1

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION:
• During the 1st World War, the need for
manufacturing weapons in large quantities arose and
with that arose the need for an effective control system
over the quality of goods/weapons.

• Further, with increase in industrial trade and the

outbreak of World War II, the number of industries
producing military and non-military goods increased at a
very fast pace and the word 'QUALITY' became a matter
of concern for both military organisations and industrial
organisations.

• As a result of globalisation, firms who wish to

retain their share in the world markets in quality and
reliability must maintain quality of their goods and
services. The term 'quality1 has, thus, taken a form of
quality revolution which each firm today is striving to
aim at and if not, should aim at.

QUALITY – MEANING:
• A good product
• Sturdy
• Durable
• Easy to operate
• Good in appearance, etc.
These features, when associated with product define
quality in a broader sense that means a product that:

• Satisfies customers' wants and desires

• Observes the terms of delivery
• Has good documentation
• Is available at reasonable price, and
• Meets all specifications with respect to standards
 2

Doctoral meaning of the term 'quality' is 'degree of

excellence, relative nature or kind or character'.

Quality means "Products that are manufactured exactly

to specifications". It also refers to "Products and services
that totally satisfy our customer needs and expectation in
every respect on a continuous basis."

ISO 9000 defines quality as the totality of features and

characteristics of a product and service that bears on its
ability to meet stated or implied needs.

FACTORS AFFECTING QUALITY:

1. Markets: Markets are expanding today and

consumers demand qualitative products to satisfy their
need of belongingness about that product. As markets
are broadening in scope, manufacturers have to
increasingly concentrate on the quality of goods survive
in the expanding markets.

2. Money: With increase in competition, firms' profit

margins are reducing and, therefore, they have to
concentrate on minimizing the quality costs. Cost
savings due to quality improvement have to be focused
upon so that firms can improve their profit margins.

3. Men: With increasing size, complexities and

specialization of business operations, there is need to
appoint workers with specialized knowledge who can
produce quality goods so that firms can compete in the
competitive environment of vast knowledge and
specialization.
 3

4. Materials: To cope with the high cost of production,

business organizations search for alternate materials
which will keep the overall cost of materials low in
consonance with high quality of goods and services
produced.

5. Machines: Maintaining existing machines and

looking for new machines which will help manufacturers
reduce their cost of production can also add to the
quality of products.

6. Management: Quality should not confine to the

product alone. Designing the product, transformation
process that will produce the final product, marketing the
product, providing after sales service are all essential
features of quality management which require active
support of top management in allocating responsibilities
so that product quality can be maintained.

7. Motivation: The greatest force that can contribute to

quality of the product is the work force. Workers should
be motivated through education and incentives to
contribute their best to the product quality.

8. Management of Information Systems: The

information systems through application of computer -
oriented tools and techniques also contribute to the
quality of the products by making right information
accessible at the right lime and the right place.
 4

QUALITY CONTROL:

There are three main points during the production

process when inspection is performed:

1. When raw materials are received prior to entering

production
2. While products are going through the production
process
3. When products are finished - inspection or testing
takes place before products are dispatched to customers

OBJECTIVES OF QUALITY CONTROL:

1. To establish quality standards for the product and the

process which are capable of being achieved.

2. To lay down standards of measurement which will

facilitate manufacture of products.

3. To maintain records that will facilitate measurement

of performance at various stages of production process.

4. To analyse the performance to detect and correct

deviations beyond the acceptable range of errors.

5. To find causes of deviation to avoid their recurrence.

6. To obtain feedback for correction and improvement

of the products and production processes.

IMPORTANCE OFQUALITY CONTROL:

1. It helps in detecting errors prior to production of

 5

outputs. It, therefore, smoothens the operational

efficiency of the production processes.

2. It helps in promoting quality improvement efforts that

encourage joint 'participation of workers and
management across all levels and functional areas.

3. It provides a trade off between quality and

productivity. Improved quality leads to low inspection
costs, less repairs, less scrap and, therefore, low cost of
production.

4. Lower costs would improve company's sales and also

create greater customer loyalty by providing consistency
and reliability in the products.

5. It matches customers' actual experience with the

goods and services against their requirement for the
product.

6. It provides continuous improvement in the

company's products/processes and provides
opportunities for achieving new and higher targets.

7. It coordinates activities of all the departments and

promotes communication between them.

8. It improves employees' motivation and morale to

contribute to organisational output to the best of their
abilities by resorting to ways as 'quality circles'.

9. It helps in improving company's image in the

national and international markets and society at large.
 6

TOOLS/TECHNIQUES OF TQM:

1. Benchmarking: The purpose of benchmarking is to

fill gaps in firms' performance by taking an independent
look at it, comparing it with others and adopting the best
practice which is being followed by the competitors in
all areas of operations. It helps organisations move from
introspective to externally focused areas of business
operations.

2. Deming Wheel: Aiming at full satisfaction of

consumers, Denting, a famous TQM theorist, suggested
a concept to satisfy the customer requirements by
developing a cycle called PDCA cycle. It refers to Plan,
Do, Check and Action and helps in developing a new
product based on requirements of the customers.

3. ISO-9000: It aims at providing an effective

management system to firms and their customers so that
tasks are standardised, that is, carried out in the same
way irrespective of whosoever does them. It aims at
providing consistent quality to customers.

4. Just-in-time: When firms want to keep minimium

stocks to avoid unproductive costs, this method aims at
delivering the raw materials and components to the
production line just in time when they are needed. This
sytem is also known as 'zero inventory' and 'stockless
production'.

5. Quality Circles: These are small groups of people

consisting of about 3 to 12 people who do similar work
 7

and meet voluntarily for about an hour every week to

identify their problems also search for ways to tackle
them. Once the problems are solved, they identify
further problems and, thus, self-regulate their work. This
method of TQM develops the quality of products and
also the individuals.

6. Critical Path Analysis: Critical path analysis is a

project planning technique that separates the work to be
done on a project into discrete elements, specifies the
time and costs associated with completion of each
element, allows the key elements that affect the overall
project to be identified and determines the path that is
most critical in terms of usage of time and cost. It is the
path that takes the longest to complete the project and
directs management's attention towards that path so that
project does not take longer than the critical path for its
completion.

7. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA): This

method helps in designing foolproof products and
processes by detecting problems at an early stage in a
structured manner. It provides a structure for analysing
the problems, identifies their possible causes and
examines the product or service to look for possible
causes of deviation. FMEA, thus, allows for planning the
failures and their prevention.

8. Force-field Analysis: As a means to implement

change and allow organisation development, force field
analysis allows a team of individuals to identify forces
that help and those that hinder in reducing the gap
between where the firm is and where it wants to be. It
helps managers identify the forces which have maximum
impact on implementation of change and, therefore, to
concentrate their efforts in those areas.
 8

9. Brainstorming: When managers want to find the

cause of any problem or solution to any given problem,
they use the method of brainstorming where they try to
generate as many ideas as possible by encouraging all
organisational members to contribute to the solution.
This method breaks barriers between the departments
and the levels of hierarchy and encourages everyone to
develop their collaborative behaviour which acts as a
bond to further strengthen their groups skills.

10. Nominal Group Technique: At the end of the

brainstorming session when the leader has a lot of ideas
available with him, he brings together these ideas,
concise them and reaches a conclusion for solving the
given problem. The nominal group technique is "a way
of generating ideas from a group and identifying the
level of support within the group for those ideas". The
group remains committed to the final outcome and
accepts the decision and control exercised by the group
leader.

11. Suggestion Schemes: As the name suggests,

suggestion schemes aim to generate new ideas for
moving to continuous improvement through incremental
changes. It provides substance to the quality
improvement plan and generates ideas to keep it going.

12. C-Charts: The control charts are graphic

representations where managers set standards of
expected normal variation due to chance causes which
are acceptable within the range of upper quality level
and the lower quality level. Any variation outside the
acceptable limits is investigated for its causes and
attempts are made to correct those deviations, whether
they are with respect to wear and tear of the machine or
 9

poor quality of materials or obsolescence of machines or

disharmony in superior-subordinate interaction etc.

13. Histograms: At the early stages of problem-solving,

when the team tries to find the progress of work, it
displays continuous data collected by check sheets so
that patterns of regularity or non-regularity can be
displayed. Histograms are visual representations of data
that highlight the problem areas which, pinpoint to the
team the need for corrective action or analysis of data.

14. P-Charts: Similar in content to C-charts, P-charts

help in identifying the percentage of defective items in a
sample of variable size which varies by more than 25 per
cent of the mean sample size.

15. Pie Charts: It is a pictoral representation of data

where the relative size, in terms of percentage, of each
individual part is shown to the total.

16. Tally Charts: While defining a problem or

implementing a solution, when the team needs to collect
data to find out what is happening or to monitor the new
situation, it collects data and presents it in the form of
tally bars. These bars depict the value of defects or
failures and help the team to identify the causes of
failure and search for ways to remove them. A tally bar
is a simple method of data collection and interpretation
which can be applied in office and work areas and help
people of all areas to deal with problems related to
quality improvement.

TOTAL QUALITY CONTROL:

 10

Major characteristics, ignored during the search to

improve manufacture and overall business performance
are:

• Reliability
• Maintainability
• Safety

QUALITY CIRCLES (QC):

Quality circle is a group of labour and management

personnel who belong to a single department, do same or
similar work, meet periodically to discuss manufacturing
problems (for about an hour per week in paid time),
analyse them and find solutions to quality problems.

OBJECTIVES OF QUALITY CIRCLES:

1. To improve the quality of products.

2. To improve the productivity of a firm.

3. To develop a sense of confidence in the workers that

they can solve their own problems.

4. To improve employees' morale.

5. To improve employees' job satisfaction.

6. To develop the personality of employees by making

them aware of their importance in work related areas.

7. To improve interpersonal relationship between

management and workers.

8. To improve employees' motivation and

 11

communication within the organisation.

Features of Quality circles:

Quality circles are regular short meetings set up to

aidwork-related problems.

• 5-10 people attend the meeting in work time

• Supervisor is nominated and he runs the meeting

• Charts, audiovisual equipment, boards etc. are

utilized

• Problem areas are put forward by the group

• Problems are prioritized

• Information is collected, ideas are generated via

brainstorming.

• Effectiveness, costs, savings, consequences to other

departments etc. are considered

• Final solution is put forward to manager and

implemented by the quality circle group.

BENEFITS OF QUALITY CIRCLE:

1. They focus on the improvement of products' quality in

a planned way.

2. They train employees to identify their problems on

their own and also find and implement solutions to the
same.
 12

3. They satisfy members' higher-order needs of

recognition and self-actualisation.

4. They improve members' participation in the work-

related organisational problems and, thus, enhance their
job satisfaction.

5. They promote productivity, efficiency, cost reduction,

design, testing, safety, etc. of the products.

6. Since teaching (training) is done in an informal way,

employees do not feel burdened with analysing their
problems and finding solutions for the same. Rather,
they feel motivated to offer suggestions to management.

KAIZEN:

Kaizen means "improvement". Kaizen strategy calls for

never-ending efforts for improvement involving
everyone in the organization - managers and workers
alike.

Kaizen and Management:

Management has two major components:

1. Maintenance
2. Improvement

1. Maintenance:

The objective of the maintenance function is to maintain

current technological, managerial, and operating
standards.

Under the Maintenance function, the management must

first establish policies, rules, directives and standard
 13

operating procedures (SOPs) and then work towards

ensuring that everybody follows SOP.

The latter is achieved through a combination of

discipline and human resource development measures.

2. Improvement:
The improvement function is aimed at improving current
standards.

Under the Improvement function, management works

continuously towards revising the current standards and
once they have been mastered, and establishing higher
ones.

Innovation involves a drastic improvement in the

existing process and requires large investments. Kaizen
signifies small improvements as a result of coordinated
continuous efforts by all employees.

Quality Circle/Kaizen Team as a group of workers who

do similar work and who meet:

• Voluntarily
• Regularly
• In normal working time
• Under the leadership of their supervisor
• To identify, analyze and solve "work-related"
problems
• To recommend solutions to management

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM):

1. Total - Everyone associated with the company is

involved in continuous improvement including
customers and suppliers.
 14

2. Quality - Customers' stated and implied requirements

are fully met.

3. Management - Executives are fully committed.

TQM is facilitated through clear understanding of the
term 'Quality Control'
Q - Quality first C - Cost consciousness
U - User is the king 0 - Optimal tolerance
A - Avoid defects N - Nip the vital few
L - Long-term vision T - Team work
I - Innovation R - Respect humanity
T-Training for all 0 – Operator’s state of control
Y - Yearning for facts L - Leadership from top

NATURE OF TQM:

The nature of TQM is explained as follows:

1. Strategic commitment: Quality improvement is

necessary for achieving the overall organisational goals
and also carries with it some costs, like prevention costs
(acceptance planning, quality audit, preventive
maintenance), appraisal cost (product acceptance,
inspection) and failure costs (redesign, scrap, corrective
action). Minimising of these costs and achieving the
desired goals requires strategic commitment by top
management.

2. Teamwork: Teamwork provides an opportunity for

achieving quality improvement by bringing people
together, facilitating communication between functional
(or departmental) activities, familiarising them with
 15

work that is done by others and creating an awakening in

them of the consequences of poor quality of work that
they perform. Teamwork acts as an effective platform
for change and consequently, quality management.

3. Customer satisfaction: The way to quality

improvement is through learning about consumer
expectations. TQM aims at satisfying the needs of its
external and internal consumers. Successful internal
working relations is the road to satisfaction of external
consumers.

4. Continuous improvement: Quality improvement is a

continuous cycle of ascertaining consumers'
requirements, meeting these requirements, obtaining
feedback, measuring success and probing into areas
where further improvements can be made.

5. Prevention: TQM aims at taking preventive action

rather than corrective action. It seeks to ensure that
failures do not occur so that a healthy and positive
environment is created which substantiates the culture of
continuous improvement.

6. Materials, technology and methods: Establishing a

system which ensures defect-free products provides the
foundation to TQM. This can be promoted by improving
the firms' quality of materials, technology and methods.
Improvement in quality of materials that firms get from
their suppliers will lead to improvement in quality of
their final products and decline in the rate of rejections
by consumers. Investments in technology or improved
and automated way of working also helps in making
products with higher quality, precision and consistency.
"Methods are the operating systems used by the
 16

organisation during the actual transformation process".

Effective methods of production is a step towards
improving the quality of products.

7. Improvement tools: In order to improve quality and

remain competitive in the global economy, firms must
adopt the right improvement tools, techniques and
methodologies.

TQM MODEL:

TQM is called the Plan-Do-Check-Action cycle or the

PDCA cycle. The steps in the PDCA cycle are
implemented as follows:

1. Plan: It refers to product development. The team must

lay down the objectives, policies, and procedures of
TQM, determine customer requirements, adopt
appropriate tools and techniques and educate and train
the personnel to produce goods that meet customer
requirements. If a problem is detected in any area of
product development, the team must find the causes of
the problem by collecting the data and information
which must be based on facts and not mere judgement or
thinking.

2. Do: It refers to working according to the plan. It starts

to manufacturing according to product development
plans. The process of TQM must be implemented by
introducing machines, material and men to the
production processes. If any problem is detected in the
planning phase, the team will take steps to solve that
problem in the Do phase.

3. Check: Once the production process has started,

Check refers to finding deviations, if any, in outputs or
 17

inputs, finding the causes of deviations and analysing

their impact on the final product and the market
relationships. It amounts to checking the impact of
company's sales on customer satisfaction. If any problem
is detected in the plan stage, the solution to which was
implemented in the do stage, the check phase aims to
find out whether or not the improvement process was
successful.

4. Action: If steps taken above prove to be successful,

better quality level should be accepted and if steps have
not proved to be successful, the PDCA cycle should be
repeated. It, therefore, deals with market research and
aims to prevent problems rather than correct them.

BENEFITS OF TQM:

1. It helps to satisfy customer demand and justifies the

existence of a business organiation.
2. It helps firms face competition and strength its
competitive position.
3. It enables the firm to optimally utilise its scarce
resources, that is, it helps in optimum allocation of
resources.
4. It helps in maintaining quality cost relationships, that
is, prevent the occurrence of costs associated with poor
quality.
5. It improves quality of the products by preventing and
correcting defects and reducing wastes; "waste is a crime
against society and sin against divine'.
 18

6. It increases organisational productivity, that is, rate of

increase in outputs is more than the rate of increase in
inputs.
7. It improves the organisational environment in which
quantity and quality are positively correlated and overall
social and financial position of the firm (goodwill and
profitability) is strengthened.
8. It leads to development of committed personnel who
work for the achievement of individual and
organisational goals.
9. It adds to the competence of all personnel with
respect to their jobs.
10. It enhances both horizontal and vertical
communication amongst managers and employees.
11. It leads to continuous improvement in the
operational activities of the firm.
12. It helps an organisation to move from 'zero to Hero
through Dedication, Ethics, Integrity and Technology'.

EFFECTIVE TQM:
As TQM is a necessity for any business organisation and
its effective implementation cannot be overlooked for
successful achievement of organisational goals through
customer satisfaction, the following guidelines will help
in its successful implementation:
1. It should aim at customer satisfaction through active
involvement of all people across the functional areas and
organisational hierarchy.
2. Not only involvement, it must also aim at
commitment on the part of all those who are associated
with the TQM programme to implement it successfully.
3. Education, training, measurement, accountability,
recognition, reward, teamwork and communication are
the backbone of effective TQM.
 19

4. It should be considered as a way to achieve the end

and not an end in itself.
5. It should not view anything as the best. Continuous
improvement needs sustenance for effective TQM.
6. Quality is the prime motive of TQM. This can be
achieved by good intentions, moral ethics and humanity.
7. The firms should concentrate on quality followed by
quantity and not vice versa.

KEY ELEMENTS TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN

IMPLEMENTING TQM IN AN ORGANIZATION:

TQM has been coined to describe a philosophy that

makes quality the driving force behind leadership,
design, planning, and improvement initiatives. For this,
TQM requires the help of eight key elements. These
elements can be divided into four groups according to
their functions. The groups are:

• FOUNDATION - Ethics, Integrity and Trust.

• BUILDING BRICKS - Training, Teamwork and
Leadership.
• BINDING MORTAR - Communication.
• ROOF - Recognition.

I. FOUNDATION : TQM is built on a foundation of

ethics, integrity and trust. It fosters openness, fairness
and sincerity and allows involvement by everyone.
These three elements move together, however, each
element offers something different to the TQM concept.
(a) Ethics: Ethics is the discipline concerned with good
and bad in any situation. It is a two-faceted subject
represented by organizational and individual ethics.
 20

Organizational ethics establish a business code of ethics

that outlines guidelines that all employees are to adhere
to increase the performance of their work. Individual
ethics include personal rights or wrongs.
(b) Integrit: Integrity implies honesty, morals, values,
fairness, and adherence to the facts and sincerity. The
characteristic is what customers (internal or external)
expect and deserve to receive. People see the opposite of
integrity as duplicity. TQM will not work in an
atmosphere of duplicity.
(c) Trust: Trust is a by-product of integrity and ethical
conduct. Without trust, the framework of TQM cannot
be built. Trust fosters full participation of all members. It
allows empowerment that encourages pride ownership
and commitment. It allows decision making at
appropriate levels in the organization, fosters individual
risk-taking for continuous improvement and helps to
ensure that measurements focus on improvement of
process. Trust is essential to ensure customer
satisfaction. So, trust builds the cooperative environment
essential for TQM.

2. BRICKS: Based on the strong foundation of trust,

ethics and integrity, bricks are
placed to reach the roof of recognition. It includes:
(a) Training: Training is very important for employees
to be highly productive. Supervisors are solely
responsible for implementing TQM within their
departments, and teaching their employees the
philosophies of TQM. Employees require training to
improve their interpersonal skills, the ability to function
within teams, problem solving, decision making, job
management performance analysis and improvement,
business economics and technical skills. During the
creation and formation of TQM, employees are trained
to become effective employees for the company.
 21

(b) Teamwork: To become successful in business,

teamwork is also a key element of TQM. With the use of
teams, the business will receive quicker and better
solutions to problems. Teams also provide permanent
improvements in processes and operations. In teams,
people feel more comfortable bringing up problems that
may occur, and can get help from other workers to find a
solution and put into practice. There are mainly three
types of teams that TQM organizations adopt:
(i) Quality Improvement Teams or Excellence Teams
(QIT): These are temporary teams with the purpose of
dealing with specific problems that often re-occur. These
teams are set up for a period of three to twelve months.
(ii) Problem Solving Teams (PSTs): These are
temporary teams to solve certain problems and also to
identify and overcome causes of problems. They
generally last from one week to three months.
(iii) Natural Work Teams (NWTs): These teams consist
of small groups of skilled workers who share tasks and
responsibilities. These teams use concepts such as
employee involvement teams, self-managing teams and
quality circles. These teams generally work for one to
two hours a week.
(c) Leadership: It is possibly the most important
element in TQM. It appears everywhere in organization.
Leadership in TQM requires the manager to provide an
inspiring vision, make strategic directions that are
understood by all and to instill values that guide
subordinates. For TQM to be successful in the business,
the supervisor must be committed in leading his
employees. A supervisor must
understand TQM, believe in it and demons rate their
belief and commitment through their daily practices of
TQM. The supervisor makes sure that strategies,
philosophies, values and goals are transmitted down
 22

through out the organization to provide focus, clarity and

direction. A key point is that TQM has to be introduced
and led by top management. Commitment and personal
involvement are required from top management in
creating clear quality values and goals consistent with
the objectives of the company and in creating well
defined systems, methods and performance measures for
achieving those goals.

3. BINDING MORTAR: Once you reach the roof,

mortar binds everyone in the organization together. It
includes:
(a) Communication: It binds everything together.
Starting from foundation to roof of the TQM house,
everything is bound by strong mortar of communication.
It acts as an important link between all elements of
TQM. Communication means a common understanding
of ideas between the sender and the receiver. The
success of TQM demands communication with and
among all the organization members, suppliers and
customers. Supervisors must always keep open where
employees can send and receive information about the
TQM process. Communication coupled with the sharing
of correct information is vital. For communication to be
effective, the message must be clear, and receiver must
interpret in the way the sender intended. There are
different ways of communication such as :
• Downward communication: This is the dominant
form of communication in an organization. It is done
through presentations and discussions. By this, the
supervisors are able to make the employees clear about
TQM.
• Upward communication: By this, the lower level of
employees are able to provide suggestions to upper
management of the effects of TQM. As employees
provide insight and constructive criticism, supervisors
 23

must listen effectively to correct the situation that comes

about through the use of TQM. This forms a level of
trust between supervisors and employees. This is also
similar to empowering communication, where
supervisors keep open ears and listen to others.
Sideways Communication: This type of communication
is important because it breaks down barriers between
departments. It also allows dealing with customers and
suppliers in a more professional manner.

4. ROOF: It allows everyone to remain at the top and

achieve fame.
(a) Recognition: Recognition is the last and final
element in the entire system. It should provide both
suggestions and achievements for teams as well as
individuals. Employees strive to receive recognition for
themselves and their teams. Detecting and recognizing
contributors is the most important job of a supervisor. As
people are recognized, there can be huge changes in self-
esteem, productivity, quality and the amount of effort
exhorted to the task at hand. Recognition comes in
different ways, places and time such as,
• Ways: ft can be by way of personal letter from top
management. Also by way of awarding bouquets,
plaques, trophies etc.
• Place : Good performers can be recognized in front
of departments, on performance boards and also in front
of top management.
• Time: Recognition can be given at any time like in
staff meeting, annual award banquets, etc.

PRINCIPLES OF TQM:
The task force set up for revising the ISO (International
Organization for Standardization) 9000 series of
standards decided that organizations can continually
improve their performance if they follow the following
 24

(eight) principles of quality management:

1.Customer Focus: All organizational activities are

directed towards producing goods and services that will
satisfy the present and future customer requirements.
Being aware of customer requirements, and always
satisfying them is the integral part of TQM.

2. Leadership: Organization should have good and

effective leaders who provide unity of action and
direction to all those working within the organization.
The leaders should strive the organizational efforts
towards achievement of its overall goals.

3.Involvement of People: Structures, systems and

technology by themselves do not provide quality unless
people who run the organization fully exploit their
abilities to work for the organization's progress and
benefits. Unless people understand what to do, how to
do and obtain feedback on their performance, they
cannot be encouraged to take responsibility for quality of
their work. Greater involvement of people will lead to
greater customer satisfaction.

4. Process Approach: Desired organizational goals can

be achieved when resources and activities are managed
as a process. "A process is a combination of methods,
materials, manpower and machines that, taken together,
produce a product". Quality improvement aims at
reducing variations amongst different processes by
removing the causes of variations and bringing the
process under control.

5. Systems Approach to Management: An

 25

organization should be viewed as a system with

interrelated sets of activities that link the internal
organizational environment with its external
environment and help it to achieve its overall goals with
utmost efficiency in terms of quality products.

6. Continual Improvement: TQM is not an end in

itself. It is the road to achieving the end, the quality
improvement. It is a continuous process of incremental
change that aims at improving organization's operational
efficiency according to improvement in the competitors'
policies and customers' requirements.

7. Factual Approach to Decsion-making: Managers

must know their current quality standards in order to
improve upon them. The decision to improve depends
upon available information and its dissemination of the
same to all those concerned and, therefore, it is
necessary that right and accurate information is available
to managers through effective information systems.

8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationship: The

organization and its suppliers should work for mutual
benefit of each other to provide value to overall
organizational activities.
The main principles that underlie TQM are summarized
below:
• Prevention: Prevention is better than cure. In the
long run, it is cheaper to stop products defects than
trying to find them.
• Zero Defects: The ultimate aim is no (zero) defects -
or exceptionally low defect levels if a product or service
is complicated.
• Getting Things Right First Time: Better not to
produce at all than produce something defective.
• Quality Involves Everyone: Quality is not just the
 26

concern of the production or operations department - it

involves everyone, including marketing, finance and
human resources.
• Continuous Improvement: Businesses should always
be looking for ways to improve processes to help
improve quality.
• Employee Involvement: Those involved in production
and operations have a vital role to play in spotting
improvement opportunities for quality and in identifying
quality problems.