The Importance Of Total Quality Management

A primary role of management is to lead an organization in its daily operation and to maintain it as a viable entity into the future. Quality has become an important factor in both of these objectives.

Although ostensibly always an objective of business, customer satisfaction, in customer terms, became a specific goal in the late 1980s. Providing high quality was recognized as a key element for success. Most large corporations taking that path have documented their success. First, they survived the strong overseas competition that had set the high quality levels and now have regained some of their former markets. Smaller companies are also adopting similar goals.

The term total quality management (TQM) refers to a quest for quality in an

If it isn’t, TQM will become just another fad that quickly dies and fades away.

The preceding description provides a good idea of what TQM is all about, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. A number of other elements of TQM are important:

1. Continuous improvement. The philosophy that seeks to improve all factors related to the process of converting inputs into outputs on an ongoing basis is called continuous improvement. It covers equipment, methods, materials, and people. Under continuous improvement, the old adage “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” gets transformed into “Just because it isn’t broke doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.”

The concept of continuous improvement was not new, but it did not receive much interest in the United States for a while, even though it originated here. However, many Japanese companies used it for years, and it became a cornerstone of the Japanese approach to production. The Japanese use the term kaizen to refer to continuous improvement. The successes of Japanese companies caused other companies to reexamine many of their approaches. This resulted in a strong interest in the continuous improvement

Competitive benchmarking. This involves identifying other organizations that are the best at something and studying how they do it to learn how to improve your operation. The company need not be in the same line of business. For example, Xerox used the mail- order company L.L. Bean to benchmark order filling.

3. Employee empowerment. Giving workers the responsibility for improvements and the authority to make changes to accomplish them provides strong motivation for employees. This puts decision making into the hands of those who are closest to the job and have considerable insight into problems and solutions.

4. Team approach. The use of teams for problem solving and to achieve consensus takes advantage of group synergy, gets people involved, and promotes a spirit of cooperation and shared values among employees.

5. Decisions based on facts rather than opinions. Management gathers and analyzes data as a basis for decision-making.

6. Knowledge of tools. Employees and managers are trained in the use of quality