Project Failure Essay, Research Paper
Total Quality Management
TQM stands for Total Quality Management, which is a cooperative
form of doing business that relies on the talents and capabilities of both
labor and management to continually improve quality and productivity using
teams . (Joseph R. Jablonski Implementing TQM) The origin of TQM was
derived during the 1980’s by Dr. W. Edwards Deming and Dr. Joseph Juran.
Both developed TQM in Japan to revitalize their crumbling economy at the
time prior to the end of World War II. Japan began to flourish when Dr.
Deming and Dr. Juran introduced Statistical Quality Control (S.Q.C.) which
was a concept of management using statistical theory. Some of TQM’s
concepts were evident early on in the Penny Idea of 1913 developed by J.C.
Penny. The Penny Idea consisted of these seven components:
(1) To serve the public, as nearly as we can, to its complete
satisfaction;
(2) To expect for the service we render a fair remuneration and not
all the profit the traffic will bear;
(3) To do all in our power to pack the customer’s dollar full of
value, quality, and satisfaction;
(4) To continue to train ourselves and our associates so that the
services we give will be more and more intelligently performed;
(5) To improve constantly the human factor in our business;
(6) To reward men and women in our organization through
participation in what the business produces;
(7) To test every policy, method, and act in this way: Does it
square with what is just and right? The Penny Idea exercises customer
satisfaction, fairness, quality, value, associate training, and rewards for
performance.
TQM contains three ingredients necessary for a company to flourish:
(1) participative management;
(2) continuous process improvement; and
(3) the use of teams.
Participative management is developed from TQM practice. It is the
process of preparing employees with the skills and support to better
understand how they do business, make improvements, and make change happen
to allow participative management to flourish. Participative management is
not immediate. It’s momentum builds gradually with trust and feedback.
Continuous process improvement (CPI) means accepting small, incremental
gains as a step in the right direction toward Total Quality. Continuous
process improvement reinforces long term focus in the company. The third
ingredient necessary for a company to flourish is the use of teams. Teams
are designed into cross-functional types with the individual employees
aligned with the corporation’s goals for improvement. With these three
ingredients together, successful Total Quality Management can be achieved.
There are six main principles of Total Quality Management. These
include:
(1) Customer Focus;
(2) A Focus on Process as Well as the Results;
(3) Prevention versus Inspection;
(4) Mobilize Expertise of Workforce;
(5) Fact-Based Decision Making;
(6) Feedback.
Customer Focus emphasizes on making improvements so that the
customer is completely satisfied. In large organizations, employees are
usually surprised to be asked to contribute knowledge and ideas. By
getting different employee perspectives, the company can use many different
techniques to achieve customer satisfaction. A Focus on Process as Well as
the Results is the second TQM principle. This principle is based on the
fact of exceeding customer expectations and needs. Prevention versus
Inspection is the third principle of TQM. Here a structured approach to
problem solving is applied along with making the necessary investments to
understand the process and sources of process variation. The fourth
principle is Mobilizing Expertise of the Workforce. Employees like to be
appreciated and monetary rewards aren’t enough to keep one completely
satisfied. Therefore other incentives must exist in the workplace such as
social needs and comfortable atmospheres. Fact-Based Decision Making
involves u nderstanding the process employees work in and around everyday,
understanding the cause of their problems, and gathering information, data
on which they can base decisions for improving that process. The last
principle, Feedback, allows the other principles to succeed. It is the
most important because day to day innovation can be achieved.
Another important factor in achieving TQM is Process. Process is a
series of operations linked together to provide a result that has increased
value. Employees, customer influence, and resources come together to
process company outputs. Company resources include people, equipment,
material, money, and time. The results of the inputs are feedback to the
employees so they can improve upon work habits. More efficient methods are
achieved through this TQM process.
Implementation of TQM has a five-phase approach that has its main
emphasis on addressing tough issues and describing costs and rewards of
implementing change. The five-phase approach consists of: (1) Preparation;
(2) Planning; (3) Assessment; (4) Implementation; (5) Diversification.
Preparation
Preparation includes the companies mission statement, goals,
objectives, and draft policy in direct support of the main strategic plan.
Planning provides a foundation for the process of change of change within
the organization. Assessment involves of the exchange of information that
will be necessary to support the preparation, planning, implementation
phase. Implementation invests in the company so that the pay-off can be
achieved and work can progress. This is when objectives to change have
been overcome. Goals are being achieved on a regular basis.
Preparation, in more detail involves company decision making. Each
participant understands that their actions are equally important to the
actions of any other employee. Steven Covey describes in his book The
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, that it is important to emphasize
the fact to all employees involved in the process that quality is the
guiding force and that it must me implemented in every stage of the process.
Many companies that imply TQM, require that their employees attend TQM
seminars and classes before embarking on a project. Many employers choose
to employ those who have a vast knowledge of TQM when embarking on a
project so they can advise the entire staff on applying TQM methods to the
tasks at hand. Training the employees to apply the methods at all times
throughout the process, results in a workforce that seeks the same common
goal and applies the same methods to achieve it.
Throughout the training process much of the emphasis is placed on
decision making. This is important because TQM teaches that it’s not
necessarily the big-wigs of the corporation who are making the decisions.
Much of the decision making is decided from outside factors, especially
those that are referred by the customers who they are supplying needs to.
TQM methods imply the importance of outside factors upon decision making.
Thus, they find it important to gain the opinion of those who are directly
affected by outside factors. Surveys are one major way of doing this.
Companies send out numerous surveys to their customers in order to get a
feel of what the customers want. By understanding what the customers want,
the company can better understand what decisions they need to make in order
to please those who they are servicing. By understanding the needs of the
customers, the company allows itself to make its own decisions through
needs not speculation. Understanding immediately what the general public
considers quality, allows an individual company to comprehend the needs of
the customer and make changes to what the general public deems unacceptable
within the process, thus, locating the problem. By locating the problem
they can therefore fix it and present its customers with a quality product.
Planning
The second phase is planning systematic planning is a basic requirement for
effective quality management in all organizations. For quality to be
effective however it must be a part of a continuous review process which
has as its objective zero errors or defectives, through a strategy of never
ending improvement. The resources required will be made available, and that
the various assignments will be carried out. The answers to the questions
will generate the appropriate action plans. In quality planning it is
always necessary to review existing programs with in the organizations
functional areas and these may be compared with the results of the
preliminary analysis to appraise the strengths and the weaknesses in
quality throughout the business or operation.
The plan should include references to any:
Purchased material specifications;
Quality control procedures;
Product formulation or service type;
Process control;
Sampling and inspection procedures;
Packaging specifications
Miscellaneous, relevant procedures.
For projects relating to new products or services, or to new
processes, written quality plans should be prepared to define:
Specific allocation of responsibility and authority during the
different stages of project;
Specific procedures , methods and instructions to be applied
throughout the project;
Appropriate inspection , testing , checking or audit programs
required at various defined stages;
Methods for changes or modifications in the plan as the project
proceeds.
The quality plan should focus on providing action to prevent
profits leaking away through waste. If the quality management system does
not achieve this, then there is something wrong with the plan and it has
been set up or operated not with the principle. The whole approach should
be methodical, systematic and designed to function irrespective of changes
in management or personnel.
Control
The task of inspection or checking is taken by many to be the
passive one of sorting out the good from the bad, when it should be an
active device to prevent errors, defects, or nonconformance. In human
control it requires more care because it is frequently found that every
item, every word, every number, or every element of service is examined in
an attempt to stop errors or defects reaching or being seen by the customer.
Any control system based on detection of poor quality by poor
quality by postproduction inspection is unreliable, costly, wasteful, and
uneconomical. The measurement of inputs, outputs, and processes themselves
is a vital component of Total Quality Management.
Numbers and measurements are necessary for the processes to be
known. If inputs and the outputs can be measured and expressed in numbers,
then something is known about the process, and control is possible. The
first stage in using measurement as part of process control is to identify
precisely the activities, materials, equipment, etc., which will be
measured.
The size of measurement task must be managed so that a reasonable
parameter can be obtained. For example, some companies measure the
supplier performance or the growth rate of the company. The presentation of
this data is as important as getting the data because if you do not know
how to use the data then you should not bother to have it.
Decisions regarding the actual measurement process and the people
who will carry out the measurement must be made consciously if the activity
is to lead to improvements in quality.
For the measurements to be used for quality improvement, they must
be accepted by the people involved with the process being measured. The
simple self measurement and plotting, or how am I doing chart will gain
far more ground in this respect than a policing type of observation and
reporting system which is imposed on the process and those who operate it.
To conclude we do need measurement in order to control the TQM and
we need to make the right decisions after the results of the measurements.
We should chart the results in order to keep the control steady all the
time.
Implementation
Implementation is where we begin to see results from planning and
control of resources and simply after the plan its training of the relevant
people and start the implementation it self.
When we talk about training it seems like a lot of training but
actually it is important to review the magnitude of training realized by
each level within the organization. While specifics differ for each
company, I believe the allocation of training to be widely applicable.
Note that the majority of the time, hence the majority of training
resources, is allocated to specific skills training. Again, this emphasizes
the need for analyzing and interpreting the results from the assessment
Phase to spend pounds most effectively.
The implementation consists of AWARNESS, ORIENTATION, and SKILLS
AWARENESS
WHAT IS TQM?
HOW CAN IT HELP US?
OTHERS WHO HAVE SUCCEEDED
ORIENTATION
WHAT IS OUR PLAN?
WHAT IS MY ROLE?
WHAT WILL BE EXPECTED OF ME?
SKILLS
TEAM BUILDING
CUSTOMER SERVICE
EMPOWERMENT
CONCLUSION
The motives for pursuing quality differ from company to company. In
my opinion quality is changing the way we do business obviously improving
it. In an extremely competitive, price-conscious industry, an
organization’s need for TQM becomes readily apparent.
TQM can be called change as well but obviously it is not like
changing your hairstyle or dress code. It is changing the way a whole
organization works. The world it self is changing rapidly. A successful
business must be able to change with the world as well.
Sir Winston Churchill once said, there is nothing wrong with
change if it’s in the right direction to improve is to change, so to be
perfect is to have changed often .
Bibliography
Jablonski, Joseph. Implementing TQM. United States: Pfeiffer, 1992.
Bank, John. The Essence of Total Quality Management. UK: Prentice Hall
Int., 1992.
Oakland, John. Total Quality Management. United States: Nichols
Publishing Co, 1989.
Covey, Steven. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. US: Prentice
Hall, 1995