Quality Management Techniques and Core Concept

Quality management techniques are commonly referred to as TQM (total quality management).
The core concepts of quality management are:
 Continuous process improvement
 Customer focus
 Defect prevention
 Universal responsibility

 Continuous process improvement takes place in incremental steps. It should not stop in
any case. The first step in quality development is for employees to look at their work and
effort in terms of being part of a continuous business process.
Continuous improvement is a persistent effort. To enhance the quality improvement
process, select an improvement project with a specific target. Selecting project with
specific plan helps in improving the total quality management. After this assign an
appropriate project team to improve it. Define the project steps using a flow chart, and
define variability and problems in the project. Locate the root causes of the problems and
recommend improvements, and implement. Measure the results and proceed to a final
implementation. Then start the new project.
The continuous quality improvement process should be driven from the top management,
but implemented from the core team member and other staff. The selection of
improvement projects needs a pointed focus. The problem areas should be prioritized,
serious processes selected for improvement, and improvement goals set for the projects
team members. This is a top down procedure. There are various techniques which teams
can use for their quality improvement effort. Training should be provided so that the
teams know how to use these quality techniques.
Employees who are assigned to project improvement teams need to know how to use
these techniques. Managers and superior need to know these techniques too, because it
is their job of make easy and drive the quality improvement effort.
 Everyone is a customer - External and Internal customer. The external customer is
someone who purchases the product or service. Internal customers are those who make
use of what another group provider. This has fairly profound implications. It means that
every work group has to think about providing value to the people who utilize their
product. This involves finding out exactly what the user requirements, and ensuring that
the process provides it. The initial point for quality improvement is to determine the
customer requirements. When the requirements are fairly simple, this can be done
merely by talking to them.
 When dealing with an external customer and the product is extremely complex, the
determination of the customer requirements can be quite time consuming and requires
a detailed analysis. A useful tool for determining the customer requirements and ensuring
that these needs are incorporated into the product design is the Quality Function
Deployment Matrix. Determining customer requirements accurately is an important
aspect of quality control. Obviously, it is less expensive to rectify a mistake in defining
customer requirements before a product is produced then it is afterwards. So spending
the time and effort to figure out the needs correctly at the start is time well spent.
 Defect prevention or avoidance saves money. Process for manufacturing a product
begins with a specification. Drawings are created, parts are made and assembled, and the
product is delivered to the customer. The cost of rectifying a fault increases by at least a
factor of ten as the product moves through each of these stages. Defect prevention or
avoidance is concerned with catching the errors as early in the game as possible or
preventing them from happening at all.
 Universal responsibility deals with the fact that total quality is not only the responsibility
of the inspection department but is everyone's responsibility in the organization. Quality
improvement should be totally pervasive. Every work group in the business should be
concerned with seeking ways to improve the quality process.