Total Quality Management - Case Study Example

Running Head: TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT Total Quality Management s Total Quality Management Introduction Total Quality management (TQM) has been defined as: "A basic change from what has gone before. The organized analysis continues but the focus switches from a process driven by means of external control through procedure compliance as well as enhancement to a procedure of habitual improvement where control is implanted in and is driven by the culture of the organization" (Slack, Chambers & Johnston 2001). Increased competitive pressures and global markets realities are forcing businesses to rethink and evaluate their competitive strategies and management practices with the aim of improving organizational performance. Defining, implementing and sustaining strategic quality orientation (TQM practices) is seen as the answer to sustained competitive performance. However, many businesses make the effort but fail to fully achieve Total Quality Management. TQM incorporates all the vital concepts of product quality, process control, quality assurance, and quality improvement. Consequently, it is the control of all transformation processes of an organization to better satisfy customer needs in the most economical way. TQM is a technique used by manufacturing and service organizations to meet or exceed the expectations of the customer. The focus of TQM is the customer. In order to satisfy customers, organizations attempt to provide them with quality product or service at the right time and at the right place. A quality product or service has the features, characteristics, and attributes to satisfy a given need. The dimensions of quality are performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, and aesthetic All members of TQM organization strive to systematically manage the improvement of the organization through the ongoing participation of all employees in problem solving efforts across functional and hierarchical boundaries in a way to meet the customer's requirements and expectations Total Quality Management (TQM) Survey Paper The organizations that will be studied in this paper represent the manufacturing sector, non-profit sector, and the service sector. Every one of these economic sectors has diverse values in quality of customer relations, and strategies towards TQM based on their customer needs along with their level of development in their sector. Manufacturing Sector: As of today, successful organizations are extremely driven by consumers, which increase customer satisfaction by providing quality products/services, and meeting target expectations (James 2004). The first focal point representing the manufacturing sector will be the Sunny Fresh Foods Company. Sunny Foods is in the food service industry producing primarily value added egg based foods. Their headquarters is located in Monticello, Maine, and other factories in Big Lake, LAKE ODESA, MI, Mason City, IA, and Panora, IA. Sunny Foods has more than 2,000 consumers, including schools, healthcare, military, and quick service restaurants. They produce more than 160 different goods that are labeled under Sunny Fresh Foods, or privately for other retail marketers and food services. Sunny Foods manufacture fat and cholesterol free products, refrigerated and frozen meals, pre cooked frozen diced or scrambled eggs, peeled hard cooked eggs, frozen liquid egg mixes, and pasteurized eggs, SFF received a Baldrige Award in 1999 in the small business category.. Sunny Fresh Foods currently employs 620 people (called stakeholders). Sunny Fresh Foods Location include: Monticello, MN (headquarters, and plant), Big Lake, MN (Plant), Lake Odessa, MI (Plant), Mason City, IA (Plant), Panora, IA (Plant). Sunny Fresh Foods, Inc. was selected as the 2005 Malcolm Baldrige Award Winner for the manufacturing sector. Consumer driven quality is required in order for SFF to retain its large market share in the wholesale and retail food markets. The company's leadership must insure improvement in their products in order to increase their market share. More specifically, SFF has many stakeholders. Their satisfaction is critical. As such, their needs must be constantly studied and product modified in order to insure complete satisfaction. Service Sector: The second organization of focus is DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations Company (DM) and represents the service sector. DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations Company (DM) is the only management as well as operations contractor used for the Department of Energy's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The SPR is the United States' emergency oil stockpile and is the biggest emergency petroleum supply in the whole world. As the operations as well as maintenance contractor, DM performs each and every task to guarantee the availability of oil upon order of the President by means of supply disruption. DynMcDermott currently employs 554 people. DynMcDermott Locations include: Project management office--New Orleans, La.; oil storage, receipt, as well as delivery locations that are located at Bayou Choctaw and West Hackberry, La., and Big Hill as well as Bryan Mound, Texas; along with a continuity of operations center located at Stennis Space Center, Miss. DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations Company was selected as the 2005 Malcolm Baldrige Award Winner for the services sector. DynMcDermott consumer driven quality is the key to its existence, since the retention of its sole consumer (US Government) is the essential. Leadership must focus on future development and satisfaction of stakeholders inside and outside of government contracts. Non-profit Sector: The third organization of focus is the Jewish Employment and Vocational Service (JEVS) representing the non-profit sector. Based in Philadelphia the Jewish Employment and Vocational Service (JEVS) is a not-for-profit, nonsectarian social service agency that benefits the community by enhancing the employability and self-sufficiency of the people it serves through a broad range of education, training, health and rehabilitation programs. JEVS currently employs 265 people. Unlike the previous two organizations JEVS is not a Malcolm Baldridge award winner, but fashions its management standards by following the ISO 9000 series of standards and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria as models. There are two reasons for this. First, JEVS executives and managers are familiar with them. Second, JEVS stakeholders will recognize compliance with these well-known models as further evidence of JEVS commitment to world-class quality and performance. Jewish Employment and Vocational Service consumer driven quality is the first and foremost driver of their performance. Since JEVS sponsors many social and economic programs the measure of their performance will equal their existence since they are a non-profit organization. Leadership must asses the stakeholder's needs for satisfaction of their needs must be adjusted for new needs, as well as, improving the existing programs. Strategic Role of TQM The strategic role of TQM with the organizations outlined is very similar in some cases, but also a bit different due to the size of the organization, the consumer, and mission and vision of each organization. To compare and contrast the strategic roles within the organizations a matrix will be used compare the following TQM roles: Mission and Vision, Quality and Consumers, Quality and Competitive Advantages, Quality and Management, Quality and workers, Quality and Processes, Quality and Products, Quality and Culture, and Quality Process Improvements (David 2003). Matrix between the Organizations: The matrix some contrasting points between the organizations. One example is, even though DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations rates strong in quality processes, quality management and continuous improvement it is weak in quality product and competitive advantages. Because DM has a single product (labor) which is difficult to handle due to the dynamics of human nature, along with a single consumer (US Government). The complete opposite of the before mentioned example is example Sunny Fresh Foods, they are rated high in quality product along with competitive advantages for the reason that they have a assorted product line and are using research and development to satisfy consumer needs. Finally, as depicted by the total quality management Organization Comparison Matrix even Malcolm Baldrige Award winning companies have room for continuous improvement. It becomes very evident in the matrix findings that TQM roles within organizations can be difficult to implement and sustain based on the economic sector, size of the company, volume of consumers and maturity of the TQM implementation within the organization. Leadership Importance: In each of these organizations, the significance of leadership directly relates to quality, Business and industries are starting to recognize that poor quality costs companies and that enhanced quality of goods and services goes hand in hand by improved productivity, lower costs, and improved profitability. Better management understanding of the factory floor, worker participation in quality, as well as greater importance on statistical process control can lead to remarkable improvements in the cost as well as quality of manufactured goods (Sid 2006). The concept of quality improvement can be directly applied to small companies as well as large, to service industries as well as manufacturing, and to the public sector as well as private enterprise. In order to be victorious, quality improvement programs have to be management-led and customer-oriented, and this might need fundamental modifications in the way companies as well as organizations do business. Conclusion For an organization to be truly effective, every single part of it, each department, each activity and each person and each level, must work properly together, because every person and every activity affects and in turn is affected by others Managers and experts agree about how to effectively apply TQM to their organizations. That customer satisfaction is the driving force behind quality improvement; and internal productivity or cost improvement programs. References David L. Goetsch and Stanley B 2003; Davis Quality Management: Introduction to Total Quality Management for Production, Processing, and Services (4th Edition) James R. Evans 2004; Total Quality: Management, Organization and Strategy South-Western College Pub; 4 edition Sid Kemp 2006; Quality Management Demystified, McGraw-Hill Professional. Slack.N, Chambers.S & Johnston.R 2001; Operation Management, 3rd edition Prentice Hall Read More