TQM IS COMMON SENSE. HOW GOOD IS YOURS?

What do all successful businesses have in common? Quality in every aspect. Not just having quality but never ceasing to keep improving themselves. It’s a commitment that successful businesses make to themselves by never stopping to become the better version of themselves. Or also known as Total Quality Management.

From startups to big giants, the implementation of TQM gives them stability in this volatile market. But is TQM an alien concept? Not at all. It is something that all businesses around the globe use to stay a step ahead of this building competition.

TQM- The definition

Total Quality Management a.k.a TQM is the process wherein businesses work intending to achieve continuous improvement. For TQM to work, every aspect of the business is taken into consideration, be it in service, product or work culture, and excellence in quality is achieved, which is then used as positive feedback to keep improving.

TQM is plain common sense.

Does the above definition of TQM make you lose all the senses? Now you may think why do we keep stressing that TQM is nothing but common sense? Well, because it is and very evidently, TQM is a good chunk of common sense implemented scientifically regularly. It should be clearly understood that value depiction of any business is impossible through plain common sense hence intrudes the scientific approach. And this is the reason why businesses think of TQM as something beyond rocket science.

But in reality, it is simply the overall improvement of quality in all aspects of an organisation. It requires you to do the right thing every time. Now, you may think, TQM is rigid and achievable. But Total Quality Management requires a systematic approach and implementation of best practices.

Two Main Factors For Successful application of TQM Principles

• People

People are the essence of an organisation. TQM requires everyone in the organisation to focus on a common goal which is to become a productive workforce. TQM allows employees to innovate, communicate and connect better with others. This calls for awareness and training for the employees so that every operation of an organization is oriented towards a common goal.

• Process

The second most important factor is the process. Process means the workflow of a business that is aimed to bring efficiency and productivity to the organisation. It is highly important to define the key process and incorporate customer and employee feedback.

 Other Requirements of TQM

• Customer

The key component of TQM is customer satisfaction. A close analysis of customers’ feedback and interests will be taken and studied. This approach will give businesses an idea of where they stand from the eyes of their customers. The customer defines the level of quality attained. In a nutshell, TQM is the company-wide strategy in enhancing customer satisfaction.

• Approach

A strategic approach that is designed keeping the organisations’ vision and core values at the centre. TQM will incorporate an internal change in the whole culture of the organization. An approach is designed to meet the desired level of quality and excellence.

• Communication

There must be clear communication between the company and its customers as well as between their employees. Sans communication it becomes difficult to collect accurate data. Communication enhances the understanding between one another which results in good management.

• Improvement

The major requirement of TQM is continuous improvement. If any shortcomings are found, then an immediate strategy will be created and acted upon quickly. Improvement of quality and performance is what TQM seeks. It involves constant re-examination and improvement of processes.

Now you see, people and process are certainly the two major requirements for TQM to work, so are the others such as customer, approach, communication and improvement.

How to successfully implement TQM in an organization?

As said earlier, TQM is a philosophy that

• Responsiveness to new ideas

To implement TQM in your organisation demands changes. And if your people are willing to take up these changes and better ideas, then half of the job is done already.

• Define everyone’s role in the TQM process

Now, we know that TQM is a process that defines every aspect of the organisation. As an employer, you must define your employees’ role in this TQM process. Keep them updated on the changes involved through constant and clear communication.

• Collect inputs

Survey to get inputs from all the parties connected with your organisation such as your employees, customers, vendors, suppliers etc.

• Recognise CSF

Critical Success Factor a.k.a CSF is those small factors that help your organization reach its business goal. There are tools to help you find your CSF for your organisation.

• Outline key processes

You must list down every process and subprocesses that are of high importance in your organization. This will help you measure improvement or shortcomings and help your work on them.

• Employee training

When implementing TQM, your employees will need constant and continuous training so that all know their place in the process.

• Conduct process analytics

You must measure the critical areas of your organisation and analyse how well are you on the path of implementing TQM in your organisation.

TQM may be simple common sense. But is it easy?

TQM implementation isn’t easy. It takes a lot of commitment from employees to the management level. TQM implementation may not be possible by simply handing over some listed documents to the employees and telling them to adhere to each one of them. Implementation of TQM can be a failure if there remains major uncertainty in the processes. The top management plays a major role in getting TQM to the core of an organisation. With proper strategies, it is certainly possible to reach the standard goals and move ahead by overall improvement. TQM in an organization comes with much effort and hard work, discipline and self-analysis, Imagine TQM as the irritant that creates pearls in the oysters. Now the hard part (or the fun part) is in obtaining that pearl.

Though emerged in the manufacturing sector, TQM is now applied in a wide range of industries. TQM is the continual process of detecting and reducing or eliminating errors to improve the quality of an organization’s outputs. The objective here is to do the right things continuously.