CHAPTER 3:

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

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TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

• Total quality management (TQM) is a

process that seeks continuous
improvements in the quality
performance of all processes, products
and services in organizations.
• It involves the whole organization and is
customer-driven

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 TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

• Customer focus
• Participation and Teamwork
• Continuous Improvement
• Process Focus
• Training and Education

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CUSTOMER FOCUS
• Customer driven, based on customers needs and wants,
consumer demand changes
• Organization’s primary goal is to meet or exceed customer
expectations – customer lasting values
• Company must focus on its own processes, products,
services that lead to customer satisfaction
• Internal & external customers
• Must be close to customer, know what they want, how they
use the product/service, obtain customer feedbacks
• Recognize the importance of internal customers in assuring
quality in work processes

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 CUSTOMER FOCUS

 Understand all product and service attributes  customer

value  satisfaction  loyalty
• How?
• Meet specifications
• Reduce defects and errors
• Resolve complaints
• Design new products – delighting the customers
• Respond to consumer changes and market demand
• Continually enhance customer relationship
• Internal customers relationship as customer of and
suppliers to other employees
• Knowledge, skills, creativity and motivation  success
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CUSTOMER FOCUS
• Commitment to employees, provide opportunities for
development and growth, provide recognition, share
knowledge and encourage risk taking  employees
• Business ethics, public health and safety,
environment, community and professional support 
society

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PARTICIPATION & TEAMWORK
• Participation individually or in teams,
• Employees’ participation  Better quality products and
production process (contribution to quality)
• Empowering employees to make decisions – the highest
level of trust – given freedom and encouragement to make
quality contributions
• Teamwork focuses attention on customer-supplier
relationship and encourages the involvement of the total
workforce in attacking systemic problem
• E.g. Quality Circles, Self-managed teams

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PARTICIPATION & TEAMWORK
• Coordination between organizational units  Cross
functional teams
• Teamwork also include partnerships with unions,
customers, suppliers and education organization
• Suggestion system, rewards for ideas

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CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
• Continuous Improvement – incremental improvements that
are small and gradual and breakthrough or large and rapid
improvement
• Forms of improvement:
• Enhancing value to the customer through new and improved
products and services
• Reducing errors, defects, waste and their related costs
• Increasing productivity and effectiveness in the use of all
resources
• Improving responsiveness and cycle time performance for such
processes as resolving customer complaints or new product
introduction

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CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
• Improvement requires significant simplification of work
process and simultaneous improvements in quality and
productivity
• It is a fundamental success in global marketplace
• Two types of improvement:
• Incremental improvement involves small, gradual improvement.
Examples of tools that can be used for incremental improvement
are reverse engineering, competitive analysis, problem solving
and comparative analysis
• Breakthrough improvement is about major, drastic and quantum
improvement. Example of tools that can be used for breakthrough
improvement are benchmarking, process reengineering and
organizational design

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CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
• Essential improvement activities include:
• Maintain Communication. Communication within improvement
teams and between teams is a must. It is important to share
information before, during and after attempting to make
improvements. All people involved should know what is being
done, why and how it might affect them.
• Correct Obvious Problems. Process problems should be
corrected immediately. Study the problem and use scientific
approach to solve it.
• Look Upstream. Look for causes, not symptoms
• Document Problems and Progress. Take the time to write it
down. Documentation is important.

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CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
• Essential improvement activities include:
• Monitor Changes. Monitor the performance of a process after
changes have been implemented. It is important to ensure that
pride of ownership on the part of those recommended the
changes does not interfere with objective monitoring of the
changes.
• Learning is to understand why changes are successful
through feedback between practices and result which
leads to new goals and approaches
• It can be improved by teaching all employees good study
skills before putting them in a training program and by
using humor to improve teaching in company-sponsored
training programs

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PROCESS FOCUS
• Process – a sequence of activities that is intended to achieve some
results
• “Process is how work creates value for customers” – AT&T
• The transformation of a set of inputs which can include actions,
methods and operations, into outputs that satisfy customer needs
and expectations in the form of products, information, services or
generally results
• Every major activity within an organization involves a process that
crosses traditional organizational boundaries
• A process perspective links all necessary activities together and
increases one’s understanding of the entire system
• By understanding this concept, it is much easier to carry out
continuous improvement initiatives

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TRAINING & EDUCATION
• A fundamental to TQ because they represent the best
way to improve people on continual basis
• Provide continual education and training to workers so
as to develop skills, knowledge and motivation to do
the work
• To foster enthusiasm and interest in supporting and
implementing quality programs

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IMPLEMENTATION OF TQM IN ORGANIZATIONS
Rational for change:-
 Bound to a short-term focus
 Traditional approach tends to be arrogant rather than
customer focused
 Seriously underestimate the potential contribution of
employees, particularly those in hands-on functions
 The traditional approach equates better quality with higher
cost
 The traditional approach is short on leadership and long on
“bossmanship”

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IMPLEMENTATION OF TQM IN ORGANIZATIONS

Requirement for implementation:

 Commitment by Top Management
 Commitment of Resources
 Organization-wide Steering Committee
Implementation Phases:
 Phase 1: Preparation
 Phase 2: Planning
 Phase 3: Execution

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IMPLEMENTATION PHASES
Phase 1: Preparation
1. Commitment to TQM
2. Formation of TQ Steering Committee
3. Steering Committee Team Building
4. Steering Committee TQ Training
5. Creation of the vision statement & guiding principles
6. Establishment of broad (strategic) objectives
7. Communication and publicity
8. Identification of organizational strengths & weaknesses
9. Identification of advocates and resisters
10. Baseline employee satisfaction/attitudes
11. Baseline customer satisfaction

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IMPLEMENTATION PHASES
Phase 2: Planning
1. Plan the implementation approach – then use PDCA cycle
2. Identification of projects
3. Establish team composition
4. Provide team training

Phase 3: Execution
1. Team activation & direction (use PDCA cycle)
2. Team feedback loop to the steering committee
3. Customer satisfaction feedback loop
4. Employee satisfaction feedback loop
5. Modify infrastructure as necessary

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COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF TQM

• Competitive advantage denotes a firm’s ability to achieve

market superiority. A competitive advantage provides
above average performance of a firm
• SC Wheelbright identified 6 characteristics of competitive
advantage
• Driven by customers needs and wants and providing value to
customers that competitors do not
• Makes a significant contribution to the success of business
• Good strategy and using organization resources with
opportunities in the environment
• Durable and lasting, difficult for competitors to replicate
• Basis for further continual improvement
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CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING TQM

 Lack of employee commitment

 Lack of constancy of purpose
• Problems in identifying customer needs
• Autocratic style of leadership

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OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES OF
IMPLEMENTATION

• The process of implementation must begin by creating a set of feelings and attitudes that
lead to lasting values and organizational commitment
• Develop a long-term TQ strategy in planning

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BARRIERS TO TQM IMPLEMENTATION

• Lack of proper training

• Inadequate resources
• Lack of customer focus
• Lack of management commitment

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