A Guide to Total Quality Management

What is Total Quality Management?

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an organizational management approach that focuses on producing quality products and services to fulfill customer needs. As a quality management technique, TQM involves all workers to maintain high standards of work across the entire company. Implementing TQM can help improve employee productivity, increase customer satisfaction, and achieve competitive advantage.

Importance

TQM is considered important for many industries because it provides an agile framework to implement effective quality and productivity initiatives in every aspect of business operations. It is often referred to as the antecedent of many quality management methodologies such as Six Sigma and Lean. Some concepts of ISO 9001, the world’s most recognized Quality Management System ( QMS ) standard, can also be traced back to TQM principles.

Efficient TQM also yields the following benefits for organizations:

1. Improved Product and Service Quality: TQM's focus on continuous quality improvement results in products and services that consistently meet or exceed customer expectations, increasing reliability and trust.

2. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: Customer-centric efforts in TQM build stronger relationships and ensure customer needs are met, which drives repeat business and long-term loyalty.

3. Reduced Costs and Waste: Streamlined processes and defect reduction lower operational costs and eliminate waste, contributing to overall cost savings and profitability.

4. Boosted Employee Engagement: Involving employees in quality improvement empowers them, raising morale, motivation, and teamwork.

5. Strengthened Market Competitiveness: Organizations with consistent quality develop a strong brand reputation, attract more customers, and secure a competitive edge.

History of Total Quality Management Principles

There are seven main guiding principles of TQM, which are based on standards set by the Technical Committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). These are the following:

1. Customer Focus

2. Continuous Improvement

3. Leadership and Management

4. Employee Involvement

5. Process-Centered Approach

6. Supplier Relationship Management

7. Data-Driven Decision-Making

However, while these eight may be accepted as the main principles of TQM, there is no single authoritative source on their creation. It is widely accepted that TQM first manifested as early as the mid-1920s when Walter Shewhart formulated a statistical sampling technique for quality control, which was eventually known as Statistical Process Control (SPC). The term “total quality management” only started to be used around the 1980s, where the key to its development is the following principles from distinguished figures in the quality world:

3 Principles of Total Quality Management by Armand V. Feigenbaum

In Total Quality Control, Feigenbaum introduced the concept of Company-wide Quality Control (CWQC) which is agreed upon by some experts as the most direct inspiration for TQM. When searching for 3 total quality management principles, his 3-step approach to improving quality might be one of the first ideas that come to mind:

1. When enforcing quality efforts, the management should take the lead, and it should be based on sound planning.

2. Organizations must adapt to the latest quality management programs or software in order to satisfy customers in the future.

3. All members of the organization, including office staff, engineers, and shop-floor workers have significant roles in improving business quality. Motivating and continuously training the entire workforce shows commitment toward the improvement of product or service quality.

14 Principles of Total Quality Management by W. Edwards Deming

With a strong emphasis on organizational change, Deming’s principles for Total Quality Management is more accurately titled “Deming’s 14 Points for the Transformation of Management,” or simply “14 Points for Management.” He first presented these fourteen points in Out of the Crisis:

1. Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services.

2. Adopt the new philosophy.

3. Build quality into the product in the first place.

4. Minimize total cost by working with a single supplier.

5. Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production, and service.

6. Institute training on the job.

7. Adopt and institute leadership.

8. Drive out fear.

9. Break down barriers between staff areas.

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity.

11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management. Substitute leadership.

12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.

14. Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation.

Example Applications

TQM has been successfully applied in various industries, demonstrating its adaptability and effectiveness in improving quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Here are some examples of TQM in different industries:

• Healthcare industry: Hospitals can implement TQM to improve patient satisfaction by enhancing internal communication and employee engagement. In particular, they can follow the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, focusing on quality, customer service, people, workplace, growth, and financial performance.

• Automotive manufacturing industry: Known for the Toyota Production System, Toyota is known to apply TQM principles extensively across its production and operations management. It emphasizes quality at the source, employee involvement, continuous testing, and mistake-proofing techniques to align quality goals across the enterprise.

• Construction industry: Various construction companies have applied TQM to manage quality issues in processes, emphasizing planning, continuous improvement, and stakeholder engagement to enhance project outcomes. In particular, it can be used to improve quality, productivity, and customer satisfaction throughout a project’s lifecycle.

• Hospitality industry: TQM in the hospitality sector focuses on enhancing service quality, guest satisfaction, and operational efficiency. In particular, TQM in hospitality is especially crucial, as service quality directly determines guest loyalty and business reputation.

Integrating improvement
in practice

Discover how organizations like Toyota Material Handling, Mowi, Thermosash and Byblos Constructions are integrating improvement into how work is done to improve efficiency, reduce wastage and surface actionable insights across their operations.

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How Technology Streamlines Total Quality Management

Applying TQM in the context of your organization can be challenging, especially since its scope seems overwhelmingly vast. With the help of a digital operations management platform or tracking tools such as SafetyCulture, businesses can streamline their TQM implementation.

With a digital tool, staff members in any aspect of company operations can implement TQM by:

• Getting everyone on the same page – Make your quality planning more tangible by creating and customizing templates that can be deployed across different teams within minutes.

• Working towards a common goal – Build workflows with ease using enhanced admin controls for scheduling inspections, sharing reports, and more.

• Turning issues into actions – Work better together through every quality issue and assigned action with traceable timelines that look like a conversation, where team members can chat and add photos.

Leading the way with data – See the big picture and pinpoint areas for improvement at a glance by reviewing trends across the board or zooming in to view individual responses.