Total Quality Management Principles and Practices

Management Control and Total Quality Management

Defining Quality

Quality is defined as: "Continually meeting agreed customer needs", or "what it takes to satisfy the customer", or simply "fitness for purpose". It is a relative property because it implies satisfaction. It is not solely a question of product aspect or price; it is about working well for the intended purpose.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM is an intensive, long-term effort to transform all parts of the organization to produce the best product and service possible to meet customer needs. Toyota stated: "We estimate it will take you twenty years to be where we are now, and by that time we will have progressed further. We have moved from quality philosophy to measuring defects on an acceptable quality level basis to reducing our defect rate to below five to six parts per billion. Our last product recall was in 1969 when we first started introducing what you know as Total Quality Management."

Key TQM Components:

• Statistical Process Control (SPC)
• Taguchi Methods
• Just in Time (JIT)
• Quality Circles
• Right First Time
• Benchmarking
• Customer Service
• Quality Assurance

Measuring Quality and TQM Keys

The keys to TQM involve:

1. Measuring quality.
2. Incorporating quality objectives into strategic planning.
3. Obtaining commitment from top management.
4. Forming teams in a structure of participative management.
5. Using resources efficiently and effectively.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a process whereby a business compares its operations with those of similar organizations, and, if possible, the best of its competitors.

Quality Circles

A quality circle is a group that meets voluntarily and regularly to identify and solve their own work-related problems and implement their solutions with management approval. The process involves:

• Identification of problems.
• Prioritization.
• Discussion and investigation.
• Solution development.
• Action if authorized.
• Presentation to managers.

Statistical Process Control (SPC)

SPC is a method of monitoring the conformity of a product to agreed specifications. By sampling units of the product, deviations from these specifications can be identified, and adjustments made during the production process.

Quality Assurance

Quality assurance provides a framework for quality control and quality improvement. It supports teams of employees with systems, resources, and discretion appropriate to their unique contribution to the organization. It implies a QUEST analysis:

• Who are my customers?
• What do they demand from me?
• In what way do I meet these demands?
• How can I improve my service?

The Taguchi Method

The Taguchi method is a way of describing the capability of a system to produce goods or services to a specification. It helps to quantify the loss due to lack of quality of a performance characteristic, with the objective of identifying the real cause of the problem.