6 Principles of Total Quality Management (TQM)

Jonas Hansson,2003, classified 6 main principles in implementing TQM;

1. Top Management Commitment
2. Focus on Customer
3. Fact Based Decision Making
4. Focus on Processes
5. Continuous Improvement
6. Everybody’s Commitment

Top Management Commitment
The management must initiate planning for implementation and participate in the work including evaluation of processes and results. All senior leaders in the organization must create a customer orientation.

Focus on Customer
A central principle in TQM is that all products and processes should always have a customer focus. Quality should be valued by the customers and should always be put in relation to their needs and expectations. The organizations need to be dedicated to satisfying customers. This effort must be long-term and continuous. To focus on the customer means, therefore, that one tries to find out the customers’ needs and value by conducting market analysis and then trying to fulfill the market expectations while systematically developing and manufacturing the product.

Fact Based Decision Making
An important principle in TQM is to make decisions based on facts that are well founded and to not allow random factors to be of decisive importance. This calls attention to the importance of knowledge regarding variation and ability to handle and control variation.

Focus on Processes
Much of the work within an organization can be looked upon as a process, which means a repetitive sequence of activities. The goal of the process is to produce products or services, which should satisfy the customer. The process generates data that indicates how well the process is satisfying its customers. This means that we should not look upon every single piece of data, for instance a customer complaint, as something unique but instead as a part of the statistics, which can give information about how well the process is working and how it can be improved.

Continuous Improvement
It is not enough for an organization to do better than it did previously. The external demands an organization faces are continuously increasing. Consequently, an organization needs to continually try to improve the quality of its product and process. The continuous improvement of the process leads to customer satisfaction, also leads to fewer defect. The Deming cycle, or the PDSA-cycle, is a model for process analysis and serves as a symbol for continuous improvement. The PDSA-cycle consists of the four phases; plan, do, study and act.

Everybody’s Commitment
All of the organization’s employees should be engaged in the work of satisfaction the customer with a continuously improved quality. Everybody’s commitment means that continuous improvement should be practiced everywhere in the processes and that the involvement of all employees at every level should be facilitated. Educating and training all employees provides the knowledge needed on the mission, vision, direction, and strategy of organization.