Total Quality Management - Essay Example

first Institute Management and Strategy – Total Quality Management Total quality management (TQM) has emerged as one of the most widely recognized and accepted management innovations in recent times. It is based on the premise that business goals and customer needs are closely linked and that meeting both the requirements requires efficient dealing in terms of products/service, employees, operations and costs. These four elements cover all critical functions of an organisation. Hence, Total Quality Management is a concept that helps in promoting efficiency and effectiveness of all business-related activities that add value to the business as well as its customers in the long term. TQM has been adopted by many organisations worldwide and has been defined in multiple ways that suited their businesses. A generalized definition is that of Evans and Dean, which states, ‘TQM is a comprehensive, organisation-wide effort to improve the quality of products and services’ (as qtd in Cooney & Sohal, 34, ch.3). The British Railways Board (1989) defined TQM as ‘the process which seeks to meet and satisfy customer requirements throughout the whole chain of internal and external customers and suppliers’ (Pike and Barnes, 25). The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) defines TQM as a management approach for an organisation, centered on quality, based on participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organisation and to society (Gupta, 113). Emergence of TQM may be traced back to period before the World War II and with American influence on quality assurance principles. Although first put forth by Edwards Deming, who was known as the ‘father of the quality movement,’ TQM principles did not receive much attention at the time. These principles are said to have gained great significance after they were adopted in Japanese management theories, which modified the principles to suit their industries. TQM concepts have reinforced the Japanese management and businesses greatly and have helped the Japanese products enter the world markets. The United States recognized Japanese progress during 1980s and 1990s, and realized the significance of TQM concepts. Since then, the US industries have embraced TQM and re-emerged as global competitors (Daft & Marcic, 33). Deming’s contribution to the elaboration and development of TQM has been profound after advancing Stewhart’s statistical studies through the PDCA cycle (plan, do, check, act), which provided the base for continuous improvement. These statistical methods developed by Stewhart and Deming came to be known as the Statistical Process Control (SPC). The SPC in combination with Elton Mayo’s human relations movement eventually became the theoretical base for TQM (Sallis, 7). From these studies it is clear that TQM is a quality concept that must be applied to every aspect of the business and should be measured and controlled statistically. This means it would also require involvement from all members associated with the business. In short, TQM needs to be applied to the organisational systems, structure, and culture; it would require commitment from management and staff at all levels; it should involve all stakeholders including the external suppliers and vendors. With this concept coming in, quality is seen as a strategic issue and can play a major role in saving huge costs for the company. It involves everyone associated with the organisation. It focuses on continuous improvements, maintaining zero defects, build quality and enhance customer satisfaction. All these achievements become benchmarks for others and help the organisation in sustaining their competitive position in the market and with their customers. TQM has been applied by many organisations with different names, like Leadership Through Quality (Xerox); Quality the ICL Way (ICL); Quality Service Programme (Nat West); Total Quality Culture (Texas Instruments); Total Quality Control (Hewlett-Packard); Total Quality Management (Starbucks) etc (Mukherjee & Kachwala, 88). Starbucks is the coffee company with its businesses in more than 40 countries. This makes application of TQM extremely challenging; yet, Starbucks has recorded immense success by employing TQM concepts. Starbucks has achieved successful implementation of TQM through systematic approach of applying quality controls on inspection of the supplies and finished products through quality control and quality assurance method. Moreover, Starbucks employs effective training procedures to train all its employees on processes and quality control mechanisms. TQM is a strategic move towards managing the business and hence needs systematic approach. Armstrong describes seven critical steps to implementation of TQM in an organisation (p.152). These include, getting top management commitment; understanding customer requirements; designing products with quality, in accordance with customer needs, in mind; designing the process with quality in mind; building teams of empowered employees; tracking the results; and extending these concepts of quality and customer satisfaction to external suppliers and distributors. Integrating such complex, challenging and continuous processes is time consuming and hence integration of TQM in routine business processes should have long-term plan in place. In line with Armstrong’s steps to implementation of TQM, Mukherjee and Kachwala (p.93) have outlined specific pre-requisites for implementation of TQM concepts. These include leadership commitment; quality council for implementation of quality controls; strategic direction towards TQM-oriented vision and values; customer orientation; need-based education and training in TQM concepts and business processes based on these concepts; creating total involvement of employees; supportive culture; teamwork; prevention-based systems so that mistakes/errors are never repeated; recognition and rewards system for performance. The TQM approach that specifically focuses on elimination of wastes is referred to as the Lean methodology. Lean methodology employs specific tools and techniques that aim to eliminate all sorts of wastes or muda, as called in the Japanese management, a zero-defect approach (Ruffa, 85). Mukherjee and Kachwala (p.92) identify seven zeros banner under this concept. Zero-stock through just-in-time process allows elimination of stocking of inventory, which is non-value add activity and also requires space for storage. Elimination of inventory also avoids blocking of money and resources for maintaining the inventory. Secondly, avoiding any sort of internal politics by fostering strong teamwork is extremely important in TQM. Moreover, avoiding any delay in delivery of customer’s order, unnecessary waiting of goods/resources for further processing is an important aspect of lean methodology. This will help in eliminating customer dissatisfaction and also in wastage of time and effort. Avoiding usage of unnecessary resources like paper is critical to avoiding wastage. Elimination of time-wasting activities or events such as technical faults, delay in information cascade, machine/process breakdowns etc can save much time and costs for the business. Elimination of erroneous outcomes, products, services, transactions etc through effective quality control and checking mechanisms at various points can be of great value. Adopting safe and secure working systems, environment, premises etc can help in avoiding mishaps at workplace, thereby eliminating loss of time, resources and costs for the business (Mukherjee and Kachwala, 92). In accordance with these requirements, Starbucks employs specific TQM techniques like the Just-in-time (JIT), employee empowerment, quality inspection, monitoring quality of service, premises, and products; besides these, Starbucks puts additional effort to manage dissatisfied customers. TQM at Starbucks focuses on four main constructs of the business namely product quality, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and strategic business performance. From product quality perspective, Starbucks uses premium quality raw materials such as shade grown coffee products; moreover, it supports all its suppliers through special initiatives that incorporates specific rules and policies for trade and quality maintenance (Austin and Reavis, 27). Secondly, from employee perspective, practices include employee empowerment, regular employee feedback through surveys, fair reward and recognition for performance, providing training and development, upholding workplace policies and respect for employee rights, and ensuring safe and healthy workplace. Its employee empowerment is achieved through practices such as encouraging its partners to keep in mind its mission statement, monitoring management decisions, submitting comments and questions if they encounter anything that runs counter to any of the six points of their mission (Anderson & Vincze, 26). Thirdly, customer satisfaction is the priority at Starbucks. Starbucks goal does not stop at providing customers all that they ask for, but going beyond by providing all other unsolicited ingredients such as choice of food and beverages, excellent ambience, value for money and best service, thus leaving no room of choice outside Starbucks, also providing service to customers’ delight. From business process perspective, Starbucks employs unique practices that enhance and reinforce quality in all activities related to the business through continuous improvement, eliminating wastage, JIT supplies etc. In conclusion, TQM is a management strategy that strives to maintain quality in all aspects of business through close working of all sections of the organisation in order to systematically improve quality of products and processes. Through specific approaches, TQM aims to achieve and maintain highest customer satisfaction as well as employee commitment. To achieve such efficiency, involvement by all members of the organisation and advanced technological tools and techniques are required. Success and immense growth of Starbucks is attributed to TQM concepts. However, adoption of TQM concepts has to be systematic and requires involvement and commitment from leadership, employee training, and effective planning. Relationships with suppliers and consultants are also important in order to procure high-quality resources and materials. By applying TQM concepts, organisations not only improve processes and products, but also identify areas that were of no value add or were creating wasteful effort and outputs. Works cited Anderson, Carol H and Julian W Vincze. Strategic Marketing. 2nd ed. USA: Houghton Miffin Co, 2008 Austin, James and Cate Reavis. Starbucks and Conservation International. Case 9-303-055, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2004. Daft, Richard and Dorothy Marcic. Understanding Management. 7th ed. Ohio: South Western Cengage Learning, 2010. Cooney, Richard and Amrik Sohal. The Human Side of Total Quality Management. The essentials of the new workplace: a guide to the human impact of modern working practices. Holman, David J, Toby D Wall, Chris W Clegg, Ann Howard and Paul Sparrow’s (Eds.) West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2005 Gupta, Pranav K. Cost Management: Measuring, Monitoring and Motivating Performance. New Delhi: Global India Publications, 2009. Mukherjee, P.N and T.T. Kachwala, Operations Management and Productivity Techniques. New Delhi, India: PHI Learning, 2009. Pike John and Richard Barnes. TQM in action: a practical approach to continuous performance improvement. 2nd ed. London: Chapman and Hall, 1996. Ruffa, Stephen A. Going lean: how the best companies apply lean manufacturing principles to shatter uncertainty, drive innovation, and maximize profits. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2008. Sallis, Edward. Total quality management in education. 3rd ed. London: Kogan Page Publishers, 2002. Read More