Introduction
To retain a strong market position and retain a competitive advantage in the global market today, while focusing on diversification and satisfaction, companies find themselves without another option other than to integrate the philosophy of total quality management in running their activities today. That should be the case with BR engineering.
To spite managers in the modern world where customers are ever demanding for quality, incorporating total quality management into BR engineering comes with a host of benefits that shall largely impact on the business position of the company, its position in the market, its competitive advantage, its customer base, the brand name, the image of the company, and the overall quality of products manufactured by the company. Quality products translate to a strong market position, a bigger customer base and higher profits.
Total quality management is a philosophy that focuses on reduced wastes, focuses on customer satisfaction and needs, and continuously drives an organization into dynamically innovating products and service focusing at quality and cost effectiveness, and continuous improvements. Continuous improvements are tailored to target customer needs and satisfaction while positioning the company at a position of understanding the customer at every stage of its operations.
Total Quality Management
Total quality management is an organizational philosophy defined by product features that have the ability to satisfy a need, meet reliability requirements, and meet customer expectations as briefly illustrated below.
Quality is defined on the dimension of product performance; product features that satisfy customer needs and expectations, durability, its aesthetic values, safety, and serviceability for which customers readily pay for. Different approaches and definitions of quality are approached differently such as Deming philosophy that identifies continuous improvements among other approaches. Leading into t detailed discussion on the need for total quality management (TQM).
Need for TQM
The need to integrate total quality management philosophy into BR Engineering’s core business activities and in its venture into new engineering fields comes at a time when customers are the main focus in the business world today. It is a time when the cost of production should be minimized by eliminating wastes or bringing them to a bare minimum.
It is the responsibility of organizational employees to continuously pursue the element of quality to satisfy ever changing customer needs and expectations, eliminate waste, satisfy the customer, and improve BR Engineering’s performance (A Roadmap to Quality, 2007).
Total Quality Management (TQM) is an organizational philosophy for pursuing and meeting customer expectations and needs through continuous quality improvements of processes and products involving organizational employees who exert a concerted effort towards that goal (Total Quality Management Process, 2003).
A critical analysis of BR Engineering’s approach suggests that the traditional approach of focusing on product quality in the geometrical and surface finish dimensions may in the long end lead the company to lose its customer base. This is so since the traditional quality dimension or approach does not focus on the customer and the ever changing customer needs and expectations. It does not incorporate the concept of continuous improvements to meet customer expectations and needs.
Neither does the approach focus on minimizing wastes and maximizing on employee skills. It does not focus on team work as a way to improve product quality and enhance product features to meet the changing market needs. The customer is not the driving force for product quality, but the product is the driving force in this engineering environment.
Total Quality Management Process (2003) notes that the traditional approach and dimensions of quality at BR engineering focus on product quantity and product cost are unsatisfactory. It focuses on evaluating the product after production to identify those products that do not conform to established specifications, discarding products that do not meet the specifications, and releasing into the market products that meet specification requirements.
The total quality management process will be characterized by customer related processes, which include customer requirements on a product, regulatory requirements on product quality, and other addendums (A Roadmap to Quality, 2007). The management and organizational employees will continuously review requirements related to the product through defined product requirements, and the ability to meet defined standards.
Product design and development will span the planning of the product design, identifying design inputs and outputs, which span functional requirements, regulations, and design validation and verifications on a product.
Further to that, BR Engineering needs to realize that competition is rife more especially at a time when innovations on products can be done in a short time to meet customer needs with modern technologies. That is in addition to the fact that copy right laws and other product related laws have become increasingly difficult to enforce (A Roadmap to Quality, 2007).
Total quality management is expensive to integrate into a company, but benefits out-do the cost of implementing the quality management system. However, a low cost approach can be used to integrate TQM into BR Engineering by focusing on the capability of the technical and management staff of the company.
One such resourceful person is the time-served skilled engineer, the managing director of the company. The Director can oversee the implementation of TQM by identifying and selecting units of study while planning on systematic integration of the TQM plan.
Therefore, TQM will tailored the company to be customer focused, shifting it from its traditional approach and dimension of quality. Customer satisfaction will be the key word.
Customer feedback will form an essential component in influencing research processes, lead to product innovations and continuous improvements, and impact on approaches to minimal use and procurement of raw materials for industrial use. Thus, the overall outlook of team work will be evident within the company and outstanding benefits (A Roadmap to Quality, 2007).
TQM Benefits
One of the key benefits bound to be realized by integrating the total quality management philosophy into BR Engineering’s core activities, besides the new fields targeted for entry are improved financial results. Financial results improve when the cost of production of a product reduces creating an overall effect on the final cost of the product. If the manufacturing cost is low, the possibility of adjusting the final cost of the product is high.
Therefore, if the product quality is maintained but offered at a lower price, the positive effect of stimulating demand and consumption of the product rises. Consumer prevalence changes favorably towards the product and the overall effect is higher consumption demands and higher profits. That has the overall effect of improving the financial statement of the company.
The company will realize benefits of reduced wastes and improved processes. The process of procuring raw materials for its activities will be improved leading to cost cuts, translating to reduced cost of production and a host of other benefits that may be realized in the whole chain (Franceschini, Galetto & Maisano, 2007).
Conformance to standards, teamwork, product realization, resource management, improved financial benefits, reduced employee absenteeism, improved product lifecycle, improved response to customer queries and concerns, less product defects, and minimized wastes.
Standards lead organizations to be cross platform and create standardized products whole conforming to other standards such like environmental conservation. Teamwork has the benefit that comes with a synergistic model. Employees find they are motivated and work towards product improvements, and other benefits. These benefits can only be realized through concerted employee responsibilities in each of their domain departments hereunder discussed (A Roadmap to Quality, 2007).
Team Work and Employee responsibilities
Quality management department
To oversee the implementation of total quality management and continuously evaluate overall organizational total quality management performance and implementation, the quality management department’s role is tasked with the sole responsibility of identifying and setting total quality management implementation processes for each employee in their domains, ensuring approaches and strategies are set to effective total quality management organization-wise, measure and analyze all total quality implementation within the company, initiate actions to monitor, evaluate, identify quality deviations in each department and recommend corrections necessary for total quality management, assess total quality implementations for each employee’s domain, and document further requirements to drive the company further in its total quality management endeavors in satisfying customer needs and meeting their expectations(Easton, 1993).
Employees in this department are responsible for setting a total quality improvement corporate culture as a continuous process and ensure strategies are set to integrate all organizational tasks and functions and focus them at customer satisfaction.
The responsibility ensures that employees in this department educate other employees to appreciate and focus at customer satisfaction, inculcate a culture of competence in all employees, ensure teamwork within the organization, ensure total employee involvement, and drive the organization into achieving its total quality management goal. The goal is to continuously improve customer satisfaction at the lowest cost while maintaining a strong customer base, relationships, and sustained profits.
The quality management system is a strategic tool influenced by BR engineering’s operating environment, the new business environment, changing needs, specific organizational, objectives, current products it specializes in and future industry it endeavors to enter, processes governing production of products, and its size.
The synergetic model is hereunder illustrated that could result from team work. In addition to that, the system will establish links with the ISO 9004 standrds to givern its proccesses. It should make it compativle with other managerial from: Juran on planning for quality functions
The quality management system will be characterized by general requirements that span processes organization-wise, the sequence of processes, resource availability, strategic plans to achieve continuous improvements, standards for monitoring processes, and shared control to processes and resources.
Each documentation process is characterized by policies, objectives, quality manual, and control documents. Control documents, control manuals, and control records characterize the total quality management system.
Management Responsibilities
Management shall be responsible for enforcing total quality implementation policies, reviews, and making resources available. The management shall be responsible for customer focus, quality policies, planning and planning objectives, quality management planning, and review inputs and outputs.
On the other hand, the management at the top of the hierarchy, headed by the Director will be solely responsible for providing direction in every aspect of quality management and improvement. Leadership gives clear leadership in the pursuit of quality management for all departments of the BR Engineering Company. Managers under the leadership of the Director will ensure that policies and procedures are set for pursuing the total quality management philosophy at all levels of the engineering company (Easton, 1993).
That is achieved through effective communication channels between all departmental managers and the top management, conducting annul and semiannual seminars and meetings to evaluate organizational performance and achievements, and evaluating employee compliance to quality standards and procedures within the organization. This is geared towards ensuring customer satisfaction with the aerospace, products and other engineering products and services (Franceschini, Galetto & Maisano, 2007).
The management will ensure and continuously evaluates and monitors the quality of products and services and ensures all engineering equipments are up and working in meeting customer expectations and needs. Each vehicle, and aerospace equipments must provide quality services and that is ensured by the technical department run by specialized technical personnel.
In addition to that, the management ensures all departments coordinate and work collaboratively in achieving the overall goal of total quality management in product and service delivery (Franceschini, Galetto & Maisano, 2007).
The management continuously plans on the best strategy to achieve higher product success and better service quality across organizational functions. Product success is achieved through reliable mobile devices and service success is achieved through better sound and data quality delivered by the motor vehicles, and reliability of the aerospace equipments.
The management organizes all departments in pursuing the common goal focused at customer’s satisfaction, offers appropriate directions in achieving these, and ensures that each department has incorporated control measures to achieve better quality voice services, among others.
Managers continuously endeavor to create consistency of purpose within the organization, design approaches to integrating best practices in service provision, and institute methods that are consistent with modern approaches in inspecting employee compliance to quality standards.
The management ensures that cross functional departments and employees in every department are aware of the quality needs and expectations of the customer, ensures strategies and procedures are put in place to maintain customer loyalty so as not to have them shift to other service providers and manufacturers of engineering components in the current core business of the organization and new filed of the aerospace and automotive industry, increasing competition and decreasing the company’s customer base.
The management under their able leadership ensures innovative skills are created and cultivated into the culture of the organization for quality improvements and implementations. The managers at this level ensure priorities to achieve higher service quality are put in place, creating a sense of participation in the pursuit of the common goal of quality implementations.
Sales and Marketing department
In Etisalat (2010) it is noted that the sales and marketing department consists of marketers whose sole responsibility in quality management largely differentiates the organization from other service providers in the same field. Marketers have the sole responsibility of ensuring products and services reach the target population at designate times and meet customer specifications and tastes, and needs.
The marketers and sales representatives play critical roles in ensuring the company image is always good and services offered by the company reflect a good image of the company. Marketers always collect information on competing aerospace and automotive manufacturers, compare and evaluate the company’s products and identify features that should be incorporated or innovated in these products to competitively place them in the market and ensure they remain a head of others.
Total quality management is a philosophy that focuses on continuous improvements, customer satisfaction, and higher profits. The Engineering Company will be tagged as one of the leading manufacturers of automobiles and aerospace by incorporating total quality management into its core functions. Therefore, achieving that goal will be through continuous product improvements to meet customer needs and expectations.
The marketers ensure service characteristics targeting the customer are incorporated into its product delivery. In addition to that, the marketers always endeavor to establish the potential of earning higher profits for products in the core industry activities and the new ventures.
They accurately predict demands in the market and identify strategic needs targeting the market that has been identified. Customer availability in these fields is accurately identified by the marketing department to ensure the right customer needs are met. That ensures sustained retention of customers translating to higher profits and a strong customer base (Etisalat, 2010).
Customer needs are continuously reviewed and services provided compared against customer needs and equipments and projected needs evaluated. In addition to that, the marketers establish a strong and reliable interface with customers to enhance customer relationships and communication. This leads to higher product and service quality.
Kossoff (1993) argues that to further improve product quality value addition services should be offered frequently. The value addition service translates to quality improvement making the services cheaper and reliable.
The marketers focus on shortening the time products reach the market when general maintenance is being done on the manufacturing equipments (Kossoff, 1993).
The quality of services is further improved as a strategic objective by identifying opportunities to reduce expenditure, using the most minimal capital investment by using other technologies that are cheaper to maintain.
The marketing segments are identified by organizational employees at BR Engineering to be contributing factors towards better quality and improved service quality. New facilities are created and integrated into the system as the customer base continues to increase at an exponential rate (Juran, 1988).
Human resource department
The human resource management department is an employee section that forms the backbone of efficiency of service provision at all levels in the BR Engineering Company. Employees in this department are entitled with the responsibilities of ensuring that employees recruited into the company possess the right and appropriate skills to contribute to BR Engineering success in service provision while focusing at customer satisfaction and company profits.
BR Engineering is a company that wills experience tremendous growth in the manufacturing industry due to available opportunities despite intense rivalry that marks the sector. That will make it traverse national boundaries and venture into other opportunity ridden countries in the same field (Feigenbaum, 1991).
Well skilled and educated employees know their responsibilities well and contribute positively and in an informed way to the success of BR Engineering in its engineering services. Skilled and experienced employees easily identify areas of improvements and own the quality improvement process to better provide desirable services to the engineering sector.
Purchasing
The finance department ensures that purchased products conform to specifications and standards and purchasing information is clearly provided. Total quality management incorporates mechanisms for ensuring verification of purchased products is done, production services are quality controlled and that each process undergoes a validation and verification procedure against established standards (Feigenbaum, 1991).
Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring and measurements are continuously done in the new environment to ensure customer satisfaction is achieved at all levels. Internal audits that evaluate the system against established standards. Processes are continuously monitored and processes measured against established quality standards. Each product undergoes conformance controls to eliminate wastes and defects in the process.
Overall data is evaluated and analyzed to evaluate the degree of customer satisfaction, conformance to requirements, and identification of specific areas demanding continuous improvements.
Improvements
Improvements are continuous and span correctional measures which consist of reviews and identification of nonconformance issues, and preventive measures as issued under standards such as the ISO 9001.
Training and development needs
These employees ensure they continuously identify training and development needs for each employee in each department and innovatively look for ways to incorporate training programs to improve their training needs that target quality improvement and management at all levels of employee and management productivity. Quality improvement goes hand in hand with quality demands and training needs (Franceschini, Galetto & Maisano, 2007).
The financial department
Employees in this department keenly monitor the financial performance of the company, identify the best and cost effective performance strategies and target at continuously identifying the best methods to reduce expenditure at all levels of the company.
Total quality management is a philosophy that focuses on cost as a function and profits and customer base. Employees in this department continuously strive to identify cost effective methods and technologies of delivering products and services to the customer, products approaches, and appropriate quality costs (Etisalat, 2010).
Recommendations
Based on above discussions and findings on BR Engineering and its approach to running its Engineering business practices in addition to its projections to enter into the new fields of automotive engineering and aerospace industry, it is recommended that the engineering company integrate the whole concept of total quality management as one key component in its business pursuits.
Total quality management is a philosophy that companies wanting to stay competitive in the world today retain a strong market position and a wider customer base employee have embraced and integrated into their systems.
Total quality management is a concept that focuses an organization towards the customer in satisfying and meeting their ever changing needs while emphasizing on reduced wastes and continuous improvement processes to meet dynamically changing customer needs and expectations. It comes with a myriad of benefits such as higher profits among others.
It is a concept that focuses on teamwork and employee participation in the quality of services provided at BR Engineering be reviewed and a radical shift in the approach to TQM within BR Engineering be embraced. Specific tools and training programs be integrated in TQM of the BR Engineering firm to propel it to greater heights in improving on its customer base and revenue generation. Time wasted in attending to customer complaints is minimized by integrating all issues related to TQM in service provisions.
In addition to that, the hierarchical structure of the organization’s management should be flattened and communication enhanced to ensure quick customer and employee interactions. Total quality management is philosophy that spans different organizations whether these organizations are large or small. It is the way organizations are going to maintain their strong market positions while focusing at customer satisfaction and needs at reduced costs.
In addition to that, each department needs to identify the synergy that results when different departments incorporate their activities and pursue them as a team.
Conclusion
This study offers strong evidence of continued significance of quality management as a priority issue for many countries to remain competitive in domestic and global markets.
The results of this research indicate that total quality management practices have to be well embedded in the managerial practices of BR Engineering with further enhancements to reflect employee efficiency and service quality. In addition to that, total quality management is an organization-wise philosophy that should be incorporated in a synergetic model across functional departments to achieve even better results.
References
A Roadmap to Quality, 2007. An e-learning Manual for Implementing Total Quality Management. Japanese Association Standards. United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Vienna 1.
Easton, G., 1993. The 1993 state of US total quality management: a Baldrige examiner’s Perspective. California Management Review, 35(3), 32-54.
Etisalat, 2010. About us. Web.
Feigenbaum, A. V.,1991. Total Quality Control: Engineering and Management. McGraw Hill, New York.
Franceschini, F., Galetto. M., & Maisano, D., 2007. Management by Measurement.
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007. ISBN 978-3-540-73211-2
Juran, J., M.,1988. Juran on planning for quality. Cambridge MA: Productivity Press. A Life Cycle Approach, (5th ed) Homewood, IL, Irwin.
Kossoff, L. (1993. Total quality or total chaos? HR Magazine, 38(4), 131-4.
Total Quality Management Process. (2003). Tyco Electronics. Quality Manual. 102 (1).