to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Here, the concept of quality includes not only the product and service attributes that meet basic requirements but also those features that enhance the product and differentiate it from competitive offerings.
This is often called the “service bundle” or “service package.” A business can achieve success only by understanding and fulfilling customers’ needs.
Internal customers
The recipients of any work output, such as the next department in a manufacturing process or the order-picker who receives instructions from an order entry clerk- are also crucial to assuring quality for the external customers who purchase the product.
Failure to meet the needs of internal customers will likely affect external customers. Employees must view themselves as customers of some employees and suppliers to others.
Strategic Planning and Leadership
Achieving quality and market leadership requires a long-range strategy. Improvements do not happen overnight. The success of Japanese manufacturers evolved over several decades.
Planning and organizing improvement activities take time and require major commitments on the part of all organization members.
Strategies, plans, and budget allocations must reflect long-term commitments to customers, employees, stockholders, and suppliers. Leadership for quality is the responsibility of top management.
Senior leadership must create clear quality values and high expectations and build them into the way the company operates.
The leaders must take part in the creation of strategies, systems, and methods for achieving excellence.
Through their regular personal involvement in visible activities- such as planning, reviewing company quality performance, serving on improvement teams, and recognizing employees for quality achievement- the senior leaders serve as role models, reinforcing the values and encouraging leadership in all levels of management.
Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is a part of the management of all systems and processes. Achieving the highest levels of quality and competitiveness requires a well-defined and well-executed approach to continuous improvement; such improvement must be part of all company operations and work unit activities.
Improvements may be of several types;
- Enhancing value to the customer through new and improved products and services.
- Reducing errors, defects, and waste.
- Improving responsiveness and cycle time performance.
- Improving productivity and effectiveness in the use of all resources.
Competitive Benchmarking
This involves identifying other organizations that are the best at something and studying how they do it to learn how to improve operations. The company need not be in the same line of business.
Employee Empowerment
Giving workers the responsibility for improvements and the authority to make changes to accomplish them provides strong motivation for employees. This puts decision-making into the hands of those who are closest to the job and have considerable insight into problems and solutions.
Team-work Approach
All functions at all levels of an organization must focus on quality to achieve corporate goals. Teamwork can be viewed in three ways :
Vertical
Teamwork between top management and lower-level employees. Employees are empowered to make decisions that satisfy customers without a lot of bureaucratic hassles, and barriers between levels are removed.
Horizontal
teamwork within work groups and across functional lines (often called cross-functional teams). A product development team might consist of designers, manufacturing personnel, suppliers, sales people, and customers.
Inter-organizational
partnership with suppliers and customers. Rather than dictating specifications for purchased parts, a company might develop specifications jointly with suppliers to take advantage of the suppliers’ manufacturing capabilities.
Decisions Based on Facts Rather than Opinions
Management gathers and analyzes data as a basis for decision-making.
Knowledge of Tools
Employees and managers should be trained in the use of the latest tools and technologies to ensure the quality of their products and services.
To Ensure Quality from the Source
Quality at the source refers to the philosophy of making each worker responsible for the quality of his or her work. This incorporates the notions of “do it right” and “if it isn’t right, fix it”.
Suppliers must be included in quality assurance and quality improvement efforts so that their processes are capable of delivering quality parts and materials in a timely manner.
Workers are expected to provide goods or services that meet specifications and to find and correct mistakes that occur. In effect, each worker becomes a quality inspector for his or her work.
Champion
A TQM champion’s job is to promote the value and importance of TQM principles throughout the company.
Suppliers are the Partners in the Process
Long-term relationships with suppliers are encouraged. This gives suppliers a vital stake in providing quality goods and services. Suppliers, too, are expected to provide quality at the source, thereby reducing or eliminating the need to inspect deliveries from suppliers.
Top-Down Process
TQM must have, in order to be successful, a top-down orientation. That is, the top management of the organization must have a spontaneous commitment to turn their organization into a TQM one, and accordingly, their efforts need to flow down.
Continuous Quality Improvement and Total Quality Management
Good is not good enough; there is always a scope to be better – keeping this adage in mind, TQM entails continuous quality improvement. Anything can be improved, always. TQM is not a one-shot activity; it is continuous, it keeps ongoing, it never stops it is an unending process.
With a long-term focus, quality improvement becomes an everyday activity; in order to strengthen competitive advantage in the market, organizations must endeavor to continuously improve the quality of products and services, which results in cost-savings and an increase in market share because of a reputation for having a quality product or service.
Continuous quality improvement is interlinked, in most cases, with continuous process improvement (CPI).
It recognizes that substantial gains can be achieved by accumulating many seemingly minor improvements whose synergies yield tremendous gains over the long run. Jablonski cites an example of CPI from his own experience.
When he first went to work for the government, it took about six weeks to process a travel claim. Through a series of CPI, substantial improvements occurred – the six-week cycle time was reduced to two weeks.
Continuous improvement is an ongoing program of improving the quality, costs, and lead time of processes and products through the cooperative efforts of all concerned.
According to Oakland (1993), the search for continuous improvement in the products and processes is another feature of Total Quality. As defined by Sanchez and Perez (2001), continuous improvement requires all levels of employee involvement and support of management.
This process relates to the ‘Jidoka’ concept, which states that since people are not working for the machine, they can use their best judgment to improve the process. This concept is often referred to as Kaizen used by the Japanese.
‘This philosophy implies that small, incremental changes routinely applied and sustained over a long period results in significant improvements.’ In his book, Imai (1986) emphasized that the key to Japan’s competitive success in the face of fierce global competition is the adoption of ‘kaizen’ in the firms.
He focused on the kaizen management practices that can be put to work for the improvement of processes. According to him, Kaizen is a vital approach to problem-solving. However, its application requires a change in the corporate culture.
One of the fundamental elements in the organizational success of TQM is continuous improvement. ‘Good is not good enough; there is always a scope to be better’ – keeping this adage in mind, TQM entails continuous quality improvement.
Anything can always be improved. TQM is not a one-shot activity; it is continuous, keeps on going, never stops, and is an unending process. With a longterm focus, quality improvement becomes an everyday activity. To strengthen competitive advantage in the market, organizations must endeavor to continuously improve the quality of products and services, which results in cost-savings and an increase in market share because of a reputation for having a quality product or service.
One underlying tenets of TQM is that change is constant, in contrast to traditional management theory, which ‘tends to view change as being radical in nature and occurring in quantum leaps.’ TQM makes no allowance for ‘cowboy’ management. Change in TQM tends to be slow but successful in the end.
In most cases, continuous quality improvement is interlinked with ‘continuous process improvement’ (CPI). It recognizes that substantial gains can be achieved by accumulating many seemingly minor improvements whose synergies yield tremendous gains over the long run.
Jablonski cites an example of CPI from his own experience. When he first went to work for the government, it took about six weeks to process a travel claim. Substantial improvements occurred through a series of CPIs; the six-week cycle time was reduced to two weeks.
Approaches to Total Quality
Quality has become extremely important because customers expect lower prices and worldwide competition has made organizations aware of the need to improve their products and services. This led organizations to realize survival and success largely depend on competitive goods and services.
Consequently, companies place special concentration on continuously improving quality and productivity. The companies dominating markets in the present century can deliver products and services at a competitively lower price but with premium quality.
In response to customer demand and immense competition, a change has occurred in the basic philosophies regarding quality management over time. This change focuses on five areas:
Quality is a religion that means a commitment to the organization and quality itself. Quality is imperative, which indicates cheaper, faster, better, and zero defects.
Quality calls for new ways, which means passing up the bureaucracy and emphasizing modern ways that depend on quality. The idea is that every employee will be his or her own quality inspector and designer of improvement.
Quality is customer-focused, which considers the customers’ requirements as a driving force of the organization. Internal customers will get a similar importance as external customers. Quality is continuous, which focuses on quality as an ongoing process.
From the above discussion, we can conclude that the new quality management practices require top management commitment to promote a culture of quality, zero defects, employee empowerment, customer-driven quality, and continuous quality improvement mechanisms.
In the process of change in quality management practices, it is “argued that concentration is required on improving the system to make it error-free.
So, it is imperative to integrate both system and human components to ensure the quality of products and services. This led to the development of total quality management, where human and system components are given due importance.
Propositions of quality gurus like Deming, Juran, and Crosby are the foundation for understanding the concept of TQM. They are largely responsible for the global adoption and integration of quality assurance and control in industry.
Following is a sketch of the contributions of those early contributors who are recognized as unique and creative. The following section presents the main principles and practices of TQM proposed by the quality gurus.
Participative Management and Employee Empowerment
TQM encompasses participative management in that it involves employees of all categories from all functions of the organization in decision-making, beginning from goal setting to problem-solving to putting things to work.
Participative management paves the way for the employees to actively and directly take part in decision making, and thus, it tends to create in themselves job involvement and organizational commitment.
We are interested here in the awareness of employee involvement in making TQM successful and not about its rationale and benefits that have been well documented elsewhere.
Although participative management may take many forms, ‘self-directed work team’ -seems to be the most appropriate form for TQM implementation.
Quality circle (QC), which is a bottom-up approach in Japan, Works Council in France, Codetermination in Germany, Joint Consultation in the UK and the Scandinavian countries or Board Representation in India, all of these forms of participative management do not.
In reality, allow all employees to involve themselves directly in all kinds of decision making in their organizations and therefore any of these are not suitable for TQM in the USA, for example, QCs have been largely unsuccessful.
Participative management does not occur in a day or two. It is an evolutionary process, adequate time is needed for its development and spreading throughput the origination, especially at the lower echelons Management needs to shoulder the responsibility for building an environment of participation.
Managers must be willing to support all kinds of employee involvement efforts, or else the program would fail.
Unless employee involvement focuses directly on making the organization more competitive in the marketplace, it will wither and not reach its potential. It cannot be thought of as a separate activity from regular daily work or from the competitiveness of the life company.
In addition, employees need to be imbued with the feeling of being supported by the reality that they are their own managers and are able to exert the necessary influence over their surroundings by exercising the power of making decisions and implementing actions without relying on or relaying directions from someone more remote.
Monitoring Process Variation
Monitoring and controlling of process variation is an important element of TQM. Variation in a process a series of actions or operations that lead to a particular result – occurs when there is a deviation from standards/ specifications, which invariably affects the reliability and quality of products or services.
Unless the variations in the processes and systems are controlled through regular monitoring, attempts to maintain reliability and quality would be jeopardized.
Therefore, it is imperative to first clearly understand the nature of causes of variation in the processes and, then, to undertake measures to reduce and, where possible eliminate variation.
TQM experts agree that process variation is a natural phenomenon and can never be eliminated.
This is mainly because ‘systems problems’ or common causes of variation inherent in the processes always exist, accounting for 85% of the variation in most processes, which are beyond the ability of employees to control.
Only special causes can be controlled as because they affect from outside the system and they are caused by employees.
Monitoring and controlling of process variation applies to both manufacturing and non-manufacturing areas. Managers may follow five steps for this purpose:
- Identify products (hardware) and services (software) to be offered to customers.
- Specify who is external (outside the company) and internal (inside the company) customers.
- Identify the required quality for securing improved’ customer satisfaction.
- Find ways and means to realize the required quality.
- Confirm and evaluate the results of executing action plans.
Quality-Supportive Culture
A culture supportive of TQM is sine-quo-non for the successful implementation of TQM. Organizations have to be free from cultural impediments or, so to say, organizational inertia.
It means that TQM demands a quality culture of values, traditions, procedures, and expectations promoting quality. The following characteristics are common in organizations with quality culture:
- Behavior matches slogans.
- Customer input is actively sought and used to continually improve.
- Employees are both involved and empowered.
- Work is done in teams.
- Executive-led managers are both committed and involved; responsibility for quality is not delegated.
- Sufficient resources are made available where and when they are needed to ensure the continuous improvement of quality.
- Education and training are provided to ensure that employees ar all levels have the knowledge and skills needed to continuously improve quality.
- Reward and promotion systems are based on contributions to the continual improvement of quality.
- Fellow employees are viewed as internal customers.
- Suppliers are treated as partners.
Since we believe that a fundamental transformation of organizational culture is absolutely necessary for the fruitful implementation of TQM as a philosophy of management, we will extensively deal with this issue in a separate chapter.
Customer Satisfaction and TQM
The customer remains the focal point in TQM. The focus is not only on ‘external customers, such as those who buy products and services but also on internal customers, i.e., those inside the organization who use the outputs of other colleagues.
As regards external customers, it is important to know in what way they contribute to the organization and what their expectations are.
Similarly, because of the relationship inside the organization, between people and departments, an understanding of the needs of the relationship between internal customers is crucial to TQM implementation.
Dissatisfaction among the internal customers for any reason whatsoever, maybe it is due to raw materials, inefficient handling of things in one department, delay by one department to pass on important information on time to another department related to the process, or any other matter that affects the activities of colleagues in the organization has a bearing on the quality of products or services, thereby affecting the satisfaction of external customers on whom depends profitability.
TQM emphasizes that organizations exceed customers’ expectations, not only meeting the satisfaction of external customers or buyers of products and services and propagating ‘customer obsession.’
Customers buy not a product but a ‘total experience’ (anything the company offers with the basic product or service such as booklet, instructions, packaging or wrapping, etc.) If any part of the offering is wanting, the company would be considered as not having quality.’
Total Quality Tools and Techniques
Beginning from the design phase through product production, a few statistical tools need to be employed.
These are total quality tools. In the words of Goetsch and Davis, ‘they are not wood and steel to be used with muscle; they are tools for collecting and displaying information in ways to help the human brain grasp thoughts and ideas that, when applied to physical processes, cause the processes to yield better results.”
The tools facilitate the visual display of information and can be used to identify the causes of work-process problems.
However, a warning signal is often raised about too much emphasis on using these tools for TQM-related activities, which might lead to the failure of TQM efforts.
The apprehension is that ‘they can act as blinders and prevent people from seeing and dealing with the far more important elements of TQM, customers, and culture.’
Despite all these arguments, we believe that tools are important, and they need to be used for facilitating human rational thinking in solving problems that occur in the work processes.
The common tools available for TQM are Control Charts, Pareto Charts, Fishbone Diagrams, Run Charts, Histograms, Scatter Diagrams, Flow Charts, Check Sheets, Stratification, and Design of Experiments.
Similarly, widely used TQM techniques are Benchmarking, Business Process Reengineering, Statistical Process Control, etc.
Available research evidence indicates that over 95 percent of manufacturing companies and 70 percent of service companies in the USA have used TQM in some form.
Also, 55% of US executives and 70% of Japanese executives used quality improvement information for the assessment of business performance.
It is often claimed that Japanese companies have achieved global prominence in producing world-class products because of the adoption of TQM practices.
Both reengineering and TQM are important tools for implementing strategy effectively.
Strategy implementation becomes easier when all employees from top to bottom adopt them as a way of everyday life. Both aim at improved efficiency, reduced cost, better product quality, and greater customer satisfaction.
Quality Planning
The road to a quality organization is paved with the commitment of management.
It is the responsibility of managers to understand the quality tools and techniques that enable a company to achieve its targets.
Any systematic attempt to manage quality, whether in manufacturing or service activity, must rely upon statistical procedures to make decisions and enable a deep understanding of customer needs.
Statistics provide ways to observe facts, record them, manipulate and analyze data, then hypothesize and improve our decision-making.
Tools for Quality Planning
Customers buy not just a product but a total experience. Some statistical tools need to be employed to develop a product.
These are known as total quality tools because they facilitate the entire process, which begins with the design phase and ends with a final product.
Any process is always subject to random disturbances. These disturbances could cause a large deviation of the process performance from the desired results. The tools facilitate the visual display of information and can be used to identify the causes of work-process problems.
This section deals with a number of tools used in quality planning, such as Quality Function Deployment, Concurrent Engineering, and the Seven Management Tools.
Importance of Leadership vs. Quality of Organization
A leader is a person who leads the organization, individuals, or groups to accomplish the tasks and/or achieve the goals smoothly, effectively, and efficiently. Leadership is the style or process through which the leader leads the organization or others.
Leadership in Islam is a responsibility and a trust that leaders feel when they deal with their followers. It is considered as a part of worshiping Allah (SWT).
Leadership is very fundamental to management and organization development. In Islam, leadership serves the members of the organization, the community, and the society at large, directing and guiding people to what is good in this world and the life Hereafter.
If leadership is not excellent, the organization rarely can improve the quality. You can say that appropriate leadership is the prerequisite to a quality-oriented organization.
If all is right but leadership is not quality-oriented, the organization can’t satisfy its customers with better-quality products.
To be a quality-oriented organization, the company must be very strategic and tactic.
If the leaders cannot make strategic decisions and take such tactics to implement the decisions, the organization can not improve in a better way. Only because of leadership is Microsoft now in the leading position; the status and condition of Malaysia are now at this stage.
Only because of leadership were Muslims once able to capture and need half of the then-known world. And also, only for poor leadership did they lose it.
Once the organization leads the industry, it fails only because of poor leadership. Organizations that have quality leadership styles remain as leaders and continuously go for improvement. Thus, to be a quality-oriented organization, it must have a quality leadership.
Criteria to Maintain Standard in TQM
Like other philosophies, TQM is also based on some principles that are introduced by numerous authors and practitioners. The well-accepted principles of TQM are stated below. If the TQ organizations can follow these principles, they can easily maintain their ethics.
Customer Focus
The customer is the judge of quality. Quality systems must address all product and service attributes that provide value to the customer (external and internal) and lead to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Here, the concept of quality includes not only the product and service attributes that meet basic requirements but also those features that enhance the product and differentiate it from competing offerings. This is often referred to as the “service bundle” or “service package.” A business can achieve success only by understanding and fulfilling the needs of customers.
Internal customers – the recipients of any work output, such as the next department in a manufacturing process or the order-picker who receives instructions from an order entry clerk – are also crucial to assuring quality for the external customers who purchase the product.
Failure to meet the needs of internal customers will likely affect external customers. Employees must view themselves as customers of some employees and suppliers to others.
Strategic Planning and Leadership
Achieving quality and market leadership requires a long-range strategy. Improvements do not happen overnight. The success of Japanese manufacturers evolved over several decades.
Planning and organizing improvement activities take time and require major commitments on the part of all organization members.
Strategies, plans, and budget allocations need to reflect long-term commitments to customers, employees, stockholders, and suppliers. Leadership for quality is the responsibility of top management. Senior leadership must create clear quality values and high expectations and build them into the way the company operates.
The leaders must take part in the creation of strategies, systems, and methods for achieving excellence. Through their regular personal involvement in visible activities – such as planning, reviewing company quality performance, serving on improvement teams, and recognizing employees for quality achievement – the senior leaders serve as role models, reinforcing the values and encouraging leadership in all levels of management.
Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is a part of the management of all systems and processes.
Achieving the highest levels of quality and competitiveness requires a well-defined and well-executed approach to continuous improvement. Such improvement needs to be part of all operations and all work unit activities in a company. Improvements may be of several types:
- Enhancing value to the customer through new and improved products and services;
- Reducing errors, defects, and waste;
- Improving responsiveness and cycle time performance; and
- Improving productivity and effectiveness in the use of all resources.
Competitive Benchmarking
This involves identifying other organizations that are the best at something and studying how they do it to learn how to improve your operation. The company need not be in the same line of business.
Employee Empowerment
Giving workers the responsibility for improvements and the authority to make changes to accomplish them provides strong motivation for employees.
This puts decision-making into the hands of those who are closest to the job and have considerable insight into problems and solutions.
Teamwork Approach
All functions at all levels of an organization must focus on quality to achieve corporate goals. Teamwork can be viewed in three ways:
- Vertical: Teamwork between top management and lower-level employees. Employees are empowered to make decisions that satisfy customers without a lot of bureaucratic hassles, and barriers between levels are removed.
- Horizontal: Teamwork within work groups and across functional lines (often called cross-functional teams). A product development team might consist of designers, manufacturing personnel, suppliers, salespeople, and customers.
- Inter-organizational: Partnership with suppliers and customers. Rather than dictating specifications for purchased parts, a company might develop specifications jointly with suppliers to take advantage of the suppliers’ manufacturing capabilities.
Decisions Based on Facts Rather than Opinions: Management gathers and analyzes data as a basis for decision-making.
Knowledge of Tools
Employees and managers should be trained in the use of the latest tools and technologies to ensure the quality of their products and services.
Quality from the Source
Quality at the source refers to the philosophy of making each worker responsible for the quality of his or her work. This incorporates the notions of “do it right” and “if it isn’t right, fix it.”
Suppliers must be included in quality assurance and quality improvement efforts so that their processes can deliver quality parts and materials promptly.
Workers are expected to provide goods or services that meet specifications and to find and correct mistakes that occur. In effect, each worker becomes a quality inspector for his or her work.
TQM Champion
A TQM champion’s job is to promote the value and importance of TQM principles throughout the company.
Suppliers as Partners in the Process
Long-term relationships with suppliers are encouraged. This gives suppliers a vital stake in providing quality goods and services. Suppliers, too, are expected to provide quality at the source, thereby reducing or eliminating the need to inspect deliveries from suppliers.
Conclusion
Characteristics of a product/service that can meet and exceed customer expectations- are now considered an essential element for any organization, either large or small.
Through the determinants- design, quality of conformance, ease of use, and service after delivery- an organization can easily know about the quality of their product.
There are some dimensions of product quality;
- Performance,
- Aesthetics,
- Special features,
- Conformance,
- Reliability,
- Durability,
- Perceived quality,
- Serviceability,
- some dimensions of service quality,
- Tangibles,
- Convenience,
- Reliability,
- Responsiveness,
- Timeliness,
- Time,
- Completeness,
- Consistency,
- Assurance, and
- Courtesy.
After a long journey, the TQM managerial approach to ensuring quality everywhere within an organization has evolved. Most organizations try to implement TQM. Customer focus, strategic planning, and continuous improvement are the key elements of TQM.
In Islam, quality is essential for everything to be accepted by Allah.
Here, quality refers to the best possible to be performed by the doer, continuously increasing the degree.
In the case of the principles of TQM, Islam first emphasizes the intention of the doers, which is their eternal demand. Based on this intention, Allah will judge and reward every outcome.
To survive in the globally competitive market, every organization is bound to maintain quality in their operations, and customers are getting more standard products that can meet their demands with maximum satisfaction.
Quality has become extremely important because customers expect lower prices and worldwide competition has made organizations aware of the need to improve their products and services.
W. Edwards Deming, a Western statistician, contributes to Total Quality Management.
The theoretical essence of the Deming approach to TQM concerns the creation of an organizational system that fosters cooperation and learning for facilitating the implementation of processes and management practices, which, in turn, leads to continuous improvement of processes, products, and services as well as to employee fulfillment, both of which are critical to customer satisfaction, and ultimately, to a firm’s survival.
According to him, it is the responsibility of the top management to take the lead in changing processes and systems.
According to Juran, TQM is the system of activities directed at achieving delighted customers, empowered employees, higher revenues, and lower costs; Juran believed that the main quality problems are due to management rather than workers.
The attainment of quality requires activities in all functions of a firm. Firm-wide quality assessment, supplier quality management, statistical methods, quality information systems, and competitive benchmarking are essential to quality improvement.
Juran’s approach emphasizes on team (QC circles and serf-managing teams) and project work, which can promote quality improvement, improve communication between management and employees coordination, and improve coordination between employees.
He also emphasized the importance of top management commitment and empowerment, participation, recognition, and rewards.
Crosby identified several important principles and practices for a successful quality improvement program, which include, for example, management participation, management responsibility for quality, employee recognition, education, reduction of the cost of quality (prevention costs, appraisal costs, and failure costs), emphasis on prevention rather than after-the-event inspection, doing things right the first time, and zero defects.
Crosby claimed that two reasons cause mistakes: Lack of knowledge and attention. Education and training can eliminate the first cause, and a personal commitment to excellence (zero defects) and attention to detail will cure the second. Crosby also stressed the importance of management style to successful quality improvement.
Feigenbaum advocates a total approach to quality. He views that everybody in the organization should be involved in the process and emphasizes quality-mindedness in each employee from the top to the bottom of the organization.
His contribution to propagating the necessity of the ’employee empowerment and involvement’ concept is worth remembering.
Ishikawa urged managers to resist becoming content with improving product quality, insisting that quality improvement can always go one step further.
His cause and effect diagram (‘fishbone’ diagram) to his management leader made significant and specific advancements in quality improvement.
Shingo believed that ‘statistical methods detect errors too late in the manufacturing process’ and suggested that it was better to use preventive measures to eliminate error sources instead of detecting errors.
His approach is known as ‘Poka-Yoke’ (defected). Poka- Yoke is a Japanese term that means ‘mistake proofing.’
Source inspection is employed actively to identify process errors before they become defects; when an identification occurs, the process is stopped until the cause is determined and eliminated.
Poka-Yoke advocates that suitable modifications, including components, equipment, etc., are to be made in the process to avoid mistakes.
After the approaches to TQM of the quality experts have been reviewed, it has become apparent that each has his own unique approach.
However, the principles and practices of TQM proposed by these quality gurus do provide a better understanding of the concept of TQM. Although their approaches to TQM are not totally the same, in some points, they are common to each other, which are summarized as follows:
- It is the responsibility of management to provide commitment, leadership, empowerment, encouragement, and appropriate support to technical and human processes. Top management is largely responsible for determining the environment and framework of operations within a firm. Management must foster the participation of the employees in quality improvement and develop a quality culture by changing perceptions and attitudes toward quality.
- The strategy, policy, and firm-wide evaluation activities are emphasized.
- Employee education and training are important in changing employees’ beliefs, behavior, and attitudes, as well as enhancing employees’ abilities in carrying out their duties.
- Employees should be acknowledged and rewarded for their quality improvement efforts.
- It is essential to control the processes and improve the quality system and product design. The emphasis is on prevention of product defects, not inspection after the event.
- All functional activities, such as marketing, design, engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, inspection, shipping, accounting, installation, and service, should be involved in quality improvement efforts. From suppliers to customers, quality is used as a logical firm-wide activity.