The Road to TQM

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a comprehensive and structured approach to organizational management that seeks to improve the quality of products and services through ongoing refinements in response to continuous feedback. TQM requirements may be defined separately for a particular organization or may be in adherence to established standards, such as the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9000 series.TQM can be applied to any type of organization; it originated in the manufacturing sector and has since been adapted for use in almost every type of organization imaginable, including schools, highway maintenance, hotel management, and churches TQM processes are divided into four sequential categories: plan, do, check, and act (the PDCA cycle).In the planning phase, people define the problem to be addressed, collect relevant data, and ascertain the problem's root cause; in the doing phase, people develop and implement a solution, and decide upon a measurement to gaug e its effectiveness; in the checking phase, people confirm the results through before-and-after data comparison; in the acting phase, people document their results, inform others about process changes, and make recommendations for the problem to be addressed in the next PDCA cycle. IntroTotal quality management (TQM) consists of organization-wide efforts to install and make permanent a climate in which an organization continuously improves its ability to deliver high-quality products and services to customers. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a participative, systematic approach to planning and implementing a constant organizational improvement process. Its approach is focused on exceeding customers’ expectations, identifying problems, building commitment, and promoting open decision-making among workers.The Road to TQM (Growth) Until around 1950, Japanese products were perceived in markets all over the world as being very inexpensive, but with poor quality. By the 1980s, th e same markets were recognizing MADE IN JAPAN as a sign of high quality and reliability. What happened during those three decades? Mass production systems were developed mainly by U. S. industries in the early 20th century. Other countries that were then emerging as new powers adopted variations of this scientific management of companies according to their individual contexts.After the World war, the devastated Japanese economy moved vigorously to restore its previous production level through full-on importation of technologies and ideas from the U. S. and Europe. In the postwar period, Japanese industries absorbed many modern concepts. The quality management systems were typical examples. However, Japanese-made still had a connotation of being inexpensive but with poor quality until the early 1950s. A number of factors contributed to reversing the notorious reputation of Japanese products in the subsequent two decadesTOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT ADAPTION:Japan introduced development of applied technologies, creative reception of imported systems, successful introduction of industrial policies in harmonization with the private sector, expansion of world trade, gradual liberalization of domestic markets for foreign capital, and so on. Among them, what calls our particular attention in relation to management systems is Japan’s 1950s and early 1960s adaptation of Total Quality management. The Japanese management philosophy, system and practices, all focusing mainly on people and work is also termed as â€Å"Total Quality Management†.The common goal of TQM is to produce and serve the quality the customers need in a most economic manner. To achieve this goal, common approaches adopted in TQ M are: Policy deployment (PDCA cycle), Small group activities (QC circle) Systematic problem solving (QC story) Statistical methods ( QC tools) We can consider Total Quality Management (TQM) as an umbrella under which many components of Japanese management practices wo rk simultaneously for improvement of productivity and quality. Refer to Exhibit-XII for some examples.