The Future of Total Quality Management and Advance Quality, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Over the past 25 years, the manufacturing marketplace has described Total Quality Management ( TQM) and other methods like Six Sigma. Six Sigma has been tailored for manufacturer companies over the last 20 years, however, the Lean Six Sigma has entered other industries including the healthcare and science industries.The main emphases over the last two decades have been the implementation of TQM that will improve the overall production and quality of any organization regardless of industry. The advances in technology has lead to getting information quicker like CNN bringing the news for 24 hours a day. These advances have brought about the future changes of quality management in companies because the quicker the consumer receives the information, the more the organization has less time to ensure they gave the them a quality product. As a result, companies are providing advance quality initiatives companywide to meet the demand for quality. In this economy, consumers want to get the best product but they want the best customer service and quality experience. TQM has taken on a new role in the advance quality programs in the United States.

The demand for advance quality, TQM, continuous improvements and customer service now equals profits. This demand for advance quality programs along with customer satisfaction clearly indicates a important social shift wanting quality for both the organizations and for the consumers. Organizations are learning that they must concentrate on the benefits of TQM that could lead to improve profits but more important leading to new customers. The healthcare industry began the trend of  utilizing TQM to keep up with the technology changes that require healthcare to become more efficient while measuring quality improvements. In the beginning, the healthcare industry only measured profits without measuring their internal and external quality programs. Many companies began to leak profits but did not understand why because they did not change the product or the delivery of the product. However, companies like Humana was making excellent marks in quality in the Medicare HMO market which led to a large increase in the market shares. At that point, the industry started to pay attention to the impact of utilizing TQM and continuous quality management programs to improve their bottom lines as satisfied customers.

Total Quality Management

Many of your governmental or technology companies are turning to the TQM to improve the advance quality procedures. In the 1980 the U.S. Naval Air Systems coined the TQM phrase. The Navy based most of the principles on the Japanese Total Quality Control philosophy.  Many companies adopted TQM during the 1980s.  TQM spread like wild fire. Many companies saw significant gains in productivity(Quality Assurance-Solutions,2012. The Navy has been given credit for coining the phase Total Quality Management (TQM) is the United States military.Today, the USNaval military uses the TQM methods to measure internal quality improvements. Northrop Grumman Mission Systems uses Six Sigma to improve their internal processes and improve their professional relations with their employees(Rao & D’Souza,2012,pg.152).Many companies utilize TQM because it has a methodology that is employee oriented versus product oriented. Carmignani (2009) stated “TQM embodies the basic principles of quality assurance, total quality control and firm wide quality control. It is a set of management practices that is applied throughout organizations aiming to ensure customer satisfaction are met (as cited in Talib et al. 2011).

Total Quality Management (TQM) rests largely on four principles of TQM:

1. Do it right the first time to eliminate costly rework and product recalls
2. Listen to and learn from customers and employees
3. Make continuous improvement an everyday matter
4. Build teamwork, trust and mutual respect

Who was W. Edwards Deming to the Total Quality Management movement. According to Management Wisdom,2010,”W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993) changed our lives by developing better ways for people to work together. He made the very first perception and technique that permits consumers and organizations—from households and colleges to government agencies and enormous companies—to prepare and consistently enhance as a company , their interactions, techniques , products and solutions . His theory is among collaboration and recurring development ; it eschews blame and redefines common mistakes as chances for progress .

1. Edwards Deming explained TQM methods the best: The corporations misunderstand TQM because most managers put the blame on the employees for issues and problems. Deming believed that only 15% of the errors can be blamed on the employee. Deming concluded that 85% can be blamed on the system. The United States military utilizes the TQM methodologies that gain notoriety with the Japanese manufacturing successes in the areas of quality and processing improvement. W. Edwards Deming was one the most known contributors to the TQM methodology. He was an American professor, lecturer and business consultant. He coined the management phrase to Plan first, the take action, then check you action, the act: “Plan-Do-Check-Act” . W. Edwards Deming was so effective with TQM that he taught the Japanese top management how to improve their production, design and quality using the application of statistical analysis.Deming made an historical contribution to Japan’s high quality products that allowed the Japanese to become the leaders in the automobile industry. Deming was regarded as one the most respected Americans that was not born in Japan. This is quite a feat because during this period Americans were not the best of friends with the empire of Japanese leaders.

In the 1980s, the Japanese boast that they could improve any product made in the United States using TQM. The United States made the smallest drill bit in the world which was sent to Japan. Japan sent the drill bit back to United States with a tiny whole drilled in the supposedly smallest drill bit in the world. The point is with continuous improvement or the pursuit of continuous improvement any process. TQM is a collaborative style that allows the team to brainstorm about solving the problem with the most effective solutions. TQM is not easy to implement because the entire organization must buy-into the concept from top down. To be effective in improving quality, TQM must have the assistance at every level of management, from the CEO to the lowest hourly employee.

In the earlier years, TQM was mainly used in the automobile manufacturing plants to find advance improvements to their internal processes to make more cars more efficiently. Today, Toyota uses the TQM concepts to build their cars which has surpassed Toyota expectations because TQM because a way a life and not a fad as some had predicted. TQM actually lowered the Toyota production costs. Therefore, the practitioners that aim to improve innovation are encouraged to apply TQM and KM simultaneously, to improve the innovative activities and lowering costs in their organizations through the synergistic collaboration of TQM and KM(Honarpour,Jusoh,Khalil,2012,pg.27).

TQM has establish the gold standard for numerous institutions due to the fact TQM can make an attempt to make certain many participants of a company participate in enhancing procedures , products , and  services along with the culture in which they work . Most companies have found that using experienced consultants that specialized in examining the organizations weaknesses provides improved advance quality programs.

We relied on the work tools developed by the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) and Arthur Anderson in examining five areas of knowledge management practices, namely KM process, KM leadership, KM culture, technology and KM measurement (Loke et al.,2012).  It is an organizational tool used to enhance the proficiency and profitability of a corporation. TQM is latest development in the area of management which stresses the management accounting function and attempts to systematize the production management . It includes some central elements – Quality Control, Quality Assurance & Quality Management . According to Kendirli & Tuna (2009), “ The advent of quality measurements ensures that corporations are able to measure profits along with the most important customer service excellence that can also impact the bottom line. In addition, to the organizations using knowledge management tools to ensure the company is advancing in the areas of technology while ensuring the TQM culture is created company-wide.As the importance of the quality increases, enterprises began to adopt total quality management philosophy. Part of this management type is quality cost and the measurement of quality cost”(pg.103). Quality Control, relates to examining the past to take measures to lower the poor production . Quality Assurance is focused on the establishment of systems within the production strategy to reduce deficiencies. These deficiencies can derail an organizations chances of improving their quality environment especially, if the company is not using some sort of measurement techniques to track continuous improvement efforts. According to Dhjm & Ajja(2003),”Quality assurance can, however, only be successful, i.e. result in continuous Improvement. Thus, quality assurance is a cyclic process that should be conducted on a regular basis to ensure improvement(pg.210).

Total Quality Management (TQM) is the management approach that focuses on the day to day quality improvements that can be made using the foundation of this concept. In order for TQM to work, the approach must be integrated into the management culture of an organization all levels of management. Therefore, the practitioners that aim to improve innovation are encouraged to apply TQM and KM simultaneously, to improve the innovative activities and lowering costs in their organizations through the synergistic collaboration of Total Quality Management and KM(Honarpour,Jusoh,Khalil,2012,pg.27). As result of the TQM methodology the company develops an internal identity that has become adept at making quality changes on a continual basis which is called Continuous Improvement (CI). This strategy has been proven to work when an organization commits to focusing on continuous flow quality improvements which improve the company’s bottom line. Quality Assurance is unique because this department ensures that everyone in the company is complying with quality goals and the Quality Control measures if those goals are met. The QA and QC can bring a company from a low producing organization to almost double their outputs because they have adapted to the QC and QA methods. The QC and QA make sure that the desired quality results are achieved by following the company’s long term goals.

Quality Management is a method of continuing improvement in the products and services supplied by the company. TQM looks for to maximize client satisfaction by uncovering the conditions that restrict existing overall performance . The technique of TQM in manufacturing climate has generated enhancements in proficiency and profitability. The five dimensions of TQM used in this study were: leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, process management, information analysis and human resource focus (Loke et al.,2012).However, the paradigm shift over the last century has significanceas it relates to quality management and continuous process improvement and the future of strategic quality planning and business, improvements.Carmingnani (2009) has stated, “ TQM are often applied for process variance reduction which is directly linked to supply chain performance measures such as cycle time, order fulfillment and delivery dependability” (As cited Loke, Downe,Sambasivan& Khalid, 2012,pg.12).

The early roots of TQM can be traced back the 1920s, when statistics was applied making quality and continuous improvement decisions.This was the beginning of a new methodology that measures business success. In the 1920s, the introduction TQM was not readily accepted because this was a time of the Great Depression. In the 1930s, was a period that studies the quality, continuous improvements and production of an employee. According to Siddiqui, Haleem& Sharma(2012),”Supply chain management (SCM) can be defined as the configuration, coordination and continuous improvement of an organized set of operations.(pg.13). It is clear that continuous improvement has it merits as early as the 1930s while continuing to have an impact with today’s companies.

The healthcare industry has the most documented successes concerning how well TQM and continuous quality improvement initiatives has streamline the healthcare industry like never before in the past. Also, in the 1930s, brought about the studies on how the improvement of the working environment resulted in improvement of employee’s performance. This was the introduction to measuring the employee’s production using experiments that changing the environment lighting. Theseexperiments were completed at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company. The experiments concentrated on the impact of changing the employees lighting levels, hours worked and different time lengths of employee’s breaks to measure the impact of the employee’s production and quality. According to Kendirli & Tuna (2009), “Quality cost information can be used to show the real opportunities for true activities and to obtain promotion for developing quality. For this reason, measurement of quality cost, preparing reports and make them accountable are necessary for the effectiveness of quality systems(pg. 107). During the lighting level studies, researchers found that when the lights were brighter, worker productivity increased. However when lighting level was decreased worker productivity also increased. This period was crucial to the quality methods being used today because they put emphasis on the improving the employees working condition to get the maximum production and quality. The 1940s standards are being used the industry today by companies that are serious about quality. Most companies have some type of ISO 9000 standards in the business environment that promotes standardization, statistical analysis and best manufacturing practices.Based on the article by Quality-Assurance-Solutions (2012),”In the 1950s Edward Deming taught statistical methods and Dr Juran taught quality management techniques to the Japanese” (pg.3).

In the late 1950s Japanese products were defamed in the west for their poor quality and unreliability. The transformation in the reputation of the Japanese goods started after applying TQM. TQM assumes potentially greater importance as a tool improved proficiency in service areas. According to Jebrin & Ajlouni(2012),”The success of Total quality Management objectives (TQM) lies in the formulation of a clear understanding of relevant environment aspects, and determines the suitability of ethics and moral principles regarding the dimensions quality requirements of the application of the “total quality management”(pg.34).

However many companies started the program and failed miserably because they weren’t willing to change. In the 1990s’ TQM evolved. Experts introduce new methods that supported TQM. These include Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma. Organizations could now become certified to ISO 9001. Regardless of the advance quality methodologies, the primary goal is making sure each company is managing their internal processes.

According to Loke, Downe,Sambasivan and Harlow (1993), stated:

The success of supply chain management (SCM) depends largely on the firm’s efficiency in managing its processes. SCM is regarded as a powerful vehicle in cost reduction overall and performance improvement. It can also increase a firm’s competitiveness if it is well-managed. (pg.1)

Service Based Organization

Humana is a healthcare service based organization that delivers healthcares products,services, and partnerships which is primarily involved in consumers. However, Human has been successful implanting TQM into their environment even though critics,TQM is just a temporary method that will not last.According to Gregori,Napolitano,Scharinzi,Semeraro,Rasato,Pagano, & Gabassi(2009),”The employees may see the TQM as a fad and believe that quality is but a peripheral concern in these days of health expenditure cutbacks; furthermore, they may see the management as only concerned about the product (quality of the service) and not about staff needs”(pg.72).  Humana continues to be one the most innovative and employee focused organizations in the new millennium.

In the 1980s, Human pushed TQM and continuous quality improvement which is the process of analyzing,explaining, and evaluating strengths and difficulties and then testing,developing, gaining knowledge from, and modifying methods. It depends on an organizational and/or system culture that is definitely hands-on and encourages continuous learning. Human has stressed the importance of quality while presenting the positive results of practicing the methods learned from TQM and continuous quality improvement initiatives. According to Kendirli & Tuna (2009), “As the importance of the quality increases, enterprises began to adopt total quality management philosophy. Part of this management type is quality cost and the measurement of quality cost”(pg.103). Humana has done an excellent job of collaborating with the entire business climate to spread the TQM methods to management and to the employees while ensuring the organization consistently meets or exceeds internal and external customers expectative. Humana believes that how can you provide quality customer service to your customers, if you cannot provide stellar customer service internally. TQM within Human’s vision promotes the focus of process measurement and controls as a means to pursing continuous improvement company-wide. According to Ishikawa,”To confirm this the of the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC), indicate that more than 80% of the administrative leadership has realized that there is a relationship between quality and ethics(pg.31).

Continuous quality improvement is strongly secured in the over-all objective,perspective, and values of the agency/system. To implement continuous quality improvement, companies must develop a staff that has understanding of the system requiring improvement, determine a definite objective, recognize the needs of people served by the system, and pinpoint and explain measures of success.Therefore, the practitioners that aim to improve innovation are encouraged to apply TQM and KM simultaneously, to improve the innovative activities and lowering costs in their organizations through the synergistic collaboration of TQM and methods of KM (Honarpour,Jusoh,Khalil,2012,pg.27.  The problem arises when organizations try to find “how do firms try to reduce costs and slack to improve competitiveness on the one hand and then try to provide slack for innovation on the other?” The results of this study suggest that to overcome this dilemma, by implementing TQM and KM simultaneously firms are able improve innovation and efficiency (Honarpour,Jusoh,Khalil,2012,pg.25).

In addition, institutions may move forward in the direction of continuous quality improvement by brainstorming possible change techniques;preparing,obtaining, and using information for efficient decision-making; and making use of the scientific approach to test and improve changes. It is necessary to place the correct staff member in the right position using measurable performance indicators based on their skills set and while using performance audits to measure that success(Stevens,2008,pg15). Analyzing present procedures, techniques and internal protocols is important for a highly effective and efficient quality system. Emphasis really should be given to maximize internal procedures and developing consumer focused procedures.

Strategic Planning

An organizational strategy is a great approach to achieving the company’s goals. The future of strategic planning has changed directions because the definition for companies has shift from how the company develops a strategic plan to the new definition of strategic planning. According to Dhjm & Ajja(2003),”Quality assurance can, however, only be successful, i.e. result in continuous improvement. Thus, quality assurance is a cyclic process that should be conducted on a regular basis to ensure improvement(pg.210). This new definition is the process of documenting, implementing and monitor the progress of the agree strategic plan.According to Musashi (2009),”Strategic planning is the process of defining an organization’s plans for achieving its mission” (pg. 1).An organization that is growing and hopes to sustain that growth needs a set of strategies to guide its program development, build a solid financial foundation, and prepare for challenges that lie ahead. In other words, a organization needs a basic strategic plan. Strategic planning is a picture of your organization’s future and the necessary steps required to achieve success in the future. During strategic planning some companies utilize TQM as their plan. According Stiem,Ovretveit,Brommel(2003),”This interaction also depends on the characteristics of both players. In this study, it emerges that knowledge of the TQM principles is not uniform, but reflects the role and ability of the employees, particularly technical-sanitary staff’s lower knowledge compared with that of the administrative and managerial staff”(pg.251).

A good plan should include goals and objectives, desired outcomes, metrics for measuring your progress, timelines, and budgets.It is necessary to place the correct staff member in the right position using measurable performance indicators based on their skills set and while using performance audits to measure that success(Stevens,2008,pg15).

A well-documented strategic plan is critically important for organizing thinking and communicating thoughts. Strategic plans include elements that describe an organization’s present state, aspirations, and intentions for the future, and approach for going forward.According to Musashi (2009), “Although the ultimate goal of the strategic planning process is to develop a plan, the value of the exercise often lies in the process itself (pg.4).Strategic planning affords stakeholders in an organization the opportunity to learn more about the organization, to share their perceptions of its strengths and weaknesses, and to discuss critical issues affecting, or likely to affect, the organization in the future. The TQM process should be designed to generate decisions arrived at by agreement of all of management within the company. On the one hand, TQM implementation increases the efficiency of the firms and lowers the costs of production. On the other hand, TQM synergy with KM will have a positive impact on innovation (Honarpour,Jusoh,Khalil,2012,pg.24). Organizations have begun to utilize TQM methods in choosing the best employees. According Steim,Ovretveit,Brommel(2003),”If the need for investment on TQM in health care is clearly recognized it is not always easy to monitor its effective degree of penetration within the institution”(pg.253). This gives the company a foundation of management philosophy starting with the front line employees that greet new employees. TQM is being use to set the standards at the start of employment instead of after their hire. Only through accurate skills matching can your organization make the best use of your existing personnel and their potential. The use of a talent audit system that accurately and systematically predicts the effectiveness of hiring the right talent—while avoiding the wrong talent—is essential to addressing this problem(Stevens,2008,pg.15). The companies have found that many employees have difficulty adjusting to a different management environment once they joined the organization. The orientations traditionally did not discuss the management environment because they managers were not a part of the training process. Many employees took longer to adapt to the new TQM culture especially, if they previously were never exposed to TQM. The moral of the story is introduced new employees to TQM methods as early as possible to they can quickly adapt to the business environment dedicated to TQM improvements.

Conclusion

Total Quality Management is one the most utilize methodologies in a service based organization. TQM is an advanced quality matrix that most organizations have found to be effective regardless of industry. Traditionally, the advance quality measures were oriented to a company with some products they manufacturer but the methods have worked across many diverse industries. TQM looks for to maximize client satisfaction by uncovering the conditions that restrict existing overall performance. The technique of TQM in manufacturing climate has generated enhancements in proficiency and profitability.TQM and KM can be integrated to increase knowledge creation and subsequently to increase performance and profitability (Loke et al.,2012).  The future of advance quality measures will universally implement continuous quality improvement; companies must develop a staff that has understanding of the system requiring improvement, determine a definite objective, recognize the needs of people served by the system, and pinpoint and explain measures of success. A company that is moving ahead into the new millennium should ensure their organization that is growing using TQM and hopes to sustain that growth needs a set of strategies to guide its program development, build a solid financial foundation, and prepare for challenges that lie ahead.As Humana indicated a quality management system will only work, if  you can measure the results. You need to be able to measure the result to find out what needs to be implemented  and changed within the organization. The TQM advance quality methods helps companies set your goals for the future and ensure that every single department is pursing the same results. Total Quality Management is not a onetime action, it is something that must be done over and over again to become the mainstay of your environment. It’s not a project that will die out after a problem has been corrected. TQM continues to measure continuous improvements while constantly pursing customer excellence and customer satisfaction.The future of strategic planning has changed directions because the definition for companies has shift from how the company develops a strategic plan to the new definition of strategic planning.Strategic planning affords stakeholders in an organization the opportunity to learn more about the organization, to share their perceptions of its strengths and weaknesses, and to discuss critical issues affecting, or likely to affect, the organization in the future. The TQM process should be designed to generate decisions arrived at by agreement of all of management within the company.The future of advance quality measurements within an organization will continue to utilize the TQM methods because they have a background and history of improving an organizations culture. The continuous improvement programs have become more popular because it has become the extension or next step in  an organizations growth.

References

Carmignani, G. 2009. Supply chain and quality management: The definition of a standard to implement a process management system in a supply chain, Business Process  Management Journal (3): 395–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14637150910960639

Dhjm, D., H, Ajja, S. (2003). From quality assurance to total quality management: How cans quality  assurance result in the continuous improvement in health professions education?.

Education For Health: Change In Learning &Practice (Taylor & Francis Ltd.), 16, (2), 210. Gregori, D., Napolitano, G., Scarinzi, C., Semeraro, A., Rosato, R., Pagano, E., &

Gabassi, P. (2009). Knowledge, practice and faith on total quality management principles among workers in the health care system: Evidence from an Italian investigation. Journal Of Evaluation In Clinical Practice, 15(1), 69-75. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2008.00956.x

Honarpour, A., Jusoh, A., & Khalil Md, N. (2012). Knowledge Management, Total Quality Management and Innovation: A New Look. Journal Of Technology Management & Innovation, 7(3), 22-31.

Ishikawa, Kaoru. (1985). What is total quality control, The Japanese way, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice,Inc, p.31.

Jebrin, A., & Ajlouni, M. (2012). The fit between business strategies ethics and the approach to total quality management A Suggested Model. Journal Of Management Research, 4(1), 1- 30. doi:10.5296/jmr.v4i1.938

Kendirli, S., & Tuna, M. (2009). In the context of total quality management, quality costs and effects on financial decisions: A research in çorum’s enterprises. International  Journal Of  Entrepreneurship, 13, 103-117.

Loke, S., Downe, A. G., Sambasivan, M., & Khalid, K. (2012). A structural approach to integrating total quality management and knowledge management with supply chain learning. Journal Of Business Economics & Management, 13(4), 776-800. doi:10.3846/16111699.2011.620170

Management Wisdom. About Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Retrieved from http://www.managementwisdom.com/abdrweddem.html

Musashi, Miyamoto. The book of five rings: Classic treaty on Military strategy. Wildside Press, 2009.

Rao, P. S., & D’Souza, O. (2012). A Study on Total Quality Management in IT services industry using Six Sigma with CMMI. Aweshkar Research Journal, 13(1), 145-157.

Siddiqui, F., Haleem, A., & Sharma, C. (2012). The impact of supply chain management practices in total quality management practices and flexible system practices context: An empirical study in oil and gas industry. Global Journal Of Flexible Systems Management, 13(1), 11-23. doi:10.1007/s40171-012-0002-9

Stevens, H. P. (2008). Total quality management now applies to managing talent. Journal For Quality &Participation, 31(2), 15.

Striem, J., Ovretveit, J. & Brommels, M. (2003) Is health care a special challenge to quality management? Insight from the Danderyd Hospital case. Quality Management and Health Care, 12, 250–258.

Talib, F.; Rahman, Z.; Qureshi, M. N. 2011. A study of total quality management and supply chain management practices, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management 60(3): 268–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17410401111111998

Quality Assurance-Solutions (2012).TQM history. Retrieved from http://www.quality-assurance-solutions.com/TQM-History.html