Total Quality Management

Definition of Total Quality Management:

Total Quality Management is an effective system for integrating the quality development, quality maintenance, and quality improvement efforts of the different groups in an organization to enable production and service at the most cost-effective levels possible, ensuring complete customer satisfaction

Total Quality Management strives to enhance the quality of a company’s product or service over time by incorporating constant feedback.

Total Quality Management stands on seven key pillars:

1)Focus on Customer 

Customers are the true North Star and a crucial metric of a business. Through call tracking and surveys, the TQM strategy keeps a constant eye on customer attitude and feedback.

2) Employee Involvement

Employees must comprehend why their preoccupation with improvement allows them to innovate in their employment in the end.

3) Process Centeredness

Procedures for collecting and integrating feedback from consumers and staff should be in place. Distinct methods should be in place to correct the course on the TQM journey by modifying strategy and tactics.

4) Integrated Structure 

Different departments within the company must collaborate to learn from one another and improve their procedures.

5) Strategic Approach 

The strategic approach plays an important role. The company’s vision and goals are the key areas to focus. Then enable TQM to evolve in response to changes in the company’s vision and objectives.

6) Clear Communication 

Gathering honest feedback and making changes is difficult without clear, unafraid communication between staff and between a firm and its consumers.

7) Iterative Improvement

 Because when an organizational sensor “senses” a gap, action is performed according to prescribed protocols, and improvements are done to eradicate the faults, TQM is capable of ushering in changes. If continual improvement isn’t prioritized, even the best feedback loop is pointless.

Five steps to Total Quality Management Implementation:

1) Management Audit 

Total Quality Management is a path that takes an organisation and its systems from where they are now to where they want to be in the future. As a result, the very first item on the TQM implementation agenda is a management audit to establish a thorough inventory of all existing processes and the results they provide.

2)Defining Critical Success Factors

Total Quality Management lives on in the business culture. However, it is far from immaterial. Critical Success Factors (CSF) are performance-based indicators that may be represented in statistics, charts, and graphs to show the impact of TQM.

3️) Developing Processes to Meet the 8 Requirements

 A company can opt to automate the collection of user feedback or rely on trained workers who recognise that every engagement with the brand is an opportunity to cement consumer loyalty and, as a result, follow up with a request for a review.

Once the feedback is received, it has to be analysed and processed. Positive signals are utilized to improve what the brand currently excels at. Negative inputs open up new areas of improvement.

4️) Being Data-driven

Data doesn’t lie. All the changes should be made by analysing data. We can find patterns and clusters in data. With the help of those patterns, we can plan our strategies.

5️) Being Relentless

Last but not least, an organisation should keep on working. No change is trivial, and the true advantages of TQM come from making incremental but persistent improvements.