Total Quality Management Principles and Implementation

Core Concepts of Total Quality Management

Total Quality is a policy that tends to mobilize its members to improve the quality of its products and services, the quality of its functioning, and the quality of its objectives in relation to the evolution of its environment. Total Quality is a global concept that explains two perspectives: Quality as customer satisfaction, and performance as the "output" of a company's business.

Two Perspectives of Quality

In the first case, it usually refers to the external customer at the end of the value chain of the company. In the second case, it mentions the internal customer—that person or activity that uses the output of others. This stands for quality output and is based on the following aspects:

• Material aspect: Doing it right the first time.
• Goal aspect: Doing well what is done as a subgoal.
• Economic aspect: Doing it to the satisfaction of the customer profitably.
• Social aspect: The satisfaction of doing it right.

Fundamental Principles of TQM

The fundamental principles of a system of Total Quality Management are:

• Achieving the full satisfaction of the needs and expectations of internal and external customers.
• Development of a process of continuous improvement in all activities of the company.
• Total commitment from direction and active leadership of the team.
• Direct participation of all members of the organization and promotion of teamwork towards Total Quality Management.
• Involvement of suppliers in the total quality system given their fundamental role in achieving it.
• Identifying organization processes and overcoming departmental and structural barriers.
• Management decisions based on facts and objective data rather than intuition.

Elements of a Quality Strategy

The implementation of a plan to improve quality concludes that overall quality has four elements:

• Quality strategy: Setting objectives, indicators, and parameters.
• Quality committees: Management commitment and training.

Benefits and Human Capital Requirements

Profits come as a result of the following: the incorporation of new values to understand current competitiveness, stabilizing and improving results, and facilitating the development of the organization. The integration of people in the chain of quality enables them to adapt to changes. The right people should have the following capabilities:

• Creativity and leadership.
• Versatility to play more than one function.
• Ability for teamwork and communication skills.
• Ability to recognize errors and improve.