The wave of globalization is attracting individuals and expatriates from different regions to work in foreign countries. Cities receiving such people should implement powerful strategies to meet their changing needs and promote economic development. This paper describes how leaders can implement Total Quality Management TQM) to affect cultures and sectors.
Applying Total Quality Management
TQM is a framework that organizations use to promote high work standards to maximize outcomes. With many cities attracting people with varied backgrounds, leaders should embrace this model to streamline service delivery and create wealth. This concept revolves around the introduction of appropriate systems, proper management, and implementation of evidence-based practices (Anttila & Jussila 2018). In different towns and cities, many sectors are involved that require the input of all stakeholders.
The speech that Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum gave in February, 2019 about modern cities offer evidence-based insights that encourage modern cities to embrace the concept of TQM. According to him, leaders should consider appropriate strategies to attract great minds and create systems that maximize productivity. One example that stands out from the speech is the importance of reducing the time resident take to commute from one place to another (Video: Sheikh Hamdan to address World Government Summit in Dubai today 2019). They can also empower individuals to collaborate and share their diverse ideas to improve performance. Addressing the needs of human beings will deliver positive results rather than pursuing emerging technologies. The example of Dubai supports the effectiveness of TQM in improving quality of life cities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, TQM is a powerful model for transforming urban areas. A convergence between developmental agendas and cultures will improve peoples experiences and economic performance. These attributes explain why Dubai has become a true inspiration for many cities across the world.
Reference List
Anttila, J & Jussila, K 2018, Universities and smart cities: the challenges to high quality, Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, vol. 29, no. 9-10, pp. 1058-1073.
Starting and maintaining any business venture is a process that requires determination motivation and general know-how in regards to how to operate a business and ensure that it remains profitable despite the various challenges and risks that may be available in the business environment one wants to venture in. As such, there are several considerations that should be carried out to ensure that all details regarding the business are addressed and well planned for.
The considerations include but are not limited to: the identification of the business opportunity, development of the product or service, evaluations of the suppliers, clients and business environment and market analysis among others. A recurrent and most important concept that must be considered is the quality of the output produced by all processes within the business. Total quality ensures that the business survives the harshness of business environments, all the while guaranteeing profits from the venture.
This report shall set out to explore Total Quality Management (TQM) as being among the core concepts used by business entities to safeguard their reputation, ensure effective and efficient delivery of quality products and services and manage businesses towards success. To this end, the principles of TQM shall be discussed and its relevance to human resource, client satisfaction and supplier management analyzed.
By using relevant and credible sources, this report shall present a comprehensive and informative discussion on how TQM plays an integral role in facilitating business growth, promoting efficient human resource management, guaranteeing customer satisfaction and enhance strategic management in various aspects of the business. In short, this paper shall elaborate the importance of TQM in todays organizational management.
Introduction
Throughout their existence, organizations and businesses are considerably under a lot of pressured to raise their levels of performance and productivity. This is especially so in the modern-day business environment which is characterized by aggression and excessive competition. This constantly forces businesses to exhibit innovativeness and enhanced performance so as to remain relevant and profitable in the ever increasingly competitive arena.
To achieve the organizational goal of increased productivity, the input of both the individual and groups in the organization remains invaluable. However, for these inputs to make a significant impact there must be a strong leadership and management to steer the individual and group effort in the right direction. This being the case, the development of leadership and management strategies is of great importance to any business entity.
Exemplary leadership and management alone cannot guarantee that a business will be successful in the long-run. Due consideration has to be given to quality management as well. It is from realization that Total Quality Management (TQM) was invented. TQM is an all-inclusive improvement concept that has in the last few decades, been adopted by many organizations in their journey towards increased market share, profitability and sustainable growth.
Considering the importance of this concept, business analysts and scholars have over the years developed various TQM principles and models to assist business leaders make the most out of their ventures. However, many businesses have failed to sustain TQM in their processes long enough to realize its full benefits. This paper shall therefore provide an informative discussion on TQM, its history, principles and applicability in understanding business processes, interactions and growth.
TQM: A Brief History
Bagad defines TQM as a broad and continuous approach that businesses implement to ensure quality and performance improvement that guarantees customer satisfaction (4). According to the author, this guarantee is achieved by integrating all quality-related functions and processes throughout the company (Bagad 12).
As regarding to its prominence, Bagad asserts that after the Second World War, the need to inspect the quality of goods and services availed to consumers became a common practice which led to the development of the Statistical Quality Control (SQC) theory which was formulated by Dr. Edwards Deming (Bagad 18).
According to the theorist, the quality of products could only be ascertained by sampling random products produced from each batch. As such, this theory was based on the assumption that any manmade or technical error experienced in the production process would ultimately lead to defects or other quality related issues to the end products. As such, the theorist believed that by eliminating the errors in the production process, the end product would certainly be of high quality.
Testing the quality of manufactured goods was further necessitated by the fact that the Japanese manufacturing industry produced a lot of poor quality goods after the Second World War. As such, in the fifties, quality control became a major concern for most nations. Subsequently, in the 1970s, the concept of total quality evolved.
This was attributed to the fact that business organizations had acknowledged the value of quality control. As such, it was not only logical, but a strategic move to implement measures that included all employees in quality control processes. This notion was more efficient and covered a wide range of business activities towards the delivery of quality goods.
TQM: Understanding the Concept
As has been elaborated above, TQM is a management tool that facilitates leaders and managers to direct their organization into a successful future. It is a wide concept that requires commitment from both the management and organizational employees if it is to be successful.
As such, it not only aims at managing and assuring that quality is maintained in all goods or services produced, but extends to the management of the people and processes used. This approach ensures that each internal and external production stage promotes full consumer satisfaction (Mukherjee 23). Notably, whenever leaders integrate TQM concepts in their businesses, their organizations do the right things correctly with little to no complications.
Maguad asserts that TQM, like any other management strategy utilizes the people-process- system cycle (181). This is because TQM focuses on consumer-supplier quality relations. However, the efficiency of this relationship is influenced by the level of commitment to quality, communication (as regarding to how the quality message is transmitted) and culture. Culture in this context influences the relationship in the sense that organizations have deep rooted cultures.
As such, if an organization is willing to change its culture such that it promotes improvement in quality, then the organization will have a good consumer-supplier interface. However, if the organization is reluctant to cultural change, the interface will not work as it is expected to in terms of providing total customer satisfaction. This paragraph can best be elaborated by this diagram below.
A diagram elaborating the TQM interface in an organizational setting
This diagram shows how different internal and external factors are interlinked to ensure that the quality of the product meets or exceeds the expectations of the consumer.
It should be noted that in each interface is made up of various processes. As such, they all affect each other and failure in one interface leads to the organizations inability to deliver quality goods and services. According to the Department of Trade and industry (DTI) website, quality in TQM refers to the ability of a product or service to fully satisfy a consumers needs or fully meet them as expected (2).
As such, the author(s) reiterates that quality is measured in term of a products or services performance, appearance, availability, delivery, reliability, maintainability, cost effectiveness and price (DTI 2). The author further suggests that an organization should always ensure that its products and services meet these requirements. The only way this can be ascertained is by conducting a market research (DTI 3).
Empirical Research
The rationale for the study and its methodology
Prior to discussing the core tenets of TQM, we need to discuss the empirical survey that was aimed at examining customers perceptions of quality. This question is of great importance for modern companies since they need to understand which dimensions of quality are of the greatest value to clients. This information can help them to better develop products as well as services. The main objective of this survey was to determine what aspects affect the customer satisfaction and what factors affect their purchasing decisions.
It should be noted that scholars distinguish different aspects of product quality, in particular, performance, functionality, reliability, serviceable life (Sower, 7). As far as service quality is concerned, researchers speak about such dimensions as reliability, responsiveness, and assurance (Kandampully, Mok & Sparks, 54). In many cases, it is rather difficult to determine which of these dimensions of the greatest importance for customers.
The survey that has been conducted relies on quantitative relied on quantitative research methods, namely on the structured interview. The respondents were asked a series of multiple-choice questions that prompted them to assess different aspects of product and service quality in terms of their importance[1]. The participants for the study were randomly selected and the sample was divided into two equal groups; male subjects and female subjects.
The total sample size was 30; the participants were recruited in near shops and supermarkets. Each of them was informed about the purposes of this survey. The participants were not required to name themselves or identify their income level and age. This information could made the findings more accurate, in this case, the respondents would have been more reluctant to take part in this survey. In total, this survey lasted for three days.
Analysis of findings
The responses of the participants indicate that customer perceptions and interpretations of quality are not universal. The most important quality dimensions of a product are performance and reliability, 17 respondents out of 30 identified make their purchasing decisions on the basis of these characteristics. Such attributes as serviceable life and design were of lesser priority to the priority. Yet, it should be mentioned that for female respondents design was of higher priority than for male subjects.
Seven out 15 female subjects judged a product by its design. The second issue to be discussed is the quality dimensions of service companies. Judging from the responses of the participants, a large number of customers pay attention to reliability (10 respondents) and time-efficacy (12 respondents). However, one should not assume that politeness and responsiveness do not affect the clients decisions.
Approximately 27 percent of customers (8 respondents) evaluate a service company according to the politeness of its workers. Additionally, the results of this survey suggest the manufacturing as well as service companies should involve customers into product development or assessment of performance. 83 percent of respondents (25 participants) agreed with this statement. It has to be admitted that this study has several important limitations.
Perceptions of quality can be dependent on the income level of a respondent. For instance, customers, who are very sensitive about the price, may pay more attention to serviceable life of product. In contrast, customers, who are not price-sensitive, can attach more value to performance and design. During the survey, we could not ask the subjects about their income level since many of them might have refused to participate in the study. Hence, we do not know to what extent this variable affect peoples expectations and perceptions of quality.
Those customers, whom we interviewed, attached more value to the quality of a product rather than its price (20 respondents out of thirty). The second limitation of the research is that the questions of this survey are not applicable to all kinds of products; they are more suitable for manufactured items. They may not be suitable for grocery goods or clothing. Thus, the researchers would have to ask different questions, if they want to focus on these particular goods.
Implications and conclusions
This survey can have several implications for business administrators and practitioners of total quality management. First of all, it shows that customers wish to be more involved in the development of products and services. By acting in such a way, they will be able to strengthen their position in competitive environments.
Most importantly, they will manage to enhance customer loyalty. This argument is quite consistent wit the core principles of TQM, since this approach focuses on customer satisfaction as the major objective of any company. Secondly, this research has shown which quality dimensions of products and services are of the highest priority for modern customers. By using customer surveys, the management can understand the expectations of their target audience and their needs.
Principles of TQM
A principle can be defined as the main belief of the founding concept that makes an action or reasoning valid. Like any other management strategy, Maguad reiterates that the most integral components of TQM are leadership and commitment (185). Leadership in this context refers to a process through which one person uses the help and support of others towards achieving a particular goal or task.
As Maguad suggests, leaders are the people who are taxed with the role of marshalling the human resource in the organization for its growth and expansion (193). They do this by planning, organizing, leading and controlling the organizations activities and resources. Commitment is the level of loyalty, determination and motivation exhibited by members of an organization as they carryout their tasks.
As mentioned earlier, various interfaces often work together to ensure that an organization produces quality products and services. Leadership is very important because a leaders ability to delegate, make decisions, resolve conflicts and motivate employees determines whether an organization will be successful in its endeavors. On the other hand, commitment affects the performance and motivation levels exhibited by employees.
If employees are committed, an organization is more likely to experience growth and increased profits because at the end of the day, an organization cannot function without the people factor. Considering these two core elements, it would be a worthwhile endeavor to shed some light on the basic principles of TQM. As may have been deduced throughout this research, TQM aims at promoting three main objectives: customer satisfaction, supplier satisfaction and continuous improvement of an organizations processes.
Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction often refers to the ability of a product or service to fully satisfy the needs of the intended consumer. This should be the primary concern of any organization willing to survive the aggressive nature of todays business environment. This is mainly because satisfied clients mean more sales, increased market share and unwavering consumer loyalty.
These elements ensure that an organization makes profits which can be used to research for cheaper and better ways of production, expanding an organizations market base and expand the business. With these undertones, the question that is left wanting is; how does TQM ensure consumer satisfaction?
Gilmore addresses this question by reiterating that TQM is an effective strategy that can be used to minimize variations in the production process thereby increasing the organizations chance of producing quality products and services that meet (if not exceed) the needs and expectations of the consumers (207).
The author further states that, in every organization there are various departments and offices that cater for different needs of the consumers. These factions make up quality chains which depend on each other to produce the final product or service.
These quality chains stand at a risk of being broken due to human or technical errors. Such failures often sip through and multiply down the production process and may lead to failure of the organization to meet the requirements of the clients.
As such, Kanji et al state that, TQM presents organizations with an opportunity to train their employees on different factors they should consider when handling tasks in the consumer-supplier interface (52). This in turn ensures that each employee has the necessary skills needed to achieve quality.
Similarly, Gilmore argues that TQM focuses on identifying the potential areas that may cause problems and solve them before a product or service is made available to the market (208). Considering the definition of quality provided herein, we could argue that quality is consumer driven.
This means that an organization must identify the needs of the clients and formulate the best means of meeting them satisfactorily. Gilmore states that a perfectly produced product or service is of no benefit to the organization if it fails to meet the needs of the client (207). As such, the author contends that TQM tools enable organizations to identify such needs by outlining market research methodologies and production processes that enhance accuracy and efficiency in various consumer-supplier interfaces.
In addition, Gilmore asserts that consumer preference and needs vary from one consumer to the other and from season to another (209). As such, the author contends that it is often difficult to determine what consumers need and expect from a product or service.
However, the author states that TQM presents organizations with various tools and strategies which can be implemented to ensure that the products or services produced are always tuned to the needs and expectations of the target market.
Some of the measures of TQM that can be used to address these changes include but are not limited to focus groups that concentrate on the needs of specified consumers, market surveys which gather information on current trends, competition and prices, and customer interviews which provide firsthand information on what consumers need and expect from a product or service.
Such information enables organizations to implement processes that address these needs and expectations thereby guaranteeing consumer satisfaction (Gilmore 209).
Supplier satisfaction
A supplier is the person or organization that has consented to sell you various resources needed to produce your product. This principle of TQM requires organizations to form good relationships with their suppliers. Yong and Wilkinson states that TQM places great emphasis on an organizations ability to satisfy its suppliers (250).
The authors further contend that it is imperative that organizations provide their suppliers with clear and concise details on what they are supposed to supply and when they are supposed to supply. In addition, the authors suggest that the organization should make an effort to pay the suppliers in a fair and timely manner. In so doing, the supplier delivers quality goods and services which are then used by the organization to produce quality goods or services to its external consumers (Yong and Wilkinson 256).
Failure to do so invariably leads to delays in supply delivery, delivery of poor quality resources or even inconsistencies in deliveries. Such issues affect the quality of the products produced in terms of performance, availability, durability and reliability. These factors may cause consumers great dissatisfaction (Yong and Wilkinson 257).
In addition, Maguad states that TQM also encourages organizational leaders and managers to motivate and boost the performance of their employees (internal suppliers) if quality is to be maintained (184).
The author recommends that this can only be achieved if the people in charge provide the workers with clear and concise instructions, adequate working tools and equipments and favorable working conditions (Maguad 187). According to the TQM principle on supplier satisfaction, these factors combined with a fair reward and remuneration packages promotes commitment and motivation among the workforce, which leads to the efficient and timely execution of tasks within the organization (179).
Additionally, such measures increase the productivity levels exhibited by employees, all the while enabling management to identify good employees as well as the issues that affect the performance of various employees. In summary, this principle of TQM indicates that, when an organization satisfies its suppliers (internal and external), the quality of the end product is more likely to satisfy the needs of the consumers as well as those of the organization.
Continuous Improvement of the Organizations Processes
This is the third and equally important principle of TQM. According to Rahman, this principle is founded on the assumption that organizations must always improve their processes, strategies and methodologies if they are to keep up with the dynamic nature of the business environment (203).
Rahman supports this assertion by contending that competition, technology and consumer preferences are improving and growing faster each day (201). As such, it is always wise for an organization to improve its methods if it aims at staying ahead of the game. Similarly, this principle encourages managers and employees to work smart rather than doing hard work.
According to Rahman some organizational leaders are under constant pressure to increase the organizations productivity (206). As a result, such leaders try to improve the organizations performance levels by coercing and forcing employees to work harder.
According to the author, this only results to mishaps and poor performance because the workers are in most cases de-motivated and stressed (Rahman 208). These factors may cause them to loose focus and do shoddy jobs so as to finish the tasks on time. This in turn lowers the overall quality of the goods or services produced.
Kanji et al state that this principle of TQM enables leaders to effectively find the source of the problem and device viable means of solving or avoiding them without necessarily pressuring the employees (50). In addition, this principle also recommends leaders to encourage and allow constructive criticism and suggestions from employees. Considering that the employees are often at the forefront in production processes, they are best suited to provide information on how an organization can improve an organizational process.
For example, Barad and Dror state that employees can offer valuable suggestions on whether a process is efficient or not. In addition, workers can suggest on whether a process should be improved or eliminated, and how such changes can best be implemented to avoid further complications (6630).
Some of the process improvement strategies proposed by this principle include but are not limited to just-in time-production which reduces overproduction and production costs and variable reduction tools. These are examples of TQM strategies and tools that can be implemented to improve processes all the while reducing the amount of resources that is wasted.
Similarly, Lynch and Keating II assert that the continuous improvement principle requires organizations to always find improve their productivity and growth by finding better means of carrying out business activities through learning, effective decision making processes and problem solving (353). TQM recommends the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle (PDSA) as being among the most effective models to implement if continuous improvement of organizational processes is to be achieved. Below is a diagram elaborating the cycle.
A diagram illustrating the PDSA cycle
This cycle promotes quality in the sense that the management plans for what needs to be improved and makes decisions on how best such improvements can be implemented. The second step requires the implementation of the improvements that have been recommended. This simply means that the organization does what it has planed to do. Thirdly, after implementing/doing what was planned, the management and other concerned parties monitor how the improvements impact business processes.
In this stage, information can be collected regarding the problems, effectiveness and further improvements (recommendations and suggestions) that need to be addressed. The information collected from the third stage is used to improve the strategy or process such that it remains without any flaws. Jjjhjhjh states that this model has proven to be of great importance in effective decision-making processes, problem solving and risk management in many organizations.
TQM as a Strategy for Human Resource management
Human resource management refers to the strategies and policies that an organization implements so as to plan, control, organize and lead its workforce towards attaining the set organizational goals and objectives (Lammermeyr 175). In most cases, organizational failure is attributed to poor human resource management.
As such, having efficient HRM strategies is not only logical, but a prerequisite for successful and efficient execution of tasks by employees. TQM consists of a range of tools that can be implemented by an organizations human resource department to ensure that it plays a greater strategic role in an organization. Some of the tools include but are not limited to the following.
Cause-and-effect diagrams
According to Wallace and Stahl, if management is to effectively identify and rectify various problems that affect the quality of the products or services produced, all employees must have the necessary skills needed to handle such problems (37). The authors acknowledge that production of quality goods or services is an organizational concept.
This means that each individual within the organization has a role to play in enhancing quality productions. As such, the authors state that the cause-and-effect diagram enables human resource managers to identify the problem, its causes and effects (Wallace and Stahl 37).
After collecting this information, the managers can develop training programs which equip employees with the skills needed to tackle or avoid these potential problems in a timely and efficient manner. As such, these charts enable the human resource department to design policies that ensures that the workforce performs as expected and meets the clients needs effectively.
Flowcharts
Flowcharts are schematic diagrams which indicate all the steps that should be followed in order to execute a process or operation efficiently (Wallace and Stahl 37). Wallace and Stahl state that flowcharts are a form of a visual tool that can be easily used and understood (38).
By making these charts available at all operation sites, the human resource ensures that workers know what to do and how to address a problem if it arises. This is mainly due to the fact that flowcharts enable workers to develop clear mental images of how various tasks are supposed to be carried out. The provision of these charts enables human resource managers to promote quality productions because the flowcharts act as a point of reference to employees who do not know what to do in various situations.
Checklists
Checklists are documents which contain a list of all known issues and the frequency of their occurrence. Wallace and Stahl state that these lists look simple at first glance but are quite effective when it comes to gathering information about the quality or defect of certain processes (38).
Checklists may be used by human resource managers to identify and prioritize various potential issues that may affect the quality levels exhibited by an organization. Through this list, the human resource manager can make necessary changes, and decisions relating to which issue is most threatening and delegate qualified people to find a solution before things get out of hand.
Customer Satisfaction Aspect of TQM
As has been revealed within this research, TQM focuses on the strategies that can be implemented by organizations to ensure that they meet or exceed the consumers expectations and needs. TQM equips organizations with various tools and strategies that can be implemented to ensure that it meets the needs of its clients. To begin with, Kanji and Wallace reiterate that TQM requires organizations to do extensive research on its clients needs and expectations.
This can be done by establishing focus groups that gather information about the needs and expectations of a specific group of consumers (Kanji and Wallace 980). In addition, Kanji and Wallace assert that, TQM also enables organizations to collect more relevant information through consumer interviews, research on market trends and behaviors; and acts as a guide to which products or services an organization should produce (983).
Similarly, TQM principles provide organizational employees with guidelines on the questions they should ask themselves and the clients in regards to the quality level they expect from a given product. Some of the questions incorporated within the TQM philosophy as regarding to customer satisfaction aim at finding out: who the customers are, their specific needs and specifications and methods of collecting this data (Lammermeyr 177).
In addition, employees are able to evaluate whether they can meet such requirements and how they can measure their ability to satisfy those needs. On the same note, organizations are able to figure out whether or not, as well as their ability to monitor and continually meet the changing needs of their clients. In summary, TQM enables organizations to research, plan, implement, monitor and improve their processes such that they constantly and continually guarantee consumer satisfaction.
TQM and sustained Organizational Growth
Notably, TQM does not only focus on the quality of the products or services produced by an organization, but also, on the factors that affect the processes and people factor that work in a given organization.
By using TQM tools and strategies such as the PDSA cycle, research methodologies, checklists and flowcharts among others, organizations are able to identify and meet the needs of their clients, pinpoint potential operational problems and defects that may affect the quality of the products or services produced and develop strategies to counter, mitigate or avoid them.
In so doing, organizations implementing such strategies and tools enjoy a large market share, reduced cost of production, increased profits and a reliable consumer base. These are some of the core factors that ensure that an organization enjoys a sustainable growth regardless of the harsh situations presented by todays business environments.
In addition, TQM educates leaders and managers on the importance of various elements (consumers, suppliers, employee empowerment and organizational visions and cultures) that should be considered during the production of goods and services. By considering these elements, organizations are better placed to handle or avoid potential problems that may hinder the organizations from experiencing sustainable growth.
Similarly, TQM emphasizes on leadership, commitment, culture and communication as the key concepts that should be considered by organizations willing to succeed in their endeavors. If these concepts are efficiently implemented, they provide a recipe for organizational growth, competitive advantage, development and survival amidst changing business environment.
Conclusion
Managing the quality levels exhibited by an organization in terms of products, services and processes is seldom an easy undertaking and in many situations, businesses have failed in this regard due to lack of know-how by the business owners.
As such, it is always important to ensure that the philosophy of TQM is implemented before an organization initiates a project, process or operation before pouring all its investments into it. On this note, this study has provided a detailed and informative guideline as to how business entities can apply TQM concepts in all their activities.
Notably, most businesses aim at increasing their profitability by either sales or profit maximization. These strategies may be effective in the short run but may fail to guarantee the organization its survival in trivial times. However, focusing all efforts towards meeting or exceeding the needs and expectations of the consumers ensures that the organization is on the first row in terms of sustainable growth, marketing and management strategies and supply of quality products and services.
This research paper set out to explore the renowned philosophy of TQM. To this end, the evolutionary history and an overview of the same has been offered.
In addition, the basic principles of TQM have been highlighted and discussed. Similarly, ways in which TQM addresses customer satisfaction, sustainable organizational growth and enhances human resource management as a tool for strategic management have also been addressed.
As has been revealed herein, TQM has proven to be a cornerstone on which businesses can improve their performance and quality levels exhibited by their products and services. As such, business and organizational leaders should strive to ensure that their businesses utilize this viable concept.
Works Cited
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Public policy, when examined from a sociological perspective, leads to very intriguing and startling revelations. Public policy evolves over time out of experiences in the social arena, and the effectiveness or otherwise of the public policy depends, in a major fashion, on the level of assimilation and empathy of the policymaker with the affected population. The motivations of the policymaker may be varied most important among them being franchise collection. Most public services that are involved in the task of delivering public policy depend to a large extent on the efficiency and sincerity of the public servants involved in delivering public good and services of varying hues. It has been variously argued that public services and the public sector suffers maximum neglect and is characterized by a bureaucratic set-up that demonstrates typical characteristics of rule-based slow and tardy delivery of its purpose. This paper examines the application of the management concepts such as Total Quality Management(TQM) to public service and the public sector so as to bring about a change in the manner such sectors deliver the objects for which they have been set up. The common themes that run across few chosen papers from literature are identified, and arguments build upon therefrom to examine the feasibility and extent of the application of the concept of TQM to such government-owned and controlled services and organizations.
Discussion
The following arguments contained in the discussion are identified as common themes in select literature on TQM in government. One common refrain has been some kind of Business Process re-engineering (BPR). It was in the early 1990s that many US corporations, and subsequently companies all over the world, began to adopt the concept of business process reengineering (BPR) to obtain long-lost competitiveness that they had lost during the previous decade. The primary feature of BPR is the sole focus on business processes rather than functional organizational structures. Davenport (1993) defines a (business) process as
a structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specific output for a particular customer or market. It implies a strong emphasis on how work is done within an organization, in contrast to a product focuss emphasis on what. A process is thus a specific ordering of work activities across time and space, with a beginning and an end, and clearly defined inputs and outputs: a structure for action&. Taking a process approach implies adopting the customers point of view. Processes are the structure by which an organization does what is necessary to produce value for its customers.
Hammer & Champys (1993) definition can be considered as a subset of Davenports. They define a process as a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer. At the same time, Johansson et al. (1993) define a process as a set of linked activities that take an input and transform it to create an output. Ideally, the transformation that occurs in the process should add value to the input and create an output that is more useful and effective to the recipient either upstream or downstream. These definitions lead us to the chief feature of a business process viz. Definability, Order, Customer, Value-adding, Embeddedness, and Cross functionality. In order to gain an understanding of the various processes involved in the organization which completes its business system, information pertaining to the above features of the business processes needs to be collected. There can be essentially two approaches to the collection of such data-one, the primary data collection and, two, the secondary data collection. Within these approaches, primary data could be collected through face-to-face interviews with key personnel responsible for such processes, and a broader-based questionnaire approach can be used for the operative employees. Secondary data sources can be rich and can range from industry publications to in-house examination of manuals, sales and marketing registers, financial accounts, accounting vouchers, to Board minutes to minutes of the various committees of the Board and other executive committees.
The process of business process mapping can follow two approaches. Davenport and Short (1990) have identified two basic methods for process identification, which they termed targeted and comprehensive methods. Targeted methods take their starting point in the identification of a relatively small number of processes being critical to the business, which is determined by interviews or discussions with managers of the organization. This approach can provide a fast pay-off, and results often occur relatively fast. This essentially means that the processes of a business are divided into two parts viz critical and noncritical based on initial data collected about them. Like pulling out the innermost string, it is the critical process around which the restructuring begins.
As against this, the comprehensive method aims for first identifying all business processes and then prioritizing them according to their reengineering-need and potential. This method is more time and effort-consuming but allows a more well-thought-out rationale for BPR in terms of project prioritization that fits into the overall strategic goals of the organization. (Grover & Kettinger, 1995)
This process leads to a mapping process such as the one described below:
Define core competencies. The identification of core competencies is a most vital measure to envision the current and possible future positioning of the company.
Develop a shared vision. The future vision must be shared broadly among the companys stakeholders in order to create initial impetus and prepare for the necessary ongoing commitment in the organization.
Determine strategies and priorities. Based on the future vision, strategies are developed in the areas of business, organization/processes, technology, and people. Within the areas, the most important improvement areas are targeted.
Develop an operational vision. Based on the overall vision and strategic priorities, and operational vision is developed, describing how the new organization is supposed to work.
Create next-level process models. The results of the initial phase are used as input for developing new process models, supporting organizational structures, and sketches for IT solutions.
Benchmark current operations against the vision. The new process models need to be now benchmarked against current operations with regard to performance in terms of time, cost, quality, and service level.
Analyze gaps. Gaps are defined in terms of performance differences between current and future operations, as identified in the previous benchmarking process.
Assess barriers to change. Factors that can hamper organizational and technical change and development can be found in multiple areas.
Identify quick hit initiatives. In order to show results fast, a number of limited and targeted initiatives are defined that can be executed in a short-term perspective and with limited resources but still can provide significant improvements within their scope.
Burchill(1996) explains the TQM application to an inventory control system in the Navy. The above process has been broken into two processes of Structural Mapping and Environmental Assessment. Burchill explains, The two primary approaches used in structural mapping are Language Processing (LP) and system diagramming. While the structural mapping process in this TQM-based system was entirely unique to the logistic realities of the navy, the environmental assessment could be fruitfully applied o other governmental scenarios for targeting TQM. In this respect, Burchill states, The second phase of structural process improvement focuses on three related lines of inquiry into stakeholders, market trends and business opportunities. This assessment is conducted in an iterative fashion and usually requires three or more cycles through all three areas before coherence is achieved. The environmental assessment begins with the identification of the organizations internal and external stakeholders. Each stakeholder is evaluated to determine the amount of influence they can exert on the organizations policies and practices. Additionally, an evaluation is made to determine the amount of leverage the organization has on the policies and practices of each stakeholder .
The tools to ascertain the effectiveness of mapping can be several. However, two of the most important tools are :
Balance sheet. An opening balance sheet is set up for the new operational processes as a starting point for ongoing evaluation. At this stage, the new processes are brought into the continuous improvement phase.
Scorecard. Scorecard-based models for measuring internal and external performance have proven to be powerful instruments for operating and improving processes. Scorecards are utilized at different levels within the organization, for individual processes and activities for managing individual processes, and aggregated in order to provide an overall assessment.
Any improvement felt necessary, as above, essentially implied working back to improve the mapping, and in some cases, it can even imply moving over from one mapping method to another. The entire tool-set would comprise of time-oriented analysis tools and modeling approaches, including some experimentation to test new situations. In general, the strategy adopted for the use of tools or methods for data collection, analysis, and documentation is entirely dependent on the type of business and its processes facing the analyst. Sometimes the toolset being practically used maybe a hybrid mix of different approaches, and at others, it may be based on recommendations of consultants based on the initial process studies. Clear and comprehensive categorization of these tools in accordance with the forecast/crisis criteria is not possible. However, it can be safely concluded that the three criteria that can be used to evaluate these tools would comprise robustness, ability to explain causality, and comprehensiveness to the extent feasible. Thus forecasting accuracy and the ability to provide decision variables readily in crisis situations can be the two criteria for judging various tools and methods involved in business process analysis. Methods are normally considered as explicit mechanisms for problem-solving (Jayaratna, 1994).
In the entire BPR process, the role of Information Technology is paramount. The most frequently used application areas of IT alongside BPR efforts are:
Shared databases. The concept of database sharing, which allows a wide distribution of critical business information, is one of the most important areas where IT can contribute to a more effective and efficient performance of business processes and has gained considerable attention since client/server technology has become a widely used solution. Shared databases allow companies to move from a sequential to a parallel performance of activities in a process.
Expert systems. This type of technology, based on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) field, can enable non-experts to perform expert work by capturing and widely distributing knowledge. As Hammer (1990) points out, however, the concept of expert systems in BPR does not refer to the earlier attempts of replacing experts with computer systems but means to provide specialized knowledge to individuals in order to elevate their skills. Laubsch & Blake(2003) state in connection with obtaining a system leading to ISO certification, Experts in quality are crucial to ISO 9000 efforts. They help provide and assure the know-how of managing for quality. They often serve as consultants to organizations seeking this important certification, and, in this role, they can recommend, through the ISO 9000 hierarchy, that an organization be certified as operating under the tenets of total quality. The organizations that are seeking certification place their goal (ISO certification) in the hands of these experts. Thus conceived, the know-how the consultants provide, as signified through training, monitoring, and certification, is a public, global indicator of trust .
Kent(2003) gives the requisite emphasis to setting quality standards in the following words, Set quality standards at the level you really want for all jobs in the organization. Dont settle for second best quality anywhere, just because a few people object to doing their jobs the correct way or to being held accountable for their performance. Everyone can do his or her job the right way if you make it clear thats how the job has to be done! Extensive research has shown that employees in all industries perform much better when they know whats really expected of them. So dont be afraid of being precise and demanding .
Laubsch & Blake(2003) narrate a laudable effort of the Us state aggressively pursuing ISO and quality standards in its dealings in the following words, In the United States, New Jersey is one of several governmental entities that have aggressively participated in ISO 9000 certification efforts.2 Using state revenues diverted from its unemployment insurance tax, the state has a grant program through which eligible companies can receive financial support to obtain training and subsequent certification. The intent is to protect and grow businesses and jobs within the state. By allowing funds to be used for ISO training purposes, the state recognizes the value of such certification to companies, regardless of size, operating in New Jersey and the potential benefit to those companies and, therefore, the state. For small and medium-sized companies, this support is essential since they lack personnel with the knowledge of the training and process, time and resources to explore such programs, and funds to provide the necessary training. Thus, the state recognizes the need for an opportunity structure to enable motivations for know-how, certification, and trust .
The forecast accuracy and crisis resolution criteria suggest that forecast initiatives should have a strategic focus on the role of IT, whereas crisis projects would focus on cost and time efficiency. For instance, the focus of the application leading to Remote Data Capture would be to cut time in transactional decision making, thus having the strategic impact of significantly reducing time-to-market. Recently IT has been combined with communication technology to capture both internal and external data on a real-time basis. These are called ICT systems integrated with BPR. These IT-enabled systems can allow the use of prototypes alternatives instead of the stand-alone process-wise analysis done through various forecasting and crisis resolving methods. This would allow scenario analysis and lead to the selection of the best methods.
Conclusion
In conclusion, one can confidently decipher that literature has ample support for the applicability of the TQM model for the government. The two main factors that seem to be lacking are the will of the government and the motivation and will of the government staff to successfully initiate and participate, respectively, in the application of such models to government organizations. TQM involves a change from current practices. Thus, an appropriate change management strategy has to be in place in such organizations as Waldersee & Griffiths(2003) explain using support from the literature, Unilateral methods are prescriptive, control and authority based techniques, which modify objective or formal aspects of the workplace. They tend to be top-down, procedural, focusing on resource allocation, and follow formal authority lines. Because objective and formal aspects of the organization can be modified with these methods, the prior support of the workforce is not necessary. Advocates of the unilateral approach argue, Successful change efforts focus on the work itself, not on abstractions like participation or culture (Beer et al., 1990, p. 159). Social, relationship, attitude, and behavioral changes will be pulled along, over time, by the irreversible structural-technical changes. Beer et al. (1990) argue that attitudes and behavior are primarily a function of job roles and demands. By unilaterally changing the workplace, attitudes and behavior will adjust accordingly. In contrast, shared methods are participative, consultative techniques that directly target the values, attitudes, and skills of organizational members. These methods typically include participation, redesign teams, and consultation committees. The primary goal of these implementation methods is to build employee support for the change. Because employees are involved, they develop ownership for the change (Dunphy and Griffiths, 2002; Emery and Emery, 1993). This ownership ultimately translates into a commitment and motivation to make the change work. It has long been considered simplistic to attempt unilateral change without considering support of employees first (Coch and French, 1948) .
Kent(2003) seems to capture the crux theme presented in the literature on TQM in governments in the following words, The real issue is, how do you get control over your organization so that you can ensure top quality happens all the time? And for many, this issue is a Catch 22 because if you havent been able to control the quality of work in your business up to now, you cant expect things to suddenly be any different just because you launch a Total Quality Management campaign. Why should you suddenly be able to get everyone to do their jobs as you would like if you werent able to do that in the past?
Work Cited
Davenport, Thomas (1993), Process Innovation: Reengineering work through information technology, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
Hammer, Michael and Champy, James (1993), Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, Harper Business.
Johansson, Henry J. et.al. (1993), Business Process Reengineering: BreakPoint Strategies for Market Dominance, John Wiley & Sons.
Davenport, Thomas & Short, J. (1990), The New Industrial Engineering: Information Technology and Business Process Redesign, in: Sloan Management Review, Summer 1990, pp 11-27.
Grover, V. & Kettinger, W. (1995), The Process Reengineering Life Cycle Methodology: A Case Study, in: Business Process Change: Concepts, Methods and Technologies, Idea Group Publishing.
Burchill Gary.(1996). Structural Process Improvement at the Naval Inventory Control Point. Center for Quality of Management Journal. Volume 5, Number 1.Design and Planning in Organizations, , 1996.
Jayaratna, N. (1994), Understanding and Evaluating Methodologies: NIMSAD, a systemic framework, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead.
Hammer, Michael (1990), Reengineering Work: Dont automate, obliterate, Harvard Business Review, 1995, pp 104-112.
Kent Robert H.(2003). Total Quality Means Having Your Act Together. The Mansis Development Corporation
Laubsch Paulette & Blake Richard (2003). Globality, Quality, and Trust A Government-Private Enterprise Partnership Model. Center for Quality of Management Journal. Volume 11, Number 2. 2003.Page Number(s) 49-54.
Beer, M., Eisenstat, R. and Spector, B. (1990), Why change programs dont produce change ,Harvard Business Review, pp. 158-66.
Dunphy, D. and Griffiths, A. (2002), Corporate strategic change , in Warner, M. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Business and Management, 2nd ed., Thomson Learning,London.
Emery, F. and Emery, M. (1993), Participative design at the organizational level , in Emery, M. (Ed.), Participative Design for Participative Democracy, 2nd ed., Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University.
Coch, L. and French, J. (1948), Overcoming resistance to change , Human Relations, Vol. 1 No. 4, pp. 512-33.
Total quality management is a variation of lean manufacturing principles that originated in Japan. Toyota Production System first developed them. Over the years, the concepts have morphed into various business tools, including the TQM that is now a comprehensive tool used by almost all major firms in the Western world.
TQM incorporates customer satisfaction, continuous improvement, and workforce commitment (Lai, Lui & Hon 2014). The following are achievable with adequate total quality management implementation in a firm.
First, the firm will strengthen its competitive position, have high productivity, enhance its market image, increase its profitability, and ensure that employees have job security. These and other results depend on the nature of TQM implementation and the business sector.
A question concerning implementation is whether it contributes to better functioning of other tools and whether TQM leads to the desired results. Additional queries may relate to whether the business in question is also reaping sustainable benefits.
Xerox case
This section now examines the application of TQM in Xerox Corporation. Familiarity with Xerox and research on the company through secondary literature sources informs the analysis. Among multinational Western firms, Xerox is one of the most quality conscious one.
It began implementing TQM in 1980. The company develops its TQM practices to respond to changes in its business environment and to shape its operations to enjoy a competitive advantage.
Company background
The firm started operations in 1906 in the USA. Five decades later, it had made its first plain paper copier. Its profit growth was 20 per cent annually by the start of the 21st century (Xerox 2004). Stock prices for the public company soared.
However, its companys growth nosedived soon afterwards. Its stock price fell from a high of USD 70 in 1999 to less than USD 5 in 2001. During the period, the company lost USD 30 billion as market value (Xerox 2004).
Worldwide, Xerox has a reputation to uphold, as the worlds best photocopier manufacturer. Its success is a demonstration of right management principles, tool usage, and positive sustainable outcomes.
Implementation of TQM at Xerox began as a reaction to the negative market performance. The company lost about 65 percent of market share in the 1980s and was moving towards obsolescence. It needed to change its strategies and once again become dominant in the market.
At the time, key sources of competition were Japanese manufacturers that were embracing a low cost market strategy to upset incumbent rivals like Xerox in the general electronics and office equipment markets. Although Japanese copiers were very affordable for most businesses, they did not compromise on quality, which made them irresistible to customers.
Xerox copiers at the time were of high quality, but costs of production were very high, such that cutting prices would translate to company losses.
Main findings
The introduction of TQM was a change of tactic that would seek to ensure that Xerox copiers curve out a new niche market segment and fulfil consumer preferences. Xerox opted to go for a quality edge, instead of being fixated on prices and finding ways to produce cheaper products than competitors do.
Its new value proposition would be to attain leadership through quality. Xerox would leap ahead of the innovation curve and defend its brand image. It would grow its reputation by designing well-functioning and long lasting products.
Additionally, the company was also looking at maintaining long-term relationships with customers. It would only achieve this feat through adequate quality management. Research on TQM benefits in company shows that having TQM is not an end in itself. Firms also have to embrace the critical features and principles that promote TQM implementation for them to maximise its benefits (Fawcett et al. 2014).
Employee commitment
The goal of TQM at Xerox is to manage for results. This applies to all operations of the firm. The company wants to have production improvements and revenue increases consistently. It relies on the management of quality as its main strategy.
To achieve its success, the company used TQM principles to make changes in the way it does business and relates to customers, suppliers, and employees. Today, Xerox is back to its glorious past, where it commands a substantial market share in printing and document production business globally. It has the support of employees and customers and its revenue and returns on investment are high.
The company realized that suppliers, including employees as labour suppliers, were sources of quality compromises. It also noticed the spread of resources when dealing with many independent suppliers for specific production components became less efficient than collective dealings.
As a remedy, it consolidated manufacturing facilities so that it would only deal with groups of suppliers. It made economic sense, as group relations afforded Xerox economies of scale and gave it a bargaining power in negotiations, as it could easily take advantage of intra competition among suppliers.
Most importantly, groups of suppliers lowered the cost of quality implementation. With suppliers organized into a group, the company could organize supplier relationship systems to undertake quality inspections and lower its overhead costs by eliminating marginal costs in procurement, inspection, shipping, and supply management.
Moreover, consolidation meant that Xerox now had a manageable small supplier base. Its task of increasing employee empowerment also became achievable after the renewed focus. It was able to extend monitoring systems to the suppliers and assume a better position that allowed the firm know in advance when a problem arises.
With few overheads in supply and a low number of suppliers, employee requirement for Xerox in the manufacturing and supply management remains low.
Continuous improvement results
When Xerox was losing money in 2001, it was still implementing TQM; however, a change in the external environment meant that the companys production strategy was no longer viable. Photocopiers were turning digital and Xerox was still stuck in the analogue world.
After the decline, the company retaliated with its digital production press for the production market. It also enhanced its office product line to include digital copiers and printers. The company worked towards increasing its revenue and reducing costs so that it would offset the losses encountered prior to the year 2004.
Performance over the last decade has been promising, which shows that the tactics used by the firm paid off. Its financial performance for the last few years has been positive, with promises for future revenue growth (Xerox 2014).
Other than the shortcomings of failing to catch up with technological trends, Xerox has made considerable efforts to be at par with customer demands and environmental threshold capabilities. In addition to photocopiers, the company offers LCD monitors, printers, large volume digital printers, workflow software, and other office productivity software.
The company relies on benchmarking, as it works towards sustaining its competitive advantages. This is a process of improving towards, and considering best practices (Xerox 2014). Benchmarking can be of different types, such as strategic, process, functional, internal, external, and international.
Each type has a different aim and scope of comparison. Benchmarking is a multiple step process that begins with planning and the data collection, which precede analysis and reporting. After that, the firm makes changes based on the report (Rani, Duhan & Deshwal 2012).
After initial market troubles, Xerox benchmarked its operations against Japanese companies. Xerox realised that it takes twice as long to produce compared to Japanese competitors. At the same time, the number of technical staff needed by Xerox for the same production process was almost five times higher than the number used by Japanese firms.
For example, there would be five more engineers at Xerox than at its competitor, and they would all develop similar products. The company also experienced design changes that were four times higher than the competitors. Consequently, it spent more on design costs, with figures being three times more than the competitors.
As Xerox manufactured goods, Japanese firms had already sold them to the market. They were fast, low cost, and high quality at a retail price that was equal to the manufacturing cost at Xerox. Xerox had over 30,000 defective parts per million due to the inherent inefficiencies and the lack of quality management.
This was 30 times more than what competitors reported. After finding out its bad position against the competitors, the company opted to follow the benchmarking process to achieve similar results and surpass the competitors in some aspects of its operations.
In planning stages, it came up with the features for benchmarking. In addition, it had to come up with an appropriate data collection method to facilitate effective capturing of information for subsequent decision-making. Xerox evaluated the rivals strength against its strength as part of the analysis.
Once it made tangible analysis, it moved on to the step of integration. In this step, necessary goals were put into the overall company planning process. Action steps came later and they included the implementation of established plans. Moreover, the company checked whether the goals that were set were being realized. It also assessed its maturity to determine its position in the market.
The suppliers who served Xenon were about five thousand, while those of most Japanese firms were about one thousand. It reduced the number to 500. It was also realized that Xenons rivals offered the vendors skills in quality control, among other areas. To match up, Xerox opted to introduce a vendor certification process.
It consisted of training suppliers and then certifying them and establishing partnerships that would provide a means of telling them the areas for improvement. Xenon informed the vendors about the changes that were undertaken in the bid to enhance customer experience. This ensured that the firm became proficient in supplier management and was able to increase overall quality of the business unit consistently.
Xenon got rid of inventory bottlenecks caused by excess capacity, or non-matching customer orders and production stocking levels as part of inventory management. A key indicator of performance improvement was the capital cycle period. The company also minimized its inventory carrying cost.
With smart document management solutions, the firm allowed customers to shift to an on-demand model for producing documents. The method retained quality and saved in inventory costs for customers and Xerox (Xerox 2004).
The manufacturing system recognizes internal customers like assembly line workers and external customers like the end users. The people at Xerox connect to customers and their businesses. Relationships between employees and customers or the firm are personalised (Xerox 2004).
With product innovation, the company has come up with new ways of enhancing the functionality of its main products to reduce damage and waste so that they are more beneficial to client businesses. For example, the firm develops smart packaging products that can track temperature and relay consumption information with every opening.
They act as additional information collection centres for the company and fulfil customer needs for better functional designs (Xerox 2014).
Customer satisfaction
On customers, a philosophy of being oriented to customer demands drives Xeroxs strategy. Here, manufacturing goals have a quality aspect, in addition to being quantity based, because of firm performance targets. The current goal is to ensure that customer interaction with Xerox at any point is rewarding to both parties.
Points of interaction include Xerox copiers, employees, and marketing campaigns. The company seeks to have all activities meet high quality standards, such that it does not have to worry about customers interacting with any of the company aspects and finding out there are poor quality elements. Thus, customer satisfaction encompasses everything that the company does internally and externally.
The realization of customer satisfaction goals is a management task. In addition, the company continues to move elements of its production-based strategies to customer based ones (Xerox 2014).
Achieving the customer satisfaction feat comes with a full dedication of all members of the organization to be considerate of the market and be alert about opportunities for improvement. Entrepreneurship shows in the spirit of employees, while personal initiative ensures that there are incremental changes that enhance the overall quality of the company tradition, customer relationship, and product features at all levels of the organization (Sikdar & Payyazhi, 2014).
Customer satisfaction goals continue to be key pillars of quality of the company. The firm continues to invest in other businesses that are likely to increase its value creation for customers. Rather than offer standalone products, Xerox now takes part in integrating its office and production systems, together with clients and their end users for both public and private customers.
The company is now moving towards being a service-led company. It provides products, but it also enhances their utility and fulfils customer needs by making the customer part of an overall process of designing and solving needs. Thus, the company has to constantly add new features and eliminate the challenges that relate to service delivery.
A key indicator for its success is the rate of contract renewals for managing services that it provides. The year 2013 saw a 92 per cent increase in business processes and IT outsourcing business (Xerox 2014). The company also retained its global leadership in digital technology products. Service revenues for the firm were only 24 per cent of its total revenue in 2009. In 2013, they made up 55 per cent of total revenue (Rani, Duhan & Deshwal 2012).
Discussion
According to Rani, Duhan and Deshwal (2012), the gains made by Xerox, such as the reported reduction in supplied parts defects by the early 1990s, are attributable to the robustness of TQM applications. Today, TQM can serve both private and public organizations, with equal gains expected.
The focus of quality refers to meeting the expectations of customers and financial stakeholders. It can extend to meet societal needs and personnel needs. As much as the basic definition of quality has remained the same over the last few decades, understanding has undergone an evolution. In its original foundation, TQM aims to discourage reactions and promotes planning and production.
It favours first-time prevention, instead of inspection and conformance to requirements. Looking at Xerox, success came because management was committed and offered a storing top-to-bottom support. The company held a strong customer focus in its internal and external processes.
The entire Xerox workforce was, and continues to be part of TQM implementation. Business improvement is happening in a continuous manner, while the firm is becoming more innovative in its production. Lastly, the company opted to treat its suppliers as partners.
It involves them in its long-term plans and accommodates their needs in its strategic plans to ensure that high quality production remains sustainable. Success at Xerox was achieved by focusing on information. The question was about what the firm could do with knowledge of its internal processes and the competition.
Although the company embraces technology, it only does so when the underlying information makes economic sense. Continuous improvement and employee empowerment are features of TQM. Achieving perfection may not be possible in a dynamic business setting.
Nevertheless, organizations need to improve their performance recurrently to enjoy compounded effects of growth, development, and efficiency. On the other hand, employee empowerment is recognition of the internal customer of the organization and the first public relations officer.
Under this feature, a firm lets employees suggest changes and spot problems in production. Forthcoming employees receive rewards, instead of punishment. Process management and product design are also features of TQM.
They relate to the quality of source materials being determined before processing or production commences and the ability of a product to meet customer needs based on its functions, usage, and practicality respectively. A firm has to make sure that suppliers offer same quality practices to it so that time for inspection and resources used for verification of quality standards remain minimal.
With product design, a firm seeks to put customer preferences into technical requirements of products, such that product performance in the market experiences grows.
Issues of TQM
Coming up with a comprehensive implementation of total quality management in a firm needs total commitment from the staff. With participation of every member of the firm and their commitment, some TQM features may remain unachievable. In addition, the level of commitment and participation differs among the hierarchical levels of the organization.
An important thing is to have the management staff doing more as both workers and mentors to influence expected behaviour and the attitude of the junior staff (Sikdar & Payyazhi, 2014). Once the staff exhibit commitment, an additional step is to have a company-wide improvement process.
Here, the basic feature is measurement of performance, and then implementing new or existing strategies to increase the performance and achieve new benchmarks. Monitoring ensures that a firm is in touch with its features of TQM, such that improvements and corrections to problems happen immediately upon the identification of a need.
The determination to push forward with the changes brought by TQM is important. Demanding continuous improvement may not be straightforward and comfortable, but this is what overall success requires. Consequently, a firms leadership may have to look into attaining high satisfaction levels for all the organizational members as part of the collective strive to gain firm-level triumph.
While implementing and fostering commitment is critical, there is also a heightened need for quality, which is the principle factor within TQM. Quality is a measure of excellence in processes, products, interactions, relationships, and strategies of a firm (Cronholm & Salomonson 2014).
Any features of poor quality undermine overall gains that a firm makes towards being a preferred organization to work in and a fierce competitor. Quality achievement comes at a cost. To gain good quality, a firm has to use resources and adopt a specific tactic to avoid consequences of poor quality.
At the same time, if a firm has poor quality, then the cost suffered in terms of missed opportunities and declining business prospects is the problem that it will have to deal with. Thus, a firm must evaluate whether prevention, appraisal, and implementation costs of TQM are appropriate investments and whether their returns is higher than the lack of initiative, which reverts a firm back to its initial losing position.
Among prevention costs incurred by most firms are procurement inspection, quality training, design, machine inspection, field testing, sampling, and monitoring along the supply chain (Azadi, Farzipoor & Hosseinzadeh 2014).
TQM is applicable to all activities undertaken by an organization. The improvements achieved help to increase opportunities and efficiencies of other non-related sections of the organization. For example, improvement in procurement inspection lessens the demand for process inspection and allows an organization to reallocate resources and maintain agility towards changing business environments.
On the customer side, satisfaction is the product of quality management. The same achievements are possible for suppliers. The essential thing is that performance enhances across the organization, affecting all its business processes and stakeholders (Eltantawy, Giunipero & Handfield 2014).
Quality costs narrow down to prevention, appraisal, and avoidance of failure. Taking precaution is expensive, but not taking it can be more expensive for a firm; therefore, it is a necessary cost. The same is true for appraisal costs, which relate to the expense paid to detect flaws in quality across the entire firms spectrum.
Appraisal costs will include the funds used to perform in-house checks, together with those paid to third-party inspectors. It will also include the time and other non-monetary resources used by the firm to achieve its total quality management.
Future of workforce commitment and continuous improvement at Xerox
As Xerox focuses on service delivery as its next area of growth, it increases demand for expertise, employee citizenship behaviour, and quality control of its employees and business partners staff. Determination of quality at a service level is the same as that of a physical product.
For example, the number of defects is not as countable in a service, as they are in a physical product. Sometimes, errors in service delivery and customer relations compound and take time to reveal. Setting standards and conforming to them when the product is intangible is problematic.
Xerox meets the service delivery challenge by emphasizing on information gathering and knowledge sharing (Xerox 2014). Xerox can control the manner of delivering services to clients by integrating suppliers, employees, and customers in its plans and their execution, such as review of designs and inventory management.
With this approach, it is possible to learn about mistakes and eliminate them in collaboration with clients to prevent the loss of business (Mosadeghrad, 2014). Some aspects of TQM at Xerox are not as visible as they were two decades ago when the process was initiated at the firm.
Today, quality management has become part of an ongoing tradition. Benchmarking may not reflect the competition in isolation, but it integrates with customer and employee features. The blurring line of business partners and customers also makes information differentiation from competitors and customer preferences difficult and may pose a challenge for data analysis for the company (Moskovkin, Bocharova & Balashova 2014).
Conclusion
The implementation of TQM at Xerox has been one of the reasons for sustained success over the last few decades. At the same time, incidences of company poor performance at the end of the 20th century show that TQM is only advantageous when it also ensures that the firm remains agile to changing business environment conditions.
The findings from a review of Xerox show that the firm is moving towards being a service-oriented company. Many of its success strategies were based on manufacturing. As a global business, service delivery has a number of challenges. Nevertheless, the adoption of quality control benchmarks and insisting on employee empowerment ensure that the firms service oriented strategy is paying off.
Reference List
Azadi, M, Farzipoor, SR & Hosseinzadeh, ZK 2014, A new goal-directed benchmarking for supplier selection in the presence of undesirable outputs, Benchmarking, vol 21, no. 3, pp.314-328.
Cronholm, S & Salomonson, N 2014, Measures that matters: service quality in IT service management, International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, vol 6, no. 1, pp. 60-76.
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Total quality management (TQM) is a philosophical framework that involves constant control and improvement of the quality of products, services, and processes. Quality improvement concerns each person engaged into the development and consumption of products and services that a business firm offers.
TQM is premised on four major pillars management, suppliers, workforce, suppliers, and customers. All these premises take control of supply and demand level, as well as customer satisfaction with products and services. The main task of an organization is either to meet or exceed consumer expectations.
TQM involves nine major practices. These are cross-functional product design, information and feedback, process management, customer and employee involvement, supplier quality management, committed leadership, cross-functional planning, and strategic planning.
All these dimensions are confined to proper human resource management, organizational learning and development, and readiness to introduce constant innovation and technological advancement. In addition, TQM is also connected with Six Sigma, a new concept that also involves both quantitative and qualitative dimensions of carrying steps of quality management.
Thesis Statement
Total quality management is a complex notion covering human, product, and technological process as the basic dimensions leading to constant improvement of the quality of services and products.
Main discussion
Human Dimension of Total Quality Management
Quality management practices are applied in many business organizations because it contributes to the success and organizational performance. However, inappropriate implementation of strategies and resources can lead to failures in improving the quality of products and services because of a number of factors. The failures can be result of improper top management and leadership commitment, lack of employee involvement and underestimation of customer capacity in improving the quality.
Committed Leadership
Every top leadership and management will deal with implementing quality management strategies because it brings in greater benefits and profits. What is more important is that leaders of business organizations should express their full commitment and loyalty to each member of the employed environment.
The importance of leadership in an organization is especially emphasized because it influences the actual process of constant improvement and development. Samuel (2004) writes, leadership is influencing the people so that all of them do the right things, the right way at the right time, willingly&so that the organization grows and the purpose is fulfilled (p. 220).
In contrast, the role of managers is to follow the procedures in a right way and adhere to the established standards. Their responsibilities do not go beyond the accepted norms. Hence, effective leadership should be influential for employees to adhere to behavioral patterns that leaders use. Leaders, therefore, should have specific moral values and extreme feeling of accountability, particularly during the time of changes and crises.
Leadership commitment of top managers is revealed through their highly responsible attitude to the welfare of their subordinates who also influence greatly the quality of delivered products and services. In addition, top management should also be responsible for defining the vision, mission and value system of a company, as well as for formulating the strategic plan. Operating resources and personnel effectively is also among the main goals that leaders should undertake.
Employee Involvement
Employee involvement is a part of a business organizations strategy of total involvement of all departments and spheres. Along with supplier management and customer engagement, employee involvement also contributes to the organizational growth, as well as to maintaining favorable relations among employees, customers, and suppliers.
Total employee involvement lies in both top management and the way managers copes with its employees. The main concept of total quality management should bind both top management and subordinates to a single objective in order to create a united force totally involved in achieving organizational goals and objectives (Mukherjee, 2006, p. 173). An advanced form of employee engagement is employees empowerment.
In this respect, employee engagement is possible in case of total employee empowerment that permits employees to take measures and react to customer needs and expectation. Quality of products and services is also the main concern of employees (Mukherjee, 2006). In this respect, employees should strive to align their objectives with higher organizational goals; they should also have an authority to increase their contribution by maximizing the available opportunities and taking proper measures to meet the organizational purpose.
Customer Involvement
A business organization having no objective and missions will not succeed in producing quality goods and achieving high rates of performance and profitability. In fact, organization should realize the importance of introducing customer focus. Exploring consumer needs and concerns is the first step toward the production optimization. In order to create customer orientation, it is, first of all, necessary to consider the organizational structure.
Absence of quality objective, the department goals will come to the forth and, as a result, the organization will not be able to follow common goals. Change to a vertical structure will blur the boundaries between the departments and unite them in their attempts to achieve common goals. Specific attention should be given to the link between the marketing department and the production department that should establish fruitful cooperation and interaction.
Customer focus creation should proceed with the introduction of the idea of internal customer (Mukherjee, 2006). The concept is confined to the idea of introducing process as relations between product and customer. For instance, marketing becomes internal customer for the production department, which in turn becomes the internal customer for the materials, human resources and maintenance department (Mukherjee, 2006, 2005).
Hence, the shift in evaluation the production process permits the managements to achieve customer satisfaction. In this respect, to meet customer needs, it is necessary to produce goods and services &that are of right quality, in right quantity and made available at the right time, right place, and at the right price (Mukherjee, 2006, p. 150).
Within this context, the idea of internal customer becomes beneficial for the business organization because it successfully meets two objectives fulfills the marketing functions and provides necessary customer orientation.
Supplier Quality Management
As soon as the product has been manufactured, the question of distribution comes to the forth. Supplier quality management, therefore, is the next step in improving quality of produced goods and services. Managers and employees should give especial attention to this production link because suppliers can provide them with valuable knowledge and experience concerning place and terms of deliver.
The role of supplier should not be underestimated as it influences the competing position of a firm in a business environment. Supplier is also involved into the deliver of the materials that will be used in manufacturing goods and, therefore, the choice of suppliers is indispensible for ensuring the highest quality. The significance of including supplier in a production chain is enormous because this entity is endowed with a great number of responsibilities.
For instance, supplier is liable for tracking the material costs that are implemented at various stages of production. Much responsibility is also imposed on suppliers in terms of information exchange between customer and organization. The quality of information flow, therefore, depends largely on the suppliers awareness.
Product Dimension of Total Quality Management
Process Management
Process is an inherent component of successful organizations functioning, along with people, structure, and control mechanisms. In this respect, process management is another important dimension of total quality management that consists in fulfilling activities leading to desired outcomes.
Process management also involves means and techniques assisting to the accomplishment of organizations goals. Finally, process management allows organization to deliver and create value for a customer (Madison, 2005, p. 2). Workflow and information exchange are regarded as the basic processes taking place at an organization.
Control mechanism also shape the part of process management. They involve mechanical, electrical, and statistical procedures that allow the employees to measure and enhance the quality of products. The importance of control mechanism in process management lies in the necessity of introducing changes to the production process, as well as to the control mechanism itself. Finally, process analysis is an effective way to diagnose the performance and define the gaps in the production process.
Cross-Functional Product Design
The development of a new product design is also a part of total quality management. This process is accomplished through gathering cross-functional team working on single product development. Cooperative work performance, therefore, positively contributes to the development of new product design (Sorli & Stokic, 2009).
It is also important for a team to involve members from different department to provide an in-depth evaluation of the proposed product, including customer needs, organizational capacity, cost effectiveness, and potential revenues received from selling the product (Sorli & Stokic, 2009). Research and development can be regarded as another integral component of successful cross-functional product design.
Product design and development should always be associated with constant improvement and innovation. Designers should engage their theoretical knowledge and experience to integrate into creating a product that would meet customer requirements and increase organizational goals (Sorli & Stokic, 2009). More importantly, they should rely heavily on the external environment and competitive environment.
Organizational Processes and Role of Total Quality Management
Information and Feedback
Effective leadership and management should rely on effective interaction, information and feedback system. Managers should be able to successfully communicate with their subordinates and apply to a reward system to encourage employees increase organizational capacity. Importantly, feedback received from various stakeholders is also crucial for introducing the corresponding changing to the marketing and production process (Rawlins, 2008).
Finally, external customer feedback provides a better picture of market potential, as well as supply and demand rates of a launched product. Marketing department should be concerned with the accurate and responsive information exchange between other department to make sure that all problems, gaps, and pitfalls have been taken into consideration before a new product line is launched.
Establishing effective communication system is another important dimension of total quality managers that ensures constant control of information input and processing (Rawlins, 2008). Managers and employees should be encouraged to draw as much new information about potential markets and customer to be able to introduce changed to the manufacturing process and increase the organizational performance.
Strategic Planning
Developing a strict mission, vision, and philosophy provide an organization with accurate directions and solutions to improvement and high performance.
In order to properly evaluate the position of a business firm, specific attention should be given to understanding its current position through diagnosing its perspectives for future development. The key components of strategic planning, therefore, include mission, vision, values and strategy. Each of the components is of high significance for the adequate and stable development of an organization.
Strategic planning should also involve analysis and synthesis of information received from customers. The information can reveal both negative and positive experience of customers to define which elements of the production process should be changed. Therefore, strategic planning should always be in a state of constant development and improvement.
According to Mukherjee (2006), the strategic quality plan bridges the gap between where the organization is and where it wants to reach in the long run (p. 139). In this respect, the mission of the organization is closely associated with its value system whereas the vision is regarded as a long-term objective of the organization. In addition, vision should be SMART, namely, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound (Mukherje, 2006, p. 139).
The next step of strategic planning involves identification of target audience that will allow the organization to reach its goals. In this respect, the strategic planning process should involve assessment of customers needs to define how well the organization can meet these needs. The effectiveness of strategic planning will influence on the total quality management in a business organization.
Cross-Functional Planning
Synthesis of cross-functional activities is an important dimension of total quality management of product and services due to the greater commitment to customer needs and concerns. In particular, isolated work of advertising, promotion, research and development, and marketing department does not provide company with a competitive advantage over other business organizations because it will hamper the cooperation between managers.
In this respect, cross-functional planning involves horizontal exchange of information between managers (Shultz et al., 2009). Well-organized work and interaction between the departments can contribute to immediate response to customer supply and demand rates, as well as integrating new concepts and strategies on improving the overall quality of organizations production.
Six Sigma: Practices, Experience, and Methods
Six Sigma is an advanced concept of total quality management in business organization that implies both qualitative and quantitative methods of evaluating the production success and customer demands. Its orientation on improvement and development, as well as constant innovation is possible through measuring the existing numerical and qualitative data, as well as predicting possible outcomes of specifically implemented strategies.
The concept of Six Sigma differs a bit from the total quality management because its focus is made on the analysis of possible errors, defects, and pitfalls that organization might face while implementing a specific product line. In statistical terms, Six Sigma denotes &standard deviation, a statistical measurement of variation, the exceptions to expected outcomes (Thomsett, 2005, p. 6). The idea of Six Sigma takes its roots at Motorola company in the 1980s and was introduced by Mikel Harry.
The engineer started examining variation in outcomes and companys internal processes; he soon realized that measuring variations made it possible to advance the working systems (Thomsett, 2005). The procedures sought to change procedures in order to improve the overall performance for a long-term period. In a few years, the Six Sigma concept became popular among other recognized companies.
Six Sigma prioritizes cost savings because they shape an important element of quality control, which should guarantee effective, permanent, and rewarding quality activities (Thomsett, 2005). Cost-effectiveness, however, should be congruent with the development of effective workforce potential that would enhance the organizational performance through creativity and innovation.
Overall, the presented strategy is aimed at achieving excellent in quality service, as well as at measuring possible deviation from the idea. It also provides perspectives for adding value to a product of service. Therefore, the concept of Six Sigma is sophisticated and technical complex.
Conclusion
Total quality management (TQM) embraces a complex unity of processes, targets, and stages and is aimed at enhancing the overall organizations potential, as well as constant improving and innovation. Therefore, the given discipline covers a number of dimensions, including human resources, organizational learning and development, and product design. All these dimensions are crucial for development of an extensive quality management network.
Specifically, human dimension consists in full leadership commitment, employee training and engagement, customer orientation, and supplier quality management. Product design focuses on the cross-functional product design and process management. Finally, organizational structure deals with such elements as strategic planning, cross-functional planning, and information and feedback control.
Aside from the presented dimensions, TQM introduces new models and techniques in sustaining quality of product and services, including the concept of Six Sigma, which involves identification of possible errors and defects of product manufacture that can be eliminated for a long-term period.
References
Madison, D. (2005). Process Mapping, Process Improvement, and Process Management: A Practical Guide for Enhancing Work and Information Flow. US: Paton Professional.
Mukherjee, P. N. (2006). Total Quality Management. US: PHI Learning.
Rawlins, R. A. (2008). Total Quality Management (TQM). US: AuthorHouse.
Samuel, L. S. A. (2004). Total Quality Management. US: PHI Learning.
Shultz, D. E., Barnes, B. E., Shultz, H. F., and Azzaro, M. (2009). Building Customer-Brand Relationships. US: M. E. Sharpe.
Sorli, M., & Stokic, D. (2009). Innovating in Product/Process Development: Gaining in New Product Development. US: Springer.
Thomsett, M. C. (2005). Getting Started in Six Sigma. US: John Wiley & Sons.
Dr. W. Edwards Deming: Father of the quality evolution
Dr. W Edwards Deming, born 14 October 1900 was an American engineer, statistician, author, lecturer, and consultant. He has made many academic contributions to the quality movement including his philosophical methods and his theory of profound knowledge has assisted in the development of Total Quality Management (TQM). The 1950s was the era that was considered the origin of TQM but interest in this management practice peaked in the early 1990s. Deming, being profoundly known for his consultations, lectures, and knowledge on matters of quality management grew to become the leading management thinker in the field of quality.
The idea of ‘quality’ is perceiving value in something, implying excellence but in the opinion of Ferreira and Groenwald (2016),” quality can furthermore be viewed as performance to standards, meeting the needs of customers or satisfying customers”. Managing quality or quality control to ensure consumer satisfaction is known as TQM although Erasmus, Strydom, and Rudansky-Kloppers (2018) state that TQM means that ‘quality’ is everyone’s responsibility in the organization which is inclined with Deming’s theories while Deming also implies that it all starts with “top management”.(bright hub. com, n. d)
The TQM approach places “strong emphasis on improvements made to products and services by management, resulting in delivering quality desired by customers.” (Erasmus, Strydom, and Rudansky-Kloppers 2018). In the United States government and military, the philosophy and methods of Dr. Deming were often used to support and aid TQM programs (Clark, 2015). Deming’s biggest contribution to the evolution of quality was identified through his teachings. “He taught Japanese executives and engineers his methods for statistical analysis and the control of quality.” (asq.org, n. d) His methods helped Japan rebuild its economy after World War II and beyond within an achieved timeframe.
Deming’s contributions influenced the development of programs that promote quality in nations and organizations including the Deming Prize in Japan and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) in the United States, now being used by 100 worldwide programs (Clark, 2015). The Deming Institute showcases a number of his books based on his 14 points of quality management which he is well known for, such as his statistical knowledge, and theories illustrating business processes through his detailed experiments.
Deming’s famous ‘Red Bead’ experiment, according to Erasmus, Strydom, and Rudansky-Kloppers(2018) illustrates Deming’s approach to the implementation of quality control systems in which Deming (1993) statistically implies that “it is up to management to improve the system”. Dyck and Neubert (2009) provide us with an example of the Ford Motor Company manufacturing transmissions using Deming’s principles, resulting in customer reports dropping by 50% over 5 years and a decrease in warranty repairs tenfold.
Deming’s theory of variation, which states that “every person, place or thing is unique, one of a kind and no two things are exactly alike”(Deming,1993) is an example of how quality can make or break a business. Fenty Beauty by Rihanna saw its first launch receive millions of positive views and sales due to her thought and consideration of the quality of her products. Fenty Beauty’s foundation line has a color made for each and every skin tone – all completely different to compliment every shade and skin tone of women worldwide accommodating every person regardless of their tone or skin color and this makes customers feel included, whereas Kylie Cosmetics by Kylie Jenner had some bad reports about many products having defects and it not being worth its price. Kylie shows no personal interest in the quality dynamics of her products and faced exceedingly disappointed customers, a lack of sales, and her target markets’ confidence in her products altogether against Fenty Beauty’s make-up line.
Deming’s emphasis on reducing variation to minimize mistakes can also be seen through Rihanna’s (CEO) “complete control over everything that Fenty Beauty releases” as she explains in an interview with British Vogues’ editor on the basis of her new skincare line. Rihanna’s time and effort put into the quality of her product along with her small team of experts do not allow room for errors as she claims “I’d feel like a fraud selling something I can’t stand by” (Rosenstein, 2020).
From this, we can see that Deming’s contribution to quality evolution can be identified in any type of organization and his theories and philosophy methods of quality improvement were recognized globally and are still relevant in providing a better way of leading and managing organizations.
Reference list
Ask. org-resources. (n. d) Retrieved from https://www.asq.org/quality-resources [03 April 2020]
Brighthub.com (n. d) “Deming’s theory of variation” Retrieved from https://www.brighthub.com [04 April 2020]
Clark, T.J. 03 March 2015 The Deming paradigm for reducing variation: Unknown by Most, Misunderstood by Many, Relevant to All. Retrieved from https://www.successthroughquality.com [04 April 2020]
Deming, W. E. 1993 The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Advanced Engineering Study. p. 101
Erasmus, B. Strydom, J.W and Rudansky-Kloppers, S. 2018 Introduction to Business Management 10th edition. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa. p.271,272.
Ferreira, E.J and Groenewald, D. 2016 Administrative Management 4th Edition. Cape Town: Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd. p. 268
Jenna Rosenstein 31 March 2020 Rihanna Fenty Skincare. Retrieved from https://www.harpersbazaar.com [02 April 2020]
Quality Management (Total Quality Management) is the discipline for ensuring the process, output and benefits of a delivered project meet desired level of excellence of the stakeholder. This is not only limited to controlling of quality but also includes determining quality policies, quality planning as well as quality improvement. It works with four major components quality planning, quality as-surance, quality control ad continuous improvement.
To achieve and ensure the output meets the customer requirements certain tools and techniques are used by companies and firms. The following are major quality tools and models implemented in projects: Fishbone (Ishikawa Diagram), Interrelationship digraph and Scatter Diagram. In case of the Fishbone diagram, the tool helps the user to explore all possible causes of any problem, which helps to find out the solution. This uses brains-torming technique in order to find the actual root cause while taking even minor possibilities in con-sideration. Interrelationship diagraph is a graphical tool which helps to understand the interrelation cause and effect among different concepts or ideas. It helps to understand the links between two or more different problems. The Scatter Diagram is a vital tool for quality management. It works with graphs depicting the input and output of the firm in a non linear pattern. It is based on observations and available data (PMBOK Guide, 2017). Unlike the Fishbone diagram, it also shows the relation between two or more variables.
Although qualitative have been given more important in the early times but as more development and study started in the field gradually qualitative and quantitative are given equal importance in project management. The quantitative values such as any gathered data are equally important as the qual-itative values such as communication. The use of these values together will help any organization to help it control its quality to upmost factors.
It is very important for any organization to implement and develop quality management process in order to prove their customer with high quality products of services. Organizational structure may be considered as “the established pattern of relationships among the components or parts of the or-ganization” (Tuomi, 2010). The basic and important step for achieving this is to structure the organization in a systematic manner as well as to have a systematic pattern between each department of the organization. It is also required to come up with quality management tools that suit the organi-zation as well as other quality management tools for every department. It is important to work with the given ISO, EFQM or any other standards given by a governing body. Quality Management is a continuous process and therefore there is a need to have a continuous development in the plan, in order to achieve this data collection is necessary. Planning is required for any quality control or as-surance problem.
According to British Standard BS 7850, TQM is defined as, “Management philosophy and company practices that aim to harness the human and material resources of an organization in the most effective way to achieve the objectives of the organization.”
Capezio & Morehouse (1993) defines TQM as follows: “TQM refers to a management process and set of disciplines that are coordinated to ensure that the organization consistently meets and exceeds customer requirements. TQM engages all divisions, departments and levels of the organization. Top management organizes all its strategy and operations around customer needs and develops a culture with high employee participation. TQM companies are focused on the systematic management of data of all processes and practices to eliminate waste and pursue continuous improvement.”
Total Quality Management focuses in achieving excellence. TQM defines the continuous improvement of the organization. It applies qualitative methods and human resources to improve and surpass customer needs (Talukder and Ghosh, 2004). TQM has integration of organizational activities to achieve the goal in serving customers. It imposes standards, achieve efficiencies, define roles of individuals within processes and the organization, reduce errors and defects by applying statistical process control, and to employ teams to plan and execute processes more efficiently. TQM addresses the issues of customer satisfaction and guidance on implementing the marketing concept (Churchill and Paul, 1994). TQM promised superior performance. TQM also offers managers supporting tools and organizational prescription (Churchill and Paul, 1994). The ‘total quality’ concept is a general philosophy of management that goes well with the management customer-perceived quality by including all key requirements that contribute not only to customer-perceived quality, but also customer satisfaction (Buzzell and Gale, 1987; Garvin, 1988; Zeithaml et al., 1990; Price and Chen, 1993).
The research titled Total Quality Management in Library and Information Sectors done by Golnessa Galyani Moghaddam and Mostafa Moballeghi in 2008 investigated libraries and information sectors by focusing on TQM implementation and the experiences of libraries adopting this method are also reviewed. It is said that there must be leadership and dedication in any respect degrees to be powerful in an agency. All organizations of human beings within an organization need to be included inside the method. Implementation of TQM is therefore not a guarantee of the highest best however is a step inside the proper direction. TQM follows a philosophy of energetic leadership engagement, stronger departmental collaboration, and all-worker schooling.
Saroja, G. (1999) stated that there are four basic principles that explain the nature of Total Quality Management: 1) Concern of the customer — what are the needs and wants of your customer? 2) Knowing the quality standards of the product and knowing the facts at all levels for continuous improvement. 3) People-based management where people must understand what to do and how to do in order to develop or progress on their work. 4) Total Quality Management is aimed at Continuous Improvement.
According to Kujalo, J. (2002) stated that TQM is one of the most important management innovations of the 20th century. It has more influence on contemporary management practice than any other management movement. He also reported that the origin of Total Quality Management can be traced back to 1949, when the union of Japanese scientist and engineers formed a committee of scholars, engineers, and government officials devoted to improve Japanese productivity and quality of life.
A study done by Tannock, J., Krasachol, L., and Ruangpermpool, S. (2002) indicated that Total Quality Management has been applied widely in most of the organizations in developed countries while ISO 9000 series standards have been the focus of quality management development in developing countries. In this study, the authors examine the progress of four Thai SMEs attempting to implement Total Quality Management over a two-year period. The study has revealed the efforts, problems, barriers and progress of the companies.
Brophy, Peter (2007) stated that libraries are facing different circumstances, in terms of providing good services and content to delivered into the users’ workflows. In order to assess performance in this changing environment, much greater emphasis will be required to be placed on qualitative methods, including ethnographic approaches, externally-moderated, reflective self-evaluation and narrative-based practice. Libraries are changing and being challenged to reinvent themselves within the workflows. If these circumstances are to be met, then innovative and robust methods also need to be developed to assess performance in this new millennium.
Kiran K., Pauziaah M., and Sossamma G. (2006) explained in their study the steps in attaining the ISO 9001-2000 quality management system certification. This article includes description of the planning, implementation and maintenance of the quality management system by the library, along with continual improvements to provide quality service to the library users. This study emphasizes on library planning and implementation of quality management system to offer a good quality service and to increase customer satisfaction.
A case study of changing management: how we radically evolved library process from information technology impact that was presented by Sharon Hu was conducted to investigate Information Technology being applied to academic libraries as it impacts and changes the library organization and management. This paper discussed how the emerging trend for academic library management changed from information technology based from the previous researches. They analyzed the management by using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses/Limitations, Opportunities and Threats) analysis to to explore the management environment regarding information technology. From the case study the authors summarized the emerging trends for library management and gave recommendations to change the management of academic library into mission and vision related of the academic institutes and match to the rapid development of information technology and academic world.
In a study titled Student Learning Through Ohio School Libraries, Part 1: How Effective School Libraries Help Students by Ross J. Todd and Carol C. Kuhlthau (2005), historically, libraries worldwide have contributed in different social relation, facilitating decision-making, societal well-being, the growth of democracy, and the development of a knowledgeable society (Kranich, 2001). Thirty-nine schools were selected across Ohio to participate in the study. The criteria for selection were drawn from a series of national and international guidelines for school libraries. A nine-member International Advisory Panel of school librarianship validated the criteria and their indicators. Schools were then invited to nominate (self or other) for selection in the research study, and each school provided substantive documentation addressing the criteria. Findings are almost all the student participants (99.44%, or 13,050 students) indicated that the school library and its services had helped them in their learnings in and out of school. Only 73 students out of 13,123 (0.56% of the total sample) indicated that none of the 48 statements applied to them. This would indicate that the school library plays an important role in helping most students with their learning.
Al Hijji, K.Z. and Cox, A.M. (2012) in their study investigated measurement methods that are used in various aspects of academic libraries in Oman. The research was built to explore steps of conceptualizing, collecting, analyzing data, and reporting results. Data gathered through in-depth interviews that represents different management levels. The analysis utilized content to shape the relationship between categories subjected to formulate knowledge. The result says that all libraries have used one method or more to evaluate the progress of their services and performance. These include surveys, reports, KPIs, statistics, and interviews, in addition to appraisal forms which are used for staff evaluation. Alongside with internal evaluation by librarians, an external evaluation by OAC and other international bodies took place in some libraries.
Pedramnia, S., Modiramani, P., and Ghanbarabadi, Ghavami. V. (2012) together did a research by using survey method for collecting data to measure the quality of services provided by the MUMS (Mashhad University of Medical Sciences) libraries. They also determined the member satisfaction and expectations of library services in the LibQUAL dimensions. The results of the study emphasize the importance of librarians’ specialized knowledge level in presenting appropriate service in circulation and reference sections as well as identifying strengths and weaknesses of MUMS schools and hospital libraries for improving decisions affecting the library services.
The paper written by Alasdair Paterson entitled Ahead of the game: Developing academic library staff for the 21st century focuses on the problems faced by the library personnel related in the British academic library. It talks about staff salaries, decrease and increase in funds and availability of e-formats, and the needs of increase in information technology skills and training. The discussion of this led to experiences of the university in assessing library staffs to qualify in government related awardees.They used anonymous questionnaires given to all staffs then conducted an interview in representative staffs. It has four principles of assessment, each breaking down into a number of indicators, and each of which will qualify with the award said. The overall result of the research showed level of anxiety and confusion that is expected in a kind of organization facing continuous changes. They concluded that British library like SCONUL are aware of lack of training on becoming a director.
This research presented by Sitthisomin, Junrat entitled the paper Soft Skills for University Library staff in thailand aims to evaluate and investigate the developing methods of soft skills for the university library staffs in khon kaen university. They used stratified random sampling in collecting data, and got 149 participants according to their work experience. Their Questionnaires was also made to survey the needs for developing soft skills in the current situation for library staffs of khon kaen university in seven aspects; Their communication skills, problem solving and analyzing skills, teamwork, learning capacity and information management, innovation development, ethics and professionalism, and skills in leadership. For the qualitative data they got from the interview with the library staffs it includes the sequence in developing and enhancing soft skills. The results came out to be that the behavioral level of soft skills were moderate and innovation level showed the least of behavioral level followed by communication skills, analyzing and problem solving skills and leadership skills.
In the study titled Studying the impact of total quality management in service industries by Faisal Talib and Zillur Rahman (2010), ‘Total Quality’ means that the services offered, have to be internally efficient and externally effective. It is in this context, that the question of ‘total quality’ becomes relevant in the management of manufacturing and services industries. Thus, total quality management (TQM) is the art of managing the whole to achieve excellence. The aim and philosophy of TQM is not the measurement of the quality performance but the continuing and continual improvement of quality through a process of cultural and organizational change. It is people driven and results are evident in terms of improved teamwork, company moral and organizational climate – resulting in improved productivity and profitability (Mohanty and Behera, 1996). The study begins with an in-depth literature review on the issues related to TQM, focusing on the impact of TQM implementation and its applicability in different service industries. The study also describes how TQM is being used as service tool in different sector and what are its effects and outcome. After reviewing the voluminous literature, it was classified into various categories depending on the importance, nature of literature available and future requirement for further improvement.
In a study conducted by Siregar, I., Nasution, A. A., and Sari, R.M. (2017) titled Effect of Total Quality Management (TQM) on the Quality and Productivity of Human Resources, stated that this study did a survey of instructors in public and private universities in North Sumatra to obtain the factors that affect quality of human resources and productivity of human resources. Human resources quality is viewed by the elements of TQM. Total Quality Management (TQM) is based on; all organization staff should collaborate with each other for purposes of producing high quality products and services in order to meet customers’ demands. Total Quality Management consists of several quality instruments and techniques, in addition to various values and beliefs that all staff within the same organization shares.
This research is a correlation descriptive research, a study investigating the presence or absence of a relationship between exogenous variables influences the endogenous variables. This study were look at the influence of each factor on the productivity of human resources were been formulated in associative hypothesis partially or simultaneously. The population is all instructors in the public education institutions and one private education institution in North Sumatra. The sample is based on probability sampling which is simple random sampling with the sample size of 43 peoples. This study used an enclosed questionnaire with the research scale using a Likert scale. The instrument (questionnaire) tested the validity and reliability by distributing questionnaires to 30 respondents that were chosen based on the rule of thumb. The findings suggest, organization staff should work together to produce high quality products and services in order to meet customers’ demands. Leadership and reward and recognition have a direct and indirect influence on the productivity of human resources. Communication, training and education, and measurement have an indirect influence on human resources productivity. In the education institutions there are no significant influence between the support structures on the quality of human resources.
One of the most dramatic and significant world trends over the past 2 decades has been the rise and sustained growth of international business. Internet has truly elevated the growth of international businesses allowing both goods and services to cross borders to wherever they are needed. Companies such as Coca-Cola and most notably, with regards to this paper Black Label, a popular international brand of beer have crossed the borders to be brewed and sold here.
Its reported that the most significant rise in global markets are the financial markets, forex markets trading more and more billions of pulas transacted each day. It is therefore extremely imperative that for solid, tangible goods such as alcohol and drinks have a solid total quality management process to ensure that products stay the same across the world.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is one of the popular modern management concepts with emphasis on quality in the entire organization and extends from supplier to customer. The main purpose of this study is to assess the adoption of TQM elements in 1S0 9000 certified company in case of KBL. In this study KBL was selected as it has been certified in ISO 9000 Quality management system. The study hopes to analyze the case of KBL and how it has taken its management practices, production process, employee training and other TQM into the fabric of the company and how they have performed because of it.
Introduction
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a long term effort by an organization to change its own management approach towards the production of goods and services that continuously meet customers’ requirements at the lowest cost possible by releasing the potentials of all organizational resources. TQM is about changing the way things are done thereafter. To improve performance continuously at lowest cost, people need to know what to do, how to do it, have the right tools to do it, be able to measure performance and receive feed-back on current levels of achievement.
There are quite a lot of companies that have succeeded in growing the companies big enough to sell to the entire world, one of those companies is Microsoft, whose goods are known to almost everyone the other is Uber, a taxi service company that has gone hugely international but is still a service. Despite the difference in these companies, their services and products have stayed relatively similar across the entire world and this is in particular to the amount of time they haev taken to review thier quality management processes which have ensured that they deliver the same amount of quality across the world. This paper seeks to find out the many ways in which certain Kgalagadi Breweries in Botswana, the home of the country’s brewery, has been affected by thier total quality management process. By including other researches and intervewing the company to find out the challenges they faced in producing international standards worth of produce.
Background of the study
Most researchers if not all, have agreed that growing a business to supply internationally is perhaps the best method of profit making as your product will reach more customers. This has been the case especially with the help of technological advancement in recent years, a lot of companies who would have otherwise remained as small corner stores have found a corner in every country worldwide. Richard Biggs, the founder and CEO of Atlantric LLC published a paper called 10 reasons to go international in which he mentioned for several reasons that not only will it increase sales and profits but it will provide the company with both long term and short term security knowing it has put its eggs in different baskets all over the world (Biggs, 2013). Another author, Dr. Rojer Best mentions that going international will assist in giving the company economies of scale, in many manufacturing industries for instance, going global can help the company achieve greater scales of economy, especially for companies from smaller domestic markets, a very good example being Choppies in Botswana. In other cases, a company may seek to exploit a unique and differentiating advantage (intellectual property), such as a brand, service model, or patented product (Best, 2013).
Companies have however started to grow weary as they continue to grow, having really began with Franchise companies like KFC and MacDonald’s who try to keep their taste the same for consumers to keep buying from the same brand it was in fact essential that the brand stays the same.
Problem statement
Steve Jobs once said Quality is greater than quality, this is the man who created Apple. The reputation of a company can be built solely on its quality products and consistent delivery in produce. Quality is the number one priority for most international companies and brands and they do their best to ensure that they put exceptional TQM processes in place. Companies in Botswana have quite often been accused of bad service, which could mean a number of things but ultimately mean there is a lack of quality management. This could mean check and balances put in places to ensure that quality service is assured all the time, the question is then why is this not happening and if it did, what part does it play in ensuring that production of alcohol in the KBL remains at its best.
Aim of study
To find out the impact of total quality management processes in the brewing of alcohol at Kgalagadi Breweries otherwise known as KBL.
Objectives of the study
To contribute to the literature by providing empirical evidence from a mixed economy country like Botswana.
To evaluate how TQM has impacted an organization like KBL.
Find out how other companies or organizations can instill TQM values in their system in order to perform better.
Research questions
Are there any correlations between Total Quality management and the success of a company over a long and short term?
How much impact does Total Quality management actually have on the success of the company?
Hypothesis
H1: There is a significant relationship between Total Quality management and the success of a company.
H2: A company that does not practice Total Quality management will not likely succeed compared to one that does.
Significance of study
This study will contribute to the overall knowledge and research on Total Quality management practices and impacts on an organization in Botswana. The difference this paper will bring is also an analysis of TQM in the case of companies in Botswana, KBL specifically and what other companies can take from it. It will assist researchers will the relevance of information with the factual data found on the chosen topic and will also assist with some decision making processes for those who may be requiring the information for such.
Assumptions
It is assumed the study will find all documentation regarding TQM in Botswana.
It is also assumed that TQM is a huge factor to consider if you hope to be successful in business, both long and short term.
Limitations of study
Lack of relevant information on the topic locally.
Certain data required to complete this study may be regarded as very sensitive and will not qualify for scholastic purposes.
Lack of funds to ensure good quality data is collected to complete this project.
Lack of time to ensure that quality data is carried through.
Lack of professional support from those who have advanced economics knowledge as this is not a very significant study.
Methodoly
Introduction
Research methodology is a systematic way to solve a problem. It is a science of studying how research is to be carried out. Essentially, the procedures by which researchers go about their work of describing, explaining and predicting phenomena are called research methodology. It is also defined as the study of methods by which knowledge is gained.
The chapter intends to provide an in depth description of research methodology. It covers research methods, research design, population sample, data collection, questionnaires, data analysis procedures and ethical considerations.
The research will be based primarily on primary data which has been collected from various stakeholders from KBL via interviews and questionnaires.
Research design
The research design that will be carried out in this project is one of experimental design whereby the writer will try to see just how much impact TQM has on the success of the company taking into account all its organizational processes. This research will use a qualitative method of research in order to reach its conclusion by providing open ended interview questions and analyzing documents on the subject which have numerical information. With this design, the researcher collects information and data based on the topic from the responses of these questionnaires and interviews.
Target population and sample
Kgalagadi Breweries Limited, otherwise known as KBL, are the largest brewers of alcohol in Botswana and produce different brands of beer both local and international.
Research instrument
This research is an assessment of Total Quality Management and how KBL has used such practices and methods to produce high quality products all the time. As mentioned before, open ended interview questions will be provided to not only give a consistent feedback from interviewees at the KBL but so they have the comfort of adding onto whatever we may have missed in asking.
Procedure of data collection
Information will be collected from reports, researches, books and all the information relating to the topic as well as questionnaires and interviews.
Procedure of data processing
Data collected from text books and reports will then be summarized to that which the researcher only needs. The data captured will be processed and presented in the form of quantitative data so as the express the numerical figures of the market attractiveness and difficulties in market entry for international companies.
Qualitative data will also be collected from the interviews and used to express the under-lying reasons, as to why some of these factors may have been difficult to overcome of how they companies did overcome them.
Data analysis
The use of graphs and tables will come into play as the researcher tries to demonstrate
Informed consent
I will request and try to obtain legal permission to conduct the study and try to get assistance from course coordinators in order to complete this project. Detailed letter in the Appendix.
Privacy and confidentiality
The researcher wants to assure all readers that all information found on here is fully compliant with those who have assisted in its write up and they have been fully agreeable in all information given. The research has gone the extra mile of removing all names and locations of those who may have contributed to this research for their safety and privacy of opinions.
Ethical considerations
Prevent against falsifying data.
Protect the integrity of other researchers and persons associated with this research.
Beneficence- maximize possible benefits, minimize possible harms.
Justice – on individual and social level.
Try to remain unbiased.
2.1 Literature review
Creelman, in one of the oldest papers written on Total Quality management in relation to our paper and or industry tries to describe the efforts made by Newcastle Breweries to improve its competitiveness by implementing TQM models and practices in order to achieve superior customer satisfaction. The research enquires information from the company through its introduction of a “quality customer package” outlining the range of services available to the customer; the creation of time for open forum discussions; involvement of all employees; and the implementation of its quality council, quality improvement teams and suggestion box schemes that are all intended to improve not only customer care but to provide excellent service and to learn their customers better (Creelman, 1992)
The second study was aimed at evaluating Total Quality Management as a business technique in manufacturing industries with particular emphasis on the brewing sector – A case study of National Breweries plc in Nigeria and also to analyze the effectiveness of the quality management techniques currently used. This research is very similar to the one we want to take on and should provide a good base to share notes with. The aim of the study was to examine total quality management (TQM) as a business technique for continuous quality improvement by finding out the extent to which TQM is being used at national breweries plc. By evaluating management commitment and work culture which reflects people’s beliefs, attitudes, values and philosophy. (Gideon, 2012)
The third study we considered to make it to this paper hoped to examine the Impact of Total Quality Management on organizational productivity, A Case Study of Ama Brewery, another brewery in Nigeria. The research further focuses on the approach adopted by organizations that has implemented the concept and the rate of success achieved. These is a proof that effective TQM implementation can improve their competitive abilities and provide strategic advantages in the market place. The effects of not participating in TQM implementation by all management levels, challenges disrupting the TQM implement in an organization and failure to organize frequent employee training have been a big problem. The research work tried to ascertain the impact of TQM implementation in the organization, level of management involvement, challenges disrupting the implementation, impact of employee training and TQM principles application to goal attainment. It is through the questionnaire method and oral interview that data are collected from the aforementioned organization, also very much similar to what our own research hopes to end. The aforementioned organization agreed that TQM have impact in organizational productivity. It is not all management levels in Ama Brewery contribute in TQM implementation. The failure to organize frequent employee training have been a major setback to their organization, while some management challenges disrupt TQM implementation in the organization. They should engage in frequent employee training in order to increase the level of individual and organizational competence. All management levels should join hands in TQM implementation so that quality will be attained (Alimot, 2012)
Food stalls in university been a trend nowadays, university not just put up a school canteen but also provide a variety of food to choose from which is the Food stalls or Food Court. All university in the Philippines you can see food court inside the campus. Students. Students enjoy to eat what they want and eat depends on their taste. They can choose from among the fifteen stalls in the food court. Students aren’t given many alternatives when choosing the time of the day they would like to eat their meals because of a busy or tight schedule, they also not given the chance to eat the food they want or even to choose a bright atmosphere. That’s why university campus now a days outsource the food company to be able to cater the students want and need but it tends to be they are not giving it out properly or even studied it well how the process will be.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is known as the overall management of quality of the product starting from suppliers to end users known as customers. Quality management deals with the processes, products, services and initiates the innovations in the company to satisfy the customers. Quality management is concern for producing high quality of the products. Many manufacturing firms that have tried and become successful and others failed. Nokia, Toyota and Honda have implemented TQM. Organization has to implement the concept of TQM to achieve a zero defects product. The principles of TQM philosophy would really help the company once they implemented the strategy because TQM support the business improvement’s like cost reduction, enhanced productivity and improved the quality of the product. Successful companies have adopted TQM strategy.
Background of the Study
Total quality management (TQM) is a structured approach to overall organizational management. The focus of the process is to improve the quality of an organization’s outputs, including goods and services, through continual improvement of internal practices. The standards set as part of the TQM approach can reflect both internal priorities and any industry standards currently in place. TQM focuses on ensuring that internal guidelines and process standards reduce errors, while Six Sigma looks to reduce defects.
TQM is considered a customer-focused process and aims for continual improvement of business operations. It strives to ensure all associated employees work toward the common goals of improving product or service quality, as well as improving the procedures that are in place for production.
San Beda University is a newly acquired university located in Mendiola. San Beda University has approximately 15,000 population including the students from College of Art and Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Senior High School and College of Law. With this population San Beda has only three food areas student can eat at, Dom, Snack Bar and Fior. Snack Bar consist of different food company that has a lot of food to offer. Snack Bar has Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, I Love Milk Tea , Jamaican, Belgian Waffle, Tender Juicy Hotdog, Pasta Galore, Donuts, Chicks To Go, Potato Corner, Dimsum, Turks and Nacho King. With all food stalls they have the ventilation is not good. Facilities is not okay.
Statement of the problem
How can Total Quality Management help improve San Beda University Snack Bar to achieve satisfaction from customers?
A hierarchical process of quality includes the development of inspection through to quality control, within the context of systems of quality assurance under the wider management approach of total quality management (Das Mulm, 2009). Oakland (1993) defines total quality management as ‘an approach to improving the competitiveness, effectiveness and flexibility of a whole organisation’.
According to Ali, Tuladhar, Zevenbergen, and Bhatti, Inspection is the comparison of the characteristics of the final product or service to the technical specifications. This will mostly concern with the operational level where most of the products or services delivered at the users’ end. Quality Control (QC) follows inspection and is the total of operational and technical procedures which can confirm the quality of a product or service according to specifications. From LAS point of view, it will focus on both the institutional and technical problems and issues at management level so that the quality of the product or service can be measured at this stage. Quality Assurance (QA) is the total of pre-programmed or systematic actions and procedures necessary for ensuring that a product or service fulfils and will continue to fulfil certain specifications. In LAS, this plays an important role at the policy level where a set of rules and regulation must be defined to ensure the quality of the product or service. Total Quality Management (TQM) is the total of activities and methods used by an enterprise in order to fulfil the requirements of a client with the least cost, emphasis given on the link between TQM and QA. For LAS, it is most important to develop TQM concept at regular basis so that new advancements in technology and customers’ needs analysis could be brought into consideration for improving the quality of existing system.
Conceptual Framework
Independent Variable Dependent Variable
SBU Manila Students
Professors
Business
Food Stall
Intervening Variable
Basis on the Implementation of the TQM
Figure 2: Variables that may affect Snack Bar
The diagram illustrates the independent variable that contains two context namely Business and Food Stall that depend on the SBU Manila students and Professors. That consist the attributes preferred and skills preference with intervening variable the basis on the implementation of TQM.
Hypothesis
San Beda University Snack Bar will gain more profit and will have a high quality product if they implement TQM.
Significance of the Study
The key to development is through the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the industry, San Beda University Snack Bar. Wherein the new system will help to improve the quality of product and service of the Snack Bar.
To the San Beda University Snack Bar, the output of this study will give them a background and help them to implement the TQM strategy to help them gain profits.
To the Students, this research will help customers become more attentive to what product quality they must receive.
Scope and Delimitations of the Study
This study will be focusing on implementing the TQM strategy in the San Beda University Snack Bar. The area of this study is to provide solutions and improvements to the business quality product and services. The limit of this study is to gather possible data in the San Beda University Snack Bar.
Definition of Terms
Implementation- the process of putting a decision or plan into effect
Process- a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.
Product- an article or substance that is manufactured or refined for sale.
Quality- the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.
Satisfaction- fulfillment of one’s wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure derived from this.
Service- A valuable action, deed, or effort performed to satisfy a need or to fulfill a demand.
Student- A person formally engaged in learning, especially one enrolled in a school or college.
Total Quality Management- Total quality management (TQM) is the continual process of detecting and reducing or eliminating errors in manufacturing, streamlining supply chain management, improving the customer experience, and ensuring that employees are up to speed with training. Established stores nationwide in the U.S.
Chapter II
Review of Related Literature and Studies
This chapter mainly encompasses the related literature both foreign and local researchers and studies from foreign researchers which have significant relevance on the variables comprised in the study.
Foreign Literature
TQM stresses a commitment by management to have a continuing companywide drive toward excellence in all aspects of products and services that are important to the customer, each of the 10 decisions made by operations managers deals with some aspect of identifying and meeting customer expectations and meeting those expectations requires an emphasis on TQM if a firm is to compete as a leader in world markets. (Heizer 2017)
In Pakistan, Textile Manufacturing Industry found out TQM and implemented TQM that lead them to success, they largely focused on achieving high quality product and application of some techniques. They also able to focus and invest in training of their employees and staff which leads to improvement. They also advocated the need for cost-effective framework to implement be able to implement TQM in business. After all, the business took place ISO 9000 certification. (Pau 2017)
This article is related to the researcher study as it focuses on how different countries implement TQM strategy.
Local Literature
Critical success factors (CSFs) in total quality management (TQM) implementation are vital to the quality improvement of organizations, including higher education institutions (HEIs). The present study aims to attempt to develop a TQM paradigm contextualized to HEIs in the Philippine setting. The study was focused on determining the CSFs in the TQM implementation of Philippine HEIs. Findings of this study may be used by HEIs as basis for planning, decision-making and in directing their strategies and resources in the integration of the paradigm in their business process. The proposed TQM paradigm, upon adoption by Philippine HEIs, may be used as a quality measurement tool to improve performance, embed and sustain quality culture. (Rodriguez 2017)
Foreign Studies
Philosophers like Deming, Juran, Crosby, Feigenbaum, Ishikawa and Taguchi contributed in TQM. Deming insisted management accept responsibility for building good systems. Deming outlined his philosophy on quality in his famous “14 Points.” These points are principles that help guide companies in achieving quality improvement. The principles are founded on the idea that upper management must develop a commitment to quality and provide a system to support this commitment that involves all employees and suppliers. Deming stressed that quality improvements cannot happen without organizational change that comes from upper management. (ibid).
Dr. Joseph Juran defined quality as “Fitness for Use”. A high quality product does what its customers want in such a way that they actually use the product. Juran introduced The juran Trilogy Diagram that includes; the first part is Quality Planning that is preparing to meet quality goals, Quality Control is meeting the quality goals during process or operations and Quality Improvement that is a Breakthrough Sequence, quality improvements should be continuous as well as breakthrough.
Armand V. Feigenbaum viewed quality as a strategic business tool that requires involvement from everyone in the organization. He outlined his quality in 3 steps. He also promoted the use of quality costs as a measurement and evaluation tool. Management and employees have a total commitment to improve quality, and people learn from each other’s successes (ibid).
Phillip B. Crosby developed the phrase “Do it right the first time” and the notion of zero defects, arguing that no amount of defects should be considered acceptable. He scorned the idea that a small number of defects is a normal part of the operating process because systems and workers are imperfect. Instead, he stressed the idea of prevention. Concentrating on preventing defects rather than just finding and fixing them.
Kaoru Ishikawa is best known for cause-and-effect diagrams, also called fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams. He emphasize the importance of the “internal customer’’. Dr. Ishikawa believed that everyone in the company needed to be united with a shared vision and a common goal. He stressed that quality initiatives should be pursued at every level of the organization and that all employees should be involved (ibid).
Dr. Genichi Taguchi is a Japanese quality expert known for his work in the area of product design. He estimates that as much as 80 percent of all defective items are caused by poor product design. Taguchi stresses that companies should focus their quality efforts on the design stage, as it is much cheaper and easier to make changes during the product design stage than later during the production process. Taguchi is known for applying a concept called design of experiment to product design, an engineering approach that is based on developing robust design, a design that results in products that can perform over a wide range of conditions. With everincreasing competition and consumer expectations, professionals and business managers cannot ignore quality issues and expect to maintain or improve their competitive position. Quality systems, time and again, have been responsible for substantial increases in the bottom line of businesses in every industry and have given organizations the boost they need to meet overall goals and objectives (ibid).
Synthesis
As observed from the iterated literature from various researcher, it shows to a large extent the success rate of implementation of TQM in an organization specifically Food Stalls. The variables of the study was strengthened through the presentation of the literature studies from both foreign and local resources.
Chapter III
The study is designed to know the results of the implementation of TQM in San Beda University Snack Bar. The purpose of this study is to know how it can be successful if they implement TQM to solve their problems especially in their process.
Method of Research
This study used the Qualitative Research Method in addressing the problem statement. The methodology involved the answered questions by different college students. It involved the different perceptions and insights of the student regarding the Food Stalls in their University.
The study was designed to gain an understanding of these variations in the interpretation of food. Stalls process in different university. The study will be used as a basis on how to implement Total Quality Management in San Beda University Snack Bar. The research questions for this study centered on the perspective of students regarding food stalls that will satisfy their wants as a students, qualitative methods were most appropriate.
Respondents and Sampling Design
The Study will focus on gathering data from different students from different University here in Manila. It will focus from the students from Centro Escolar University, University of Santo Tomas and San Beda University Manila. Each insight will be gathered and the researcher will analyze if the result of the gathering of information is applicable and can apply to San Beda University.
Data Gathering Instrument
The researcher used an interview type questionnaire to gather data from students. The researcher will provide the questionnaire that depends on how the respondent want, other students have it in Online and other students made it personal interview. The questions prepared will be based in the problem statement to be able to find solutions and answers regarding the problem. The questionnaire consists of five questions regarding their insights and wants regarding food stalls.
The questionnaire was developed in order to identify potential participants. The responses of the participants’ provided insight as to who met the criteria satisfying their wants in terms of Food Stalls, and if they need improvement and how to address with it. For this study, College Students mostly freshmen and senior 18 to 22 years of age, will be interviewed.
Data Gathering Procedure
The researcher will be using a Descriptive type of research to be able to gather data from different students in the Universities and to address the implementation of TQM in San Beda University Snack Bar. To be able to know the answers regarding the food stalls in different universities, the researcher will provide a questionnaire with five questions to answer the problem. The researcher will provide a copy of the questionnaire answered by the respondent to ensure the validity of the answers. The researcher will explain about the study and provide information and data to be able to them to answer correctly on what make them satisfy in their Food Stalls in University.
Data Analysis and Interpretation
To be able to know a possible solutions addressing the problems in San Beda University Snack Bar, questionnaire will be distributed to the respondents. Specific answer must be provided by the respondents. To be able to solve problems in Snack Bar.
Chapter IV
Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data
The results of the analysis of the interview and questionnaire data will be presented in this chapter. This chapter also provide information given by Dheanielle Sarmiento from Centro Escolar University Manila, Charmane Manlangit a transferee student from University of Santo Tomas and Celine Faith Dalapo from San Beda University Manila regarding food stalls in their Universities.
According to Danielle Sarmiento a Fourth Year Student in Centro Escolar University Manila, their Food Stalls provide Potato Corner, Shawarma and others. The price of the food in their stalls is affordable. The space management in the food stalls is also spacious that let them roam around the food stalls and the workers are able to work properly, especially in cleaning the area and giving deliveries is accessible because the space allotted in between the table is right and well properly allocated. According to Dheanielle the Bad side of their Food Stalls is the Ventilation, the smell of the food stall will stay in their hair when they go out the Food Stall Area.
According to Charmane Manlangit a transferee Student from University of Santo Tomas. In providing food in the University is well allocated. UST Food Stalls provided variety of choices, KFC, Pancake House, Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, Subway, Bonchon, Tokyo-Tokyo and others. With the choices of food restaurant provided by the UST to student, according to Charmane they are really satisfied as they do not need to go out the campus just to satisfy the cravings. In terms of Space management of the restaurants inside the university, they are able to accommodate students. They provide a right space each restaurant depending on the business how big they want to rent. Each company or business is provided at least 20 sqm to be able to cater students in UST and proper Ventilation is provided.
According to Faith Dalapo a Fourth Year Operations Management Student in San Beda University Manila. San Beda University offers Snack Bar that includes Turks, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, I love Milktea, Belgian Waffle, Tender Juicy Hotdog, Happy Swirls, Potato Corner and others. They can provide a variety of food. But in space management, they cannot accommodate specially if lunch time because of Senior High School Student in the University. It is crowded that the Snack Bar can only accommodate estimated 50 persons. And the Ventilation is not good. If you go to Snack Bar and stay up to 30-60 minutes, when you go out you will smell like a snack bar. The smell will stay especially in your hair. That’s why students preferred to ate lunch in Dom or outside the campus. The snack bar also don’t provide a water fountain, students will go to Dom to get water.
With this information provided by the respondents, the researchers concluded that implementing TQM in San Beda University will help a lot to gain more profit and attract more customers.
Chapter V
Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations
This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part is the summary, the second part is the findings, and last part is the conclusions and recommendations. It is taken from the information gathered that lead to this result results of the information gathered.
Summary
This study aimed to implement total Quality Management in San Beda University Snack Bar. And improvement regarding San Beda University Snack Bar to provide satisfaction from the students and professors. It sought to answer the question: How can Total Quality Management help improve San Beda University Snack Bar to achieve satisfaction from customers.
The importance of the study is to be able to address the problems facing by the San Beda University Snack Bar given its space and facilities management. How Total Quality Management will help to provide solutions and ways to the problem stated. It will focus on what the student wants and to be able to satisfy them in Snack Bar. The researcher conducted an interview of students regarding Total Quality Management and their own food stalls.
Major Findings
The given data were analyzed and formulated given under the statement of the problem:
The researcher found out that college students in universities wants variety of choices in terms of food.
The researcher found out that implementation of TQM will have a big improvement in Snack Bar.
The researcher found out that Snack Bar must have a proper ventilation.
Conclusions
If TQM is implemented, specifically the Crosby Theory: Zero Defects, will help Snack Bar to improve to fully satisfy Students. Zero Defects Theory will help the Snack Bar to become basis. Improving the Food Stalls Ventilation can have a great impact to attract students to stay inside the campus. According to Crosby, it is better to make it right in the first time than finding solutions with it.
Recommendations
This provides some recommendations to the future Researchers.
This study can be conducted using different methods such as focused group discussion and a survey type questionnaire.
The study was conducted from the students of San Beda, CEU and UST therefore, results may vary when the researcher will not limit their respondents and have a broad respondents or from many universities.
The study can have respondents’ not just students but researcher can consider the Faculty and Staff as well to have a great result.
References:
Evans, J. R., & Lindsay, W. M. (2012). Understanding total quality management. Singapore: Cengage Learning Asia Pte
Render, B., Heizer, J., & Munson, C. (2017). Operations management: Sustainability and supply chain management. Boston: Pearson
Barone, A. (2019, June 25). How Total Quality Management (TQM) Works. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/total-quality-management-tqm.asp
EVOLUTION OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT, www.rusnauka.com/2_ANR_2016/Economics/14_206421.doc.htm.
Janette Rodriguez, Madonna Valenzuela, Nunilon Ayuyao, (2018) ‘TQM paradigm for higher education in the Philippines’, Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 26 Issue: 1, pp.101-114, https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-12-2015-0048
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