Total Quality Management Implementation Steps

By: Subade, J.J.G.

Sucaldito, A.B.

Objectives: 1. Specifically, this report aims: 2. to define total quality management; 3. to determine the steps of the implementation of total quality management; 4. to discuss the techniques of implementation of total quality management;

Introduction
Customer satisfaction is one basis of the quality of service and management an institution delivers. Poor feedback on client service and service-evaluation may lead to low productivity, demand, bad reputation, poor mass utilization and economic deflation. Also, non-strategic and poor management may lead to considerable profit loss and increased costs expense for the organization that are not reflected to as signs of progress and may deprive the company of its opportunities for expansion In order to prevent these dilemma and compete with the racing industrial advancement, TQM was founded, with the sole goal of continually uplifting and innovating the institution or organizations traditional approach on services and practices, as well as its standards and general management, to meet customers satisfaction and reach societal demands and expectations.

In order to meet this objective, steps on effective and efficient implementation of TQM were derived. These techniques are utilized by every entrepreneur, aiming to achieve distinct goals on profitability with a foresight of greater advancement with its further integration to be coupled with striking strategic plans all directed to precisely achieve perfection and success.

How to Achieve Total Quality Management

Definition Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach TQM philosophy focuses on team work, increasing costumer satisfaction, and to improve quality and performance which will that seeks lowering costs. Organizations implement TQM by encouraging managers and employees to collaborate across functions and meet or exceed customer expectations. This can be achieved departments, as well all costumers and suppliers, to identifyprocesses by integrating as quality-related functions and areas for improvement, no matter how small. Each quality improvement is a step throughout the company. toward perfection, and meeting a goal of zero defects. Quality control
becomes part of the day to day business of every employee, rather than TQM looks at departments. being assigned to specializedthe overall quality measures used by a

company including managing quality design and The implementation control and maintenance, quality development, quality of TQM is similar to other decentralized control methods. Feed forward controls include training employees to think in terms improvement, and quality assurance.

of prevention, not detection, of problems and giving them the responsibility and power to correct errors, expose problems and contribute to solutions. TQM takes into account all quality measures taken Concurrent controls include an organizational culture and employee at all levels favor total quality and employee participation. Feedback commitment thatand involving all company employees. controls include targets for employee involvement and for zero defects

TQM Techniques
The implementation of TQM involves the use many techniques, including quality circles, benchmarking, six sigma, reduced cycle time, and continuous improvement. Quality of Circles. One way of implementing decentralized approach of TQM is the use of quality circles. A quality circle is a group of 6-12 volunteer employees who meet regularly to discuss and solve problems affecting the quality if their work. At a asset time during the work week, the members meet, identify problems, and try to find solutions. Circle members are free to collect data and take surveys. Many companies train members in team building, problem solving, and statistical quality control. The reason to use quality circles is to push decision-making to an organizational level at which recommendations can be made by the people who do the job and know t better than anyone else.

Benchmarking. Introduced by Xerox in 1979, benchmarking is now a major TQM component. Benchmarking is defined the continuous process of measuring products, services, and practices against the toughest competitors or companies recognized as industry leaders. The key to successful benchmarking lies to analysis. Starting with its own mission statement, a company should honestly analyze its current procedures and determine areas for improvement. As a second step a company carefully selects competitors worthy of copying. For example, Xerox studied the order fulfillment techniques of L., I. Bean and learned ways to reduce warehouse costs by 10 percent. Companies can emulate internal processes and procedures of competitors but must take care to select companies whose methods are compatible. Once a strong, compatible program is found and analyzed, the benchmarking company can then device a strategy for implementing a new program. Six Sigma. Six sigma quality principles were first introduced to the business world for quality and efficiency gains that saved companies billions of dollars. Based on the Greek letter sigma, which statisticians use to measure how fast something deviates from perfection, six sigma is a highly ambitious quality standard that specifies gal of two or more than 3.4 defects per million parts. That essentially means being defectfree 99.9997 percent of the time. However, six sigma as deviated from its precise definition to become a generic term for quality-control approach that takes nothing for granted and emphasizes a disciplined and relentless pursuit of higher quality and lower costs.

Six Sigma. Six sigma quality principles were first introduced to the business world for quality and efficiency gains that saved companies billions of dollars. Based on the Greek letter sigma, which statisticians use to measure how fast something deviates from perfection, six sigma is a highly ambitious quality standard that specifies gal of two or more than 3.4 defects per million parts. That essentially means being defect-free 99.9997 percent of the time. However, six sigma as deviated from its precise definition to become a generic term for quality-control approach that takes nothing for granted and emphasizes a disciplined and relentless pursuit of higher quality and lower costs.

Reduced Cycle Time. According the book Alone is not enough; the authors refer to the cycle time as drivers of improvement. Cycle time refers to the steps taken to complete a company process such as publishing a textbook or designing a new car. The simplification of work cycles, including the dropping of the barriers between work steps and among departments and the removal of worthless steps in the process, enables a TQM program to succeed. Even if an organization decides not to use quality circles or other techniques, by focusing on improved responsiveness and acceleration of activities into a shorter time. Reduction in cycle time improves overall company performance as well as quality.

Continuous Improvement. Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. These efforts can seek incremental improvement over time or breakthrough improvement all at once. Among the most widely used tools for continuous improvement is a four-step quality modelthe plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle, also known as Deming Cycle or Shewhart Cycle:
Plan: Identify an opportunity and plan for change. Do: Implement the change on a small scale. Check: Use data to analyze the results of the change and determine whether it made a difference. Act: If the change was successful, implement it on a wider scale and continuously assess your results. If the change did not work, begin the cycle again.

Implementing a Quality Management System

Successful organizations have figured out that customer satisfaction has a direct impact on the bottom line. Creating an environment which supports a quality culture requires a structured, systematic process. Following are steps to create that process and system to bring the process full circle.

Steps to Creating a Total Quality Management System: 1. Clarify Vision, Mission and Values According to the American to ensure all staff are (ASQ), Develop training and communication processSociety for Qualityaware ofqualityMission and Values.term for which each person has his or Vision, is a subjective

Quality Defined:

her own definition. In technical usage, quality can have two 2. Identify Critical Success Factors (CSF) meanings: CSF: Some possible(1) the characteristics of a product or service that Financial Performance to satisfy stated or implied needs and (2) a bear on its ability Customer Satisfaction free of deficiencies. product or service
Process Improvement Market Share

A Quality Management System is the organizational 3.structure, processes, proceduresTrack CSF Data needed to Develop Measures and Metrics to and resources 4.implement, maintainGroups Identify Key Customer and continually improve the Customers management of quality.
Employees Suppliers Vendors Volunteers

5. Solicit Feedback Solicit feedback from each customer group in an effort to identify what is important to them. Organizations often make the mistake of thinking they know what is important to customers and ask the wrong survey questions. This feedback is obtained through customer focus groups.
6. Develop Survey Tool Develop survey tool based on feedback of what is important to customers. 7. Survey Each Customer Group Survey each customer group to get baseline data on customers perception of current practice. 8. Develop Improvement Plan Develop improvement plan based on customer feedback for each group. Improvement plan includes SMART goals with assignments to specific staff for follow through.

9. Goals May Include Some of the Following: Process improvement initiatives, such as: Hold times when calling Leadership Development: Walk-the-Talk Management Training/Development: How to manage employees in a quality environment Staff Training/Development: Customer Service Performance Management: Setting expectations, creating job descriptions that support the vision and holding staff accountable. 10. Resurvey After a period of time (12-18 months), resurvey key customers to see if scores have improved. Customer needs and expectations change over time so being in-tune to changing needs and expectations is critical to long-term success. 11. Monitor CSF Monitor CSF monthly to ensure progress toward goals. 12. Incorporate Satisfaction Data into Marketing Plans Once youve achieved some positive results with your satisfaction data, use it as a marketing tool!

Learning Insights: In order to attain success and meet the organizations goals, TQM is considered to be compulsory method or technique to be integrated and utilized effectively. It doesnt only base its efficacy on the savings a company may accumulate, but its impact on the society, meeting the needs and expectations of the general public, identifying and solving errors, and setting preventive measures to promote 100 percent satisfactory rate and profitability. This leads to the institutions, great chances of expansion, not only giving them larger chances for economic growth but also may benefit the community and the nation as a whole, contributing to economic advancement and industrial innovation. One mustnt have suspicious claims on its effectivity because on-thetop industrial leaders have proven TQM as a vital process, method and solution to upgrade, innovate and stabilize a certain business concept. But you must not depend on its basic integrity. The organization must be capable of imposing consistent surveillance to detect areas of defects, because even how small an error may be its impact on the management and the company as whole, may be to a large extent, and so requires a huge amount of effort and cost to compensate with.

Thus, the company or organization must be fixed to its goal of profitability or advancement and must not go backwards to ensure that they are leading to economic growth and not bankruptcy or disengagement on economic development and far from opportunities of expansion and stability.

Also the organization must be capable of composing and deriving a competent and adequate strategic plan to couple with the TQM technique to give precise confidence on the efficiency of the implementation plan.
Finally, we have realized that business is not all about the capital, the employees and the budget. There is a lot bigger range of responsibilities and operational duties to fulfill to ensure the stability of your company or organization, and that it takes a lot of effort to build a name and a reputation in the industry and to take part in the hot-raging competition in the market and the society in general.