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The term quality management has a specific meaning within many business sectors.

This specific
definition, which does not aim to assure 'good quality' by the more general definition, but rather to
ensure that an organization or product is consistent, can be considered to have four main
components: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement. Quality
management is focused not only on product/service quality, but also the means to achieve it.
Quality management therefore uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products
to achieve more consistent quality.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a comprehensive and structured approach to
organizational management that seeks to improve the quality of products and
services through ongoing refinements in response to continuous feedback. TQM
requirements may be defined separately for a particular organization
Difference between service and manufacturing industries.
SO obviously TQM would also be different in both areas.
The key concepts in the TQM effort undertaken by the Navy in the 1980s include:
"Quality is defined by customers' requirements."
"Top management has direct responsibility for quality improvement."
"Increased quality comes from systematic analysis and improvement of work processes."
"Quality improvement is a continuous effort and conducted throughout the organization."


A user of service has a few characteristics and attributes in mind that he or she uses as a basis
for comparison among alternatives.
Lack of one attribute may eliminate a specific service firm from consideration.
Quality also may be perceived as a whole bundle of attributes where many lesser characteristics
are superior to those of competitors.

Extensive interviews with consumer focus groups identified the following conclusions:
Consumers perception of service quality results from a comparison of their
expectations before the service vs. their actual experience with the service
Quality perceptions are derived from the service process as well as from the service
outcome.

The research also indicated that customers, across a broad range of service businesses, have the
following expectations in descending order of importance:
1. Reliability (consistency)
2. Responsiveness (speed)
3. Assurance (competence)
4. Empathy (customer orientation)
5. Tangibles (what he/she can see, feel, smell, hear, and taste)

Service quality is of two types, normal and exceptional
Normal: the quality level at which the regular service is delivered
Exceptional: quality level at which exceptions or problems are handled
This implies that a quality control system must recognize and have prepared a
set of plan Bs for less-than-optimal operating conditions.


Methods in achieving TQM

Phase One - Define Vision and Mission
Phase Two - Document Processes
Phase Three - Establish Measurements
Phase Four - Control Processes Based on Measurements
Phase Five - Implement Continuous Improvement

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