A. TQM Overview
Total Quality Management (TQM) is both a philosophy and a set of guiding principles that represent the foundation of a continuously improving organization. TQM is the application of quantitative methods and human resources to: improve the material and services supplied to an organization; all the processes within an organization; and the degree to which the needs of the customer are met, now and in the future. TQM integrates fundamental management techniques, existing improvement efforts, and technical tools under a disciplined approach focused on continuous improvement. (DoD5000.51G)
Total Quality is a condition in which the customer is completely satisfied and everyone in the organization is doing the correct things correctly. (QCI International)
Total Quality Management is a management system/philosophy that institutionalizes a never-ending process of improvement, is aimed at satisfying customers' needs, reduces costs through elimination of waste, and involves all of the people in the organization. (John Kirkpatrick)
Dr. Deming never used the words TQM; rather, he spoke of a system of profound knowledge. This knowledge has four related parts: appreciation for a system; statistical theory (understanding variation); theory of knowledge; and psychology.
Genichi Taguchi's views on quality extracted from GM's Highlights of Total Quality Management Philosophies and Applications are:
1. Reduce cost through quality improvement.
2. Measure quality loss must be measured as a system-wide cost on a life cycle basis (i.e., loss to society), not as just the internal costs of non-conformance or defect detection at the time of shipment.
3. Optimize internal and external costs to minimize loss to society.
4. Measure quality as deviations from target values, not specification limits of tolerances.
5. Realize that quality decreases continuously as a quadratic function as process output varies from target, versus the step function mentality that implies that all parts within specification are equally as good.
6. Communicate quality loss in terms of monetary units.
7. Design quality into products and services.
8. Design products and processes to be insensitive to uncontrolled variation (robustness) at the lowest possible cost.
9. Focus on improving the desired product characteristic (signal), regardless of the level of uncontrolled variation (noise), to guide design.
10. Use statistical methods throughout the product life cycle for quality improvement, especially early in the design process when the leverage is the greatest.
11. Lower barriers that inhibit the use of statistical methods by providing simplified techniques that can be quickly taught and applied.
12. Combine engineering methods with statistical methods as part of providing simplified techniques that can be quickly taught and easily applied by all.
Total Quality Management is synonymous with Total Army Quality (TAQ) and quality leadership. Locally-defined, it is a leadership strategy that fosters a broad spectrum of improvement efforts directed at all dimensions of the organization, including culture, health, communications, structure, procedures, outputs, measurements, leadership/management, rewards, and how change is managed. It includes efforts to continuously improve and radically redesign processes and products to meet and exceed expectations, in terms defined by both the internal and external customer.
It is expected that the TQM definition will evolve and expand over time as the organization evolves in the quality transformation.
B. TQM is NOT a Program
Why? Because TQM is not something else we do, it is the way we do what we do. (AMC Quality Corner) To paraphrase, TQM is mission how we do it and how we do it better.
C. Continuous Improvement
An attitude of continuous improvement must prevail. The search for and exploitation of small incremental improvements must become the norm. The acceptance of small wins must become part of our framework. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service to improve quality and productivity and, thus, constantly decrease costs. (Deming point 5)
The term continuous improvement refers to both incremental and breakthrough improvements. The approach to improvement needs to be embedded in the way the organization functions.
Embedded means:
(1) improvement is part of the daily work of all work units;
(2) improvement processes seek to eliminate problems at their source; and
(3) improvement is driven by opportunities to do better, as well as by problems that must be corrected. Opportunities for improvement include employee ideas, R&D, customer input, and benchmarking or other comparative performance information.
Information may be of several types:
(1) enhancing value to customers through new and improved products and services;
(2) reducing errors, defects, and waste;
(3) improving responsiveness and cycle time performance;
(4) improving productivity and effectiveness in the use of all resources; and
(5) improving the company's performance and leadership position in fulfilling its public responsibilities and serving as a role model in corporate citizenship.
Thus, improvement is driven not only by the objective to provide better products and services, but also by the need to be responsive and efficient both conferring additional marketplace advantages.
Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. (William Faulkner)
We realize that we are in a race without a finish line. As we improve, so does our competition and the better we get, the more our customers expect from us. (David Kearns, Xerox)
