Total Quality Management (TQM)

Quality is considered a by-product of the manufacturing system i.e., each individual process has some variation that will lead to the production of some defective units. If the resulting defective rate is too high, compared to the established quality standards, quality inspectors will identify and send them for rework. The approach is expensive and does not guarantee the desired quality, because quality maintaining and ensuring itself cannot be inspected into a product. This approach assigns the responsibility for quality to quality control managers.

 

The principles of TQM are as follows:

a) Customer Focus

b) Leadership

c) Engagement of people

d) Process Approach

e) Improvement

f) Evidence based decision making

g) Relationship management.

 

The emphasis of TQM is to design and build quality in the product, rather than allow defectives and then inspect and rectify them. The focus is on the causes rather than the symptoms of poor quality.

 

The three core concepts of TQM are -

a) Quality Control (QC): It is concerned with the past and deals with data obtained from previous production, which allow action to be taken to stop the production of defective units.

b) Quality Assurance (QA): It deals with the present and focuses to create and operate appropriate systems to prevent defects from occurring.

c) Quality Management (QM): It concerned with the future and manages people in a process of continuous improvement to the products and services offered by the firm.

 

The various stages/steps to be taken in the implementation of TQM

Stage 1: Identification of customers / customer groups

Stage 2: Identifying customer expectations

Stage 3: Identifying customer decision-making requirements and product utilities

Stage 4: Identifying perceived problems in decision-making process and product utilities

Stage 5: Comparison with other Firms and benchmarking

Stage 6: Customer Feedback

Stage 7: Identification of improvement opportunities

Stage 8: Implementation of Quality Improvement Process

 

5 S’s concept in Quality Management

The Five S’s are:

SEIRI - Organization or re-organization.

SEITON - Neatness

SEISO - Cleaning

SEIKETSU - Standardization

SHITSUKE – Discipline

 

Different types of Quality Costs

Quality costs can be analyzed under two major categories.

a) Costs of quality assurance incurred by the manufacturer.

b) Costs of quality assurance at the user’s end which are called “user quality costs”.

 

Internal Quality Costs

There is a measure of all costs directly associated with the achievement of complete conformance to product quality requirements. These are not just the cost of quality management or inspection function. Specifically quality costs are the sum total of

 

a) Prevention Costs - (Quality Engineering, Quality planning).

b) Appraisal Costs - Cost of appraising product for conformance to requirements.

c) Failure Costs - Costs incurred by failure to conform to requirements.

 

Quality Circle:

It is “a way of capturing the creative and innovative power that lies within the work force”.

Attributes of Quality Circle Concept:

The concept of Quality Circle is primarily based upon recognition of the value of the worker as a human being, as someone who willingly activates on his job, his wisdom, intelligence, experience, attitude and feelings. It is based upon the human resource management considered as one of the key factors in the improvement of product quality & productivity.

Quality Circle concept has three major attributes:

a. Quality Circle is a form of participation management.

b. Quality Circle is a human resource development technique.

c. Quality Circle is a problem solving technique.

 

Objectives of Quality Circles:

The objectives of Quality Circles are multi-faced.

a) Change in Attitude.

b) Self Development

c) Development of Team Spirit

d) Improved Organizational Culture

 

His four absolute quality management:

a) Quality is conformance to requirements

b) Quality prevention is preferable to quality inspection

c) Zero defects is quality performance standard.

d) Quality is measured in monetary terms - the price of non- conformance.

 

Steps to quality improvement:

a) Committed to quality.

b) Creation of quality improvement teams representing all the departments.

c) Measure processes to determine current and potential quality issues.

d) Calculate cost of (poor) quality.

e) Raise quality awareness of all employees.

f) Take action to correct quality issues.

g) Monitor progress of quality improvement.

h) Train supervisions in quality improvement.

i) Hold “Zero Defects” days.

j) Encourage employees to create their own quality improvement goals.

k) Encourage employee communication with management about obstacles quality.

l) Recognize participants’ effort.

m) Create quality councils.

n) Do it all over again - quality improvements does not end.

 

Quality improvement steps conceptualized by Philip Crosby

The following are the ten steps of Quality improvement, as per Philip Crosby:

a) Management is committed to quality and this is clear to all.

b) Create quality improvement teams, with representatives from all departments.

c) Measure processes to determine current & potential quality issues.

d) Calculate the cost of poor quality.

e) Raise quality awareness of all employees.

f) Take action to correct quality issues.

g) Monitor progress of quality improvement-Establish a zero-defect committee.

h) Train supervisors in Quality improvement.

i) Encourage employees to create their own quality improvement goals.

j) Recognize participants’ efforts.