The essential components of TQM

The two most essential components of TQM are:

• Commitment

• Leadership.

TQM is an approach to improving the competitiveness, effectiveness and flexibility of an organization for the benefit of all stakeholders. It is a way of planning, organizing and understanding each activity, and of removing all the wasted effort and energy that is routinely spent in organizations. It ensures the leaders adopt a strategic overview of quality and focus on prevention not detection of problems. Whilst it must involve everyone, to be successful, it must start at the top with the leaders of the organization.

All senior managers must demonstrate their seriousness and commitment to quality, and middle managers must, as well as demonstrating their commitment, ensure they communicate the principles, strategies and benefits to the people for whom they have responsibility. Only then will the right attitudes spread throughout the organization.

A fundamental requirement is a sound quality policy, supported by plans and facilities to implement it. Leaders must take responsibility for preparing, reviewing and monitoring the policy, plus take part in regular improvements of it and ensure it is understood at all levels of the organization.

Effective leadership starts with the development of a mission statement, followed by a strategy, which is translated into action plans down through the organization. These, combined with a TQM approach, should result in a quality organization, with satisfied customers and good business results.

The 5 requirements for effective leadership are:

1. Developing and publishing corporate beliefs, values and objectives, often as a mission statement
2. Personal involvement and acting as role models for a culture of total quality
3. Developing clear and effective strategies and supporting plans for achieving the mission and objectives
4. Reviewing and improving the management system
5. Communicating, motivating and supporting people and encouraging effective employee participation
   

The task of implementing TQM can be daunting. The following is a list of points that leaders should consider; they are a distillation of the various beliefs of some of the quality gurus:

• The organization needs a long-term commitment to continuous improvement.
• Adopt the philosophy of zero errors/defects to change the culture to right first time
• Train people to understand the customer/supplier relationships
• Do not buy products or services on price alone – look at the total cost
• Recognize that improvement of the systems must be managed
• Adopt modern methods of supervising and training – eliminate fear
• Eliminate barriers between departments by managing the process – improve communications and teamwork
• Eliminate goals without methods, standards based only on numbers, barriers to pride of workmanship and fiction – get facts by studying processes
• Constantly educate and retrain – develop experts in the organization
• Develop a systematic approach to manage the implementation of TQM