Before you can begin to understand what total quality management is, you must know what quality is. Quality is the ability to satisfy, or even exceed, the needs and expectations of the customers. Total Quality Management is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. The participation of all members of an organization in improving processes, products, services, and the culture they work in is the basis of TQM. Total Quality Management, often called TQM, is a mind set.
It is also a set of well-proven processes for achieving the mind set. The mind set is that everyone in your organization understands what their customers’ expectations are and they meet those expectations every time. TQM, which has been available for many years, was originally developed in the United States and the Japanese were the first to visualize its benefits and apply it successfully. This paper will discuss the history of Total Quality Management and also its creator Dr. William Edwards Deming.
Also included is Dr. Deming’s 14 Points of Management, which apply anywhere from small organizations to large organizations including everything from the service industries to the manufacturing industries and everything in between. They apply to a division within a company. The final topic discussed will be how TQM is implemented in the organizations. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a participative management style that stresses total staff commitment to “customer” satisfaction.
TQM is the part of management organized for the use of creating and implementing a continuous improvement process that constantly improves on the organization’s effectiveness and also their efficiency. The main responsibility lies on not the workers or employees of a corporation, but rather the management. There are many very effective ways that corporations have implemented these strategies of TQM, but most commonly, it is acquired through data collection, flow charts, and diagrams. The development of Total Quality Management is attributed to Frederick W.
Taylor, an engineer and the first management consultant. Statisticians, such as Walter A. Shewhart, Joseph M. Juran, Philip B. Cosby and most importantly Dr. W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993), were responsible for initiating the Total Quality Management process and share a common role in participatory management and employee improvement. Crosby believed and emphasized the “zero-defects” program of TQM. He noted his definition of quality as “meeting the customer’s requirements for the first time and every time.
Joseph Juran believed that system problems could be addressed through three fundamental managerial processes (planning, control, and improvement). Like his colleague’s, Dr. Deming determined that quality is not acquired by the workers’ abilities, but rather by their system of work, which would entail top managerial consultation. Dr. Deming taught concepts that were new to quality control, problem solving and team work just to name a couple. Dr. Deming took the idea of control of managers and turned it into one of the most common and popular forms of management, today known as Total Quality Management.
Dr. William Edwards Deming was probably the most respected statistician in the world. He has won every major statistical award, was a professor emeritus at New York University, has a Japanese award for quality called “The Deming Prize” which is given to a single company each year, has written more than 170 scientific papers along with several books, and is a management and quality control consultant to major companies throughout the world. Dr. Deming has been a private consultant since 1946.
Although he has been helping companies worldwide for many decades, quality has only recently been popularly acknowledged as one of the most pressing issues in business. Organizations both large and small are slowly adopting the philosophy that management is the key difference. Most companies feel like they produce products or services to make a profit, but Deming’s philosophy says organizations produce products and services that help people live better. In return this develops loyal customers, which according to Deming, is where the real profits are generated – by loyal customers, not just satisfied customers.
