TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

HISTORY OF TQM

The history of quality management can be traced all the way back to The Middle Ages.
Work completed by journeymen and apprentices were evaluated and inspected by the skilled
worker to ensure that quality standards were met in all aspects of the finished product, ensuring
satisfaction of the buyer. And while the history of quality management has gone through a number
of changes since that time, the end goal is still the same. It was in the late 1920s, while working as
a summer employee at Western Electric Company in Chicago, W. Edwards Deming found worker
motivation systems to be degrading and economically unproductive; incentives were tied directly
to quantity of output, and inefficient post-production inspection systems were used to find flawed
goods.
W. Edwards Deming teamed up in the 1930s with Walter A. Shewhart, a Bell Telephone
Company statistician whose work convinced Deming that statistical control techniques could be
used to supplant traditional management methods. Using Shewhart's theories, Deming devised a
statistically controlled management process that provided managers with a means of determining
when to intervene in an industrial process and when to leave it alone. Deming got a chance to put
Shewhart's statistical-quality-control techniques, as well as his own management philosophies, to
the test during World War II. Government managers found that his techniques could be easily
taught to engineers and workers, and then quickly implemented in over-burdened war production
plants.

One of Deming's clients, the U.S. State Department, sent him to Japan in 1947 as part of a
national effort to revitalize the war-devastated Japanese economy. It was in Japan that Deming
found an enthusiastic reception for his management ideas. Deming introduced his statistical
process control, or statistical quality control, programs into Japan's ailing manufacturing sector.
Those techniques are credited with instilling a dedication to quality and productivity in the
Japanese industrial and service sectors that allowed the country to become a dominant force in the
global economy by the 1980s.
TQM was demonstrated on a grand scale by Japanese industry through the intervention of
W. Edwards Deming—who has come to be viewed as the “father” of quality control, quality
circles, and the quality movement generally. Japanese application of the method had significant
and undeniable results manifesting as dramatic increases in Japanese product quality—and
Japanese success in exports. This led to the spread of the quality movement across the world. In
the late 1970s and 1980s, U.S. producers scrambled to adopt quality and productivity techniques
that might restore their competitiveness. Deming’s approach to quality control came to be
recognized in the United States, and Deming himself became a sought-after lecturer and author.
Total Quality Management, the phrase applied to quality initiatives proffered by Deming and other
management gurus, became a staple of American enterprise by the late 1980s. But while the quality
movement has continued to evolve beyond its beginnings, many of Deming’s particular emphases,
particularly those associated with management principles and employee relations, were not
adopted in Deming’s sense but continued as changing fads, including, for example, the movement
to “empower” employees and to make “teams” central to all activities.

DIFFERENT ACRONYMS/TERMINOLOGIES THAT TQM WAS CALLED.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a comprehensive management approach that works

horizontally across an organization, involving all departments and employees and extending
backward and forward to include both suppliers and clients/customers. It also provides a
framework for implementing effective quality and productivity initiatives that can increase the
profitability and competitiveness of organizations. It is a way of thought with regards to goals,
people and organizational success that strives to ensure that the right things are done right the first
time. The total quality management philosophy aims to change attitudes and behaviors for people
working within the organization in pursuit of success and better results.

TQM is only one of many acronyms used to label management systems that focus on
quality. Other acronyms include QC (quality control), CQI (continuous quality improvement),
SQC (statistical quality control), QFD (quality function deployment), QIDW (quality in daily
work), TQC (total quality control), etc.
Quality control (QC) on the other hand is defined as a process through which a business
works to ensure that the quality of the products produced is maintained or improved where
necessary. QC aims to ensure that manufacturing errors are eliminated or kept at a minimum.
Because of the perfection nature of the process involved, the business requires both employees and
managerial personnel to work towards achieving perfection in their endeavors. It also relies on
three major aspects in its execution: competence (whereby knowledge, skills, qualifications and
experience come into play for the execution of certain controls within the educational
environment), the soft elements (involving integrity, confidence, motivation, organizational
culture and a team spirit towards the achievement of the set goals and standards within the
educational process), and control (involving factors such as inspection, job management and
record keeping).

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), sometimes known as Performance and Quality

Improvement (PQI) is a defined process of creating an atmosphere where workers and managers
can strive to create an environment that is constantly improving the quality of products produced.
CQI defines several key elements such as accountability, teamwork, good management,
continuous review of progress, refined service delivery, increased staff morale, promotes
innovative ways to solve problems and also enhances client tracking and documentation. Due to
the constant need to improve quality of products created, CQI is destined to have attainable goals
that propel the organization to greater heights of perfection. These goals include having a guide to
quality operations, meeting external regulations and standards, ensuring safe working
environments and quality services and finally assisting agency programs and services in their bid
to reach annual objectives and goals. It also ensures that businesses are up-to-date with the latest
trends and requirements of the market and propels healthy competition in the industry by ensuring
the continued provision of quality products.
Statistical Quality Control (SQC), otherwise known as Statistical process Control (SPC) is
a quality control method that involves the use of statistical methods to monitor and control a given
process. Monitoring of the process ensures that the process operates at full potential, thus creating
the possibility of making as much product as possible. SQC also involves the description of quality
characteristics and relationships via the inspection of random samples of output from different
processes of output. Statistical quality control is important because the tools used in the monitoring
of the process help detect the variants in the manufacturing process before the end result can be
produced.
Quality Function Development (QFD) is a method used to transform qualitative customer
demands into quantitative parameters, to deploy techniques for achieving the desired design
quality into subsystems, to deploy functions that enhance quality and finally, and to specific
elements in the process of manufacture. QFD is intended to help planners to focus on specific traits
of new or existing services/products in the market from different viewpoints and to transform
customer needs into engineering characteristics through the prioritization of each product/service
trait while simultaneously setting the development targets for the service/ product. It also has a
role to play in the growth of the business but it is not as integral as quality assurance. The statistics
allow the company to make strategic decisions for forecasted financial periods which in turn
provides them with a competitive edge over their competitors.
Total quality control (TQC) is defined as the application of principles of quality
management in all areas of business from the design to the delivery instead of focusing the
principles on the production activities alone. TQC involves the control of the amount of production
as well as the stock held by the organization and making quality control the foundation of the
business process for the sole reason of making quality the selling point of the business. It also
involves every aspect of the business ranging from the design and concept stages of production to
the actual production process and finally to the presentation of the product to the customers.

BENEFITS OF TQM IN AN ORGANIZATION

In such a competitive environment resulted from world globalization, firms have to face
with much difficulty to survive unless they create the competitive advantage over their
competitors. With the increase of competition, business survival pressure, changing customer
oriented environment, total quality management (TQM) has been recognized as one of the
important issues and generated a substantial amount of interest among managers and researchers.
TQM has been regarded as one of effective ways for firms to improve their competitive advantage.
Leading pioneers in the quality area asserted that competitive advantage can be gained by
providing quality products or services. A quality holds the key competitiveness in today’s global
market. In addition, TQM has widely considered as an effective management tool to provide
business with stability, growth, and prosperity. The benefits of quality improvement can not only
be reflected on cost reduction, but also on maximization of business profits. In the words of quality
improvement, what really matters for an organization is not just cost minimization, but superior
quality’s effects has on maximizing profits.
Today, companies all over the globe compete for the hundreds of Excellence Awards now
given. The purpose of quality management, however, still remains the same as it has, all through
history – to ensure that customers receive an excellent, quality product.

https://asq.org/quality-resources/history-of-quality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Society_for_Quality

 Official website, ASQ

 https://qualitymanagementsystem.com/total-quality-management/the-history-of-quality-
management/