Total Quality Management
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Total quality management may be defined as “managing the entire organization so that it excels on all dimensions of products and services that area important to the customer.” It has two fundamental operational goals, namely 1. Careful design of the product of service. 2. Ensuring that the organization’s systems can consistently produce the design.
These two goals can only be achieved if the entire organization is oriented toward them – hence the term total quality management. TQM became a national concern in the United States in the 1980s primarily as a response to Japanese quality superiority in manufacturing automobiles and other durable goods such as room air conditioners. A widely cited study of Japanese and US air-conditioning manufacturers showed that the best quality American products had higher average defect rates than those of the poorest Japanese manufacturers. So severe was the quality shortfall in the United States that improving it throughout industry became a national priority, with the Department of Commerce establishing the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award in 1987 to help companies review and structure their quality programs. Also gaining major attention at this time was the requirement that suppliers demonstrate that they are measuring and documenting their quality practices, according to specified criteria, called ISO standards, if they wish to compete for international contracts. The philosophical leaders of the quality movement, notably Philip Crosby, W. Edwards Deming.and Joseph M. Juran – the so-called Quality Gurus – had slightly different definitions of what quality is and how to achieve it but they all had the same general message. To achieve out-standing quality requires quality leadership from senior management, a customer focus, total involvement of the workforce, and continuous improvement based upon rigorous analysis of processes. WE will now turn to some fundamental
Total quality management may be defined as “managing the entire organization so that it excels on all dimensions of products and services that area important to the customer.” It has two fundamental operational goals, namely 1. Careful design of the product of service. 2. Ensuring that the organization’s systems can consistently produce the design.
These two goals can only be achieved if the entire organization is oriented toward them – hence the term total quality management. TQM became a national concern in the United States in the 1980s primarily as a response to Japanese quality superiority in manufacturing automobiles and other durable goods such as room air conditioners. A widely cited study of Japanese and US air-conditioning manufacturers showed that the best quality American products had higher average defect rates than those of the poorest Japanese manufacturers. So severe was the quality shortfall in the United States that improving it throughout industry became a national priority, with the Department of Commerce establishing the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award in 1987 to help companies review and structure their quality programs. Also gaining major attention at this time was the requirement that suppliers demonstrate that they are measuring and documenting their quality practices, according to specified criteria, called ISO standards, if they wish to compete for international contracts. The philosophical leaders of the quality movement, notably Philip Crosby, W. Edwards Deming.and Joseph M. Juran – the so-called Quality Gurus – had slightly different definitions of what quality is and how to achieve it but they all had the same general message. To achieve out-standing quality requires quality leadership from senior management, a customer focus, total involvement of the workforce, and continuous improvement based upon rigorous analysis of processes. WE will now turn to some fundamental