What is Total Quality Management?
TQM is a management philosophy, a paradigm, a continuous improvement approach to doing business through a new management model. The TQM philosophy evolved from the continuous improvement philosophy with a focus on quality as the main dimension of business. Under TQM, emphasizing the quality of the product or service predominates. TQM expands beyond statistical process control to embrace a wider scope of management activities of how we manage people and organizations by focusing on the entire process, not just simple measurements.
TQM is a comprehensive management system which:
- Focuses on meeting owners’/customers’ needs by providing quality services at a cost that provides value to the owners/customers
- Is driven by the quest for continuous improvement in all operations
- Recognizes that everyone in the organization has owners/customers who are either internal or external
- Views an organization as an internal system with a common aim rather than as individual departments acting to maximize their own performances
- Focuses on the way tasks are accomplished rather than simply what tasks are accomplished
- Emphasizes teamwork and a high level of participation by all employees
TQM beliefs
- Presented here are universal total quality management beliefs.
- Owner/customer satisfaction is the measure of quality
- Everyone has owners/customers; everyone is an owner/customer
- Quality improvement must be continuous
- Analyzing the processes used to create products and services is key to quality improvement
- Measurement, a skilled use of analytical tools, and employee involvement are critical sources of quality improvement ideas and innovations
- Sustained total quality management is not possible without active, visible, consistent, and enabling leadership by managers at all levels
- If we do not continuously improve the quality of products and services that we provide our owners/customers, someone else will
