The Importance of Total Quality Management - Literature review Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Total Quality management Institution: Date: Introduction of the quality Gurus For the past few decades, quality gurus such as Deming, Juran, Crosby, Feigenbaum and Ishikawa have developed several perceptions regarding Total Quality Management, thus making the concept gain significant acceptance all over the world. Their views on total quality management have made a significant impact on today’s world. For instance, Contributionsof quality gurus have not only improved business but also other organizations such as state and national governments, health care organizations, military organizations and educational institutions. Description of total quality management Total quality management is an essential aspect in today’s business. Customers are always after products that meet or exceed their expectations. Therefore, putting customers’ needs first is a way of maintaining quality. Maintaining quality simply implies meeting and exceeding customers’ requirements by engaging every person in an organization through an integrated effort. Total quality management is therefore an integrated organizational effort planned to enhance quality at all levels (Anand & Samuel, 2004). Stark (1998) argues that total quality management is a management approach that commenced in Japanese industry and has constantly become more popular in many parts of the world. It is a description of culture, attitude and planning of an organization that aims at offering its customers with services and products that meets their requirements. With Total quality management organizations are able to maintain quality at every aspect of their operations. Organizations are also able to prioritized right things and eliminate any defects or waste in their operations. According to department of trade and industry, UK (2003), total quality management is a way of managing for the future, and is very broad in its application than simply assuring for product or service quality. Total quality management is a way of managing individuals and business procedures to ensure complete customer satisfaction at all stages, both externally and internally. It is believed that customer-supplier interfaces are the fundamental of total quality management, both internally and externally. Several processes do prevail at these interfaces. It is important to note that fundamental should be surrounded by commitment to quality, communication of quality information and acknowledgement of desire to transform organization’s culture so as to develop total quality. Therefore, Commitment to quality, communication of quality information and acknowledgement of desire to transform organization’s culture are the foundations of total quality management and are supported by essential management functions of processes, individuals and systems within the organization (department of trade and industry, UK2003). Anand & Samuel (2004) looks at total quality management as a management philosophy that combine organizational functions, such as marketing, design, finance, production, customer service and engineering, to attain customer requirements and organizational objectives. With total quality management, organization is observed as a collection of procedures. Total quality management maintains that companies should struggle to constantly enhance the procedures by including employees’ knowledge and experience. Of late, total quality management is acknowledged as a broad management instrument. It is widely applied in management, particularly in organizations that aim at satisfying customers requirements. Total quality management normally acts as a foundation of various activities, which include employees and senior management commitment, attainment of customer needs, employee empowerment and engagement and quality circles. Therefore, total quality management can generally be looked at as a total organizational method of attaining customer requirements and expectations that engages all workers and managers in utilizing quantitative methods to constantly enhance processes, services and products in the company (Psychogios & Priporas, 2007). Importance of having a strategy when implementing total quality management Having a strategy when implementing total quality management is very essential since it enables all the stakeholders to fully understand and effectively adapt the implemented method of quality control. This therefore assists organization to attain or exceed customers’ requirements or expectations. Hansson &Klefsjo (2003) argues that the capability of a company to adapt to new customer needs on an international market is very essential for its long-term success. For the past decades, the need to attain customers’ expectations has influenced many companies to work on quality issues by employing various strategies in implementation of total quality management. An essential aspect in total quality management is therefore its implementation process rather than its concept. According to Hansson & Klefsjo (2003), the success of total quality management greatly depends on implementation strategies and processes. The implementation process can be observed as a change developed by participants within the system of human activity and total quality management can be viewed as a broad organizational change. The transformation process entailed in integrating total quality management into a company is complicated and wide ranging. These transformation processes include coaching, training and enhancement of workers, plus changes in organizational values, management styles, structures and adoption of current working practices. It is therefore important to note that total quality management is profitable if an effective strategy is used in its implementation. Employee involvement-working as a team Involvement of employees through working as a team is an essential aspect that makes organizations to be highly competitive in today business environment. According to the study conducted by Gallop organization pertaining employee involvement, performance in several areas such as customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability and lower turnover was positively associated with employee involvement. The range of employee involvement was essential. Majority of the businesses that engaged a lot on employee involvement registered high performance while those that engaged less in employee involvement registered lower performance (Konrad, 2006). According to Konrad (2006), employee involvement has three components that are related. These components include cognitive, behavioral and emotional aspect. The cognitive aspect of worker involvement concerns with beliefs of workers regarding the company, working conditions and leaders in that organization. The emotional aspect on the other hand concerns with the feeling of workers regarding these three factors and whether they display negative or positive attitudes toward leaders and the organization. The behavioral aspect of worker involvement is looked at as value added component for the company and is made up of flexible effort among employees. Appostolou (2000) looks at employee involvement as a situation in which all workers are considered to be unique human beings and are jointly involved in assisting the organization to attain its goals and objectives. Every effort of an employee is solicited and valued by the management. The management and employees do always acknowledge that effective running of the business is a responsibility of all workers. The main determinant of organization success is the strength of its employees and how well the employees are involved in attaining the goals and objectives of the company. According to Appostolou (2000), employee involvement is a process of empowering workers to engage in managerial decision-making and appropriate improvement of activities in an organization. Quality management Quality management refers to organization-wide approach in understanding what customers really need and constantly delivering precise solutions within the budget, on time and with minimum loss to the society. It normally ensures that effective processes are designed to verify customer requirements, plan the life circle of the product and promptly produce and deliver services or products. Quality management also includes measuring of every process element, performance analysis and constant enhancement of products, processes and services that are delivered to customers. It is sometimes referred to as integrated management or business management. Ensuring effective quality management is very essential to an organization.Pfeifer (2002) argues that effective quality management not only develops value for a company and its stakeholders but also controls its exposure to risk and differentiate between failure and success. Quality management also refers to all activities that are planned to bring about the required level of quality. Various quality management aspects are normally employed by organizations. These aspects include quality plan, apply quality methods, phase quality review and project quality review. Project managers do always have overall responsibility for project’s quality. All participants in an organization do also have a role to play in providing good results. Creating a quality culture among team members in an organization normally develop greater satisfaction and value. It is believed that providing the right quality is very essential than doing job faster (Pfeifer, 2002). What is quality? Quality generally refers to attaining of customer requirements and expectations. Customers normally desire quality that is equivalent to price that they are willing and able to pay at the prevailing market competition. The main aspects of quality for customers include good design, good functionality, consistency, durability and excellent after sales service. According to levison (2009), quality refers to lack of defects among products and services delivered to customers. Levison (2009) believes that quality should be employed as a measure of aesthetic or functional utility to customers, but not as a tool for measuring defects. Quality is also viewed as a way a product or service recipient observes the product or service before purchasing, upon delivery and after delivery and use. The meaning of quality varies depending on situations and perceptions. For instance, quality can have a different meaning when dealing with tangible commodities as compared to the meaning displayed when dealing with quality service. The meaning can also be time-based or situational. Quality implies the commodity does what it is planned to do. It also implies meeting and exceeding customers’ expectations. Quality is normally driven by customers, products or services, employee satisfaction and organization focus. This therefore implies that quality is an essential aspect particularly in growing business. Good quality assist in determining a firm’s success in several ways, which include customer loyalty, strong brand reputation for quality, retailers willing to stock the product, lower cost of operations and attracting and maintaining of good staffs. Therefore, quality can simply be defined as a collection of attributes, such as reliability, efficiency, portability, testability, understandability, usability and modifiability (Glass, L. R., 2003). Fundamentals of quality approaches Even though everyone around the world is concerned with quality, management of quality cannot be left to one person. To attain the best out of approaches and tools of quality, it is essential for an organization to develop an investment that can employ or enhance expertise of quality professionals. Quality approaches basically incorporate customer focus, which refers to provision of customer value while forecasting future requirements and possible markets. Another quality approach fundamental is leadership and business outcomes. This fundamental is concerned with provision of vision and direction, acquiring commitment and attaining collective outcomes. As a fundamental of quality, it is essential to provide maximum values via development and engagement of persons working in an effective organizational culture. It is also essential to deliver outcomes via business processes to enhance efficiency. Conclusion From the discussion, it is clear that quality is an essential aspect in attaining customer requirements and in developing an organization. Quality generally refers to attaining of customer requirements and expectations. Customers normally desire quality that is equivalent to price that they are willing and able to pay at the prevailing market competition.As one of the aspect of quality, total quality management is a way of managing for the future, and is very broad in its application than simply assuring for product or service quality. Total quality management is a way of managing individuals and business procedures to ensure complete customer satisfaction at all stages, both externally and internally. It is also clear from the discussion that employee involvement is a situation in which all workers are considered to be unique human beings and are jointly involved in assisting the organization to attain its goals and objectives. To attain the best out of approaches and tools of quality, it is essential for an organization to develop an investment that can employ or enhance expertise of quality professionals. References Stark, J., 1998. A few words about total quality management. Psychogios, G. A. & Priporas, C, 2007. Understanding Total Quality Management in Context: Qualitative Research on Managers’ Awareness of TQM Aspects in the Greek Service Industry. Anand, S. L. & Samuel, A, 2004.Total Quality Management. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Department of trade and industry, UK, 2003. Total Quality management (TQM). < http://www.businessballs.com/dtiresources/total_quality_management_TQM.pdf> Hansson, J & Klefsjo, B, 2003. A core value model for implementing total quality management in small organizations. < http://mahabghodss.net/NewBooks/www/web/digital/booklatin/Management/9/A%20Core%20Value%20Model%20for%20Implementing%20Total%20%20Quality%20Management%20in%20Small%20%20Organizations.pdf> Konrad, M. A, 2006. ENGAGING EMPLOYEES THROUGH HIGH-INVOLVEMENT WORK PRACTICES < http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/the-workplace/engaging-employees-through-high-involvement-work-practices> Apostolou, A, 2000. Employee Involvement. < http://www.urenio.org/tools/en/employee_involvement.pdf> Levison, M., 2009, What does Quality Mean? < http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/04/agile_quality> Glass, L. R., 2003. Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering. Addison-Wesley Professional. New York: Addison-Wesley Professional. Pfeifer, T., 2002. Quality Management. Berlin: Hanser Verlag. Read More