Total Quality Management

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

TOTAL                = Made up of the whole

QUALITY            = Degree of excellence a product or service provides

MANAGEMENT    =      Act, art or science /manner of handling, controlling, directing etc

Meaning

TQM is a structured system for satisfying internal and external customers and suppliers by integrating the business environment, continuous improvement and breakthrough with development, improvement and maintenance cycles while changing organizational culture.

What Is Quality

Quality basically defines what is required, and how it can be achieved. It also implies complying with the necessities, and suitability of being used. The realm of quality has been changing rapidly from just manufacture, to numerous other disciplines like finance, information technology, and human resources. The benefits of implementing a quality management system are numerous, including creation of quality products, and quality systems. Quality management system software is extremely useful for implementing a quality management system, and excellent quality control, resulting into total quality management. Software testing procedures are used extensively, to ensure that only the quality products are produced, while those not meeting the quality standards are rejected.

What Is A Quality Management System

A quality management system can be defined as the implementation of dedicated activities in a project to obtain continuous improvement, and enhance the organization efficiency. The foremost effort of this system is to correctly and precisely define the procedure that will cause creation of quality products and quality services. The aim is to prevent the errors while within the project, and not after a product has been delivered to the user. There are many benefits to a quality management system, due to which the organizations are devoting more efforts to improve quality management.

Benefits of Quality Management Systems

The trend of implementing a quality management procedure is gaining popularity in all organizations, since there are tremendous benefits in using a quality management system. Some of the benefits are explained below:

Achievement Of Project Scope

This system facilitates a business, to attain the objectives that have been defined in the organization strategy. It ensures the achievement of stability and reliability regarding the techniques, equipment, and resources being used in a project. All project activities are integrated and aligned towards the achievement of quality products. These efforts commence by identifying the customer needs and expectations, and culminate in their contentment.

Customer Satisfaction

A fully recognized and implemented quality management system, will ensure that the customer is satisfied by meeting their requirements, and will thus enhance the confidence of the customer. Attaining customer satisfaction is a great achievement for the organization, that will assist in capturing the market, or increase the market share.

Consistent Products

Implementing a quality management system can assist to attain more consistency in the project activities, and enhance the effectiveness by improvement in the resources and time usage.

Implementation Of Best Practices & Process Improvement

The discipline of quality includes the efforts directed towards the improvement of processes, being used to maintain consistency, reduce expenditures, and ensure production within the schedule baseline. The systems, products, and processes are continually improved by the implementation of best practices, like modern manufacture techniques, use of primavera project management software including Primavera P6, and the use of proper quality control techniques.

Increase In Production

Improved production is achieved due to proper evaluation techniques being applied, and better training of the employees. A strict process control is directed towards performance consistency, and less scrap. Supervisors experience less late night problematic phone calls, since the employees are trained on troubleshooting.

Less Rework

Quality is measured continuously due to the appropriate procedures that ensure immediate corrective actions on occurrence of defects. Since efforts are directed towards quality products, rework due to warranty claims is minimized. This reduction increases customer confidence, and increase in business.

Increased Financial Performance

The discipline of quality includes the efforts directed towards the improvement of processes, being used to maintain consistency, reduce expenditures, and ensure production within the schedule baseline. The systems, products, and processes are continually improved by the implementation of best practices, like modern manufacture techniques, use of primavera project management software including Primavera P6, and the use of proper quality control techniques.

Increase In Market Share

Other quality management system benefits include proper management of project risks and costs, and identification of development prospects. This results in an increase in market share and reputation, and capability to react to industry opportunities.

Improvement In Internal Communications

The quality management system emphasizes the issues related to operations management. This encourages frequent interaction between project departments or groups, and promotes harmony. All these factors contribute to improved quality, and customer satisfaction.

Implementation Of Quality Management System

An efficient quality management system should initially accurately determine the expectations and needs of the customers, and subsequently transform this into quality products. For the successful implementation of a TQM system, it is essential that the  executive management should provide full support and leadership, provision of a suitable quality policy, and establishment of measurable goals. The project management team should be involved in the quality system, and suitable training be arranged to enhance the skills. A useful system should be a tactical tool that is intended to facilitate the achievement of project goals. Evaluation of the usefulness, efficiency, and ability of a quality management system is crucial. Review and examination should be performed regularly to audit the quality requirements, achievement of the project objectives, and ensuring customer satisfaction. This review will ensure that the quality management system benefits are being fully obtained, and amendments in the system are implemented wherever necessary.

Evolution of Quality Control

DEFINING QUALITY:

Quality can be quantified as follows Q = P / E

where,

Q = Quality

P = Performance

E = Expectation

THE DIMENSION OF QUALITY

IMPORTANT POINTS TO BE NOTED WHILE QUALITY PLANNING :

1. Business, having larger market share and better quality, earn returns much higher than their competitors.

2. Quality and Market share each has a strong separate relationship to profitably.

3. Planning for product quality must be based on meeting customer needs, not just meeting product specifications.

4. For same products. We need to plan for perfection. For other products, we need to plan for value.

BASIC CONCEPT OF TQM

1.  A committed and involved management to provide ling term, top to bottom organizational support.

It is useless to embark on a quality journey without the top management‘s commitment to quality. Top management must participate in the quality programme. They must also participate on quality improvement teams and also act as coaches to other teams

2. An un – wavering focus on the customer both internally and externally. The employees of the organization in the first place. Mangers must listen to the suggestions and recommendations made by the employees to improve quality.

This aspect of listening to the voice of customers leads to the emphasis of design quality and defect the prevention.

3. Effective involvement and utilization of entire workforce.

TQM is everyone‘s responsibility in an organization. All workers in and organization must be oriented towards TQM and all personnel must be trained in TQM, statistical process control and other appropriate quality improvement skills.

4. Continuous improvement of the business and production process.

Continuous improvement refers to constant refinement and improvement of products, services and organizational systems to yield improved value to consumers.

Areas such as on-time delivery, scrap reduction, supplier management, customer satisfaction, etc. are good quality projects to begin continuous improvement.

5. Treating suppliers as partner

The traditional relationship between the buyer and the supplier has been adversarial in nature. Each tried to extract the maximum out of each other. There was lack of trust on each other.

To ensure good relationship with suppliers, frequent change of suppliers should be avoided and suppliers should be few in number so that true partnering can occur.

6. Establishing performance measures for the process.

Performance measure is an integral part of the quality process. If an organization cannot measure its progress, it is useless for it to go on a quality journey. Performance measures such as percentage of non conformance, absenteeism, customer satisfaction, etc., should be determined for each functional area.

Definition for TQM

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a comprehensive and structured approach to organizational management that seeks to improve the quality of products and services through ongoing refinements in response to continuous feedback.

HISTORICAL REVIEW

^Ø   The concept of specification of labour was introduced during the industrial revolution

^Ø   As a result a worker no longer made the entire product, only a portion. This change brought about a decline in workmanship

^Ø   Because productivity increased there was a decrease in cost, which result in lower customer expectations

^Ø   As products become more complicated and jobs more specialized, it became necessary to inspect product after manufacturing

^Ø   In 1942 W.A. Shewhart of Bell Telephone Laboratories developed a statistical chart for the control of product variables. This is beginning of SQC

^Ø   In some decade H.F. Dodge and H.G. Romig both of Bell telephone laboratories developed the area of acceptance sampling as a substitute for 100% inspection. It is recognized by 1942

^Ø   In 1946 the American society for Quality Control was formed. Now it is American Society for Quality

^Ø   In 1950 W. Edwards Deming who learned SQC from shewhart, gave a series of lectures on statistical methods to Japanese Engineers

^Ø   Un 1954 Joseph M. Juran made his first trip to Japan and further he emphasized management‘s responsibility to achieve quality

By this concept the Japanese set the quality standard for the rest of the world In 1960 the first quality circles were formed for quality improvement by Japanese workers

^Ø   By 19770‘s and 80‘s U.S. managers were making frequent trips to Japan to learn about the Japanese miracle

^Ø   In 1980‘s the automotive industry began to emphasizes statistical process control (SQC)

^Ø   Emphasis on quality continued in the auto industry in the year 1990‘s. when the Saturn automobile ranked first in customer satisfaction in 1996

^Ø   ISO 9000 became the world wide model for quality system

TQM FRAMEWORK

PRINCIPLES OF TQM

1.  Customer focus

2.  Leadership

3.  Involvement of people

4.  Continuous improvement/ long-term

5.  Systematic improvement/ approach

6.  Problem prevention

7.  Quality as everyone‘s job

8.  Mutually beneficial

THE DEMING PHILOSOPHY

In 1950 he taught SPC concepts and the importance of quality to the leading CEO‘s

of Japanese industry. He developed the following fourteen points as a theory for management for improvement of quality productivity and competitive position.

1.Create and publish the aims and purposes of the organization

Organization must develop a long term view at least 10 yrs Plan to stay in business by setting long range goals

Resources must be allocated for research, training and continuing education to achieve the goals

Innovation in promoted to ensure that the product or services does not become absolute

Organizational philosophy is developed to send the message that everyone is part of the organization

2.Learn the new philosophy

Organization must seek never-ending improvement and refuse to accept non-conformance.

Customer satisfaction is the number one priority

The organization must concentrate on defect prevention rather that defect detection.

Everyone should involved in the quality journey and change his or her attitude about quality

Supplier must help to improve quality

Share the information relative to customer expectations

3.Understand the purpose of inspection

Mass inspection is costly and un reliable it is replace by statistical techniques It is required for self and supplier

Mass inspection is managing for failure and defect prevention is managing for success.

4.Stop awarding business based on price alone

Awarding business based on the low bid, because price has no meaning without quality

To examine how customer expectations are affected and provide feedback to the supplier regarding the quality

5.Improve constantly and forever the system

Management must have take more responsibility for problems by actively finding and correcting problemsSo that quality and productivity are continually and permanently improved and costs are reduced.

The focus is preventing problems before they happen.

Responsibility is assigned to teams to remove the causes of problems and continually improve the process.

6.Institute training

Employee must be oriented Management must allocate resources to train employee to perform their jobs Everyone should be trained in statistical methods and monitor the need for further training.

7.Teach and institute leadership

Improving supervision is management‘s responsibility Training in statistical methods Supervisors not focusing on negative fault findings,

He create positive supportive Communication must be clear from the top management to supervisor and to operators

8.Drive out fear, create trust and create a climate for innovation.

By providing workers with adequate training, good supervision and proper tools to do the job as well as removing physical dangerous.

When people are treated with dignity fear can be eliminated and people will work for the general good of the organization.

This climate will provide ideas for innovations and improvement.

9.Optimize the efforts of teams, groups, and staff areas.

Barriers internally like levels of management among department within department etc. Barriers externally like with customers and suppliers The barriers exist because of poor communication, ignorance of the organization mission, completion, fear and personal grudges. To overcome these attitudes need to be changed communication channel opened, project teams organized, training for teamwork.

10.Eliminate exhortations for the work force

Exhortations that ask for increased productivity without providing specific improvements methods They do not produce a better product or service, because the workers limited by the system Improvements in the process cannot be made unless the tools and methods are available.

11.a) Eliminate numerical quotas for the work force

Instead of quotas, management must learn and institute methods for improvements. Quotas and work standards focus on quality rather that quality. Quotas should be replaced with statistical method of process control.

b.) Eliminate management by objectives

Management must learn the capabilities of the processes and how to improve them Management by numerical is an attempt to manage without knowledge of what to do

12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship

Loss of pride in workmanship exists throughout organization because Workers do not know how to relate the organization mission

They are being blamed for system problems

Poor designs lead to the production of ―Junk‖

In adequate training is provided

In adequate or in-efficient equipment is provided for

Performing the required work.

13. Encourage Education and self-improvement for everyone

What an organization need is people who are improving with education

A long term commitment to continuously train and educate people must be made by management

Everyone should be retained as the organization requirements change to meet the changing environment

14. Take action to accomplish the transformation

Management has to accept the primary responsibility for the never ending improvement of the process.

Management must be committed, involved and accessible if the organization is to succeed in implementing the new philosophy.

BARRIERS / OBSTACLES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF TQM

Lack of management commitment

The management commitment should be clearly communicated both verbally and in action to the organization.

If the workers feel that the management is doing only the talking about no action is initiated on TQM then they too will lack necessary commitment and motivation to implement TQM principles.

Inability to change organizational culture

The past culture should be unlearned and the new culture should be learnt. This gives rise to enormous resistance to change from the employees.

It is very difficult for an organization to make a culture change.

Improper planning

When planning for TQM all the constitutes should be involved in the development of the implementation plan and any modification that occur as the plan evolves. Rapid planning will ensure that the TQM fails.

Planning should be done on the customer front, employee‘s front and the supplier front.

Lack of continuous training and education

Training and education is an ongoing process for everyone in the organization. The training needs of the employees must be determined and a plan should be developed to satisfy those needs.

Training and education are most effective when senior management conducts the training programme based on the principles of TQM

Incompatible organizational structures and isolated individuals and department

Lack of co ordination and difference of opinion among departments and individuals in an organization will create implementation problems.

The use of multifunctional teams can help to break this barrier.

Restructuring of the organization may be needed to make the organization more responsive to the needs of the customers.

Ineffective measurement techniques and lack of access to data and results

In order to improve the process, one has to measure the present position. Mechanisms to measure the present position should be available in the organization.

Once the measurement is done the data should be made available to the necessary mangers to make decisions.

Any clogging of data to the managers will become a barrier to TQM implementation.

Playing inadequate attention to internal and external customers

Organizations have to understand the changing needs and expectations of the customers both internal and external.

Effective feedback mechanisms that provide data for decision making are necessary for this understanding.

One way to overcome this is to give the right people in the organization, a direct access to the customers.

Inadequate use of empowerment and teamwork

Individuals should be empowered to make decisions and take responsibility to make decisions that affect the efficiency of the process of production.

Teams should be formed and need to have proper training. The team‘s recommendations should be adopted whenever possible.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF JURAN‟S :

1.  Identify customers

2.  Determine customer needs

3.  Translate

4.  Establishment units of measurement

5.  Establish measurements

6.  Develop product

7.  Optimize product design

8.  Develop process

9.  Optimize process capability

10.              Transfer

CONTRIBUTIONS OF CROSBY‟S :

1.  Management commitment

2.  Quality improvement team

3.  Quality measurement

4.  Cost of quality evaluation

5.  Quality awareness

6.  Corrective action

7.  Zero defect program

8.  Supervisor training

9.  Zero defects day

10.              Goal setting

11.              Error cause removal

12.              Recognition

13.              Quality councils

14.              Do it over again