TQM TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Are you struggling with customer’s satisfaction???? Then you definitely know concepts of  TQM [Total Quality Management]. REMEMBER…… Total Quality management is defined as a continuous effort by the management as well as employees of a particular organization to ensure long term customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Remember, one happy and satisfied customer brings ten new customers along with him whereas one disappointed individual will spread bad word of mouth and spoil several of your existing as well as potential customers.

Let us understand the importance of Total Quality Management through a case study.

Imagine what would happen if an emergency service neglected to attend to issues of quality. The following scene illustrates how professionals in the public sector make quality a priority:

The warning bell in the District Fire Hall sounds as John shakes himself awake. It is 3:00 am and two alarm fire is burning out of control in a retired people’s home a mile away. The on-duty fire crew slowly pull themselves from their warm home a mile away. The on-duty fire crew slowly pull themselves from their warm cots and fumble for their coats and boots. “Where are my gloves ?” wonders John as he saunters towards Engine #1. Recently he noticed that the old fire engine has been giving signals of battery failure. :Should report that”, thought John idly.

John gives a final try to secure a water hose on the truck. A loose nozzle falls falls from the attached hose and clatters to the floor.  “Should fix that,” he mutters, as he climbs into th cab and yells for everyone to climb aboard. The crew grumbles as they climb on the tail board. Joe appears, looking sleepy and confused.

“Hey,  Joe, this is the real thing, “yells John, slightly annoyed. John turns the key to start the engine and it grinds hesitantly, then dies. “Shoul get this fixed,” Patrick growls. “Okay, everyone, battery trouble. Unload and reload on Engine # 2

Engine #2 swings slowly from the firehouse. Joe hangs precariously from the safety bar scratching his head. “I sure thought this was a false alarm”.

According to this case the district fire brigade was facing many problems like

• No clear guidelines for quality standards
• Poor maintanance
• Poor team spirit
• Inadequate training
• No sense of urgency
• Lack of communication
• Unconcerned leadership
• No preventive thinking

WHAT IS TQM  [TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT]

First of all let us understand what is quality??

• Quality can be defined as an attribute which differentiates a product or service from its competitors.
• Quality refers to superiority or inferiority of a product or service.
• Business marketers need to emphasize on quality of their brands over quantity to survive the cut throat competition.

TQM

TQM  is the totally integrated effort for gaining competitive advantage by continuously improving every fact of an organization’s activities.

TQM can be defined as

TOTAL – Everyone associated with the company is involved in continuous improvement including its customers and suppliers if feasible.

QUALITY – Customer’s expressed and implied requirements are met fully.

MANAGEMENT– Executives are fully committed

Total Quality Management provides the overall concept that fosters continuous improvement in an organization. The Total Quality Management  philosophy stresses a systematic, integrated, consistent, organization-wide perspective involving everyone and everything. It focuses primarily on total satisfaction for both the internal and external customers, within a management environment that seeks continuous improvement of all systems and processes. The key aspects of Total Quallity Management are the prevention of defects and emphasis on quality in design.

CONCEPTS OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

THE  QUALITY MANAGEMENT CHAIN

• There is a series of supplier/customer relationships which serves as imporatant interfaces in the quality chain.
• Failure to meet requirements in one part of quality chain will affect the other
• For example –  if the sales department has promised a certain delivery date, and the productiondepartment fails to comply, then both the internal and external customer will be dissatisfied. The cause of nonconformance could be production, marketing or both due to poor communication. To avoid this Total Quality Management needs to be practiced throughout the organization.

EIGHT STAGES OF THE INDUSTRIAL CYCLE

A product should go through above mentioned stages before reaching consumer’s hand.

• To make sure that the right products are produced at the first time with defect, co-ordination between all the stages is important. As a result Total Quality Management is the means to ensure that customers will get what they want right first time, each time and every time.

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT GUIDELINES

• Total quality management ensures that every single employee is working towards the improvement of work culture, processes, services, systems and so on to ensure long term success and for this there is a list of tools and techniques suggested by the ISO 9004-4 as follows:

•  Benchmarking
• Process flowchart
• Data collection form
• Histogram
• Pareto analysis
• Cause and effect diagram
• Scatter Diagram
• Control Chart

So after knowing all about TQM and customer satisfaction, this concept can help you for your future success.