TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)

TQM is people focused management system that aims at continuous increase in

customer service at continuous lower real costs. It is the method used by the
management and employees to ensure long term customer royalty and customer
satisfaction.

TQM is a system of management based on the principle that every member must be
committed to maintain high standards of work in every aspect of firms’ operations.

It is a structured organization management approach that focused on continuous

quality improvement of products and services using continuous feedback.

The aim of TQM is to do things right at the first time over and over again. This saves
time that is needed to correct poor work and failed product and service
implementation.

The TQM can be accomplished in three ways:

a) Finding what customer really want and design products that meet such
needs.
b) Learning how to provide this output as efficient as possible eliminating both
time and cost.
c) Continuing to enhance the process by looking for improvements.

The product quality can be measured in terms of durability, reliability, usage and
safety.

TQM ensures that every employee is working towards the improvement of work
culture, processes, services, systems and so on to ensure long term success.

TQM PROCESS

 TQM prescribes a series of ways for organization to accomplish with a

pathway to successful continuous improvement centred in the use of strategy,
data and effective communication to instil a discipline of quality into its
culture and processes.
 TQM puts a spotlight on the process that the firm use to produce their
products.
 This calls the organizations to define those processes, continuous monitor and
measure their performance and use those performance data to drive
improvements.
 TQM calls for all employees to understand, own and to be part of the process.
 The TQM objective is to eliminate wastes and increase efficiency by ensuring
that production is done right at the first time (no place for mistakes).

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TQM PRINCIPLES/CORE VALUES AND CONCEPTS

1) Customer driven quality

All goods and services provided are the results of feedback from customers who
have told the company what they want and when. Companies attempt to give more
than what customers expect and thus create ‘customer delight’.

2) Leadership

The company’s managers must understand what TQM is all about, be trained in the
process and be prepared both to implement these ideas and to encourage the rest
of the personnel to do so. The company must have clear goals and objectives and
leaders should make the employees actively involved in such goals and objectives.

3) Continuous improvement

By using the right measuring tools and innovative and creative thinking, the
company must make continuous efforts to do better. The company must develop
into higher level of quality at reduced costs.

4) Full participation

The employees are the company’s internal customers. The company must develop
the reward and recognition system that encourages full employee participation in
TQM efforts. When people feel valued, they will work to their maximum potential
hence the company makes them responsible and accountable for their actions.

5) Rapid response

The company must continuously strive to reduce amount of time needed to deliver
goods and services. This means finding short cuts will get the output to the
customer in desired time.

6) Prevention not detection

Attention must be given to determine ways to prevent mistakes or problems rather

than identifying and correcting them after they have occurred. Be proactive and not
reactive.

7) Long range outlook

TQM companies seek to identify the output that will be required in the future and
begin to plan today to reach that objective.

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 8) Management by fact

TQM companies document all their efforts through data collection, analysis and
comparison. This management by fact helps the firm prove its progress rather than
relying on opinion or intuitive regarding how well it is doing.

9) Partnership development

TQM firms get their suppliers, vendors, unions etc to help improve the delivery of
goods and services. These outside groups, regarded as partners who can improve
quality, are brought into the planning process so that they can see their role and
learn how they can help.

10) Public responsibility

TQM firms are also interested in good corporate citizenship. They accept the
responsibility of providing their customers with safe, defect free goods and services,
work to produce less product wastes etc.

TQM TOOLS AND TECNIQUES

i. Data collection sheets

These are used to gather information on performance so that problems can be

identified and corrected. These sheets are designed so that the information can be
easily recorded, tabulated and analysed.

ii. Pareto charts

This is the vertical bar graph that helps to identify which problems are to be solved
in what order. The basic concept behind this chart is explained by pareto principle,
which holds that 80% of all outcomes can be attributed by 20% of all causes. Thus
entrepreneurs can increase the quality of their output by correcting a handful of
problems by fist collecting the information and putting them into a bar chart for
analysis.

The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, is a theory maintaining that 80%
of the output from a given situation or system is determined by 20% of the input.

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Here are a few examples of the Pareto principle in action:

 20% of employees produce 80% of a company’s results.

 20% of a given employee’s time yields 80% of their output.
 20% of software bugs cause 80% of the software’s failures.
 20% of a company’s investments produce 80% of its investment profits.

Applications of the Pareto principle:

A Pareto chart illustrates the Pareto principle by mapping frequency, with the
assumption that the more frequently something happens, the more impact it has on
outcome.

Pareto efficiency is a balance of resource distribution such that one individual’s lot
cannot be improved without impairing the lot of another individual.

A Pareto improvement is assistance that benefits one individual without causing

impairment to another.

Another application of the Pareto principle is the 96-minute rule, which maintains
that knowledge workers should devote themselves to their most important tasks for
that time period each day to improve productivity.

iii. Cause and effect (fishbone) diagrams

These are oftenly used as the follow up to pareto analysis. The pareto chart
identifies the problems, the cause and effect diagram helps to explain the reason
and point the way towards solutions or improvement.

A cause and effect diagram examines why something happened or might happen by
organizing potential causes into smaller categories. It can also be useful for showing
relationships between contributing factors. One of the Seven Basic Tools of Quality,
it is often referred to as a fishbone diagram or Ishikawa diagram.

Most cause and effect diagrams examine a similar set of possible causes for any
issue analysed.

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iv. Scatter diagrams

This tool illustrates the relationship between two variables eg the company wants to
know the value of conducting preventive maintenance on its machinery. The
question to be investigated is that is the relationship between the amount of
preventive maintenance on a machine and the amount of time the unity is down for
the repair.

After gathering the information on these two variables, the company can construct a
scatter diagram showing their relationship.

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THE KEY AREA OF FOCUS IN TQM

a) Customer service focus

The primary focus of TQM is the customer, hence TQM must be designed in such a
way that it will be able to determine what customer need or want, how well the firm
is providing its output and what the company needs to prove its performance to
match if not to stay ahead of, customers’ expectations.

b) Cycle time focus

This is the time needed to complete a task. This time is critical to quality
improvement because of its effects on productivity. If more outputs can be achieved
in the same amount of time, then productivity will increase because the cost per unit
will decrease.

c) Employee focus

TQM depends heavily to employee cooperation and contribution. Effective TQM firms
always spend a great deal of attention on employee training, empowerment and
recognition. There is emphasis on team work, training and participation, each
employees’ work is respected, recognised and rewarded.

d) Continuous improvement focus

This is the process of increasing the quality of goods and services through
incremental gains accompanied by occasional innovation. The benefits of continuous
improvements includes; increased quality of output, increased competitiveness,
leads to high profitability and leads to lower cost per unit of production.

IMPORTANCE AND ADVANTAGES OF TQM TO ENTREPRENEURS

1) Encourage workers participation and commitment to change efforts

2) Focus primarily on the quality of processes
3) Continuous improvements become a fundamental value in firm’s culture
4) The firm’s business quality is aligned with customers’ needs and expectations
5) It addresses quality at the mission and strategic planning stages, thereby
avoiding mistakes and wastes.
6) Each employees work is respected, recognised and rewarded
7) It provides opportunities for staff training to improve their talents and skills.

HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURE CAN IMPLEMENT THE TQM

PROCESS

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Implementation of TQM depends or requires the following be comprehensively
implemented.
a) Rally the organization around the quality banner
b) Focus on process not product
c) Commit the organization into continuous improvement as way of life
d) Acknowledge the sovereignty of the organization’s customers
e) Build in quality and then adjust as required
f) Foster mutual respect at team work
g) Train and empower all stakeholders

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