20-03-2012, 02:26 PM
Total Quality Management
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What is quality?
Dictionary has many definitions: “Essential characteristic,” “Superior,” etc.Some definitions that have gained wide acceptance in various organizations: “Quality is customer satisfaction.”
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society for Quality (ASQ) define quality as:
“The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy given needs.”
Total Quality Management
Total quality management or TQM is an integrative philosophy of managment for continuously improving the quality of products and processes.It is used around the world.TQM functions on the premise that the quality of products and processes is the responsibility of everyone who is involved with the creation or consumption of the products or services offered by an organization. In other words, TQM capitalizes on the involvement of management, workforce, suppliers, and even customers, in order to meet or exceed customer expectations. Considering the practices of TQM as discussed in six empirical studies, Cua, McKone, and Schroeder (2001) identified the nine common TQM practices as cross-functional product design, process management, supplier quality management, customer involvement, information and feedback, committed leadership, strategic planning, cross-functional training, and employee involvement.
Origins Of TQM
Total quality management has evolved from the quality assurance methods that were first developed around the time of the First World War. The war effort led to large scale manufacturing efforts that often produced poor quality. To help correct this, quality inspectors were introduced on the production line to ensure that the level of failures due to quality was minimized.
TQM AND SIX SIGMA
The Six Sigma management strategy originated in 1986 from Motorola’s drive towards reducing defects by minimizing variation in processes.The main difference between TQM and Six Sigma (a newer concept) is the approach.At its core, Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction.In a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving processes, products, services and the culture in which they work.The methods for implementing this approach come from the teachings of such quality leaders as Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran.
Principles Of TQM
Be Customer focused: Whatever you do for quality improvement, remember that ONLY customers determine the level of quality. Whatever you do to foster QUALITY IMPROVEMENT, training employees, integrating quality into processes management, ONLY customers determine whether your efforts were worthwhile.