Total Quality Management (TQM): A Management Essay To Maximize Output And Quality.

Operations Management 
1. Product Design

2. Service Design

3. Supply Chains

4. Telecommunications Networks

5. Equipment Selection

6. Production Scheduling and Control

7. Inventory Management

8. Quality Control and Inspection

9.. Traffic and Materials Handling

10. Equipment Maintenance Policies

11. Managing Resources

12. Just In Time

13. Business Process Management

14. Project Management

15. Demand Management

16. Design and Layout of Factory

17. Health and Safety

18. Environmental Issues

19. Operational Performance Management

20. Operational Plan

21. Operational Excellence

22. Operational Effectiveness

23. Operational Decision Making

24. Operations Strategy

25. Operations Metrics

26. Operations Risk

27. Operations Audits

28. Material Requirement Planning

29. Balanced Scorecard

30. TQM

31. 7S s (Workplace Organization)

32. Lean Manufacturing

33. Competitiveness 

Principles of Total Quality Management

The objective of the business organization in general is to increase the business and to gain profit. With the change in time and perspective of the entrepreneurs the objective has shifted from just being focused on profit to other aspects like society and environment as well. But all the aspects on the long run depend on the amount of profit that the company has gathered at the need of a financial year. In order to improve the process of operation there are several methods that can be implemented by the management of the organization (Dale 2015). Based on the scale and nature of the business the operational methods are chosen to maximize the output of the company and also maintain the quality of the product or services provided.

There are several factors that are associated with the increase in the productivity of the company and also effectively use the resources that are available to the company. The end consumers of the product or service are regarded as the most important stakeholder of the company and the objective of a company should be focused on meeting or exceeding the expectation of the consumer. The theory that is going to be discussed in this assignment is Total Quality Management (TQM) ((Siva et al. 2016). This is an approach that helps business organization to manage the output and the quality of the output by giving preference to the consumers and their needs before any other aspect (Jiménez-Jiménez et al. 2015).

The quality guarantees measures that were created and incorporated during First World War from the bases of the TQM approach. This approach is said to have been adopted by a theory that was developed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming known as Statistical Quality Control (SQC). This approach gained popularity among the Japanese during the time period of 1970s the effectiveness of the theory was recognized by the companies over the years and successfully implemented. Companies like Phillips Semiconductor, Ford Motor Company, SGL Carbon, Toyota Motor Company and Motorola etc have effectively incorporated the approach in the operations process of the organization (Goetsch and Davis 2014).

The management approach that is focused on  integrating the functions of a business organization such as marketing, finance, design, engineering, and production, customer service, etc. to achieving the expectation of the customers or outdoing it. This approach is dynamic in nature and has to be maintained with the same integrity throughout and make it a part of the operation (Benavides-Velasco et al. 2014). TQM approach was initially employed in the manufacturing businesses only, but over the years this approach has garnered popularity and recognition as a general management instrument that is applicable and adoptable irrespective of the industry or the sector. Though there are some principles associated. In the current business environment this approach has been molded and aligned with the nature and objective of the organization to implement it effectively (Pimentel and Major 2016). This theory does not only approaches to bring changes in the manufacturing or production process of the company it seeks to bring an overall alteration in the system including management, quality control, monitoring process, development of the employees as well as customer services to improve the efficiency of the company. Total quality management process is implemented by a company keeping in mind the requirements of the customer (Dale 2015).

Factors Affecting TQM Implementation

As stated above the idea of total quality management is to gain customer satisfaction, reduce the cost of production and to foster team effort this process and ensures increased on investment as well. The principles on which this theory is based on are as follows:

Importance of the customer:   The position of the customer in the theory is the most imperative the quality of the product or service is ultimately determined by the end customer (Pimentel, L. and Major, M., 2016).  Whether a customer is going to be using this product or service again depends on the way he or she feels about this product. If the response is positive the customer has a potential to become a loyal consumer and can also advocate for the product or service to others as well. The objective of the theory is to provide the customers with premium quality products at the most reasonable price (Muruganantham et al. 2016).

Employee development: For a company the employees are a significant stakeholder, more like the backbone of the company. The employees are responsible to see to the smooth operation of the business on a daily basis. Hence it is important for the organisation to constantly support the employees to develop skills and performance which will in turn help the efficiency of the organisation to perform better. Aachieving goals and business objectives will be easy for an organization that have committed employees in order to ensure their commitment job satisfaction is necessary it is also import to have active participation from the employees in decision making process as they are mostly responsible for the operations of the business to run the issues in the process will be better understood by the employees (Benavides-Velasco et al. 2014). 

Process focus: the steps involved in the process of manufacturing or producing a product and services starts from the suppliers and ends with the output. It is very important for the company to have each of these steps clearly defined and monitored continuously in order to keep up the quality and to look for opportunities of improvement. In order to meet the requirements of the customers and to exceed expectations a continuous process of improvement is required this also involved opting for new and improved technology and innovation in the process of production and management (Muruganantham et al. 2016).

Integrated process: In a business organization there are several departments like finance, administration, manufacturing etc which are organized in vertical structure departments. In the process of implementing the TQM approach the focus is on the horizontal processes interconnecting that are related to the functions of operation (Dale 2015).

Tools and Techniques Used in TQM

Strategic management: for a business organization to excel and to overcome the requirements and expectations of the customers it is very important that the company follows a planned and organized management system. This would help a company meet the goals and objectives. A strategic plan is necessary to guarantee that the quality develops and becomes the most important aspect of a business operation ((Doeleman et al. 2014).

Decision making: this theory focuses on decision making of the company on the basis of facts and figures that are researched from relevant sources. This process ensures that whatever improvement decisions are formulated by the management are based on rational and logical reasoning which in turn assures better and improved quality of product or service (Siva et al. 2016).

Improvement on a continuous basis: the process of betterment and development should happen in a continuous basis so that the company can be both analytical and creative in finding measures to become a performance oriented consumer centric company (Goetsch and Davis 2014).

Communication: the process of communication is imperative on the daily lives of a person and a key to the success of a company is effective communication. This ensures sending a message to the right person at the right time and getting the right feedback maintaining the relevancy. To make sure that the quality of the process of operation in the business are working perfectly the company has to improve the communication skills internally or externally (Bon and Mustafa 2013).  

Based on the principles that has been discussed above the factors that affect the implementation of total quality management can be derived as: organizational structure, process factors, type of employees, management structure, shared values, industrial relations and number of employees. While developing the steps to incorporate the total quality management approaches in the business the companies should pay attention to these aspects and provide these factors with clear guidelines to showcase the impact these facts will have on the implementation of TQM (Jiménez-Jiménez et al. 2015).

Some of the most common tools and techniques that are used by organization to implement the process of TQM are: Benchmarking, training and skill development, ISO 9000, ISO 14000, statistical process control (SPC), design of experiments, reliability, acceptance sampling, Taguchi’s quality engineering, failure mode and effect analysis, total productive maintenance, management and planning tools, quality by design. There are more new and innovative tools being developed depending upon the industry of operation and the sale of operation (Pimentel and Major 2016).

Plan-Do-Study-Action (PDSA)

PDSA(Plan-Do-Study-Action):

This is one the most popular tools that are used in the implementation of TQM. The process makes sure that the planning of the quality control is a change for improvement and this change is on a continuous basis. The products and services offered by the organization according to this cycle show follow a path which starts form planning followed by performing measures which are necessary for the betterment of the output and then studying the results to analyze and determining the achievements, understand the opportunities, rectify the mistakes and control the issues.  Lastly after analysis it is important to act according to the feedbacks and incorporating them in the process to keep the improvement cycle going (Pimentel and Major 2016).

The success of the implementation of the TQM approach is depend in the fact that the point of initiation should be from the top level of management. A change in the culture of the organization will ensure the beginning of the implementation process as the change will be regarding the perspective of quality among the operation of the business. Proper audit measure should be taken by the company to make sure that the process of implementation of the approach is going as planned (Chang 2016).

Incorporating the TQM approach in the system of operation will ensure that the company has a valuable relationship with the customers along with enhancing the value of other shareholders and stakeholders (Doeleman et al. 2014). Apart from this there are several other benefits of employing this approach such as:

• Building a strong presence in the competitive market
• Improving the productivity of the operations in turn increasing the efficiency of the company (Chang 2016).
• Implementing this approach makes the company adaptable to the dynamic nature of the industry in which the company operates as it is a continuous process of change and improvement involving the changes in the business environment.
• This method also helps the company to reduce the waste generate and eliminate the issues and the obstacles or the defects in the process of operation (Bon and Mustafa 2013).  
• TQM ensures that the cost involved in production is minimum thus ensuring that the price for the consumers are also fair.
• From the perspective of the employee this process makes sure that there is higher rate of employee retention, increase in the morale of the employees along with skill and performance development opportunities which further helps them grow in the career as well (Benavides-Velasco et al. 2014).

Theoretically the process seems to be holistic and solution to all the basic problems of a company. But implementation the TQM approach is difficult, first of all it demands a change in the culture of an organization which is time consuming, resource consuming and also risky for the company (Chang 2016). Another limitation of the process is that the process is lengthy and is not a quick fix to any issue; it takes a lot of time to be successfully implemented in the system and generating positive results. The process is defined and is strict with the rules and regulation which leaves very little scope for creativity and innovation (Bon and Mustafa 2013).  

The culture of an organisation heavily depends on the underlying values and principles of the company. If the principle of the organisation is to offer consumers premium quality products or services then the effort and the resources will be channelized for the same. In order to implement TQM in the process of operation the company has to give precedence to the consumers before anyone else. Some of the cultural dimension such as teamwork and respect for people are some of the most significant aspects of incorporating the TOM practices (Gambi et al 2015). The goal and the objective of the organisation is also an important aspect of organisational culture which can be achieved with the help of the total quality management practices. The underlying meaning of total quality management is offering the consumers with best quality product with the available materials and resources. TQM along with the factors of organisational culture can ensure competitive advantage in the long run (Gambi et al 2015). TQM compels the management of the organization to bring about changes in the culture of the organisation by implementing the elements of motivation, teamwork, maintaining a consistency of the purpose. According to the Schein model of organisational culture, there are three levels that explain the culture of an organisation. Artifacts are the aspects that are easily recognizable and visible to everyone internal or external associated with the organisation. The espoused values are the factors which are visible to the internal members of the business organisation these are strategies, goals and philosophies etc. lastly at that the core of an organisation is the assumptions which are the underlying principles and unrecognizable aspects that make up the foundation of an organisation. The following diagram shows the relation between TQM and organization culture (Gambi et al 2015).

Success of TQM Implementation

Figure: relation between TQM and organisation culture

Source: (Gambi et al 2015)

Conclusion:

The process of developing a good quality output which meets or exceeds the expectations of a consumer is the aim of Total Quality Management. It is a holistic process which not only deals with the manufacturing and production process it also deals with the way the business operates as a whole.  Over the years, there have been several developments in the tools and instruments in the process of implementing TQM. Depending on the sector or the industry of operation companies use the techniques. One of the major drawbacks that can be concluded from the process is that the approach takes a long time to show positive results and until then a lot of resource and investment is required. Hence it is mostly implemented by organizations that run on a medium of large scale.

Reference: 

Benavides-Velasco, C.A., Quintana-García, C. and Marchante-Lara, M., 2014. Total quality management, corporate social responsibility and performance in the hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 41, pp.77-87.

Bon, A.T. and Mustafa, E.M., 2013. Impact of total quality management on innovation in service organizations: Literature review and new conceptual framework. Procedia Engineering, 53, pp.516-529.

Chang, J.F., 2016. Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC Press.

Dale, B., 2015. Total quality management. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Doeleman, H.J., Ten Have, S. and Ahaus, C.T.B., 2014. Empirical evidence on applying the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model, a literature review. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 25(5-6), pp.439-460.

Gambi, L.D.N., Boer, H., Gerolamo, M.C., Jørgensen, F. and Carpinetti, L.C.R., 2015. The relationship between organizational culture and quality techniques, and its impact on operational performance. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 35(10), pp.1460-1484.

Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Jiménez-Jiménez, D., Martinez-Costa, M., Martínez-Lorente, A.R. and Rabeh, H.A.D., 2015. Total quality management performance in multinational companies: A learning perspective. The TQM Journal, 27(3), pp.328-340.

Muruganantham, G., Vinodh, S., Arun, C.S. and Ramesh, K., 2016. Application of interpretive structural modelling for analysing barriers to total quality management practices implementation in the automotive sector. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, pp.1-22.

Pimentel, L. and Major, M., 2016. Key success factors for quality management implementation: evidence from the public sector. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 27(9-10), pp.997-1012.

Siva, V., Gremyr, I., Bergquist, B., Garvare, R., Zobel, T. and Isaksson, R., 2016. The support of Quality Management to sustainable development: A literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 138, pp.148-157.