Total Quality Management - Case Study Example

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT 1. Introduction Attainment of Total Quality is often the goal of traditional manufacturing firms but not all of them succeed despite the enormous effort. Company A is one example how Total Quality can fail after a years of implementation. Although some of the initiatives of Company A were successful, the progress suddenly plateaud due to fatal flaws in Total Quality implementation. The following sections are analysis case study 38 which describes the problems in Total Quality implementation at Company A. These would answer three important questions associated with Company A’s Total Quality initiative and the findings and recommendations of the study group. 2. The most likely approach used for quality management systems & processing before implementation of TQ started. An examination of the quality management systems and processing before the implementation of TQ started suggest that Company A’s management failed to apply the very basic of Total Quality– “genuine commitment”. For instance, although it had put quality as a priority in all its efforts, management still prioritize quantity over quality in most cases. The process of introducing new product often takes time thus incurring additional expenses. There was no real commitment in establishing strict monitoring as evidence by late modifications or and large rectifications in different areas of the business. Finally, SPC was introduced but only a few really knows how to use or implement it. There are actually a number of things that the company’s management failed to realize due partial commitment. For instance, the recommendation of the study group suggest that there are quality features that were not done applied correctly such as the role of supervisor and shop-floor control. Most of the working practices are still traditional or has returned to it thus there is a need to once again improve and intensify control. Performance of suppliers was never monitored and some who are demonstrating poor quality performance are still connected with the company. Similarly, there are insufficiency in the implementation of design and preventive maintenance. Clearly, the company attempted to implement Total Quality approach in the wrong way as evidence by the fatal flows in the planning and implementation of such approach. This is the primary reason why it had plateaued and stayed in this level despite the enormous effort. The study group did notice these flaws and reiterate the need to conform to single management quality philosophy and real commitment from everyone. According to Oakland (2003, p.31), implementing Total Quality requires organization-wide commitment and the initiative must come from its management. The company management who truly wants a positive change should be serious enough to instil quality among their subordinates. Similarly, the middle-management to whom which the executives depends must be able to grasp the principles of Total Quality so that they can accurately transfer them to their people. More importantly, their commitment to the program must be demonstrated or communicated otherwise quality will not spread throughout the organization. To ensure lasting commitment of everyone, the management may opt to recognize and reward those who are active and support the company’s initiative. The existing management culture is seen as the major barrier in Company A’s total quality aspirations. In fact, even in the process of improving the system, the culture often reveals itself to challenge change. For instance, the quality teams proposal to adopt the Deming’s’ 14 principles was challenged by some board members as they are so different from what they usually believed. This is clearly an indication that the first Total Quality implementation was affected and suffered the consequences of resistance to change particularly from the most unlikely people like the members of the board. For instance, the change process was planned and implemented as shown in Figure 38.2 of the case study and this include education and training from the top to bottom of the organizational hierarchy. However, since some the board members who were trained and suppose to transfer what they learn down to the hierarchy were not so serious about the change, attitude change did not occur. As evidenced by the failure to follow up the training with tools and techniques and the absence of a system to support the new quality philosophy, the plan simply did not work as expected. The second of the plan’s four fronts of the change process is to ensure quality planning and focus. It is here where SPC and other quality initiatives are suppose to occur but it transpired as a problem rather than a solution. For instance, since most the processes were insufficiently controlled, the management cannot pursue with its monitoring, appraisal, and reward system. Consequently, most of those who deserved to be rewarded for their active participation were left unrecognized and pushed back to previous traditional practices. Performance appraisal is more effective when done along with the objectives of the company thus is should applied individually. Moreover, because correct appraisal of individual often results to quality work and subsequent customer satisfaction, the objectives of the company should align to this purpose. For instance, developing skills and abilities of employees required to do their job well can enhance collective responsibility (Omachonu & Ross 2005, p.88). Although the Deming principle implies that organizations can do away without appraisal requirements, deletion of such process is in reality undesirable or impractical. According to Sashkin & Kiser (1993, p.95), it is the use of quality information that is damaging and not appraisal and the corresponding reward. This is because most culture requires that individuals be rewarded for their outstanding achievements. However, in TQM, this reward must be given in ways consistent and supportive of TQM. For instance, let the employees know their performance level since feedback can help them improve voluntarily. These feedbacks on the other hand must not be judgemental and should be unrelated to the reward system in place otherwise improvements in the quality of performance will be motivated by reward rather than quality requirements. In general, Company A’s failure is not because they adopted the wrong approach but rather implement it in the wrong way. The case study of Company A suggests that the early initiatives were a success and the only problem is that it had stayed that way since then. The recommendation of the study group clearly suggests that the problem was never the approach but poor implementation caused by insufficient commitment from management and reluctance to change by some high level managers and executives. In fact, even in presence of the study group, some members of management demonstrated their lack of knowledge about quality initiatives and sowing the seeds of failure at a very early stage. It is thus safe to assume that properly implemented, the first approach applied could have been a success and Company A could be at this time strongly competing with other world class players. 3. Good and Bad Aspects of the way in which Company A introduced TQ into its operations Some of the major issues in the planning and implementation of Company A’s total quality approach include insufficient commitment of management to quality, failure to introduce new products in the correct manner, poor practices resulting the mass inspection and rectification of large areas of the business, and disorganized use of tools caused by poor training and control. Consequently, these had resulted to poor performance of supervisors particularly in the production area. Like a domino effect, employees at the lower level are not properly controlled and working practices are generally poor. Since the middle management were not properly oriented to the principles of total quality, suppliers with poor quality record were still allowed to transact with the company despite efforts to instil quality throughout the organization. In general, although the company adopted an effective approach to quality management, barriers were not removed and working practices revert to traditional in just a short period of time. These failures are summarised as follows: 3.1 Real Commitment from Management Commitment is one of the most important requirements of Total Quality implementation thus failure to exercise such could mean failure in a larger scale. Commitment from the management team according to (Peratec 1994, p.19) is “the only way to implement and maintain the culture” required for total quality thus commitment should be present throughout the organisation. These include every person in the organization particularly the top management who will provide the resources for such initiatives. This commitment starts with the recognition and acceptance of change that would vary from one organization to another. Deep commitment is required at all levels to enable changes to get through. However, one of the problems when implementing change comes from the expectation of individuals within the organization such as the need to demonstrate that top management is really serious about the change. For instance, if employees detect that the total quality program is just a quick fix then they are more likely to see quality as a temporary initiative rather than a long-term goal. Similarly, if they detect that top management is not serious enough, then quality will not be taken seriously and the whole program will likely to go to waste. According to Hakes (1991, p.56), issuing quality policy statements is not sufficient thus top management should consider their strength and convincing power when launching total quality initiatives. One of the workaround is to lead by example and demonstrate that management is really serious in its quality programs. These include showing the employees that management is ready to provide the resources and training and committed to take on whatever challenges lies ahead. Emphasizing the importance of employee’s participation to the success of the program can greatly improve management-staff relationship. Similarly, open communication can greatly enhance understanding particularly of issues involved in total quality implementation. In this manner, management will likely win and maintain the commitment of their employees. What had happened to Company A is a serious breach of management commitment to total quality. For instance, given that the quality initiatives and commitment went through down to production floor, management’s insistence on quota rather than quality will give an impression that the management is not really serious about its total quality initiative. Some employees on the other hand might think that the quality program is over or just a quick fix that already expired. Similarly, if quality implementation requirements of employees are not being supported on time or in quantity, people in the production will likely to revert to traditional practices since it is the only way they can do their job. As noted in the case study, management did preached doing things right the first time but never practice them and as evidenced by the continued mass inspection and rectification, employees were clearly not given the proper training, requirements, and control they need. Logically, if one program is implemented throughout the company, it should be supported by training and resources otherwise none can be achieved. Company A seems convinced that preaching or telling their employees what to do is enough to get things done. The mass rectification is a good example of the effect of insincerity and lack of commitment as it will not occur if preventive maintenance were disciplined and controlled properly. Lack of commitment clearly affects the initiatives of the people working at the lower level and for this reason; Company A should consider re-introducing a new Total Quality initiative. This time it must be an initiative with genuine commitment and top management that unanimously accept the essential changes. A management not only interested in quota but on the benefit of quality products. The initiative should avoid mass rectification and consider the importance of monitoring and identification of problem areas at earliest time. More importantly, it should be an initiative that believes in consistency and continuous improvement. Company A is one enthusiastic company thus achieving total quality is a reality provided it follows proper implementation and commits itself to the challenges involved. 3.2 Actual working practices are against the quality philosophy It is somewhat clear in the case study that Company A’s management is a type of management that view quality improvement as a goal that can be achieved overtime. For instance, despite the failure of the firth total quality implementation, management is still insisting that implementation of the new quality initiative should start after a few months. Although some top management are completely convinced of TQ’s ability to enhance the company’s performance, the quick fix attitude of the managing director when he stated that “we do things quicker here. We’ll do it in two” seems much more a barrier than help. Moreover, some board members were total unconvinced of TQ and not interested in discussing some important issues. Apparently, these types of attitudes were in existence before the first TQ implementation and contributed to the downfall of the first initiative. Philosophy and organization practices should go together to achieve TQ (Subburaj 2005, p.3) but in the case of Company A, philosophy and practices is already separated before TQ can begin. How can TQ succeed when some members of top management are already opposing and have no genuine interest in pursuing TQ. Company A indeed is a unique company requiring much more before any TQ can begin. First of all, it is obvious that seeds of failure is being planted at the very start thus to avoid repeated failure TQ process should start concentrating on the management itself. The failure of Company A’s first attempt can be attributed to the very people expected to demonstrate loyalty and commitment to the philosophy. The same people who are expected to set an example for their employees and pursue the objectives to the very end. How can anyone expect success when some board members do not believe in? From the employees’ point of view, it may be possible that they will regard TQ as something that can be taken voluntarily where someone can opt out of the program and remain in traditional practices. Similar to some board members, some employees particularly those that are in the supervisory position adopt a different perspective and perform their work against the philosophy. According to Jurow & Barnard (1993, p.165), the real challenge when implementing TQ is changing ways since in order to succeed each individual in the organization must stand for and do what they have to do. The problem is if one of the leaders had adopted a different view he will also stand for it and do what he has to do. This is the reason why everyone should be one hundred percent committed to the philosophy and goals of TQ. Similarly, TQ in Company A should not start for as long as there are people who are not fully convinced particularly in top level management. Resistance to change is major problem particularly when a company is attempting a complete restructuring. Resistance to change can result to lack of cooperation as being demonstrated by some of Company A’s top executives. The reasons for such resistance according to Schiller et al (1994, p.210) may include fear of losing position or much loved activities, inconvenience, changes in relationship, and personal ideas that they think is more appropriate than the proposed solution. However, this does not necessarily mean that some board members of Company A are irrational because resistance according to Plenert (2002, p.322) is a rational behaviour particularly when it is going to affect how one would perform their job. Moreover, not all change are perceived good change and sometimes the way the change is being introduce make it look bad in the eye of employees. There must be something wrong in the way TQ is being introduced in Company A that makes some board members lukewarm in their reception of new ideas. Sometimes top executives do not want to be told what to do with their company particularly when it is coming from less experienced study group. It should be noted that the first attempt in TQ was partly successful and the only problem is that it never get off that far. For this reason, some board members may be only exhibiting expressed resistance due to perceived intimidation and seniority complex but in their mind they really want change. It is therefore logical to take the matter slowly to these executives since they need a lot of convincing than others. It may be best to show them some examples of successful TQ oriented companies rather than attempting to introduce principles from a guru like Deming. Company A as far as its management is concern is a real-life company where mistake can cause them a lot of money thus everything should be clear and convincing. 3.3 Failure to Monitor and Appraise Progress Company A started their very first Total Quality initiative with enthusiasm and planning but it never reached the goal intended. The primary reason for such failure as stated in the case study is failure to inconsistencies in implementation. For instance, some of the initiatives undoubtedly yield some benefits while others failed. The success and failure suggest that there are inconsistencies somewhere in the Company but it was never identified. The reason probably is the lack of appropriate monitoring and assessment of the activities and progress of the TQ initiative. If there were some consistent monitoring done, success will be throughout the Company rather than few selected areas. For this reason, it can be assumed that monitoring and assessment were never done as it should be. Communication is the key to establishing a relationship and it also a way of ensuring feedback Once this is established, monitoring the success or failure of a program will be easy (Gordon 2010, p.59). Communication is critical since it can help create a climate of constant improvement and in monitoring quality (Grunig 1992, p.244). It is therefore necessary to communicate and learn from the feedback. In contrast lack of communication can suppress critical information that may be helpful for the program. In the same manner, discouraging feedback can lead to different operational problems such as those that happened in Company A. For instance, the large-scale rectification is clearly a product of poor communication or absence of important feedback from the production side. Many would agree that large problems begin with small ones that accumulated in the passing of time. If there is sufficient monitoring and immediate support from management, small problems can be address instantly and the need for large-scale rectification will never happen. For example, customer often complain if a certain product is defective and marketing people will be the first to know which part of the product is poor in quality. If this information stayed in the marketing department no one will know that modification is required. Similarly, if no monitoring is being done, nobody will act accordingly. In the absence of this critical information management will never know that there is a quality problem until it’s too late and the cost of modification or rectification is much higher. Company A’s TQ initiative plateaued because the progress of the programme was never monitored properly. If it was then progress would climb up as every problem being encountered can be solve immediately and quality will never suffer. Development of communication and feedback system can solve organizational problems as wells keeping employees inform of organizational plans and development. Moreover, monitoring activities that are associated with the ongoing initiative can result to service and product improvement thus advantageous to the company. The benefits may include less rework, improved capacity, fewer returned products, and more earnings through lower cost of quality (Pekar 1995, p.24). 3.4 Good Aspect of Company A’s Total Quality initiatives Although it never reach that far, the Total Quality initiative of Company A is not that bad as many would think. As mentioned earlier, it was a successful program until something went wrong. The initiative first of all was planned in a manner that most of the good aspects of TQ were incorporated. In fact, the study group reported that the company manage to handle corporate missions, goals and values effectively. Statistical process Control or SPC was introduced and appraisal and reward system were put in place. Training and education was a huge success except for philosophy training which is dependent on attitude change. In general, the enthusiasm and initial effort was there but since there was resistance to change, the whole idea never went too far. The study group identified the main problem and this primarily includes barriers in cultural change and its impact on the operating philosophy and company policy. The study specifically mentioned the attitude of some board members preventing functional efforts to get through. This is also the reason why philosophy training did not succeed and subsequently affected other aspects of TQ. The purpose of philosophy training is to clearly communicate the importance of training which is often done with conviction (Wills 1998, p.10). However, this cannot be done by simple communication particularly when the audience is not listening. There has to be some form of acceptance to change before any effort regarding the importance of training can get through. Apparently, the negative attitude of some board members went as far as influencing the course of the initiative up to its very end. In re-introducing Total Quality as indicated by the study group, Company A should ensure that all members are fully convinced and ready to commit themselves to the initiative otherwise they will get the same result. Apparently, they should not start the initiative until all are in place including those being recommended by the study group. 4. Recommendation to Senior Management of Company A (Quality Strategy, Systems and Process, and Quality Tools). Recommending or introducing a certain quality management process to Company A requires an analysis of the present system and its problems. For this reason, details cited by the study group will be use to derive a certain conclusion about Company A. The company first and foremost is very much enthusiastic about Total Quality initiatives and therefore need not much convincing. However, there should be some special technique when dealing with some senior management who seems to be resisting any new idea. Being familiar with Company A, it is safe to recommend TQM or Total Quality Management. Total Quality Management is not an ordinary Total Quality initiative since it can only be achieve by long-term planning. Similarly, quality is just part of Total Quality Management since it also involves a change in corporate culture towards continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. In TQM, quality is always directed towards customer satisfaction while Total Quality is identified with low cost. Moreover, TQM is founded on the principle that total quality can be achieved through complete and active participation (Dahlgaard et al 2005, p.16). The reasons for recommending include the reality that the failure of the Company A’s first Total Quality initiative is culture-related. TQM can help ensure change in corporate culture and facilitate active participation from all levels of the organizational hierarchy. More importantly, Company A have known to have failed in continuing its desired improvement which TQM is designed for. TQM according Kanji (1995, p.3) is about performance improvement by everybody in the organization. Therefore, it requires people to know what they should do, how do it, when and where to do it, acquire the right tools to do it, and be able to measure send and receive feedback from performance and achievements. The general principles of TQM such as satisfying customers, management by fact, people based management, and continuous improvement will guide Company A into achieving their long term total quality goals. What makes TQM different from other processes is its emphasis on continuous improvement which makes it far from being a quick fix or a short term initiative. It should be noted that the analysis of the study group include the following major failures – training tools and techniques, lack of commitment from top management, monitoring and control, and resistance to change which are all under the general principles of TQM. For instance, the lack of training and techniques can be achieved through management by fact as such inadequacy cannot be ignored. In addition, continuous improvement will force management to provide the necessary resources and skills. People management can help eliminate the lack of commitment, resistance to change and the problems associated with monitoring and control. More importantly, TQM will never allow any total quality initiative to continue without a desirable corporate culture matching the initiative. In this manner, Company A will go by the principles since any diversion can lead to failure. TQM is more like common sense than a complex process because it simply focuses the company to its customers and aligns the behaviour of individuals to the organizational goals. More importantly, it holds the principle that nothing will happen unless somebody do it. The quality strategy therefore is to adopt the principles of TQM and let Company A understand the fundamentals and concepts of TQM. The next move is to emphasise the need for a matching corporate culture which everybody is required to participate otherwise subsequent initiative will never push through. Adopting this principle ensures that those who still resist the change accept the idea before anything can proceed. The strategy is to let them realize that they are the barriers and their presence is preventing the progress of the company. Once accepted and their cooperation is ensured, the process can now proceed to its next stage – management by fact. Management can now proceed identifying each and problem existing within the company and provide the necessary resources to improve or modify them. These include providing training to areas where total quality activities are required such as the shop-floor and marketing. Clearly, as the principle dictates management should not ignore anything for as long as their facts to support that improvement are required in a particular area. During the implementation, management should always consider feedbacks (as a result of people management) since these are facts that can help improve management decisions. Similarly, middle management should treat higher management decisions as facts and sincerely implement whatever is required. These would enable production to take the initiative seriously resulting to better performance and quality. As mentioned earlier, the aim of people management is to eliminate the lack of commitment as well as problems associated with monitoring and control. At this stage, management will concentrate on ensuring that people at all levels are informed of the initiative including placing control mechanism at every level. They must ensure coordination and involvement among individuals or group and listen to feedbacks coming from them. During the TQM implementation, continuous monitoring and control is essential since this would determine the success of the continuous improvement principle mentioned earlier. For instance, getting feedback or timely information from the shop-floor can help management identify problem areas or quality improvement required. Similarly, getting customer feedback from sales or marketing can help management determine the exact needs of customers or any improvement required by a certain product. Since the recommended process is TQM, the core tools will be a straightforward approach to using reliable empirical evidence and basis for management decisions. This would enable the company to identify the organisations customers and their needs, the existing processes that needs to be modified and align with these needs, the improvement required and the means to use it in order to serve customers better (Johnson et al 2003, p.220). The above approach is in fact covered in TQM’s management by facts and people management mentioned early. Reliable empirical evidence as well as the means to enable continuous improvement is produced from monitoring and control and people management respectively. This tool will provide Company A with exact and accurate figures and reliable data it can use to facilitate a study where it can based its decisions for improvement. More importantly, since it’s based on fact, the company can serve its customers better and produce quality products. In summary, the recommend total quality management process for Company A is TQM. The decision was based on the total quality implementation problems presented by the study group which in analysis match those that TQM can provide. The primary focus is the establishment of a desirable corporate culture and elimination of resistance. Once they are all in place, other suitable TQM principle will be applied until the company reach the point where it can effectively manage continuous improvement. The emphasis at this point is on continuous improvement as this is where Company A failed during the implementation process. It suddenly stopped improving after a few years due to the lack of monitoring and control. 5. Conclusion Company A’s Total Quality initiative did not achieved the expected outcome but instead remains in an uncompetitive level after two years. The reasons for such failure are lack for genuine commitment from management and the continued resistance to change by some board members. The failure in monitoring and control is due to the above mentioned problems including the deficiencies found in training and in the shop-floor. Some of the findings of the study group points to the need to improve the fundamentals of the business and establishment of much better control of each operational function. There are numerous quality-related issues found but the most noticeable is the inconsistencies in the implementation Total Quality in the area of design, production, preventive maintenance, and discipline. The recommended quality management process is TQM since it can match the problems identified with Company A which primarily needs a desirable corporate culture, commitment, and continuous improvement. References: Dahlgaard J., Kristensen K., & Kanji G., 2005, Fundamentals of Total Quality Management: Process Analysis and Improvement, Routledge, UK Gordon M., 2010, Total Quality Process Control for Injection Molding, Wiley-Interscience, 2010, UK Grunig , 1992, Excellence in public relations and communication management, Routledge, UK Hakes C., 1991, Total quality management: the key to business improvement : a Pera International executive briefing, Springer, US Harrison A., 1992, Case 38 – Problems in Total Quality Implementation at Company A, Case Date 1992. Johnson S., Libicki M, & Treverton G., 2003, New challenges, new tools for defense decision making, Rand Corporation, US Jurow S. & Barnard S., 1993, Integrating total quality management in a library setting, Routledge, UK Kanji G., 1995, Total quality management: proceedings of the first world congress, Springer, UK Oakland J., 2003, Total quality management: text with cases, Butterworth-Heinemann, US Omachonu V. & Ross J., 2005, Principles of Total Quality, CRC Press, US Pekar J., 1995, Total quality management: guiding principles for application, ASTM International, US Peratec, 1994, Total quality management: the key to business improvement, Springer, Germany Plenert G., 2002, International operations management, Copenhagen Business School Press DK, Denmark Sashkin M. & Kiser K., 1993, Putting total quality management to work: what TQM means, how to use it, & how to sustain it over the long run, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, UK Schiller M. & Miller-Kovach K., & Miller M., 1994, Total quality management for hospital nutrition services, Jones & Bartlett Learning, US Subburaj K., 2005, Total Quality Management, Tata McGraw-Hill, India Wills M., 1998, Managing the training process: putting the principles into practice, Gower Publishing, Ltd., US Read More