Total Quality Management
TQM COMPONENTS By Luis South
In the 1950s, the Japanese asked W. Edwards Deming, an American
statistician and management theorist, to help them improve their war
torn economy. By implementing Deming's principles of total quality
management (TQM), Japan experienced spectacular economic growth. In the
1980s, when the United States began to see a reduction in its own world
market share in relation to Japan, American business rediscovered
Deming. TQM is now practiced in business as well as in charitable
organizations, the military, government, and education.
It is now evident that American k-12
education systems consider adopting TQM as the premiere management model
in order to correct longstanding deficiencies.
First learn about community needs then solve the problems.
14 STEPS TO TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Deming outlined 14 steps that managers in any type of organization
can take to implement a total quality management program. (Walton, 1986)
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Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service.
Constancy of purpose requires innovation, investment in research and
education, continuous improvement of product and service, maintenance of
equipment, furniture and fixtures, and new aids to production.
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Adopt the new philosophy. Management must undergo a transformation and
begin to believe in quality products and services.
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Cease dependence on mass inspection. Inspect products and services only
enough to be able to identify ways to improve the process.
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End the practice of awarding business on price tag alone. The lowest
priced goods are not always the highest quality; choose a supplier based
on its record of improvement and then make a long-term commitment to it.
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Improve constantly and forever the system of product and service.
Improvement is not a one-time effort; management is responsible for
leading the organization into the practice of continual improvement in
quality and productivity.
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Institute training and retraining. Workers need to know how to do their
jobs correctly even if they need to learn new skills.
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Institute leadership. Leadership is the job of management. Managers have
the responsibility to discover the barriers that prevent staff from
taking pride in what they do. The staff will know what those barriers
are.
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Drive out fear. People often fear reprisal if they "make waves" at work.
Managers need to create an environment where workers can express
concerns with confidence.
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Break down barriers between staff areas. Managers should promote
teamwork by helping staff in different areas/departments work together.
Fostering interrelationships among departments encourages higher quality
decision-making.
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Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce. Using
slogans alone, without an investigation into the processes of the
workplace, can be offensive to workers because they imply that a better
job could be done. Managers need to learn real ways of motivating people
in their organizations.
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Eliminate numerical quotas. Quotas impede quality more than any other
working condition; they leave no room for improvement. Workers need the
flexibility to give customers the level of service they need.
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Remove barriers to pride of workmanship. Give workers respect and
feedback about how they are doing their jobs.
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Institute a vigorous program of education and retraining. With
continuous improvement, job descriptions will change. As a result,
employees need to be educated and retrained so they will be successful
at new job responsibilities.
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Take action to accomplish the transformation. Management must work as a
team to carry out the previous 13 steps.
How
to
handle
office
conflicts.
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