TQM Report
TQM Report
TQM Report
Why TQM?
The Inevitability of offering poor quality products or services to todays sophisticated buyers is the direct loss of profit and market share. New ventures getting their nascent operations off the ground as well as established enterprises are facing this reality routinely. Consequently CEOs around the world have begun viewing quality more seriously than they have done in the past. Some are seeking ISO 9000 accreditation, while others are integrating quality formally into their business strategy. However, many of them find the related tasks to be a bigger challenge than commissioning new technology or getting a collaboration to work smoothly. Success in todays competitive market place appears to depend on one key factor- the proximity of companys practices to Total Quality Management (TQM). Experts remind repeatedly that TQM goes considerably beyond ISO 9000 and also beyond QS 9000. TQM means a major re-orientation in a companys practices. Indeed TQM requires all functional activities to be conducted with the soul purpose of satisfying the customer. Running a company based on such a philosophy therefore is tougher than acquiring an accreditation. TQM holds that all other business objectives follow from the single objective of satisfying the customer. TQM has no other mission. In organization under TQM achieving customer satisfaction and ceaselessly seeking incremental improvement become the guiding beacons. In these organizations CEOs commit their time, their enthusiasm and the resources of the organization to achieve satisfaction of internal and external customers.
What is TQM?
TQM is said to be a major augmentation to the traditional way an enterprise does business. TQM requires all activities of the enterprise to be managed with the single focus satisfy the customer. All other objectives if the enterprise profits market share expansion, improved competitive position, capital productivity, cost reductions etc follow as its consequences. When quality products and quality services become
2 the enterprises obsession, productivity and lower costs materialize from reduced scrap, rework, returns and the reduced recurrence of quality problems. Productivity is also positively affected by the extend each employee owns the results of his/her efforts. Ownership of results means that the individual or team has taken responsibility for and is willing to be held accountable for improving the performance of the process. Training greatly enhances this willingness. Improving a process implies, improving not only the process itself, but also improving the links between that process and others- either before it or after it, or parallel to it. Participation in delivering and sustaining quality thus becomes necessary to adopting TQM successfully. This is a state that traditionally managed enterprises find very difficult to attain for they provide little, if any training. TQM is defined as an organizational obsession with meeting or exceeding customer expectation.
Principle of TQM
There are numerous valuable contributions related to the theory, techniques, studies and guidance on TQM. The philosophy of TQM is trying to involve employees at all levels to promote well-being of the company as a whole. TQM depends on linking the top management goals with a set of TQC tools for the operators to achieve these goals. Dr.W. E. Deming and Dr. J.M. Juran were the pioneers who introduced concepts of TQM. When compared with the 20 requirements of the ISO 9001 quality system. Dr. Deming and Dr.Juran also list 14 points and 7 points respectively as guidelines on quality systems. As previously stated, quality is everyones responsibility. TQM is a method by which all people can be involved in improvement. The philosophy and techniques used TQM can be applied throughout the organization. They are equally useful in finance, sales, marketing, engineering and production; to everyone involved in a companys activities. To be successful in promoting business efficiency and effectiveness, TQM must be truly company- wide and it must start at the top management level. The following are the key elements for successful implementation of TQM (10): Commitment and involvement by top management;
3 A team work approach to solving problems; Thorough training to promote quality awareness; Improvement of quality control techniques and method; A continuous improvement programme; Participation of staffs at all levels.
The importance of all peoples needs being satisfied (including employees, Owners, suppliers/subcontractors and society); Management commitment with a greater emphasis on executive roles;
4 Full involvement of personal; Operational processes showing linkages to the overall system; Customer satisfaction and importance of meeting customer requirements.
Accordingly, the technical committee of ISO (TC176) has revised the ISO 9000 series and released them mid-1994. The new revision is part of a broader programme resulting from a long-term strategy, which was published as document- Vision 2000. One of the elements addressed were the need to make more significant changes to take account of the move towards the principles of total quality management (TQM). Thus the TC 176 directive, in revising the ISO 9000 series, is to build in some TQM ingredients into the system including: quality improvement; management commitment with a greater emphasis on executive roles; operational processes showing linkages to the overall systems; and customer satisfaction.
5 of the Hong Kong government, which enforces the ISO 9000 certification of its sub contractors. ISO 9000 has brought quality awareness to Hong Kong. However, it does not bring a cultural change in attitude on quality as evidence shows that most companies apply ISO 9000 because of customer requirements, and do not introduce internal quality and the productivity improvement. Unlike TQM, which is management system to mobilize and motivate all employees for continuous quality and productivity improvement, ISO 9000 on its own can hardly results in such a cultural change in a company.
6 Collectively, these to surveys revealed that the driving force to setup a quality system in accordance with ISO 9000 requirements and be certified resulted largely from customer expectations, market demand and competition. The internal benefits identified were mainly better documentation and quality awareness.
7 Analyzing the market and reacting to feedback (guideline ISO 9004-1, section7.3); Addition of a guideline for quality improvement (guideline ISO 9000-4).
Continuous Improvement
A new paragraph relating to quality improvement was added to section 5.6 of the ISO 9000-4 guideline. It states that the management of an organization should ensure that the quality system would facilitate and promote continuous quality improvement. This includes: Encouraging and sustaining a supportive style of management; Promoting values, attitudes and behavior that foster improvement; Setting clear quality improvement goals; Encouraging effective communication and team work; Recognizing success and achievements; Training and educating for improvement.
When compared with its 1987 version, the revised ISO system seems to more on [he human factors that affect the quality system; something which is more in line with the philosophy of TQM.
8 processed materials or services, particularly at the early stage in the product life cycle. In addition, all relevant organizational functions must have the capability to meet customer requirements. When compared with its 1987 version, as a whole, the revised non-assessment guidelines place more emphasis on satisfying customer. Expectations, marketing analysis and feedback action.
9 For an enterprise, being out done by competition is too painful. From shrinking market shares to downright closure of firms and wholesales layoffs are only too real when ever quality lacks. This happened to US steel in the 60s, to Detroit automakers in the 70s and 80s, and to the western electronics industries in 80s. Globalization and liberalization of trade world wide and enhanced customer awareness are also decimating and advantage protected or niched business have enjoyed till recently. There is little reason to believe that this latest tide will turn back in the foreseeable future unless there is large-scale scarcity of some sort. The gainers of open competition are the customers hence the few monopolies must reshape their ways drastically or shut down. Satisfying internal customers, experts say, is an excellent way to start TQM. TQM then quickly becomes an organization wide challenge where everyones responsibility becomes understanding and satisfying the needs of the following stage of processing or production. For this to be realized all personal must be trained in the appropriate quality improvement skills, 7-tools, SPC etc. in order to effectively do their part of the task. In terms of attitudinal change, training should develop people to the extent that they come to the factory not just to work, but also to think about how to improve their jobs to meet the needs of their customers better. Quality improvement projects such as on time delivery, efficient order entry, reduced billing errors, scrap reduction and better supplier management then become routine, rather than rare celebrated events.
10 failed to raise the level of customer satisfaction. In these companies the impediments were cultural - they were due to the mindsets of the people, their traditional philosophy, values and beliefs about how things work. Culture, it might be said, gets constructed socially and provides people making a way of sense of events. It then guides behavior, and becomes the glue that holds the organization together and ensures that its members behave according to norms. Thus only a thorough understanding of existing culture can help top management change undesirable human behavior. A good article to read on this subject is by Collins, et al. It should be obvious now that a TQM programme requires some crucial changes in the manner things may be getting conventionally done. For instance, since on the average 40%of the sales price is made up of purchased product or service, a partnering rather than the traditional adversarial relationship with the suppliers is a fundamental precondition of moving into TQM. Both the parties have much to gain if the final customer is satisfied with what he/she receives. Another aspect of a TQM programme is to focus on minimizing the products lifecycle cost rather than reducing production cost in order to make the sale price competitive. For simple consumable products like food, the purchase price is also the cost of using the product. As products grow in complexity and the length of use increases, the purchase price must also increase to include operational , maintenance and other special costs. To the buyer today, a lower lifecycle cost is an important indicator of superior value. Lastly, for TQM to deliver results, the organization should monitor customer satisfaction-based performance measures alongside the quarterly earnings. The toughest challenge in embarking on TQM is that it requires an enriching change that sustained. One may convey this best by listing how things inside the enterprise must change if it has to move true TQM. The foremost change is that quality is redefined to be customers satisfaction-oriented rather than product oriented other changes are: Quality acquires a priority ahead of cost and quantity (irrespective of quality). Management decisions acquire a long term rather than short-term orientation. Emphasis is given to preventing problems rather than correcting them.
11 Errors are attributed to systems, rather than to individuals and their actions. The responsibility for quality is everyones rather than that of QC department. Problems are solved by teams rather than by managers. Procurement decisions are based on lifecycle costs and partnerships rather than price. The manager delegate, coaches, facilitates and mentors; rather than plans, assigns, controls and enforces. Evidence suggests that such a transformation is easier and quickly achieved in smaller organizations.
The information collected from such feedback should be shifted for their proactive value. (Such data should help to prevent problems from recurring in future.) Even complaints from customers are valuable. A dissatisfied customer can easily become a lost customer. Indeed, it has been found that only about 1% to 4% of the complaints are sent to management, 10% 25% are passed on to sales people, and almost 80%
12 remain unreported and the enterprise never finds out about them. What reaches management is, therefore, literally the tip of the iceberg. Therefore, every single complaint should be accepted, analyzed acted upon (cfISO 9004-1, clause 16.5). More than half of the dissatisfied customers say that they will buy again if they believe that their complaint has been at least heard, even though not resolved. Unfortunately, while many complaints never reach management, they do reach other potential customers. Customer orientation is perhaps the strongest theme that can run through quality programmes and plans. By making the customer and his/her needs visible and tangible throughout the organization, management can keep the entire effort focused on what is of maximum value of the organization. Performance measures are often contrived by fresh MBAs in planning offices who have neither operational experience nor any direct contact with customers. In fact, most traditionally monitored indices are based on accounting principles aimed at triggering the reactive control of production cost. Recent experience shows that such tracking does little to help the companys competitive position, which is usually a far more potent source of growth and profits. As many successful companies have discovered, measuring and tracking customers satisfaction oriented indices are of fundamental values in todays marketplace. Specify quality programmes can be created to address areas where the companies performance is seen lacking. USA, to become a dominant overnight delivery business in North America in one decade, they have installed and now operate several such strategic data systems in the company. The Thank you for servicing your vehicle survey that every Toyota customer fills out includes ease of appointment proper diagnosis, performance of the person writing the repair order, getting work done on time, commitment to get the job done right, and comments on the appearance of the customer lounge. They even ask: would u recommend this place to a friend? To Toyota, all such feedback are vital performance measures.
13 It can now be seen how the TQM framework leads to the core objective of any business continued assurance of doing business with existing customers and acquiring new ones.
Comparison between TQM and the revised ISO 9000 quality system
Basically, the revised ISO 9000 is a quality system based and focused on the customers' specific requirements, documentation and procedures. TQM. By contrast, places great emphasis on continual product improvement, reduction in costs and defects and involvement of all personnel in the improvement process, driven from top management. The following section presents a comparison of elements of TQM and the ISO 9000 quality system. Objective The objective of ISO 9000 is defined as follows: The requirements specified are aimed primarily at achieving customer satisfaction by preventing nonconformity at all stages from design to servicing. Although the objective of TQM is not wholly agreed on by quality practitioners, the statement below is an often quote. TQM objective: TQM is a people-focused management system that aims at a continual increase in customer satisfaction at continually lower real cost. TQM is a total system approach (not a separate area or programme), and an integral part of high-level strategy. It works horizontally across functions and departments, involving all employees, top to bottom, and extends backwards and forwards to include the supply chain and the customer chain. ."
Although both ISO 9000 and TQM aim to "achieve customer satisfaction", their purposes of use are different. Within the ISO 9000 quality system, the assessment standards 9001, 9002 and 9003 are used for external quality assurance purposes [l]. The meaning of external quality assurance purposes is defined in ISO 9000-1 annex
14 A. It is used to provide confidence to the customer in a contractual situation. All the assessment standards (ISO 9001, 9002.and 9003) are focused on how to control the manufacturer's work process to give confidence to the customer. By contrast, TQM is used for internal and external quality improvement purposes. It concerns quality cost, continuous improvement and the customers. Therefore, the TQM system focuses not only on the customer requirements but also quality cost and increasing (even going beyond) customer satisfactionll3]. In this regard, TQM encompasses a wider scope of quality philosophy than ISO 9000. TQM emphasizes both external and internal quality improvement purposes. Company policy When comparing ISO 9000 with TQM, it is found that both ISO 9000 and TQM specify the importance of company quality policy. ISO 9000 states that: The supplier's management with executive responsibility shall define and document its policy for quality, including objectives for quality and its commitment to quality The quality policy shall be relevant to the supplier's organizational goals and the expectations and needs of its customers. The supplier shall ensure that this policy is understood, Implemented and maintained at all levels in the organization.
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Methodologies In the assessment of quality system compliance, ISO 9000 has 20 requirements, which cover almost all elements of controlling a quality system within a company. By contrast, TQM focuses more on human management in areas like quality improvement, training, corrective and preventive action, quality awareness, motivation and teamwork. Deming is one of the pioneers of the introduction of the concept of TQM. When comparing the ISO 9000 elements with Deming's 14 points, it is found that some elements are present both in ISO 9000 and TQM, such as management responsibility, corrective/preventive action, training and SPC. Notwithstanding the common quality system elements, ISO 9000 does not require quality cost evaluation in the certification assessment. Although this is stated in guideline ISO 9000-4. The statement is regarded as a guideline only and it is not mandatory for the company to implement it. ISO 9000 focuses on the reduction of non-conforming material and products through system standardization and control, preventing production scrap and excessive rework. ISO 9000 is similar to a set of rules for people to follow, without taking into consideration any human factor. TQM strategy is quite different. Its emphasis is on the top management leading and supporting, through identical objectives and total involvement of all staff, to improve the quality of product or service continuously and finally fulfil, or surpass, customer satisfaction. However, TQM does not place great emphasis on documentation, which is one of the most important aspects of the ISO 9000 quality system. Without documented procedures and records, it is difficult to determine the baseline for comparison and for further improvement. More Importantly, the quality system would therefore solely depend on personnel who participate in the system. Therefore, both ISO 9000 and TQM have advantages and disadvantages in their
16 methodologies. Teamwork A common problem of many quality systems is that they are often designed to meet departmental objectives rather than those of the whole organization. TQM is trying to rectify such problems. As stated earlier, TQM is a total system approach (not a separate area or programme), and an integral part of high-level strategy. It works horizontally across functions and departments, involving all employees, top to bottom, and extends backwards and forwards to include the supply chain and the customer chain. TQM's philosophy is to break down departmental barriers so that an organization can solve problems across departments and combine departmental objectives into the company's overall objectives. On the other hand, ISO 9000 does not require teamwork. Therefore, TQM is better in management skill than ISO 9000 in promoting a spirit of teamwork across an organization. Concept of inspection and testing Most companies accept that product failures inevitably exist in their operations. Therefore, inspection and testing are used to detect and Filter defective products' from reaching customers. Based on external assurance purposes, the ISO 9000 quality system requires "inspection and testing" (clause 4.10, ISO 9001). In addition, "inspection and testing status" (clause 4.12, ISO 9001) is to be monitored in order to provide evidence of process control to customers. This, however, may lead management to believe, falsely, that inspection and testing are essential in an organization. Although there are other preventive requirements, like corrective action, internal audit and process control the ISO 9000 system does not spell out clearly their role and importance in a quality system. On the other hand, TQM states clearly that, through staff training, a company must allocate time and energy to search for causes of problems, and to correct the causes,
17 not the symptoms. TQM docs not emphasize "inspection" as a tool for quality improvement Training ISO 9000 requires staff training, to educate people about the quality system and related techniques so that they are qualified to perform tasks to ISO 9000 requirements. On the other hand, TQM requires more than just task training. TQM aims to train and change people's mind-set, to motivate staff towards a common goal of quality improvements. Motivation TQM encourages individuals or groups to share the benefits when they achieve the goal; People feel pride when they succeed in achieving quality. Self- motivation can be established in the organization. On the other hand ISO 9000 has no such motivation scheme in itself; it does not emphasize individual, "willingness" for quality improvement. Summary TQM's philosophy of quality management is deeper and broader than ISO 9000. TQM concerns both the internal organization and customer satisfaction, or even going beyond customer satisfaction. ISO 9000 is mainly used by companies for assessment needs. The assessment documents (ISO 9001, 9002 is used to fulfil customer requirements only. ISO 9000 has less control over company policy, provided that the quality policy is relevant to the company's and customer's organizational goals. TQM provides better guidelines on company policy. ISO 9000 does not require teamwork. By contrast, TQM emphasizes teamwork and does not emphasize the concept of "inspection". The ISO 9000 quality system lays down comprehensive guidelines on controlling a quality system, whereas TQM stresses the more human factors. The values of and, 9,003) are only used for external quality assurance purposes. It does not concern quality cost; it
18 TQM may result in greater quality achievement than ISO 9000 because it is a path to endless improvement. The ISO 9000 quality system has limitations because even good quality elements cannot be incorporated into the assessment standards if they are not assessable
Conclusion
Benefits and drawbacks of the ISO 9000 quality system The ISO 9000 quality system has a great advantage in promoting worldwide quality awareness, through assessment and certification. ISO 9000 standards create a global awareness of quality systems. The benefits of adopting ISO 9000 are obvious. They include: Marketing advantages of ISO 9000 certification; Better documentation system; Quality awareness among internal staff; Efficiency improvements/cost reductions.
19 When compared with the TQM system, ISO 9000 does not consider quality cost as a mandatory requirement. If a company does not control the implementation and running costs, it may be that the cost saving (on improving quality, reducing scrap and improving efficiency) cannot compensate the cost of adopting the ISO 9000 system. Neglecting the human factor in its system elements, the ISO 9000 system may find it difficult to promote quality improvement programmes, compared with the TQM system. Non-assessable elements like teamwork and motivation are all absent in the assessment documents (ISO 9001,9002.9003). But they have already been added to the guideline documents of the revised ISO 9000 system (e.g. the ISO 9004 guideline).
List of Reference:
Journals,
Total Quality Management: The Mindset Prof T P Bagchi, Fellow I E (I) Journal - PR Volume 77, November 1995. The values of TQM in the revised ISO 9000 Quality system Winco K.C.Yung International Journal Of Operations & Production Management. Vol. 17 No. 2, 1997, pp. 221-230.
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