TQM: Total Quality Management

TQM is the best business strategy now days. It is the philosophy of management that strives to make the best use of all available resources by preventive management and continual improvement. It is the key business improvement strategy of the future which focuses on identifying requirements of the customer and fulfillment of these requirements. TQM aims to reduce waste, increase quality, ensure total customer satisfaction and ultimately strengthen competitive advantage.

TQM is a systematic approach that considers every interaction between various elements of the organization. Thus the overall effectiveness of the system is higher than sum of individual outputs of different processes.

Purpose of TQM is to provide a quality product/service to customers, which will in turn increase productivity and lower cost. With a higher quality product and lower price, competitive position in market place will be enhanced.

TQM is based upon following principles

  • Leadership
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Employee Involvement
  • Continuous Process Improvement
  • Supplier Partnership
  • Performance Measures
  • Reward and recognition
  • Decisions based on data (rather than intuition or guesswork)

Following are the tools and techniques which are used in TQM

  • Benchmarking
  • Management Systems (QMS/EMS)
  • Quality Function Deployment
  • Quality by Design
  • Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
  • Total Productive Maintenance
  • Statistical Process Control
  • Design of Experiment
  • Six Sigma
  • Lean Management
  • Value Chain Analysis
  • Cause and Effect Diagram
  • Cost of Quality
  • Flowcharting
  • Pareto Analysis

Adopting the TQM philosophy will

  • Make an organization more competitive
  • Establish a new culture which will enable growth and longevity
  • Provide a working environment in which everyone can succeed
  • Reduce stress, waste and friction
  • Build teams, partnerships and co-operation

In brief, Total Quality Management is

  • A philosophy that improves business from top to bottom
  • Process improvement methods that reduce or eliminate problems i.e. non conformance costs
  • Continual Quality Improvement
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Company-wide, every one involved
  • Right first time operation
  • Prevention, not correction
  • Quality at lowest cost
  • Management commitment and Leadership

Benefits of TQM

Following are some of the benefits of Total Quality Management

  • Reduction in waste and rework
  • Increase in process ownership- employee involvement and empowerment
  • Improved customer/supplier relationships (internally & externally)
  • Increased pride of workmanship among individual  workers
  • Streamlined  maintenance  and  production processes
  • Process efficiency leading to improved profit per product or service