Project Failure Essay, Research Paper

Total Quality Management

TQM stands for Total Quality Management, which is a cooperative

form of doing business that relies on the talents and capabilities of both

labor and management to continually improve quality and productivity using

teams . (Joseph R. Jablonski Implementing TQM) The origin of TQM was

derived during the 1980’s by Dr. W. Edwards Deming and Dr. Joseph Juran.

Both developed TQM in Japan to revitalize their crumbling economy at the

time prior to the end of World War II. Japan began to flourish when Dr.

Deming and Dr. Juran introduced Statistical Quality Control (S.Q.C.) which

was a concept of management using statistical theory. Some of TQM’s

concepts were evident early on in the Penny Idea of 1913 developed by J.C.

Penny. The Penny Idea consisted of these seven components:

(1) To serve the public, as nearly as we can, to its complete

satisfaction;

(2) To expect for the service we render a fair remuneration and not

all the profit the traffic will bear;

(3) To do all in our power to pack the customer’s dollar full of

value, quality, and satisfaction;

(4) To continue to train ourselves and our associates so that the

services we give will be more and more intelligently performed;

(5) To improve constantly the human factor in our business;

(6) To reward men and women in our organization through

participation in what the business produces;

(7) To test every policy, method, and act in this way: Does it

square with what is just and right? The Penny Idea exercises customer

satisfaction, fairness, quality, value, associate training, and rewards for

performance.

TQM contains three ingredients necessary for a company to flourish:

(1) participative management;

(2) continuous process improvement; and

(3) the use of teams.

Participative management is developed from TQM practice. It is the

process of preparing employees with the skills and support to better

understand how they do business, make improvements, and make change happen

to allow participative management to flourish. Participative management is

not immediate. It’s momentum builds gradually with trust and feedback.

Continuous process improvement (CPI) means accepting small, incremental

gains as a step in the right direction toward Total Quality. Continuous

process improvement reinforces long term focus in the company. The third

ingredient necessary for a company to flourish is the use of teams. Teams

are designed into cross-functional types with the individual employees

aligned with the corporation’s goals for improvement. With these three

ingredients together, successful Total Quality Management can be achieved.

There are six main principles of Total Quality Management. These

include:

(1) Customer Focus;

(2) A Focus on Process as Well as the Results;

(3) Prevention versus Inspection;

(4) Mobilize Expertise of Workforce;

(5) Fact-Based Decision Making;

(6) Feedback.

Customer Focus emphasizes on making improvements so that the

customer is completely satisfied. In large organizations, employees are

usually surprised to be asked to contribute knowledge and ideas. By

getting different employee perspectives, the company can use many different

techniques to achieve customer satisfaction. A Focus on Process as Well as

the Results is the second TQM principle. This principle is based on the

fact of exceeding customer expectations and needs. Prevention versus

Inspection is the third principle of TQM. Here a structured approach to

problem solving is applied along with making the necessary investments to

understand the process and sources of process variation. The fourth

principle is Mobilizing Expertise of the Workforce. Employees like to be

appreciated and monetary rewards aren’t enough to keep one completely

satisfied. Therefore other incentives must exist in the workplace such as

social needs and comfortable atmospheres. Fact-Based Decision Making

involves u nderstanding the process employees work in and around everyday,

understanding the cause of their problems, and gathering information, data

on which they can base decisions for improving that process. The last

principle, Feedback, allows the other principles to succeed. It is the

most important because day to day innovation can be achieved.

Another important factor in achieving TQM is Process. Process is a

series of operations linked together to provide a result that has increased

value. Employees, customer influence, and resources come together to

process company outputs. Company resources include people, equipment,

material, money, and time. The results of the inputs are feedback to the

employees so they can improve upon work habits. More efficient methods are

achieved through this TQM process.

Implementation of TQM has a five-phase approach that has its main

emphasis on addressing tough issues and describing costs and rewards of

implementing change. The five-phase approach consists of: (1) Preparation;

(2) Planning; (3) Assessment; (4) Implementation; (5) Diversification.

Preparation

Preparation includes the companies mission statement, goals,

objectives, and draft policy in direct support of the main strategic plan.

Planning provides a foundation for the process of change of change within

the organization. Assessment involves of the exchange of information that

will be necessary to support the preparation, planning, implementation

phase. Implementation invests in the company so that the pay-off can be

achieved and work can progress. This is when objectives to change have

been overcome. Goals are being achieved on a regular basis.

Preparation, in more detail involves company decision making. Each

participant understands that their actions are equally important to the

actions of any other employee. Steven Covey describes in his book The

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, that it is important to emphasize

the fact to all employees involved in the process that quality is the

guiding force and that it must me implemented in every stage of the process.

Many companies that imply TQM, require that their employees attend TQM

seminars and classes before embarking on a project. Many employers choose

to employ those who have a vast knowledge of TQM when embarking on a

project so they can advise the entire staff on applying TQM methods to the

tasks at hand. Training the employees to apply the methods at all times

throughout the process, results in a workforce that seeks the same common

goal and applies the same methods to achieve it.

Throughout the training process much of the emphasis is placed on

decision making. This is important because TQM teaches that it’s not

necessarily the big-wigs of the corporation who are making the decisions.

Much of the decision making is decided from outside factors, especially

those that are referred by the customers who they are supplying needs to.

TQM methods imply the importance of outside factors upon decision making.

Thus, they find it important to gain the opinion of those who are directly

affected by outside factors. Surveys are one major way of doing this.

Companies send out numerous surveys to their customers in order to get a

feel of what the customers want. By understanding what the customers want,

the company can better understand what decisions they need to make in order

to please those who they are servicing. By understanding the needs of the

customers, the company allows itself to make its own decisions through

needs not speculation. Understanding immediately what the general public

considers quality, allows an individual company to comprehend the needs of

the customer and make changes to what the general public deems unacceptable

within the process, thus, locating the problem. By locating the problem

they can therefore fix it and present its customers with a quality product.

Planning

The second phase is planning systematic planning is a basic requirement for

effective quality management in all organizations. For quality to be

effective however it must be a part of a continuous review process which

has as its objective zero errors or defectives, through a strategy of never

ending improvement. The resources required will be made available, and that

the various assignments will be carried out. The answers to the questions

will generate the appropriate action plans. In quality planning it is

always necessary to review existing programs with in the organizations

functional areas and these may be compared with the results of the

preliminary analysis to appraise the strengths and the weaknesses in

quality throughout the business or operation.

The plan should include references to any:

Purchased material specifications;

Quality control procedures;

Product formulation or service type;

Process control;

Sampling and inspection procedures;

Packaging specifications

Miscellaneous, relevant procedures.

For projects relating to new products or services, or to new

processes, written quality plans should be prepared to define:

Specific allocation of responsibility and authority during the

different stages of project;

Specific procedures , methods and instructions to be applied

throughout the project;

Appropriate inspection , testing , checking or audit programs

required at various defined stages;

Methods for changes or modifications in the plan as the project

proceeds.

The quality plan should focus on providing action to prevent

profits leaking away through waste. If the quality management system does

not achieve this, then there is something wrong with the plan and it has

been set up or operated not with the principle. The whole approach should

be methodical, systematic and designed to function irrespective of changes

in management or personnel.

Control

The task of inspection or checking is taken by many to be the

passive one of sorting out the good from the bad, when it should be an

active device to prevent errors, defects, or nonconformance. In human

control it requires more care because it is frequently found that every

item, every word, every number, or every element of service is examined in

an attempt to stop errors or defects reaching or being seen by the customer.

Any control system based on detection of poor quality by poor

quality by postproduction inspection is unreliable, costly, wasteful, and

uneconomical. The measurement of inputs, outputs, and processes themselves

is a vital component of Total Quality Management.

Numbers and measurements are necessary for the processes to be

known. If inputs and the outputs can be measured and expressed in numbers,

then something is known about the process, and control is possible. The

first stage in using measurement as part of process control is to identify

precisely the activities, materials, equipment, etc., which will be

measured.

The size of measurement task must be managed so that a reasonable

parameter can be obtained. For example, some companies measure the

supplier performance or the growth rate of the company. The presentation of

this data is as important as getting the data because if you do not know

how to use the data then you should not bother to have it.

Decisions regarding the actual measurement process and the people

who will carry out the measurement must be made consciously if the activity

is to lead to improvements in quality.

For the measurements to be used for quality improvement, they must

be accepted by the people involved with the process being measured. The

simple self measurement and plotting, or how am I doing chart will gain

far more ground in this respect than a policing type of observation and

reporting system which is imposed on the process and those who operate it.

To conclude we do need measurement in order to control the TQM and

we need to make the right decisions after the results of the measurements.

We should chart the results in order to keep the control steady all the

time.

Implementation

Implementation is where we begin to see results from planning and

control of resources and simply after the plan its training of the relevant

people and start the implementation it self.

When we talk about training it seems like a lot of training but

actually it is important to review the magnitude of training realized by

each level within the organization. While specifics differ for each

company, I believe the allocation of training to be widely applicable.

Note that the majority of the time, hence the majority of training

resources, is allocated to specific skills training. Again, this emphasizes

the need for analyzing and interpreting the results from the assessment

Phase to spend pounds most effectively.

The implementation consists of AWARNESS, ORIENTATION, and SKILLS

AWARENESS

WHAT IS TQM?

HOW CAN IT HELP US?

OTHERS WHO HAVE SUCCEEDED

ORIENTATION

WHAT IS OUR PLAN?

WHAT IS MY ROLE?

WHAT WILL BE EXPECTED OF ME?

SKILLS

TEAM BUILDING

CUSTOMER SERVICE

EMPOWERMENT

CONCLUSION

The motives for pursuing quality differ from company to company. In

my opinion quality is changing the way we do business obviously improving

it. In an extremely competitive, price-conscious industry, an

organization’s need for TQM becomes readily apparent.

TQM can be called change as well but obviously it is not like

changing your hairstyle or dress code. It is changing the way a whole

organization works. The world it self is changing rapidly. A successful

business must be able to change with the world as well.

Sir Winston Churchill once said, there is nothing wrong with

change if it’s in the right direction to improve is to change, so to be

perfect is to have changed often .

Bibliography

Jablonski, Joseph. Implementing TQM. United States: Pfeiffer, 1992.

Bank, John. The Essence of Total Quality Management. UK: Prentice Hall

Int., 1992.

Oakland, John. Total Quality Management. United States: Nichols

Publishing Co, 1989.

Covey, Steven. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. US: Prentice

Hall, 1995