Total Quality Management

What is Total Quality Management?


TQM is a management philosophy, a paradigm, a continuous improvement approach to doing
business through a new management model. 
The TQM philosophy evolved from the continuous improvement philosophy with a focus on quality as the main dimension of business. Under TQM, emphasizing the quality of the product or service predominates. TQM expands beyond statistical process control to embrace a wider scope of management activities of how we manage people and organizations by focusing on the entire process, not just simple measurements.

TQM is a comprehensive management system which:


♦ Focuses on meeting owners’/customers’ needs by providing quality services at a cost that
provides value to the owners/customers
♦ Is driven by the quest for continuous improvement in all operations
♦ Recognizes that everyone in the organization has owners/customers who are either internal
or external
♦ Views an organization as an internal system with a common aim rather than as individual
departments acting to maximize their own performances
♦ Focuses on the way tasks are accomplished rather than simply what tasks are accomplished
♦ Emphasizes teamwork and a high level of participation by all employees


TQM beliefs: Presented here are universal total quality management beliefs.

♦ Owner/customer satisfaction is the measure of quality
♦ Everyone has owners/customers; everyone is an owner/customer
♦ Quality improvement must be continuous
♦ Analyzing the processes used to create products and services is key to quality improvement
♦ Measurement, a skilled use of analytical tools, and employee involvement are critical
sources of quality improvement ideas and innovations
♦ Sustained total quality management is not possible without active, visible, consistent, and
enabling leadership by managers at all levels
♦ If we do not continuously improve the quality of products and services that we provide our
owners/customers, someone else will


Deming’s Fourteen Points: 


Presented below are Deming’s fourteen points for total quality management.


⇒ Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service. (Plan to stay in business.)
⇒ Adopt the new philosophy. (Stop tolerating poor quality.)
⇒ Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. (Improve the process.)
⇒ End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone. (Seek longer-term supplier relationships; reduce the number of suppliers.)
⇒ Improve constantly and forever every process in the system of planning, production, and service.
⇒ Institute modern training (for everybody!).
⇒ Institute modern methods of supervision. (The responsibility of foremen must be changed from sheer numbers to QUALITY.)
⇒ Drive out fear. (Encourage employees to speak up.)
⇒ Break down barriers between departments.
⇒ Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force.
⇒ Eliminate work standards that prescribe numerical quotas.
⇒ Remove barriers to pride in workmanship. (Poor supervisors, poor materials, inadequate equipment, lack of training, etc.)
⇒ Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.
⇒ Place everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation and create a structure in top management that will push every day on the above points.



Characteristics of Successful TQM Companies


The construction industry has arrived late to TQM, probably due to the tendency to easily brush aside anything in management that is new, or to dismiss TQM as a fad.

Continuous improvement is not a fad but a necessary part of management’s obligation to properly run its company. Gone are the boom days when quality did not matter due to the volume of work available and the ease of obtaining work. The attitude of construction managers and contractors was simply to add it to the bill, because the owner will pay for it. In other words, in those boom days Cost plus Profit equaled Price. Now, however, the new attitude is Price minus Cost equals Profit. Owners are now demanding higher quality work, and at a lower cost. In attempting to keep pace with the new attitude, a quality management system that helps
keep costs down is well worth implementing.

The characteristics that are common to companies that successfully implement TQM in their daily operations are listed here.


♦ Strive for owner/customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction
♦ Strive for accident-free jobsites
♦ Recognize that the owner/customer provides the revenue while the employees are
responsible for the profit
♦ Recognize the need for measurement and fact-based decision making
♦ Arrange for employees to become involved in helping the company improve
♦ Train extensively
♦ Work hard at improving communication inside and outside the company
♦ Use teams of employees to improve processes
♦ Place a strong emphasis on the right kind of leadership, and provide supervisors with a
significant amount of leadership training
♦ Involve subcontractors and suppliers, requiring them to adopt TQM
♦ Strive for continuous improvement



Quality principles that successful TQM companies recognize


The quality principles that successful TQM companies recognize and attempt to continually incorporate into their actions are the following:

♦ People will produce quality goods and services when the meaning of quality is expressed
daily in their relations with their work, colleagues, and organization.
♦ Inspection of the process is as important as inspection of the product. Quality improvement
can be achieved by the workers closest to the process.
♦ Each system with a certain degree of complexity has a probability of variation, which can
be understood by scientific methods.
♦ Workers work in the system to improve the system; managers work on the system to
improve the system.
♦ Total quality management is a strategic choice made by top management, and must be
consistently translated into guidelines provided to the whole organization.
♦ Envision what you desire to be as an organization, but start working from where you
actually are.
♦ Studies have indicated that people like working on a quality-managed jobsite especially due
to the cleaner site and safer place to work.
♦ Accept the responsibility for quality. Establish datums for measurement.
♦ Use the principle of get it right, the first time, every time.
♦ Understand that quality is a journey, not a destination. It consists of steps that form a
process that is continuous.


What are the Benefits of TQM?



For Management 
♦ Provides an invaluable problem-solving tool for managers and supervisors to use
♦ Dispels negative attitudes 
♦ Management becomes more aware of problems that affect the individual’s work environment
♦ Employees gain a sense of participation
♦ Increases efficiency and productivity
♦ Reduces turnover rate, tardiness, costs, errors, and scrap & rework
♦ Improves communications within and among all departments
♦ Develops management skills that were never taught, or are long forgotten due to lack of application
♦ Develops overall company awareness and company unity
♦ Rearranges priorities which once seemed locked in place
♦ Builds loyalty to the company
♦ Reveals training requirements in all departments
♦ Lessens the number of defects received from suppliers when they are encouraged to train in quality management.


For Employee
♦ Provides opportunity for personal growth and development (as a result of team training activities) and the opportunity to develop and present recommendations
♦ Increases innovation (through a greater variety of approaches and perspectives) for solving problems, removing fear of failure
♦ Employees use their knowledge and skills to generate data-driven recommendations that will lead to well-informed decision making
♦ Encourages decision-making at the most appropriate level
♦ Increases motivation and acceptance of new ideas
♦ Increases job satisfaction (as a result of the opportunity to participate in and have influence over work)
♦ Recognizes employees for their knowledge, skills, and contribution toward improvement
♦ Develops mutual respect among employees, management and customers
♦ Promotes teamwork

The Pitfalls Successful TQM Companies Must Avoid
The transformation to quality is not without its pitfalls. Many companies have started on the road to quality but failed to achieve success due to several factors:


♦ Lack of top management support.
♦ Lack of middle management support.
♦ Commitment in only one department.
♦ Short-term commitment - failure to stay on course.
♦ Haphazard approach - a little of this and that with no meaningful change in the system.
♦ Failure to acquire the services of a competent statistician or to provide statistical training for employees.
♦ Measure success and guide program on the basis of short-term profits.
♦ Failure to solicit worker input.
♦ Over dependence on computerized quality control.
♦ Funding failure - lack of funds to make meaningful changes in the system (i.e., new machinery, training, improved raw materials).
♦ No market research. Not knowing what the requirements are.
♦ no testing of incoming materials - garbage in - garbage out.
♦ Overselling hourly workers - expecting instant pudding.
♦ Adversarial management (management by fear).

Implementing TQM

1. • 1
     Assess the overall health of the company as it currently operates. If conditions such as lack of management skills and poor employee morale currently exist, you must address those problems first for a better chance of success in implementing Total Quality Management.
   • 2
     Study the history of the company in relation to change. If the company has a good track record of responding favorably to changes in the marketplace and making necessary modifications to business practices along the way, it is probably a good candidate to implement Total Quality Management.
   • 3
     Introduce the concept of Total Quality Management to senior level executives. Implementing Total Quality Management can't be delegated, it must be driven by senior management in order to succeed.
   • 4
     Enlist the services of Total Quality Management consultants. They can help you to audit the company in its current state, suggest areas of improvement and provide training to key employees who can then pass along that information to other employees.
   • 5
     Empower the employees to identify needed changes, with the knowledge that management values their ideas. Systems of reward for measurable improvements should be considered. Employees at all levels of the organization must feel that what they do contributes to the customer's satisfaction.
   • 6
     Realize that implementing Total Quality Management is a long process and doesn't happen overnight. But with management commitment, consistent training of employees and an eye on the ultimate goal of retaining satisfied customers, Total Quality Management can be achieved.