Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM
Managing an entire organization so as to excel on all aspects of quality of its products & services that are important to its customers.

History
A quality movement was started in Japan during the 1970s with the help of American consultants like Deming & Juran, in order to rebuild their war-damaged economy In USA it was named TQM. The Japanese equivalent is CWQCcompany wide quality control

Principles of TQM
Customer satisfaction creating customer-delight for all its customers, both external & internal.

Customer satisfaction may be understood at three levels as shown in the diagram

Customer Delight

Product/ service attributes

Value addition

Core needs

Customer based definitions of quality may cover several shades of customer Viz Fitness for use - functional utility, convenience, serviceability, durability, reliability, appearance, etc. Conformance to specification - published levels of quality Value to customer - purpose served Vs price Support - repair, warranty to reduce consequences of failures Psychological impressions - latent customer needs like prestige, image, etc.

2 Continuous improvement (Kaizen)

The Japanese concept of Kaizen is -marginal improvement on a continuous basis rather than waiting for innovations, which is about making drastic, one-time improvement. Kaizen requires the involvement of everybody in the organization whereas innovation is generally the creation of a few champions. Principles of Kaizen -: any aspect can be improved People most closely associated with an operation are in the best position to identify the changes required.

Employee Involvement
Implementation of TQM would require an organizational culture that promotes small group activities through work committees, suggestion schemes, Quality Circles, etc. Culture may be encouraged through employee participation in work-related decision making which would improve their creativity & motivation.

Organisational Culture
In TQM, the employees are seen as the providers of customer service, with each level of hierarchy supporting such efforts by their lower levels. Visualize the organization to be an inverted pyramid in which the customers are at the top & the top management is at the bottom, supporting everyone else. TQM requires a culture in which employees believe that quality is everybodys business; not simply that of the production function

Empowerment
Cultivating in the minds of the employees a feeling of their being in control of their work by authorizing them to make workrelated decisions, take risks & learn from mistakes, etc.

Training
All employees, including top management get trained in TQM. Training includes quality awareness, problem solving tools, process improvement methods, quality circles, teamwork & leadership skills

Top Management commitment to implement TQM

Top management must accept responsibility to implement TQM, make necessary cultural change, allocate resources, etc.

2 Quality improvement methods

2.1 Deming Wheel or P-D-C-A cycle -: This is a four-step systematic process that teams would follow to improve quality of any process. Plan - The team selects a process for improvement. They collect data, document the existing process, set goals for improvement, choose an improved method & develop a plan. Do - The team implements their plan, collects data about its implementation & documents the new process. Check - The new performance is compared with the plan & revised as required. Act - If successful, the new process is adopted as the standard operating procedure.

Benchmarking
Systematic process that evaluates a firms products, services & processes against those of industry leaders so as to improve their own performance. Eg. NPA of SBT. Depending on the choice of the reference industry, BM may be of three types, viz, (a) competitive, (b) functional (c )external.

Steps in BM -:
Planning Select the product, service or process that needs improvement, the reference organization, measures of performance, etc. Analysis Collect data, identify gaps in performance & its causes. Integration Establish goals, obtain peoples support & resources. Action Form teams, prepare action plans, implement, monitor & revise

Quality Function Deployment QFD

Systematic methodology used by a product/service provider (the producer) to translate all aspects of its customer requirements into corresponding operational requirements. QFD facilitates the marketing, engineering & production functions of the provider organization to constructively communicate with each other & choose the best options to meet the customer needs & avoid wastage

Seven Tools of Quality

Flow chart-: It is a graphical display of the sequential steps of a process from its beginning to end; understanding of that process, facilitates interpersonal communications & problem solving concerning individual steps of the process & their relationship. Check list-: It records the frequency of occurrence of several events in the form of a table. We may select the event with maximum frequency for further action.

 Pareto chart-: This chart helps us to distinguish the vital few from the trivial many, so that problem solving resources can be focused on those vital few to achieve relatively substantial results.

Cause-effect diagram (Fishbone or Ishikawa diagram)-: This tool helps us to identify all the causes of a problem (effect) in a systematic manner & to display it visibly. All possible causes for an effect takes a structured approach under 5 groups, viz, men, machines, materials, methods & others. Each cause can again be analysed under these 5 groups. The diagram would look like a fishbone & hence that name. Eg. Cause of delay in departure of flights.

 Scatter diagram -: This is a graph on which values of one variable is plotted for different values of another variable, thus displaying the correlation among the two variables. The diagram would reveal the nature & strength of relationship between the two variables viz, the two variables are not related at all, are strongly & positively related or are strongly & negatively related.

Histogram-: Large volume of data on any characteristic, if measured on a continuous scale can be plotted as a frequency distribution of its grouped data, called histogram so as to display its central tendency & dispersion. Eg. Age-profile of a population. Control charts-: Monitors the performance of a process by picking up samples of its output on a regular basis, measuring the relevant characteristic & plotting those values chronologically on to a pre-prepared control chart so as to reveal the pattern of that characteristics performance against the statistically determined process control limits on the control chart.

TQM Implementation
Strategic Quality Management SQM involves planning & execution to improve quality in the long term, taking inputs from the environment & involving the entire organization.

Strategic Quality Management -STEPS Quality Council Quality Council consisting of senior managers. They would define the objectives & other elements of SQM & supervise the overall implementation. Quality goals Determine the long term quality goals. Quality Policies Establish guidelines for action that would ensure quality throughout the organisation Quality audit Devise a mechanism to objectively review the entire quality management practices.

Quality Circles
Small groups of employees, around 6 to 10, from within a section, engaged in similar work voluntarily meeting together on a regular basis, during their working time to identify their work-related problems & solve those problems in order to improve their own satisfaction, productivity & quality.

QC process The team uses various tools of quality in which they are trained such as -: Problem identification (Brainstorming) Problem selection (Check lists, Pareto chart) Problem analysis (flow chart, cause-effect diagram) Generating alternatives (Brainstorming) Evaluation of alternatives & selection of solution Action plan preparation, presentation to Management Implementation, checking & proving

Structure of QC implementation
Steering Committee at the top level of a firm a team of senior managers who give policy & directions. Coordinator a manager (usually from the HR) who supervises all facilitators & administers the program in the whole firm. Facilitators supervisors, each coordinating the work of several QCs. Circle leader a circle member who coordinates activities of that QC. Circle members workers of a work-section who get together to form & function as a QC.

6 Sigma Quality
Six sigma is a philosophy & methodology to eliminate defects from processes far beyond the normal industry standards. Thus a process that is controlled using six sigma limits, instead of three sigma limits will give almost defect-free output, though it is much more challenging to the process controller

Six sigma implementation

Data driven approach -: Process variability is specified as DPMO, Defects Per Million Opportunities, instead of by Sigma . The methodology of defects elimination is project oriented.

Structure for Six sigma implementation

Every six sigma project is implemented by a team of employees. One of the team members acts as the team leader. He would have been trained to participate in such projects. In the six sigma terminology, he is called the Green belt. Other levels of such trained people are also involved in implementing six sigma projects. Black belts coach & support several project leaders

 Master Black belts guide & assist the work of several Black belts. They receive more detailed training. Champions are senior managers who sponsor & oversee several projects on behalf of the management.

International Quality standards

ISO, the International Organisation for Standardisation, was started in 1947. It is head quartered in Ganeva. It is a network of various (160 +) National Standards Organisations. Indias BIS is a member of ISO. ISO issues specifications for products, services & processes to facilitate international business

 ISO 9000 (QMS) & ISO 14000(EMS) specify the process by which an organization can ensure that they follow their own stated practices regarding quality (9000) & environment (14000). Their basic principles are, say what you would do & then do accordingly. Both specifications have provision for third party inspection & certification by accredited agencies (registrars).

 During inspection the organization will have to prove to the external examiners that they have complied with the requirements of these specifications ie, they have implemented their own stated practices on quality (9000) & environment (14000). A certified company would get a certificate & their name would appear in a directory of ISO certified companies so that customers can verify the status. Periodical monitoring is also done by the registrars. These certifications, thus provide an assurance to the customers that a certified company can provide documentary evidence in support of whatever claims they make about their quality practices.

Requirements of ISO 9000 QMS implementation

Quality Management System how to establish & document a quality management system & control the documents. Management responsibility Their responsibilty for framing the Q policy, implementation & review. Resource management Infrastructure, HR & work environment Product realization Processes that design & produce the products Measurement, analysis & improvement, including internal audit.

5 Scope of ISO 9000 series of specifications

9001

9002

9003

Design

Procurement

Production

Installation

Servicing

ISO 14000 ( Environment Management Systems -EMS)

EMS- Environmental Management Systems contains provisions for resource utilization & pollution- 1400 series. EPE- Environmental Performance Evaluation contains guidelines for evaluation & certification of companies 1403- series. EL- Environmental Labeling contains definition of terminologies like, energy efficient, safe for ozone layer, recyclable, etc-1402- series. LCA - Life Cycle Assessment deals with the lifetime environmental impact of a product, ie, manufacture, use & disposal-1404- series. EA Environment audit-1401- series.

Quality Awards
1. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Assurance Award-MBNQA 2. Deming prize 3. Rajiv Gandhi NQA (set up in 1991 for Indian companies & managed by BIS) 4. European Quality Award.

 Was instituted in 1987 in the USA through an Act, in honour of Late Secretary of Commerce, to promote & recognize Q achievements in USA. Meant only for US companies, it is awarded annually in a function in Washington, in 5 categories, large manufacturers, large service companies, small businesses, education & health care. Recipients include Motorola, IBM, Xerox, 3M, AT&T, Federal Express, Merril Lynch & Ritz Carlton Hotel. Applications are evaluated through a four stage process on 7 criteria listed below. Companies that get high marks (around 650 out of 1000) are inspected by a panel of judges

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Assurance Award-MBNQA

7 criteria
1. Leadership-: values, responsibilities, expectations, systems. 2. Strategic planning-: effectiveness of planning & execution. 3. Customer focus-: process of identifying customer requirements & achieving customer satisfaction. 4. Information systems-: effectiveness in supporting performance. 5. HR-: effort to realize full potential of work-force & create a high performing organisation. 6. Process management-: effectiveness of the systems & processes that assure Q of products & services. 7. Business results-: performance results & competitive benchmarking on customer satisfaction, financials, operations, etc

Deming prize
Instituted in 1951 by the Japanese Govt in honour of Deming & administered by JUSE (Japanese Union of Scientists & Engineers) It is open to non-Japanese companies also. Indian recipients include Sundaram clayton, Rane Ltd. & TVS Lucas.

Criteria
Policies on Q, SQC, etc. Organisation Delegation, coordination, QC, etc. Education plans, awareness, etc. Information collection, processing & dissemination. Analysis selection of issues, analytical/statistical methods used. Standardisation systems of standards, utilization, etc. Management control control activities, control points, etc. QA customer satisfaction, process design/control, Q audit, etc. Long term plans

Other reputed Quality Awards

Rajiv Gandhi NQA (set up in 1991 for Indian companies & managed by BIS) European Quality Award.

Significance of quality awards

Quality awards are not cheap to get. Despite heavy expenditure of money & effort involved many organizations aspire for it because of the benefits it bestows on a recipient. Externally an awardee-companys reputation for quality improves thereby providing competitive advantage, leading to higher market share. Internally everyone gains an assurance that the prescribed quality systems are being complied with throughout the company. A culture of employee involvement, continuous improvement & problem solving leads to higher levels of employee satisfaction.