TQM

A FEW WORDS ABOUT TQM

Total Quality Management is an approach to the art of management that originated in Japanese industry in the 1950′s and has become steadily more popular in the West since the early 1980′s.

Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that aims to provide, and continue to provide, its customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company’s operations, with things being done right first time, and defects and waste eradicated from operations.

Many companies have difficulties in implementing TQM. Surveys by consulting firms have found that only 20-36% of companies that have undertaken TQM have achieved either significant or even tangible improvements in quality, productivity, competitiveness or financial return. As a result many people are sceptical about TQM. However, when you look at successful companies you find a much higher percentage of successful TQM implementation.

SOME USEFUL MESSAGES FROM RESULTS OF TQM IMPLEMENTATIONS:

 If you want to be a first-rate company, don’t focus on the second-rate companies who can’t handle TQM, look at the world-class companies that have adopted it.

 The most effective way to spend TQM introduction funds is by training top management, people involved in new product development, and people involved with customers.

 It’s much easier to introduce EDM/PDM in a company with a TQM culture than in one without TQM. People in companies that have implemented TQM are more likely to have the basic understanding necessary for implementing EDM/PDM. For example, they are more likely to view EDM/PDM as an information and workflow management system supporting the entire product life cycle then as a departmental solution for the management of CAD data.

Important aspects of TQM include customer-driven quality, top management leadership and commitment, continuous improvement, fast response, actions based on facts, employee participation, and a TQM culture.

CUSTOMER-DRIVEN QUALITY:

TQM has a customer-first orientation. The customer, not internal activities and constraints, comes first. Customer satisfaction is seen as the company’s highest priority. The company believes it will only be successful if customers are satisfied. The TQM Company is sensitive to customer requirements and responds rapidly to them. In the TQM context, `being sensitive to customer requirements’ goes beyond defect and error reduction, and merely meeting specifications or reducing customer complaints. The concept of requirements is expanded to take in not only product and service attributes that meet basic requirements, but also those that enhance and differentiate them for competitive advantage.
Each part of the company is involved in Total Quality, operating as a customer to some functions and as a supplier to others. The Engineering Department is a supplier to downstream functions such as Manufacturing and Field Service, and has to treat these internal customers with the same sensitivity and responsiveness as it would external customers.

TQM leadership from top management
TQM is a way of life for a company. It has to be introduced and led by top management. This is a key point. Attempts to implement TQM often fail because top management doesn’t lead and get committed – instead it delegates and pays lip service. Commitment and personal involvement is required from top management in creating and deploying clear quality values and goals consistent with the objectives of the company, and in creating and deploying well defined systems, methods and performance measures for achieving those goals. These systems and methods guide all quality activities and encourage participation by all employees.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Continuous improvement of all operations and activities is at the heart of TQM. Once it is recognized that customer satisfaction can only be obtained by providing a high-quality product, continuous improvement of the quality of the product is seen as the only way to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction. As well as recognizing the link between product quality and customer satisfaction, TQM also recognizes that product quality is the result of process quality. As a result, there is a focus on continuous improvement of the company’s processes. This will lead to an improvement in process quality. In turn this will lead to an improvement in product quality, and to an increase in customer satisfaction. Improvement cycles are encouraged for all the company’s activities such as product development, use of EDM/PDM, and the way customer relationships are managed. This implies that all activities include measurement and monitoring of cycle time and responsiveness as a basis for seeking opportunities for improvement.

Elimination of waste is a major component of the continuous improvement approach. There is also a strong emphasis on prevention rather than detection, and an emphasis on quality at the design stage. The customer-driven approach helps to prevent errors and achieve defect-free production. When problems do occur within the product development process, they are generally discovered and resolved before they can get to the next internal customer.
Fast response to achieve customer satisfaction, the company has to respond rapidly to customer needs. This implies short product and service introduction cycles. These can be achieved with customer-driven and process-oriented product development because the resulting simplicity and efficiency greatly reduce the time involved. Simplicity is gained through concurrent product and process development. Efficiencies are realized from the elimination of non-value-adding effort such as re-design. The result is a dramatic improvement in the elapsed time from product concept to first shipment.

ACTIONS BASED ON FACTS

The statistical analysis of engineering and manufacturing facts is an important part of TQM. Facts and analysis provide the basis for planning, review and performance tracking, improvement of operations, and comparison of performance with competitors. The TQM approach is based on the use of objective data, and provides a rational rather than an emotional basis for decision making. The statistical approach to process management in both engineering and manufacturing recognizes that most problems are system-related, and are not caused by particular employees. In practice, data is collected and put in the hands of the people who are in the best position to analyze it and then take the appropriate action to reduce costs and prevent non-conformance. Usually these people are not managers but workers in the process. If the right information is not available, then the analysis, whether it be of shop floor data, or engineering test results, can’t take place, errors can’t be identified, and so errors can’t be corrected.

EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION

A successful TQM environment requires a committed and well-trained work force that participates fully in quality improvement activities. Such participation is reinforced by reward and recognition systems which emphasize the achievement of quality objectives. On-going education and training of all employees supports the drive for quality. Employees are encouraged to take more responsibility, communicate more effectively, act creatively, and innovate. As people behave the way they are measured and remunerated, TQM links remuneration to customer satisfaction metrics.

A TQM CULTURE :

It’s not easy to introduce TQM. An open, cooperative culture has to be created by management. Employees have to be made to feel that they are responsible for customer satisfaction. They are not going to feel this if they are excluded from the development of visions, strategies, and plans. It’s important they participate in these activities. They are unlikely to behave in a responsible way if they see management behaving irresponsibly – saying one thing and doing the opposite.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IN A TQM ENVIRONMENT:

Product development in a TQM environment is very different to product development in a non-TQM environment. Without a TQM approach, product development is usually carried on in a conflictual atmosphere where each department acts independently. Short-term results drive behavior so scrap, changes, work-around, waste, and rework are normal practice. Management focuses on supervising individuals, and fire-fighting is necessary and rewarded.

Product development in a TQM environment is customer-driven and focused on quality. Teams are process-oriented, and interact with their internal customers to deliver the required results. Management’s focus is on controlling the overall process, and rewarding teamwork.

AWARDS FOR QUALITY ACHIEVEMENT :

The Deming Prize has been awarded annually since 1951 by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers in recognition of outstanding achievement in quality strategy, management and execution. Since 1988 a similar award (the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award) has been awarded in the US. Early winners of the Baldrige Award include AT&T (1992), IBM (1990), Milliken (1989), Motorola (1988), Texas Instruments (1992) and Xerox (1989).

TQCS

As we enter this new age an age of high competitively and vast market system, the main obstacle facing markets today is the relativity of competitiveness and the ability to overcome this aspect.

We, the research team of Otherways Int’l Research and Consultants are proud to present you with the TQCS  Top Quality Customer Satisfaction  accreditation program a technique aiming to give:We, the research team of Otherways Int’l Research and Consultants are proud to present you with the TQCS  Top Quality Customer Satisfaction  accreditation program a technique aiming to give:

International Reliance for your product. (Targeting a direct increase in productive Quality standards).

Achieve a high performance ratio in your marketing factor. (by implementing a pro-active support to accomplish customer gratification).

The T.Q.C.S Project focuses on an  organization to people relationship  based on a tangible study of management and communication criteria on one hand and on a consumer behavior criteria on the other ,setting priorities for customer satisfaction policies in order to enhance sustainable growth and potential on the world market performance sector.

Management Criteria: focusing on the issues of system maintenance and balance strategies for accommodating publics in organizational actions, / and organizational & personal factors that influence practitioner performance (e.g. organization, structure, culture ,practitioner values ,gender, etc.)

Communication Criteria focusing on the aspect of:

  • Construction and delivery of messages in influencing consumer behavior.
  • Concrete strategies for the development of effective programs by setting interpersonal communication concepts to define organization-public interaction.

consumer behavior criteria focusing on:

A – The scientific study of consumer actions on the market lay out : (acquisition ,consumption and disposition of goods ,services ,time and ideas by decision making units…) reflecting the problems encountered by members of society in the acquisition and realization of their standard of living.
B – The consumer psychology of judgment and decision making: (insights about how people make decisions).
1) Task variables (problem size ,time pressure ,response mode ,types of decision tasks ,information format)
2) Context variables (similarity of choices ,correlation of attributes ,comparable versus non comparable choices ,quality of alternatives).
3) Personal factors (prior knowledge, information process abilities, etc).

C – The influence of affect and emotions on individual behavior: subsuming the concepts of emotion (an intense and sometimes disruptive response to a stimulus) and mood (a more generalized response elicited and maintained without conscious awareness of its extent, cause or influence).

As you have witnessed previously and based on consumer Fundamental statistical behavior in the principles of individual fluctuations, we conclude that the main aim of the TQCS“International Accreditation Program” is to, directly target two fundamental sectors of the world market economic parameters.

First : is to highlight the relationship between organizations and individuals Zooming in the regions of :

1-The relationship – marketing value focusing on customer retention, rather than customer acquisition and encompassing a wide range of ideas relevant to relationship building in public relations.
These values include concepts such as customer value, service, frequent customer contact, customization and quality performance.
2- The branding . value where the aspect of Branding is an essentiality to build powerful relationships between an organization’s products and users ,particularly in the fields of customer behavior and marketing channel literature, coring on the factors of trust and satisfaction open handing huge concern on the features of :
Brand Identity: which incorporates primarily on issues such as naming and product/service design,

Brand image: focuses on the positioning of products or services relative to other brands in a certain category.
Brand loyalty: measures the allegiance that users have to an organization or its brands, generally measured in willingness to engage in a repeated purchase behavior.
Brand equity: focuses on the value-added created by a brand for an organization.
Consequently, Implementing Organizational schemas on a successful relationship that can only exist when organizations perform and otherwise behave in ways compatible with individual expectations.
Second: Consumer Action Behavior:which examine the depth of consumer behavioral actions and responses towards an institute in addition to , the disposition of goods and services (purchase of good and services) , retaining a high prospective on the concept of risk which is defend alternatively in the characteristic of uncertainty or physical danger.

By profining the main targets of the TQCS program and by highlighting the target-area our strategy projects an approach designed to stimulate a company’s productive economic activities based on the WTQ (world trade organization) sectorial conditions.

Thereby allowing the TQCS symbol – logo to act as an indicator of:

– High Quality product standard
– Critical consumer reliance (product definition, punctual specification.
– International labeling (sustainable growth in the trust factor)
– Product modernization according to recent world market macro environmental values.

(The TQCS)Project Methodology is based on a collection of :

Qualitative and Quantitative data
Statistical data To identify good practices and the distribution of good practices, allowing us to benchmark a certain local and /or an international proposing reference parameter with an accredited practice system which contemplates in regional competitiveness by attracting foreign / local demand for strategic regional sectors. Also by implementing economic development policies, which highly offer a sustainable increase in productivity relevant to the proportional increase of customer demand, leading to a high performance relativity in a particular trade / investment area of endeavor.
Benchmarking areas of strength, speed and effectiveness subjecting national excellent performance based on the background research of your company, and its facilitation requirements focusing on the areas endorsed by a convenience structure for this initiative worldwide.
In Conclusion: & As you have witnessed before one of Otherways main policies is to provide a held – community between its members a policy designed to stimulate a company’s productive economic activities by implementing special effective economic development strategies ,strengthening further collaboration between member companies of the OMAC society.

Thus , enabling your firm to upgrade its target – area from undersized local market with no sufficient economic entity, to a developed international market enclosed with a high scale of productive activity with enormous horizons , offering you a great opportunity to establish a strong point to upgrade your international and regional competitiveness taking into consideration, the following categories :

MACRO-ECONOMIC parameters of world markets

STRATEGY-INTEREST into specific regions where the attractiveness of foreign markets will be aligned.