22 Improving Quality through Total Quality Management

Sudhanshu Joshi

The module shall discuss various aspects of TQM, including:

1) Understanding the term “Quality”

2) Understanding towards the basic concept of TQM using a conceptual framework;

3) Improving Quality using TQM;

4) Investigate the role of new manufacturing concepts and technologies in the development (design and implementation) of TQM; and

5) Develop a strategic framework for the development and implementing processes of TQM.

1. Introduction

The term quality for a product /or service is the value imparts to society from the time the product is shipped (Taguchi and Clausing, 1990). The total quality concept has been receiving increasing attention in the literature of operations management and strategic management (Crosby, 1979; Feigenbaum, 1983; Juran, 1979; Oakland, 1989). Product/ service quality is increasingly cited as a primary strategic variable for effectively competing in the global marketplace and certainly increase the sales and profit margins through better products and customer satisfaction.

In recent times, Concept of TQM has received considerable global attention during the last few years. Conceptually, Total quality management (TQM) is the management philosophy that seeks continuous improvement in the quality of performance of all set of techniques, procedures, processes, products, and services of an organization. It emphasizes the understanding of variation, the importance of measurement, the role of the customer and the involvement of employees at all levels of an organization in pursuit of such improvement (Joshi et al, 2015). Primarily, TQM was developed and adopted by Japanese business firms. In early 1960s, Feigenbaum introduced TQM Concept to western firms. Many companies have successfully implemented the TQM philosophy and have attained a high reputation for offering high quality goods with low process cost. Earlier to TQM, the idea of Quality Control Circles (QCC) was adopted to deal with quality related problems. However, TQM is concerned with a total system aspect of organizational based changes, and is more strategic in nature. (Gunasekaran et al., 1998). Generally, 85 percent of quality related problems arise from the system and remaining 15 percent of the problems are through workers’ actions

(Madison, 2005). There exist two major quality concerns, caused by system and caused by individual workers (Deming, 1982).

Total quality Management (TQM) is a term used to denote a management strategy for producing quality goods and services with minimum cost of production. In other words, TQM adopts an organized participation of involved parties to achieve improvements in production processes and products. This indicates that TQM operates both at the strategy formulation level and operational decision processes at all levels of organization. The concept of total quality encompasses an integrated view on all activities in a company. This leads to the definition, design, production and delivery of products and services which meet the demands and expectations of the customers thus providing satisfaction to them.

Seven Key Principles of TQM (Fisher, 1992), includes:

(1) Is a management philosophy;

(2) Seeks continuous improvement in all processes, products, and services;

(3) Requires the understanding of variation;

(4) Emphasizes the importance of measurement;

(5) Requires an understanding of the role of the customer (and the supplier);

(6) Emphasizes the involvement of employees at all levels;

(7) Recognizes that management plays the key role.

2. Define Quality: The term quality can be determine using five approaches to define quality (Garvin, 1984):

i. Philosophic concept of “innate excellence”- which is both absolute and universally recognized through experience (transcendent approach).

ii. The Concept focuses on the quantity of some ingredient or attribute possessed by a product. Like the amount of cream in ice cream, it can be assessed objectively and is based on more than preferences alone (Product-based approach)

iii. Based on the premise that quality “lies in the eyes of the beholder”. It is subjective and motivated and rooted in consumer preferences (user-based approach)

iv. The focuses on engineering and manufacturing practices. It identifies quality as “conformance to requirements”, and it is equated with meeting specifications or making a product right the first time (manufacturing-based approach).

v. Defines quality in terms of costs and prices. Quality provides performance at an acceptable price. The phrase “affordable excellence” summarizes the dilemma. (Value-based approach)

Figure 2-1 Depict the various approaches on Quality. (Source: Garvin, 1984)

Further, In another study Garvin (1987) has segmented quality into eight component, listed as following:

(1) Performance refers to the operating characteristics of the item;

(2) Reliability reflects the probability of a product being available for use or failing within a specific period of time;

(3) Serviceability is the speed, accessibility, and ease of repairing the item or having it repaired;

(4) Conformance is the degree to which delivered products meet the pre established standards;

(5) Durability measures the projected use available from the product over its intended operating cycle before it deteriorates;

(6) Secondary characteristics, which supplement the product’s basic functioning;

(7) Aesthetics reflects personal judgement of how a product looks, feels, sounds, tastes, or smells; and

(8) Perceived quality is closely identified with the reputation of the producer.

Figure 2-2. Various attributes of Quality. (Source: Garvin, 1987)

3. Conceptual framework for TQM

Total Quality Management is a system introduced by Japanese, for integrating quality technologies into various functional departments (engineering, production, sales, service etc) to achieve customer satisfaction”. Total quality control becomes a management philosophy, pervades the entire organization, and sets the direction for providing perfect quality goods and services to the industrial customer (Ishikawa ,1985).TQM offers a variety of tangible and intangible benefits which amount to cost savings for the employer and greater job satisfaction for the employee including: increased job knowledge, improved productivity, reduced waste, errors and product recalls, and improved communication.

Figure 3-1: Conceptual Framework (Adopted from, Ross, 1988; Conway, 1992; Gunashekran, 1998)

Figure 3-1 depicts the conceptual framework for TQM, Considering the role of each functional department in improving quality from the perspective of total management, quality is everybody’s responsibility (Gunashekaran, 1998)

The information flow in the whole TQM Framework shows the relationship between customer and company, and company with suppliers. The supplier is responsible to deliver the items (Product/ Service to the company/Service/ Manufacturing systems. The system uses the items either in the assembly or for further processing to produce final goods to the customers Figure 3-2 exhibit the information flow in the TQM. This kind of information loop acts as a nerve of the integrated quality management activities for achieving TQM.

Figure 3-2 Information flow in the TQM

4. Improving Quality using TQM

This section presents various practices performed by various countries to improve quality through Total Quality Management.

TQM started in Japan in the early 1980s and spread to the Western countries and Australia. In the 1990s, TQM topics became very important, and many companies were looking to apply TQM and use it to develop and improve their businesses (Pourrajab et al., 2012).

Japanese firms, follows the concept of TQM in identical to Total Company Management. Conceptually, the total company concept includes a wide range of activities starting from the design of the product to the final satisfactory acceptance by the customer (Sohal et al., 1990).

Western firms, emphasized on the Continuous Quality improvement using systematic approach that significantly improve the quality and costs, especially in the manufacturing setups. (Haworth, 1991). Later, in 1990s, A full understanding of the process, connected to careful selection of the most suitable approaches leads to the implementation of the TQM concept. The requirements of customers will act as input to all functional areas as represented in the conceptual model. The output of one functional department may act as input to one or more other functional departments. This view of quality demands that the quality of products and services can be achieved by total quality management involving all the people in the manufacturing system. Realizing the importance of the TQM concept in improving quality and productivity, an attempt has been made in this study to discuss the various aspects of TQM.

5. Components of TQM

TQM being a system that can cope with all of these challenges to resolve all health organization’s problems. Total Quality Management is also known as continuous quality improvement (CQI), Quality Improvement (QI), Quality Management (QM) and Total Quality Control (TQC). Key principles of TQM include the following: customer focus, obsession with quality, scientific approach, long-term commitment, teamwork, and continual improvement systems, education, and training, freedom through control, unity of purpose and employee involvement and empowerment.

The Total Quality Management (TQM) framework can be explained by reference to each of the three components –

(a). “Total”, involvement of all members of organization with everyone banding together to align all activities within the organization with full inclusiveness and assurance for overall productivity.

(b). “Quality”, the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.

(c). “Management”, is the art of getting things done. For Total Quality assurance, effective management is required to ensure for the flawless processes and overall effectiveness.

The overall perspective of TQM should covered are explained in Table 5-1.

Table 5-1: Overall Perspective of Total Quality Management (TQM)

	Customer Focus	Continuous Improvement	Teamwork
Principles	Paramount importance of providing products and services that fulfill customer needs; requires organization wide focus on customers	Consistent customer satisfaction can be attained only through relentless improvement of processes that create products and services	Customer focus and continuous improvement are best achieved by collaboration throughout an organization as well as with customers and suppliers.
Practices	Direct customer contact collecting information about customer needs	Process analysis	Search for arrangements that benefits all units involved in a process
	Using information in design and deliver products and services	Reengineering	Formation of various types of teams
		Problem Solving	Group Skills training
		Plan/do/check/act
Techniques	Customer surveys and focus groups	Flowcharts	Organizational Development methods such as the nominal group technique
	Quality Function deployment (Translates customer information into product specifications)	Pareto Analysis	Team -building methods (e.g. Role clarification and group feedback)
		Statistical Process Control
		Fishbone diagrams

(Source: Gunashekaran, 1998; Joshi et. al., 2015)

5-1. Animation: Understanding Total Quality Management (U-tube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmK88P6Xojo

6. Principles of TQM

While the principles of total quality may appear in different forms, those developed by the British Quality Foundation represent the core of most TQM initiatives (Choppin, 1995). These are set out as 16 principles with alternative terms/words/concepts presented in this fashion/way (see Table 6-1).

Table 6-1: Principles of Total Quality Management (TQM)

Principle	Definition
Highest Priority	Total quality must overtly be the highest priority of the organization/ company/individual
Quality definition	Any definition of quality must include meeting/satisfying/conforming to agreed/negotiated customer needs/requirements/wants/expectations
Customer definition	The concept of customers includes investors/employees/stakeholders/ suppliers/the community and every interpersonal relationship
Customer satisfaction	Long-term satisfaction of customer needs will be an aim of any total quality organization.
Aim	A total quality organization will have a clearly stated, widely understood and generally accepted direction/aim.
Communication	A total quality organization will openly and clearly communicate its principles/beliefs/values/mission statement/policy for quality.
Ethos	Total quality management embodies the values/beliefs/ethos of the organization and, thus, total quality is intrinsic to every activity, decision and action.
Values	The highest levels of integrity, honesty, trust and openness are essential ingredients of total quality management.
Mutual respect and benefit	There is an implicit mutual respect of all stakeholders involved with a total quality organization, which assumes that long-term business is intended to be mutually beneficial to all concerned.
Health and safety	Health, safety and environmental issues have a high priority within a total quality organization since the welfare of all investors/employees/ suppliers/the community, as stakeholders in the enterprise, is intrinsic to the future wellbeing of the organization
Commitment	Leadership of total quality management stems from the top of the organization and enlists individual and team commitment throughout
Participation and ownership	Total quality offers each individual the opportunity to participate in, and to feel ownership of his/her activities, and jointly to share a sense of ownership for the success of the entire organization
Continuous improvement	Total quality management involves continuous and measurable improvement at all levels of the organization, ranging from company performance to individual employee performance, such that continuous process improvement, forever, becomes an essential ingredient of success
Performance	Total quality management requires consistent/predictable/accurate/ precise performance to high standards in all areas of the organization, thus measurement, assessment and auditing are common TQM activities
Resources	An aim of every total quality organization is to use resources better, to achieve greater success, financial and/or otherwise
Investment	Total quality management will always require sufficient/appropriate investment to ensure that planned activity can occur

(Source: Choppin, 1995)

7. History and important discoveries

The roots of Total Quality Management (TQM) can be traced back to early 1920s when statistical theory was first applied to product quality control. This concept was further developed in Japan in the 40s led by Americans, such as Deming, Juran and Feigenbaum. The focus widened from quality of products to quality of all issues within an organization – the start of TQM.

Following are some of the major discoveries / history of Total Quality Management, from inspection to business excellence.

Inspection – Inspection involves measuring, examining, and testing products, process and services against specified requirements to determine conformity. The use of inspection has been evident throughout the history of organized production. In the late middle Ages, special measures were taken to inspect the work of apprentices and journeymen in order to guard the Guild against claims of makeshift or shoddy work. During the early years of manufacturing, inspection was used to decide whether a worker’s job or a product met the requirements; therefore, acceptable. It was not done in a systematic way, but worked well when the volume of production was reasonably low. However, as organizations became larger, the need for more effective operations became apparent.
Quantity Control and Statistical Theory- Quality Control was introduced to detect and fix problems along the production line to prevent the production of faulty products. Statistical theory played an important role in this area. In the 1920s, Dr W. Shewhart developed the application of statistical methods to the management of quality. He made the first modern control chart and demonstrated that variation in the production process leads to variation in product. Therefore, eliminating variation in the process leads to a good standard of end products.
Statistical Quality Control- Statistical Quality Control in manufacturing setup , primarily aims to(Shewart, 1950; Deming,1954; Dodge, 1965 ; Roming, 1972) :

1. Focus on product and the detection and control to quality problems;

2. Involves testing samples and statistically infers compliance of all products;

3. Is carried out of stages through the production process; and

4. Relies on trained production personnel and quality control professionals.

Quality in Japan-In the 1940s, Japanese products were perceived as cheep, shoddy imitations. Japanese industrial leaders recognised this problem and aimed to produce innovative high quality products. They invited a few quality gurus, such as Deming, Juran, and Feigenbaum to learn how to achieve this aim. Deming suggested that they can achieve their goal in five years; not many Japanese believed him. However, they followed his suggestions. Maybe the Japanese thought it was rude to say that they did not believe Deming. Or maybe they thought it would be embarrassing if they could not follow his suggestions. Whatever reason it was, they took Deming’s and other gurus’ advice and never looked back. In the 1950s, quality control and management developed quickly and became a main theme of Japanese management. The idea of quality did not stop at the management level. Quality circles started in the early 60s. A quality circle is a volunteer group of workers who meet and discuss issues to improve any aspects of workplace, and make presentations to management with their ideas. A by-product of quality circles was employee motivation. Workers felt that they were involved and heard. Another by-product was the idea of improving not only quality of the products, but also every aspect of organisational issues. This probably was the start of the idea, total quality.
Total Quality- The term ‘total quality’ was used for the first time in a paper by Feigenbaum at the first international conference on quality control in Tokyo in 1969. The term referred to wider issues within an organisation. Ishikawa also discussed ‘total quality control’ in Japan, which is different from the western idea of total quality. According to his explanation, it means ‘company-wide quality control’ that involves all employees, from top management to the workers, in quality control.
Total Quality Management- In the 1980s to the 1990s, a new phase of quality control and management began. This became known as Total Quality Management (TQM). Having observed Japan’s success of employing quality issues, western companies started to introduce their own quality initiatives. TQM, developed as a catchall phrase for the broad spectrum of quality-focused strategies, programmes and techniques during this period, became the centre of focus for the western quality movement. A typical definition of TQM includes phrases such as: customer focus, the involvement of all employees, continuous improvement and the integration of quality management into the total organisation. Although the definitions were all similar, there was confusion. It was not clear what sort of practices, policies, and activities needed to be implemented to fit the TQM definition.
Quality Awards and Excellence Models – In 1988 a major step forward in quality management was made with the development of the Malcolm Baldrige Award in the United States. The model, on which the award was based, represented the first clearly defined and internationally recognised TQM model. It was developed by the United States government to encourage companies to adopt the model and improve their competitiveness.

In response to this, a similar model was developed by the European Foundation of Quality Management in 1992. This EFQM Excellence Model is the framework for the European Quality Award.

While leading organizations compete to win awards, the main purpose of these awards is to encourage more companies to adopt quality management principles. The models are practical tools; they help organizations to measure where they are now and where they want to be in the future. The models also help organizations to create a plan to reduce the gap between these positions. Today, hundreds of quality awards and several models exist all over the world. For more information on some of these models, visit ‘Excellence Models’.

Business Excellence- TQM models are often called Business Excellence Models. Also, TQM itself is now often called Business Excellence. This is to distinguish the “new TQM” from the past work on TQM. As mentioned earlier, there was confusion as to what TQM was in the 80s and early 90s. This was because any business improvement programme was becoming called TQM. Therefore, the name TQM became tarnished. Business Excellence is really the same as TQM, but with a more clearly defined approach.

7. The impact of quality management orientation on Operational Performance

The increased complexity of today’s business environment and heightened international competition make it necessary for organizations to improve quality performance by aligning their quality practices in their attempt to capitalize on all possible traditional and non- traditional sources of competitive advantage (Vecchi and Brennan 2009). As revealed in the literature (Dahlgaard, Kristensen, and Kanji 1998), strong orientation towards quality management plays an important role in spreading the quality philosophy through the entire organization. According to the Demirbag and Sahadev (2008), the quality orientation of the organization is linked to a widespread understanding among members of the organization about the importance of quality, a well-established quality policy, as well as practices and systems that are oriented to achieve the basic tenants of the policy. Treating quality as a cultural phenomenon means that quality is approached as a set of values, as a general orientation and an organizational ideology rather than just as a set of tools or techniques (Cameron and Wesley 1999). Consistently with the description of quality culture by Wu, Zhang, and Schroeder (2011), we understand the concept of quality management orientation to be composed of values that describe customer orientation, quality responsibility, prevention and process orientation. The importance of organizational culture to manufacturing strategy has been recognized (Stock, McFadden, and Gowen 2007), but there has been little empirical research regarding quality culture (Cameron and Wesley 1999). While acknowledging the contribution of the organizational culture on the organizational performance (e.g. Yilmaz, Alpkan, and Ergun 2005), the literature review reveals a lack of empirical studies that examine the impact of specific subsets of an organization’s overall culture on different dimensions of the organizational performance (e.g. maintenance performance). Underlying this argument, it is important to explore the impact of quality management orientation on maintenance performance. Furthermore, it has been acknowledged by many authors that maintenance is a major contributor to the performance and profitability of manufacturing systems (Al-Najjar and Alsyouf 2003, 2004; Parida and Kumar 2006; Kans and Ingwald 2008). Selecting an appropriate maintenance policy (Chan and Prakash 2012) is essential for companies to maintain their competitiveness. However, for the effective deployment of the maintenance practices, it is important to put focus also on the ‘soft’ aspects (i.e. behavioural and cultural aspects). The greater benefits result from total productive maintenance (TPM), especially when a total quality and team working culture already exists within a company (Willmott,1994).

Strategic framework for the development and implementing processes of TQM.

Figure 7-1: Components of TQM philosophy and their interrelationships

Figure 7-2 : Structure of TQM

Hendricks and Singhal (1997) carried out a study to empirically prove that TQM improves the performance of organizations. A Strategic Framework for TQM is depicted in Figure 7-1. The model consists of two main components: (1) TQM philosophy; (2) TQM systems and tools. TQM cannot exist without a complete acceptance of its philosophy by at least the top management. Once the basic TQM philosophy is accepted by the top management then different systems and tools can be initiated to propagate and facilitate a culture based on such a philosophy TQM philosophy TQM philosophy consists of four basic beliefs, which are as follows: (1) Absolute customer focus; (2) employee empowerment, involvement and ownership; (3) continuous improvement; and (4) use of systematic approaches to management. The core of the TQM philosophy is “absolute customer focus”. Belief in “employee empowerment, involvement and ownership”, “continuous improvement” and the “use of systematic management” help the organization achieve continual increase of customer satisfaction at a continually lower real cost. Figure 22.5 describes the individual components of the TQM philosophy and their inter-relationships, which are further, discussed in subsequent sections. TQM and productivity Increasing competition in the global market necessitates that productivity should not be considered as an indicator of efficiency only; it must also measure effectiveness. Yet the distinction between the two is often overlooked. For example, a company that produces according to process specifications may be using its resources efficiently, but unless it is producing what its customers want it may not be using them effectively. There is no point in churning out well-made products that nobody wants. To be profitable, a company must judge productivity and value from the perspective of the customer, not from the engineer. Hence, internal processes must only be geared towards producing products and services that the customers find useful and valuable. The TQM philosophy ensures “effective efficiency” by encouraging companies to plan products and develop systems that deliver products only according to the expectations of the customer.

Several studies have validated that in the long run, companies that adopt TQM achieve greater effective productivity, profitability and market share for most kinds of products and market situations. A look at the individual components of the philosophy shows why Productivity and absolute customer focus Delighted customers are the prime determinant of sustainable competitive advantage for any organization. To retain customers and entice new ones a company needs to focus on providing value to the customer and that too in a manner that is more effective than that of its competitors. Customer satisfaction transforms into customer delight when goods or services exceed customers” expectations. Thus, understanding what the customer wants is crucial. When a company directs all its efforts towards this goal, it automatically produces only what is required by its customers. This leads to higher sales and operating profits for the company as customers pay more and buy more when it comes to quality products that they want. It also curbs inventory pileup of both unsold and returned/rejected inventory as well as recall costs, warranty claims and product liability costs. When care is also taken to satisfy the requirements of internal customers, items are produced according to specifications thereby minimizing defective items, the cost of rework and subsequently throughput time. Hence, customer focus enhances effective productivity by reducing internal and external failure costs along with ensuring that only those goods are produced that are in demand.

Productivity and employee empowerment, involvement, ownership Quality can’t be delegated. It must be assumed and lived by everyone on the payroll (Harari, 1993). According to Evans and Lindsay (1996), 60 per cent to 90 per cent of the costs of total quality are difficult to control by management alone. When workers themselves are committed to delivering quality, they take greater initiative towards meeting product and process specifications; detecting and eliminating bottlenecks; improving product and process designs and setting realistic yet challenging performance targets. Diversity in views and experiences encourages creative ideas for “serving the customer” and this invariably fosters productivity.

Productivity and continuous improvement The ever-changing tastes of customers and pressure from competitors induce firms to adopt proactive strategies to retain and/or gain market share. Hence, continuous improvement is essential for the very survival of a company. Both incremental and breakthrough improvements enhance productivity by decreasing costs and/or improving performance. Performance is enhanced through greater responsiveness, shorter cycle times for new products or services, better products, shorter throughput time and unique marketing, engineering or production strategies. Costs decline by reducing errors, defects and wastage.

Productivity and systematic management the systematic management approach ensures that whatever we produce is consistent with what we wanted to produce, thereby reducing wastage. It also ensures that all the resources are appropriately utilized and efficiency is gained by increasing output while reducing input.

Suggested Readings:

a) Simons (2011): Operations Management: A Modern Approach. Apple Academic Press.

b) Wilson (2014): A Comprehensive Guide to Project Management Schedule and Cost Control: Methods and Models for Managing the Project Lifecycle. Pearson FT Press

c) Sollish and Semanik (2012): The Procurement and Supply Manger’s Desk Reference. Wiley.

d) Schonsleben (2007): Integral Logistics Management: Operations and Supply Chain Management in Comprehensive Value-Added Networks. Auerbach Publications.