BASIC CONCEPTS OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

[Mr. M. GOVINDARAJAN]

Quality is the key word and it plays a vital role in the goods as well as services.   Quality attracts consumers, retains the existing consumers, affording net worth to the business people.   Thus Quality is the mantra of the business.

Total Quality Management is an enhancement of the traditional way of doing business. It is a proven technique to guarantee survival in world class competition. Only by changing the actions of management will the culture and actions of an entire organization to be transformed. Total Quality Management is for the most part common sense. The words Total Quality Management stand for-

Total – Made up of the whole;

Quality – Degree of excellence a product or service provides;

Management – Act, art or manner of handling, controlling, directing etc.,

Therefore total quality management is the art of managing the whole to achieve excellence.   The Golden Rule is a simple but effective way to explain it. It is defined as both a philosophy and a set of guiding principles that represent the foundation of a continuously improving organization.   It is the application of quantitative methods and human resources to improve all the processes within an organization and exceed customer needs now and in the future.   It integrates fundamental management techniques, existing improvement efforts and technical tools under a disciplined approach.

The six basic concepts of total quality management are as follows:

• A committed and involved management to provide long term top to bottom organizational support-

The management must participate in the quality program.   A Quality council must be established to develop a clear vision, set long term goals and direct the program. Quality goals are to be included in the business plan. An Annual Quality Improvement program is established and involves input from the entire work force. Management should participate on quality improvement teams and also act as coaches to other teams. Total quality management is a continual activity that must be entrenched in the culture. It is not just a one shot program.   Total Quality Management must be communicated to all people in the organization.

• An unwavering focus on the customer, both internally and externally

The key to an effective total quality management program is its focus on its customers. An excellent place to start is by satisfying internal customers. The management must listen to the ‘voice of customer’ and emphasize design quality and defect prevention. Do it right the first time and every time, for customer satisfaction is the most important consideration.

• Effective involvement and utilization of the entire work force

Total quality Management is an organization wide challenge that is everyone’s responsibility. All personnel must be trained in total quality management, statistical process control (SPC) and other appropriate quality improvement skills so they can effectively participate on project teams. Including internal customers and, for that matter, internal suppliers for project teams is an excellent approach. Those affected by the plan must be involved in its development and implementation. They understand the process better than anyone else. Changing behavior is the goal. People must come to work not only to do their jobs but also to think about how to improve their jobs.   Employees must be empowered at the lowest possible level to perform processes in an optimum manner.

• Continuous improvement of the business and production process

There must be a continual striving to improve all business and production processes. Quality improvement projects such as one time delivery, order entry efficiency, billing error rate, customer satisfaction, cycle time ,scrap reduction and supplier management are good places to begin. Technical techniques such as SPC, bench marking, quality function deployment, ISO 9000 and designed experiments are excellent for problem solving.

• Treating suppliers as partners

On the average 40% of the sales is purchase of product or service; therefore, the supplier quality must be outstanding. A partnering relationship rather than adversarial one must be developed. Both parties have as much to gain or lose based on the success or failure of the product or service. The focus should be on quality and life cycle costs rather than price. Suppliers should be few in number so that true partnering can occur.

• Establish performance measures for the processes

Performance measures such as uptime, percent non conforming, absenteeism and customer satisfaction should be determined for each functional area.   These measures should be posted for everyone to see. Quantitative data are necessary to measure the continuous quality improvement activity.