A Framework for TQM to Achieve Business Excellence
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a set of quality and management tools employed in order to increase the performance of a business by reducing losses and increasing turnover. It aims at continually improving the quality of delivery of goods, services and all the functions of a business venture. This includes the interaction between all the sections of a firm as well as the individual sections themselves.
Generally, the objective of TQM is to achieve an overall efficiency that is higher than the individual productivity from the components, such as design, planning, production, customer service approaches, and staff participation. Customer satisfaction and incessant improvement are the fundamental beliefs of the TQM strategy.
TQM cannot function effectively without the necessary changes being taken on the structure and functioning of the organization by its top management. Such changes include adherence to quality in planning, control and improvement, these can be achieved through numerous channels, for example, continuous improvement can be achieved by undertaking work-based training on a regular basis.
Quality management is involved with the prevention of problems happening by putting in place attitudes and controls that may make such prevention a success.
The core aspect of quality is to get it right the first time, and to meet the needs of the customer every time, by engaging everyone in the firm. TQM is therefore a conception of management that utilizes the resources and opportunities in an organization in the way possible through continuous improvement.
Elements of TQM
The implementation of a TQM is influenced by a range of indicators, both financial and non-financial. These affect the various aspects of TQM such as a reduction in defect frequencies, increased client satisfaction, increased output, and reduced order cycle time.
Fiscal indicators of a TQM include market share, profits, defect percentage, performance and stock turnover etc, while the non-fiscal indicators are customer satisfaction, innovation, skill improvement, reliability, and talent development, among others.
These parameters are vital to adjust the infrastructure, (firm and systems), reward and acknowledgment system or hygiene aspects (human components) in place to set up and nourish the TQM characteristics.
TQM elements are grouped into three main categories: Technologies (tools), Organization (systems), and People, these affect the financial and non-financial performance of the organization.
Technologies and Tools
Measures of technology and tools include benchmarking, data management, continuous improvement, problem solving, and continuous improvement, among others. Of these, TQM studies suggest that the most important is continuous improvement.
Organization (systems)
Organizational aspects of a TQM strategy include culture, organizational structure, communication, shared vision, and performance management. Again, TQM studies suggest that culture is the most important factor in achieving a TQM.
People
Factors relating to people include leadership, management responsibility, empowerment, training and education, and team learning. Team learning is the most vital TQM element among these.
An efficient application of the TQM elements results into increased productivity of the organization indicated by financial performances such as increased stock turnover, increased market share and profits, and a reduction in defect rates and non-financial performances.
Non-financial performances include customer satisfaction, delivery reliability, innovation, reduced order cycle time, and workflow improvement as some of the non-financial performances.
The mentioned elements of TQM have been successfully by Apple, the company has encouraged innovation and continues to a market leader in the smartphone and PC market.
Apart from technology, Apple has a clear sense of the customer needs and continues to ensure that customer satisfaction is its core aim. This has enabled it to attain the position of the world’s second largest company despite being in danger going out of business a few years ago.
Total quality management from theory to practice: a case study
Manufacturing firms across the world are currently spending a substantial amount of time and money to improve the quality of their products, this has been brought by an increase in the expectation of consumers and has led to an increase in the quality of goods supplied in domestic markets.
A number of manufacturers have acted on these challenges by trying to employ some approaches of quality improvement procedure on a systems-wide basis. These approaches differ to some level but they share a fundamental set of features that represent the core of any quality improvement method.
The process of ‘total quality’ commonly includes:
- Plainly defining the notion of quality and coming up with its measurement standards;
- Carrying out quality training for the whole organization;
- Coming up with meaningful parameters of quality for both the work processes and for each employee;
- Coming up with a system to take corrective measures whenever there are problems with product quality;
- Implementing efficient management practices to increase employee participation; and
- Establishing an organizational culture and reward scheme that enforces the principle that quality should be everyone’s core concern.
When a firm implements a quality improvement process, it commonly does so with the help of an external party. The first part of this process involves quality training, explaining the standards and expectations, establishing parameters for quality improvement, and establishing procedures to do away with threats to quality after their identification.
The second part is the implementation phase since the organization starts the use of training, standards, taking corrective measures and management practices to continuing daily processes. To achieve success in a quality improvement process, an organization needs to institutionalize the process into the firm’s practice, many organizations struggle or fail to realize their goals in this area, hence failure in quality improvement.
In order to improve a firm’s products, it must require, motivate, and effect change in all of its sectors. For management to start a TQM, the procedure is comparatively straightforward. The first step is for the organization to underline the reason for quality improvement; the second stage is to come up with a strategy for the quality improvement.
Thirdly-, management needs to employ a quality improvement process that is in tow with the firm’s needs. The quality improvement process can be developed internally or contracted from external sources and in order to ensure that the plan is successful, the management must note the following
- Leadership must lead by example;
- The more rapid and complicated the changes are, the greater the help needed;
- Managers must give continuous feedback to their seniors;
- Messages given to staff must be devoid of any ambiguities;
- The management and workers must show openness when handling problems; and
- Meetings and paperwork must be minimized so that management has ample time to exhibit quality conduct to their workforce.
Failure to implement sound TQM policies can lead to a decline in performance by an organization, this has been proved by a number of companies.
For example, Enron, a US energy company that was a market leader and was named ‘America’s Most Innovative Company’ for six years and with revenues of more than $100 billion in 2001, however, the company wound up operations in 2006 as a result of accounting frauds that were planned and executed by its managers, a fraud that became to be known as the Enron scandal.
Critical implementation issues in total quality management
The main idea of the article under consideration is whether the Total Quality Management (TQM) is an opportunity to improve business or it is a strategy which provides only theoretical knowledge and may never be use in practice.
TQM key principles may be failing only in case when the company managers failed to apply those in complex or did not understand the main idea of those. The main points which each company should remember if it wants to apply TQM principles are the lessons.
In order to achieve the results promised by the proponents of the TQM approach, it is important to have knowledge of the key TQM principles, these are: efficient top management and commitment, client satisfaction, staff participation and motivation, continuous improvement, collaboration with suppliers, and recognition of the importance of quality in realizing TQM goals.
For a successful implementation of TQM, the organization needs to have the following lessons:
- It is important that organizations clearly understand the meaning and implications of TQM before implementing it. Before implementing a TQM, the management needs to identify its targets and the mode of implementation;
- Establish a culture that can sustain and support the implementation of a TQM. Many firms succeed in committing to total quality by employing the principles mentioned earlier, but fail in cultivating a culture that promotes quality improvement;
- TQM implementation should be matched with the firm’s strategic priorities, competitiveness, and objectives;
- Take note of the most important things- time and effort. Management should target achievable, practical, and real goals instead of trying to cover many elements at a time;
- TQM implementation should be aligned to the needs of the individual organizations and these are normally unique to each organization;
- Take a holistic approach as TQM is a complex process that requires an effective strategy to succeed. TQM is so wide and incorporates many disciplines and an approach that encourages interaction between these disciplines must be adopted;
- Remember that the term ‘Total Quality Management’ communicates the concept of quality improvement activities with stress on the word ‘total’ and a wide definition of ‘quality’;
- There is need to understand that TQM is not a solution for all aspects of quality, the organization must understand the extent to which this strategy will improve quality and improve productivity.
The TQM strategy is a good advisor in the company management. A manager should just correctly understand TQM principles and properly apply those. It is also important to remember that the principles should be integratable. Those who fail to understand the main principles of the TQM framework and the lessons are unable to use this strategy. Even if they try, they are not sure to succeed with it.
There are a lot of examples when a company managed to succeed with the help of the TQM and its principles. For example, the Coca Cola Company strongly commits leadership, focuses on customers, involves and empowers employees, provides continuous improvements in different spheres, increases and supports partnerships, and considers quality as a strategic point in planning business.
With the help of the TQM use the company is a leader in the beverage drinks production all over the world.
Achieving the organizational change necessary for successful TQM
Implementation of a TQM is one of the most challenging tasks in an organization. It is not rare to find organizations failing in their attempts to improve the quality of goods and services, these failed companies are being pushed out of the market. Companies are using quality to gain a competitive advantage over the others.
Often, the reason for the failure of implementation of TQM is in the fact that their approach bears little similarity to the conventions. An example of such cause of failure is in the development of standards, standards are usually control-oriented methods controlled by the top-level management with little involvement of the employees.
The management uses these standards to control their staff. Training changes to a corrective activity whenever the set standards are not followed. Conceptual weakness is one of the main mistakes provided by the companies which want to apply TQM principles. The failure to understand properly control-oriented methods, training and motivation results in bad consequences for the company implementation.
Another type for failure is s design failure, this occurs when the TQM concept is convincing but the plan and/or implementation is not carried out in the right manner. When TQM systems are not designed with the organizational needs in mind, chances of failure are higher. Design failures are an earlier warning that the implementation will fail too.
The third form of failure is an implementation failure. This occurs when the concept and design are convincing, but the change agent and/or the top-level management do not comprehend the intricacy of organizational change and innovation required. Similarly, it may be caused by the failure to allocate funds for supporting the realization of the TQM strategy.
The main failures mentioned above should be considered by any company which desires to apply TQM principles in practice. Before considering TQM principles the managers of the company should check the most commonly occurred mistakes. It is obvious that it is impossible to run a successful business without standards and control. Furthermore, motivation should be properly stated.
Employees should be encouraged to do something new. The communication should not be organized from top to bottom only. One of the most frequently occurred failures connected with the TQM applying is an implementation failure. The main reason is when conceptual and design elements are correct, but the organizational and cultural change is not understood in a proper way.
One of the best examples of failure to understand the implantation of the TQM principles and the organizational change may be considered via the Boeing Company. It failed to provide the organizational change properly which made it possible for the Airbus Company come to the fore.
This company lost its market share in 2006 because the organizational and cultural changes were not properly considered and the company had to review its positions to return to the previous positions.
The TQM Approach of Asset Management
This approach recognizes that apart buildings, land, machines or funds in the bank, an organization’s assets include its workforce, customers, community, corporate culture, etc. A sound management of these assets will increase the productivity. An example is Delta Airline’s that supports its employees to give satisfactory services to customers and this has led to an excellent financial record.