Benchmarking In Total Quality Management

There are a few types of benchmarking in market forces; (1) a process benchmarking where the initiating firm focusses its observation and investigation business processes with a goal identifying and observing the best practices from one or more benchmark firms. Activity analysis will be required where the objective is to benchmark cost and efficiency where outsourcing may be a consideration. Next is the (2) financial benchmarking which perform a financial analysis and comparing the results in an effort to assess the overall competitiveness. (3) Product benchmarking is a process of designing new products or upgrades n current ones. This process can involve the reverse engineering which is taking apart competitors’ product to find strengths and

Clearly leadership is one of the important concepts of TQM. The principles and practices of Total Quality Management can be distinctive between various industries and enterprises in market forces, but there is a universal agreement about the importance of leadership for its achievement in an organization. The leader is the one that promotes the importance of quality in the organization, provides conditions for continuous education and training of employees, as well as maintaining constant contacts with the employees, consumers and suppliers. Basically, the leader needs to be a strong ringleader of the organization, operative of changes by setting aggressive goals of constant improvements and by searching for opportunities for making a larger benefit that the leader has to primarily have the needs and expectations of the costumers. It requires from the manager to provide an inspirational vision, strategic direction which will be understandable for all the employees, as well as setting values which will lead the lower level employees. Several researchers in the Total Quality Management literatures have pointed out the importance of the role of leadership in managing quality. Hackman & Wagemans’ (1995) analysis concluded that the founder of the movement view quality as the ultimate and inescapable responsibility of top management. There seems to be strong consensus among the founders of the quality movement as far as the importance of leadership to managing quality is concerned, as evidenced by their writings (Cosby, 1979; Deming, 1986; Feigenbaum, 1983; Juran, 1994), with all these founders viewing quality as a leadership responsibility and view TQM principles as being principles of