Total Quality Management at Queens Department Store - Case Study Example

Total Quality Management Queens Department Store Mackay, Queensland Executive Summary The Queens Department Store requires Total Quality Management to achieve its goals. Since TQM requires people committed in improving all aspect of the quality of products and services, a Steering Committee should be created to provide strategic direction to all participating groups. Sufficient preparation is required before any TQM can be implemented thus management should be able to provide the necessary support and resources. These include support for employees training, customer and employees surveys, organisational and operational structure modification, and continuous improvement requirements. Implementation of Total Quality Management can help the organisation regain its financial loss, reputation, and customers provided that all requirements are in place and commitment to total quality remains. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 4 2. Implementing Total Quality Management 4 2.1 Total Commitment to TQM 4 2.2 The Preparation Phase (Creation of the Steering Committee) 5 2.3 The Planning Phase 9 2.3.1 Plan Implementation (PDCA Cycle) 9 2.3.2 Identification of Projects 10 2.3.3 Team Composition 10 2.3.4 Team Training 11 2.4 The Execution Phase 12 2.4.1 Team Activation 12 2.4.2 Feedback to the Steering Committee 12 2.4.3 Customer Feedback 12 2.4.4 Employee Feedback 13 2.4.5 Modification of Structure 13 3. Conclusion/Summary 13 4. Recommendations 14 5. Reference List 15 1. Introduction The Queens Department Store is at the busy district of Mackay, Queensland but seems less popular to customers compared to other equally large department stores in the area. The ‘Queens’ have a large assortment of mass market and speciality items and employing about 150 of mostly casual employees and for the last 2 years, the store is falling behind the competition and has made considerable financial loss despite the large assortment of affordable products. It is clear that the store cannot attain its goals under the existing system and TQM could help address the stores weaknesses and build upon its strengths. The following report will explain the importance of TQM and how it will be implemented in Queens Department Store. 2. Implementing Total Quality Management There are a number of ways to describe TQM but it is more preferable to think of it as a process where the entire organisation commits itself in improving all aspect of the quality of a product or service. According to Walker & Miller (2008, p.222), a TQM would work best if top management, middle management, supervisors, and even hourly employees believe in the philosophy and concept of TQM. This is because adoption of TQM philosophy would enable a wide array of nonfinancial measures to monitor and improve the quality of products and process (Kaplan & Cooper 1998, p.50). It is therefore necessary to familiarise every member of the organisation on the concept of total quality. 2.1 Total Commitment to TQM Implementation of TQM at ‘Queens’ requires full commitment of company resources to the TQM processes. Although TQM not necessarily require large funds to succeed, a crisis such as financial stresses might limit the resources that can applied to the successful long-term implementation of TQM (Sims 1995, p.19). For this reason, the organisation may redistribute resources from areas of savings to other essentials and use available resources to best effect (Philips & McConnell p.365). According to Halachmi & Bouckaert (1995, p.105), if the organisation’s TQM implementation is to succeed, a steering committee should be created. 2.2 The Preparation Phase -Creation of Total Quality Steering Committee Quality or business excellence may be established through disciplines and systematic approach and the formation of a steering committee or council is vital to TQM implementation (Oakland 2003, p.280). For this reason, members of SM should come from the top management such as members of the ‘Queens’ Executive Group or head of various divisions (Gaudreau et al. 1994, p.14), the marketing managers, personnel managers and the head of the union if required (Sypher 1997, p.326). The members of the steering should complete at least a week of total quality training to be familiar with the quality processes, effective meeting skills, interactive and consensus-building skills, problem-solving skills required by TQM (Jurow & Barnard 1993, p.35). Immediately after the completion of this training, the store’s steering committee should hold a weekly meeting to discuss the essential requirements of TQM and evaluate it progress (Ross & Swift 2004, p.382). The role of the Steering Committee is to develop the following: a. Corporate Vision Statement The steering committee should meet and assess the processes to be improved and produce a vision statement. And since ‘Queens’ Total Quality Management’s success will be measured by customer satisfaction, the vision statement should reflect a shift of focus away from pure profitability and towards customer satisfaction (Smith p.211). It is also necessary to outline what needs to be done to make the new vision statement and associated company values to become a reality (Dale 2003, p.82) b. Broad Goals and Objectives The objectives of ‘Queens’ TQM steering committed may include: 1. To provide strategic direction on quality for the ‘Queens Department Store. 2. To create plans for quality on each section of the store. 3. To review and set up the process teams that will implement the critical business practices. 4. Assess TQM implementation regularly. c. Total Quality Implementation Plan In order to build the skills necessary and ensure TQM awareness, a formal programme of training should be established by the steering committee (Dale 2003, p.82). Once it is established, all employees should be trained on the required continuous improvement tools and techniques since it is essential for everyone to make contributions to the continuous improvement efforts (Edosomwan 1995, p.55). Strategically, the steering committee must identify the strengths and weaknesses of the existing systems before any realistic system could be develop and implemented or put into effect (Williams 1995, p.83). The steering committee may conduct a survey or ask employees, customers, and suppliers to determine the store’s strength and weaknesses (Pekar 1995, p.22). Understanding customer’s preferences, needs, and expectations with a view to enhancing the store’s competitiveness can help planning more accurate (Chiu 2007, p.231). Similarly, understanding employee’s feelings about the organisation and perceived role to the customer can help the steering committee determine the right training program required to bring employees up to the expectation of the customers and the department store’s goals (Pekar 1995, p.5). The suppliers on the other hand could then identify customer requirements and may improve supply processes by developing strategies to meet these requirements (Dale 2003, p.37). d. Awards and Recognition Program Along with the responsibility to provide workforce with an environment that is safe and support for the employee’s quality of work life, the TQM Steering Committee must create a system where exceptional performance is recognised (Pekar 1995, p.8). These recognitions can be in a form of reward such as incentives for performance, perfect attendance, service awards, and so forth. However, the steering committee should review these performance management and pay systems since it may sometimes contradict the quality process. For instance, rewards that are purely volume related or new sales targets. According to Pike & Barnes (1996, p.134), recognition and reward are often neglected in TQM as some organisations failed to recognise the real factors that motivate employees such personal verbal and public recognition, the way their leaders lead them, examples set by management, and the opportunity to be heard. e. Publicity Approach In order to heighten employees understanding and to generate enthusiasm for TQM, the steering committee would create a communication plan to keep them inform of the current actions and progress the store is making toward its total quality goals (Sypher 1997, p.327). Communicating the department store’s reasons and plan for adopting TQM will help promote awareness of the store’s quality initiative and establish expectations (Endres p.68). The publicity may include: 1. Reasons for starting a quality initiative. 2. The role of the Steering Committee and its members 3. The goals for the quality initiative 4. Things that have been accomplished so far 5. The projects that have been chosen by the Committee 6. Other main concerns such as job security and so forth and how they are to be addressed. f. Infrastructure the supports deployment and continual improvement. In general, the Steering Committee in TQM is expected to initiate the activities, carry out assessments, and ensure continuous improvement (Bhushi 2003, p.249). The store’s steering committee must therefore develop action plans for the succeeding months with time frame for every action that should be taken. More importantly, the committee should identify each person in-charge or the person who would submit a report to find out whether the improvement is taking place or not. The steering committee must clearly document the action plans and circulate it to all concern. They must bring forth the activities that have been successful and are partially complete or incomplete to enable accurate evaluation (Bhushi 2003, p.250). 2.3 The Planning Phase 2.3.1 Plan Implementation (PDCA Cycle) Since TQM is a “process that never ends” (Kelada 1996, p.61), the idea of continuous improvement is then link with the attainment of total quality goals. The PDCA cycle requires determination of the customers, what they need, and the actions required to satisfy them. The necessary action should be taken and should be check for quality. If it does not meet the customer requirements, the services will be further improved (Kelada 1996, p.62) 2.3.2 Identification of Projects The success of any project depends considerably on management support and the store’s TQM may opt to prioritise projects that would re-vitalised the quality process by re-engineering initiative aimed at reducing the cycle time of the business processes. 2.3.3 Team Composition When determining the team composition, the store’s TQM steering committee must carefully consider the number of people required to enable efficient working relations because “more is not necessarily better” (Gaudreau et al. 1994, p.12). For this reason, the store may choose to select the following groups which have specific purpose in the organisation: a. Natural Work Groups (Consist of people who work in the same department) b. Cross-Functional Work Groups (Individuals with different focus in the organisation such as workers from different areas of responsibility) c. Executive Groups (Heads of various divisions or departments who directly reports to top management) d. Steering Committee (the people who are responsible for overseeing the implementation of TQM) Ideally, pilot projects should be launched to begin learning and experimenting with TQM methods. It would address issues that are important to the organisation such as developing employee consensus and core values around a store culture (Sypher 1997, p.321). 2.3.4 Team Training Training programs are required before and after project selection and it involves programs relevant to operation and motivation. More importantly, the training must be conducted by a TQM team that has the best understanding of the change (Plenert 2007, p.94). Phases of training may include preliminary training for the pilot teams followed by monthly leadership training at management teams meetings, and group facilitation training for selected employees. Training these groups is important as they are responsible for the key areas of the organisation’s operation (Levine 1995, p. 27). 2.4 The Execution Phase 2.4.1 Team Activation (PDCA Cycle) Provided that the strategy and plan are in placed, approved and supported by the leadership of the Queens’ Department Store, the execution phase may start with awareness training to familiarise all participants to the philosophy, concepts, and benefits of TQM. It should be followed by tools and techniques training and training for communicating status and results to peers and leaders (Ruben 1995, p.185). 2.4.2 Feedback to the Steering Committee TQM offers better feedback for the management (Grunig & Dozier 2002, p.518) and for this reason the steering committee would get the results of continuous quality improvement activities from every department. They are also responsible in sharing these results with other relevant parties (Miller & Kovach 1994, p.181). 2.4.3 Customer Feedback As customer satisfaction is the primary objective of the department store’s TQM, implementation includes methods of soliciting information or a feedback system for customers (Ashman & Hull 2008, p.167). The feedback collected would enable management to determine acceptance or rejection of TQM (Gaudreau et al. 1994, p.98). 2.4.4 Employee Feedback Receiving feedback from employees can help the organisation become aware fully aware of employee concerns, identify ways to increase employee satisfaction, and evaluate human resource practices (Johnson & Chivala 1996, p.96). 2.4.5 Modification of Structure From the feedbacks received and experiences during the initial execution of the TQM, modification of the organisational structure may be necessary to bring every department at the level required by TQM (Rawlins 2008, p.218). This is because according to McKinney (2004, p.426), TQM in the long run would not succeed unless total human, organisational, and monetary requirements are given to it. TQM requires constant analysis and modification of work processes, operating procedures, and communication of these changes throughout the organisation (Cohen & Eimicke 2002, p.128). 3. Conclusion The Queens Department Store will achieve its goals under TQM provided that everybody believed in its philosophy and committed in improving all aspect of the quality of products and services. The Steering Committee should be able to effectively perform its duties and responsibilities because it is at the pillar of TQM. It should provide strategic direction and evaluation of TQM implementation continuously. The process of improvement never ends and therefore should undergo the PDCA cycle to ensure continuous improvement. More importantly, feedbacks from all stakeholders should be taken into account as these would help management measure the success of TQM. 4. Recommendations 4.1 The Queens Department should adopt Total Quality Management to improve its competitiveness and profitability. 4.2 Management and employee should be committed to aims and objectives of TQM. 4.3 Members of the Steering Committee should possess the necessary skills and dedication to quality. 4.4 The management should give sufficient time for preparation because TQM is not just about personal or group commitment but resources availability and management willingness to allocate it. 5. Reference List Ashman K. & Hull G. 2008. Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communities. Cengage Learning, Canada Bhushi M. 2003. Total Quality Management in Engineering Education in India. Universal-Publishers, US Cohen S. & Eimicke W. 2002. 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