Key Principles of Total Quality Management - Essay Example

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT goes here] [Your goes here] [Due the paper Introduction Quality is of extreme importance for any company or organization to achieve success in local markets, as well as in international markets. Quality is excellence and it means to provide customers with product satisfaction. Any organization or company can satisfy the customers only if it takes care of the quality of products during every phase of product manufacturing. Quality helps a company achieve market domination through provision of high quality products and services to the customers. Quality assurance and quality control are two such features of a quality management system that ensure provision of highest quality to customers. Quality control is a process that is employed in order to ensure a required level of fineness and quality in a product or service delivered by a company. Quality assurance, on the other hand, is a process in which products are checked in order to know whether those products will be able to meet customers’ expectations or not. Along with quality assurance and quality control, companies also adhere to the key principles of total quality management, such as, quality oriented management, customer focus approach, and continuous improvement in order to guarantee the development of superior quality products. In recent years, many scholars have researched the role of quality management systems in the success of businesses. There has been a great concern about the use of different quality frameworks and this concern has led many researchers to study the role of those frameworks in ensuring the provision of highest quality to customers. Some key quality frameworks, such as, Six Sigma framework, BEM framework, and ISO 9000: 2001 framework play a vital role in the manufacturing of high quality products. In this paper, we will discuss the role of total quality management in the success of a company or organization. We will examine the way total quality management helps a company improve its performance in market and increase customer base. The paper will include a discussion about the key principles of total quality management, as well as a discuss on quality assurance and quality control. Moreover, the paper will also include a review about the key developments in the evolution of quality and the role of strategic quality frameworks and quality improvement tools and techniques in improved organizational performance and productivity. 2. Quality Quality is the key to organizational success. It refers to the delivery of high quality products to satisfy customers, as well as to improve business performance. Product quality drives customer satisfaction which results in increasing the customer base of the company. If a company aims to make its business successful and progressive, it must adopt a quality-oriented approach that should integrate quality in all business processes. Quality is a global dimension that consists of some key elements, which include performance, consistency, features, durability, reliability, and design (Priyo 2012). All of these elements play a vital role in the success of a product in market. Quality improves the performance of a business, a well as improves the image of the company among the public. Customers are disappointed if they buy a product of a company believing it to be a high quality product but it does not meet their expectations. Such cases not only destroy the public perception about the company that manufactures low quality products but also decreases the market share of that company. Improving and maintaining quality of products is an imperative point of consideration for a company if it aims to achieve competitive advantage. One can never deny the importance of quality management in the success of a company. Quality management is a key step in building and sustaining good working relationships between a company and its customers. If a company aims to achieve the target of growth of business and trust of customers in a competitive market, it needs to implement a proper quality management system which should ensure manufacturing of high quality products. A company may come across the challenge of losing existing and potential customers if it does not meet the level of quality that customer expect from the company. The reason is that if customers are disappointed from a company, they move to other companies who deliver similar products. The result is always a decrease in the customer base for the company which also brings forward the problems of decreased market share and productivity. If a company lacks an effective quality management system, it definitely puts an adverse impact on the growth and development of the company, as well as on the retention of the customers of the company. Therefore, in order to retain customers and achieve competitive advantage, the management of a company needs to provide its customers with the products of high quality and reliability. 3. Key Principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) Total quality management refers to the use of continuous improvement process to provide highest quality products to the customers. Total quality management approach works on some key principles. The main principles for the total quality management (TQM) approach towards doing business are to satisfy the supplier, satisfy the customer, and constantly improve all business processes (Kurtus 2001, p. 1). Customer satisfaction is the first key principle of total quality management approach. TQM philosophy greatly emphasizes on this particular principle because customers are the main success factors for a company. It is the dream of every company to have an increased customer base to achieve higher levels of revenues. TQM helps companies fulfill this dream by making hem able to deliver highest quality products to the customers. Customers like to deal with such companies which take are of their requirements while manufacturing new products. This approach of a company also results in increased customer satisfaction level which is a great achievement for a company in a competitive market. A good working relationship with suppliers always also has a positive impact on overall business performance. The reason is that suppliers provide a company with raw material that are used to in the manufacturing of products. Good relationship with suppliers help a company get high quality raw material at reasonable costs at the right time and at the right place. Such continuous and uninterrupted cycle of work results in improved manufacturing process which in turn puts a positive impact on overall business performance. Constantly improving all business processes is the third key principle of the total quality management approach. business processes need to be checked for consistency and reliability time and gain in order to make them compatible with the changes in the internal and external business environments. It is the responsibility of managers and employees to check all business processes for consistency in order to update them in accordance with the future needs of the business. 4. Quality Management System American quality gurus, such as, Dr. W. Edwards and Dr. Joseph Juran had put their focus on quality management system because they lead a company’s way towards improved productivity and profitability. The main objective of a quality management system is to increase customer base of a company by satisfying existing customers through providing them with high quality and reliable products. Edward’s quality management cycle consists of four key steps, which include Plan, Do, Study, and Act. The approach of Edwards regarding quality focused the element of consistency and reliability. He suggested bringing improvement in the quality of products by eliminating the factors of variability and uncertainty in products. Variability and uncertainty in the performance of products are such factors that decrease the level of customer satisfaction with the product which ultimately results in decreasing the demand of that particular product. Juran, on the other hand, was the quality expert who believed in the concept of ‘fitness for use’ and supported the phenomenon of ‘quality cost measurement’. Philip Crosby was another American quality guru came up with four key concepts regarding management of quality. He suggested and supported the phenomenon of ‘conformance to requirements’. The concepts regarding quality management given by Crosby were: 1) quality is neither decency nor stylishness, rather it is conformance to the needs and demands of the customers, 2) the system that ensures high quality of products has nothing to do with appraisal, rather it is concerned with avoidance, 3) measurement of the product quality should be the price of non-conformance, 4) quality of a product should adhere to the concept of zero defects so that customer satisfaction should increase. Crosby targeted the approach of using quality circles to improve employee performance, as well as to achieve higher quality of products based on the suggestion of employees. “Quality circles and improvement groups are the major vehicles that are used to allow employees to make suggestions and to change work processes” (Lawler 1992, p. 3). While talking about American quality gurus and their theories, let us discuss three of the most imperative principles of quality management system. Those principles include customer focus, continuous improvement, and employee involvement. If we talk about customer focus, we can say that it is one of the main principles of a quality management system. According to Kanji (1995, p. 591), total customer focus is the key towards improved quality and business performance. Manufacturing employees and managers need to adhere to the requirements of the customers during product manufacturing phase. For example, if a customer comes to a software company and places an order regarding development of a software application based ion some specific requirements, the company should keep focus on those requirements while developing the product in order to satisfy the customer instead of putting different functionalities in the product. The reason is that customers like only those products which meet their needs and demands. They do not waste their precious money on buying such products that are unable to serve their purposes. Continuous improvement is the second key principle of a quality management system. Unlike American quality gurus, Japanese gurus have focused their quality approach towards continuous improvement. This principle suggests that a company should bring continuous improvement to products to make them able to compete with other products in the changing external environment. Continuous improvement is the key towards market domination in a competitive market where companies continuously come up with better quality products to attract customers. In such an environment, a company needs to keep on adding new functionalities to existing products to make them compete with the products of competitors. Third principle of quality management is employee involvement. This principle focuses the need of involving employees in improving the quality of products. “Only through an integrated systems approach to customer service, process management, and employee involvement can organizations become industry leaders” (Clemmer 2005, p. 1). Various studies show that employees work hard and with high level of enthusiasm when they are involved in processes, such as, decision-making and other important decisions (Lawler 1992, p. 4). It is a fact that without employee involvement and motivation, a company can never achieve desired results regarding quality of products. These principles of quality management serve as the guidelines for managers and employees which they can use to deliver high quality products for the customers and achieve higher levels of productivity and customer satisfaction. The top management of a company needs to make employees aware of the standards of quality to make them put their efforts accordingly. “Organizations need to develop a range of measures or set of quality standards that get a handle on various categories of quality costs” (Mutt n.d., p. 1). Managers also need to build motivation level of employees in order to make them committed to their tasks. It is essential for a company to put into practice a strong quality management system because it helps in attracting and retaining customers, as well as in gaining competitive advantage in the market. Two of the central tasks of a quality management system include quality assurance and quality control. Let us discuss both of these in some detail. 4.1 Quality Control According to Jacowski (2010), quality control is a process of the quality management department, which aims to production of the highest quality products. This process results either in accepting a product or in rejecting a manufactured product (Unhelkar 2003, p. 303). If quality professionals find that the product meets the set of standards maintained by the company, they approve the product. On the other hand, if they find some big in the product, they do not approve it. The quality control process includes certain actions that are essential for the control and verification of required functions of the product. The key reason of quality control is to make sure that the products are able to meet the needs and demands of the customers or not. They know that products need to be of high quality because when the customers are satisfied with the quality of a product, they tell other people about the quality of the product which results in increasing the customer bas of the company. Increased customer base is really beneficial in order to achieve an edge of competitors in a competitive market. According to Fryman (2002, p. 6), the main purpose of quality control processes is to eliminate all those factors that can result in substandard product performance. Quality control process involves such activities that are focused towards ensuring quality of the final product. This process emphasizes on picking out the flaws from the final product in such a way that the final product becomes fully functional and reliable before it reaches final production stages. The reason is that if a product is not evaluated for defects at the initial stages, defects may occur in the final product which puts an adverse impact on the image of the company. 4.2 Quality Assurance Quality assurance is a course of action dedicated to verify whether products of a company are able to meet customers’ expectations or not. According to Vinet (2010), quality assurance is a process focused towards ensuring the quality of a product from initial to the final stages of production. It differs from quality control in a sense that quality control deals with the quality of the final product whereas quality assurance deals with the quality of a product in all stages of development. It is a process-driven approach that includes specific steps required to identify and attain organizational goals related to quality of the products. It involves such activities that ensure whether the product being manufactured by the company will meet the expectations of the customers or not. Quality professionals check the product for consistency, accuracy, and reliability in order to make it fulfill the needs and demands of the end users. For example, in a software company, quality assurance professionals check the quality of the software products right from the beginning to the final stages in order to know whether they will be able to function normally or not. They check the software design, software documentation, customers’ requirements, and software’s efficiency level to ensure reliability of the final product. They undergo three major steps of quality assurance which include pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical steps. These steps help them in identifying and assessing bugs in the product, as well as in making required changes in the final product. Quality control department deals with the system development life cycle of the product, whereas the responsibility of the quality assurance professionals is to deal with entire life cycle of the product. 5. Key Developments – Ishikawa 7 Tools Quality management systems have been passing through different phases of development right from its beginning until now. One of the key developments in this regard is Ishikawa’a seven tools of quality management. The tools include cause and effect diagram (for finding the root causes of defects and their effects on the processes), Pareto chart (for searching problems in processes and reducing them), Control chart (for improving quality based on upper and lower limits of quality), Run chart (to assess the trends and patterns of variations), Histogram (to represent data using columns and bars), Flow chart (to know the flow of processes from beginning to the end), and Scatter diagram (to find out the relationship between variables). All of these tools are being widely used all over the world in quality management processes. 6. Key Frameworks Having discussed Ishikawa 7 tools regarding quality management, let us now discuss some key quality frameworks in order to know their significance in ensuring quality of products. Some of the main quality frameworks include ISO9000: 2000 framework, BEM framework, Six Sigma framework, and Frank Price 6.4.4. let us discuss all of these in some detail. 6.1 ISO 9000: 2000 Framework ISO 9000: 2000 refer to the group of systems or guidelines that help in continuous growth f a company in any competitive or progressive market. This quality framework includes such standards that a company can adopt to implement the quality management system in accordance with the requirements of that system (Dale et al. 2005). Implementation of ISO 9000: 2000 quality framework has become one of the essentials for a company to achieve competitive edge in today’s world of competition. Some of the main sections of ISO 9000: 2000 include resource management, quality management system, measurement improvement, and product realization. The top management of almost every big company has become aware of the benefits and importance of adopting the ISO 9000:2000 quality standards (Al-Khalifa, Al-Salem & Mohamed 2008). If we talk about some of the main requirements of implementing this quality framework, we can say that establishment of measurable objectives is the first requirement. If a company will be aware of its goals and objectives, it will be better able to make a successful struggle towards the achievement of those goals. Another requirement is that the top management and employees of the company should know the way or strategy to achieve the identified goals. The struggle can be successful only when the approach is clear for both management and employees. In case of product manufacturing, the management should identify the requirements of the product and should convey those requirements, as well as the statutory and legal regulations regarding the product to the employees in order for them to develop the product accordingly. Having discussed the requirement, let us now point out some of the main advantages of using the ISO 9000: 2000 framework. Some of the advantages include increased level of customer satisfaction and retention, improved access to international markets, increased level of sales, increased operational results, increased market share, increased return on the investments, reduced audits and enhanced mode of marketing, increased level of profits for the company, and increased level of productivity. 6.2 BEM Framework BEM framework of quality is an abbreviation of Business Excellence Model. Using this model, companies review and assess the level of current performances in different business functions in order to bring required changes in the deficient areas. This quality framework is divided into two key aspects which are enablers and results. Enablers are quantifiable indicators of business practices that guide the business towards success, whereas results are the calculable indicators of success. BEM is a widely used quality frameworks that helps companies achieve a competitive place in a competitive market. Managers use enablers to carry out business processes and results to measure the performance of those processes. 6.3 6 SIGMA Framework Another quality management framework being used by many companies for improving business processes is the Six Sigma framework. The six steps included in the Six Sigma quality management strategy are define, measure, analyze design, optimize, and verify. The main aim of this framework is to improve business process by identifying the deficient areas. Managers use this framework to assess the performance of different business processes to know whether they meet the standard of quality set by the company or not. If they find any flaws in those business processes, they take steps to minimize the variability, as well as to remove all defects. The five dimensions of the Six Sigma – DMAIC cycle include define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. This is a complete cycle which starts from defining the deficient areas and ends up in controlling the improved business processes. Some of the main quality management tools used for Six Sigma framework include analysis of variance, check sheet, correlation, regression analysis, run charts, and scatter diagrams. 7. Evolution of Total Quality Management Having discussed the quality assurance frameworks, let us now discuss the evolution of total quality management in terms of the shift between quality assurance approach to a total quality management approach. A properly implemented quality assurance system results in improved effectiveness, improved customer satisfaction level, reduced rework and waste, and improved credibility of the business. On the other hand, using total quality management approach, all employees of a company aim to improve the efficiency of the organization to achieve long-term success. They achieve this goal by increasing customer satisfaction through providing them with high quality products and services. The main objective of total quality management approach is to increase customer satisfaction regarding the products and services of the company. Using this approach, both management and the employees make efforts to improve the business policies, as well as product manufacturing processes. According to Rawlins (2008, p. 19), total quality management is a way to improve the competitiveness and effectiveness levels of the company. Companies adopting the guidelines of total quality management put emphasis on increasing customer satisfaction level because they know that the focal pint of total quality management approach is customers. Companies using this approach towards quality think about their new products from customers’ perspective and design their products in such a way that they meet all requirements of customers. “It typically requires every person in the organization to be focused on the customer” (Hardt 2010). Companies using TQM approach also form effective and long-term business relationships with suppliers. They give priority to the quality of raw material over quantity and demand the finest raw material from their suppliers. For example, Bentley car manufacturing company is known for its finest quality seat leather and wood panels. The company has made its name by manufacturing these parts of cars using highest quality raw material. The total quality management approach also emphasizes on the importance of knowledge for the success of a company. Companies using this approach make use of employees’ knowledge and creativity to create innovative and high quality products for the customers. Such companies regard employees’ participation in decision-making and respect their ideas regarding development of new products. Companies using TQM approach believe in the importance of employee involvement because of which they continuously motivate the employees to come up with creative techniques and ideas to develop innovative products that should be able to improve the image of the company. 8. How TQM Improves Organizational Performance Total quality management is all about management of quality and manufacturing of high quality products that are able to meet the needs of the customers and that of the stakeholders at large. Total quality management approach is not just focused towards the manufacturing of quality products. It also includes the need to adopt a quality driven approach to carry out all other activities within organization, for example, recruitment of employees, management of systems, and all other activities that are related to the accomplishment of organizational goals. If a company or organization adopts such approach to carry out business activities, the results will definitely be positive for the company. TQM approach produces a large number of benefits for a company some of which include improved organizational productivity, increased customer satisfaction, increased market share, improved image of the company, improved employee performance, and improved organizational performance (Dale et al. 2007). It is a fact that when both employees and managers of a company will take care of quality while carrying out business activities, excellence will prevail in every business process and the result will be improved organizational performance. Therefore, we can say that incorporation of TQM approach has a positive impact on overall organizational performance and productivity. 9. Conclusion Quality is integral for the success for any company or organization. It makes a company achieve success in both local and international markets. Any company or organization can please the customers only if it delivers reliable and fully functional products to them and takes care of the quality of products during every phase of product manufacturing. In today’s world of competition, companies need to implement a well-designed quality management system based on an effective quality framework to ensure quality at each phase of product development. The main objective of a quality management system is to increase the number of customers for a company by satisfying existing customers and attracting new customers. Three of the core principles of quality management system include customer focus, continuous improvement, and employee involvement. Some key quality frameworks, such as, BEM framework, Six Sigma framework, and ISO 9000: 2001 framework play a vital role in the manufacturing of high quality products. Companies can use any of these to achieve excellence in product manufacturing. To achieve good organizational performance, companies also need to use total quality management approach to carry out all business processes that may range from recruitment and selection to production processes. It is a process-oriented system that aims to manufacture products in accordance with the needs and demands of the customers. “It is (or it should be) something that permeates an organisation from the moment its raw materials arrive to the moment its finished products leave” (The Economist 2009, p. 1). Total quality management approach has a positive impact on overall organizational performance and productivity. Using this approach, employees of a company aim to improve organizational performance to achieve long-term success of the company in any local or international market. 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