 TOTAL QUALITY
MANAGEMENTWe have seen the progress of the concept of Quality over the past decades. If one looks at it carefully, it will be evident that Quality has always been an important element for competitive success. But the initial approach for Quality was final inspection and post production adjustment. Quality was not viewed as a responsibility of all employees. Quality function was separated from such areas as planning, design, production and sales. In contrast to this approach,
Japanese companies adopted an innovative and integrated approach to
achieve quality. They have, no doubt learnt the basics from Dr. W.E.
Deming and Dr. J.M. Juran. Dr. W.E. Deming taught them the importance of
statistical systems and mainly the use of control charts and gave a 14
point programme. Japanese on their own made a systematic approach to the
adoption of statistical methods. Dr. K. Ishikawa classified as elementary
statistical methods, intermediary statistical methods and advanced
methods. He insisted on everyone having a through knowledge of statistical
methods. Dr. Juran taught them the basic tenets of quality process for
achieving total quality on a continuous basis., a) Conviction to Quality at all
times and upper management leadership forQuality. b) Continuous education and
training on quality for all (universal) c) Annual plan for improvement of quality and cost reduction. Ideas pf Dr. W.E. Deming (14 points) and Dr. J.M. Juran (3 points) became the basic quality management principle in Japanese companies. Japanese added an important dimension viz. Understanding the importance of grass root level employees and their role in the achievement of quality. All these principles and practices became the foundation of Total Quality Management and what the Japanese termed as CWQC. When we say Total Quality
Management we mean a new approach to improve product Quality and increase
customer satisfaction on a continuous basis by restructuring traditional
management practices. The main features of TQM are
a) Customer driven quality
b) Strong quality
leadership c) Continuous improvement
d) Action based on facts, data
and analysis e) Employees participation
f) Improved two way communication
system.(Top to bottom and bottom to top) What we should understand is that
TQM is not a concept but a philosophy. It has developed over a period and
can be considered as a foundation for the development of all other new
concepts which we are aware of today or can be considered as a broad
umbrella under which the new concepts can be fitted in. Hence one should
not consider any new idea as a replacement for TQM philosophy. How do we
measure or find out whether an organisation has properly adopted TQM or
not? There are many ways and means, but the most important ones
are a) Employees
relation b) Operating
procedures c) Customer
satisfaction d) Financial
performance. Employees relation
If you find that there is an
increased satisfaction among employees and they are regular in their work
and higher number of suggestions are received from them then we can say
that there is a better employees relation. You will also notice less
turnover, i.e. the number of people leaving the organisation would be less
and there is improved safety and health. The Japanese strongly believe
that "employees' satisfaction precedes customer
satisfaction". Operating
procedure If there is a higher reliability,
prompt delivery, shorter order process time, error free production, better
product lead time, lesser inventory, improved quality cost, higher cost
saving and two way communication system we can say that there is an
improved operating procedure. Customer satisfaction
Greater customer satisfaction is
reflected by the improved overall satisfaction, fewer or low complaints
and higher customer relation. Financial performance
Increased Financial performance
is reflected by the higher market share which means more sales, higher
sales per employee and better returns on investment. All these things are achieved by organisations focusing on customer quality requirement. In this effort of TQM dissemination, management should lead. They should empower the employees to continuously improve all the key business processes. The management has to nurture a flexible and responsive corporate culture. Management systems should support fact based decision making and another important aspect is partnership with suppliers.
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