Total Quality Management

Total Quality is a portrayal of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that strives to provide customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. This culture requires that quality in all aspects of the organisation be achieved the first time. In other words, defects and waste eradicated from operations is a must in the initial stages of implementing the process.

Hence, Total Quality Management, otherwise known as TQM, is a type of business management strategy that is geared towards ensuring an entire organisation is fully aware of quality in all its processes including products and services. In a sense, ‘Total’ in TQM means the entire organisation is aware of the management process while Q stands for “Quality” which is the perception of a product’s conformance to certain requirements. And, last but not the least, M is the abbreviation used to represent management; that is the act of managing the entire process and organisation. In addition to that,

Implementing Total Quality Management:

The basic underlining principles of any Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy are aimed towards satisfying the customers and suppliers, while continuously improving the entire business processes. Based on that statement, a number of questions usually arise. They could be in the form of:

• How do you satisfy your customers?
• Why should you satisfy your supplier?
• What is continuous improvement?
• How effective is the concept of total quality management? Etc.

Anyway, without further ado, the main principles of Total Quality Management are as outlined below. They are:

• The Level of Commitment within the Management of the organisation. If an organisation is committed towards successful implementation of Total Quality Management, they usually go any length to ensure they are effectively implemented. This part of the principle usually involves the following:

1. Plan – the first step is to plan how to implement your total quality management to ensure everyone is aware of the process.

2. Do – Once a plan’s fully laid out, the next step is to put that plan into action. It involves deploying resources and manpower, supporting the process and actively participating to ensure total quality is attained.

3. Check – Then, there’s the need to ensure the process is being implemented correctly and is effective. This means, there’s the need for management to review each stage to make sure the organisation doesn’t lose its plot.

4.  Act – Upon reviewing, if a step or the entire total quality management process isn’t effective enough, then there’s the need to recognize them. Once recognised, they should be revised and re-implemented until total quality is attained.

 All types of organizations, including manufacturing, education, hospitals, call centres, government, and service industries, are known to have successfully implemented Total Quality Management at some point in time. This means, the concept of total quality management is effective in just about any field or industry; so long as it is implemented correctly.