Total Quality Management: Definition, Phases and Principles

What is Total Quality Management?

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a process of continuous effort by the management as well as employees of the company to improve processes, products, and services for customer satisfaction. 

By fostering a collective commitment among employees to enhance work culture, processes, services, systems, and more, it paves the way for sustained success in the long run.

Phases of  Total Quality Management (TQM)

Total Quality Management (TQM) is divided into four phases that are Plan, Do, Check, and Act. It is also called PDCA Cycle.
PDCA Cycle

1. Planning Phase

It is the first and most crucial phase in Total Quality Management (TQM). In this phase, employees come up with their problems and queries which need to be addressed. A proper plan or road map is prepared to find the solution to all the queries and problems.

2. Doing Phase

In this phase, employees develop a detailed solution to the problems that they identified in the Planning Phase. Different strategies are implemented at this stage to overcome the challenges faced by the employees.

3. Checking Phase

In this phase, an audit is done to see if our initiated plan worked. It helps to identify problematic parts of the current process and eliminate them in the future.

4. Acting Phase

It represents the final stage of the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle. In this phase, the previously developed plan comes into the force and employees document their results and prepare themselves to address other problems.

Principles of Total Quality Management (TQM)

There are total 8 principles of Total Quality Management (TQM):

Principles of Total Quality Management (TQM)

1. Customer Focused

This principle tells us that the customer determines the level of quality of the product. So, to meet customer expectations, the product's quality should be customer-centered.

2. Total employee involvement

This principle tells us that the quality of the product can only be improved if all the employees are involved quickly and work towards a common goal.

3. Process Centred

This principle tells us that employees should focus on process thinking. The steps required to carry out the process should be continuously monitored to detect even minor defects.

4. Integrated System

This principle tells us that different systems/departments should be integrated to improve work efficiency.

5. Strategic and Systematic approach

This principle tells us that strategic and systematic approaches should be employed in the system to achieve an organization's vision, mission, and goals.

6. Continous improvement

This principle tells us that to improve the quality of the product, continuous improvement in both analytical and creative ways is necessary.

7. Fact-based decision making

This principle tells us that to know how well an organization is performing, data on performance measures are necessary.

8. Communications

This principle tells us that effective communication plays a vital role in maintaining morale and in motivating employees at all levels. Communication involves strategies, methods, and timeliness.

Advantages of Total Quality Management (TQM)

  • It helps to minimize product defects which reduce product recalls and helps to build customer trust.
  • It helps in higher customer satisfaction which leads to increased market share, and revenue growth.
  • It helps to save costs in customer support, product replacements, field service, and the creation of product fixes.

Popular Posts

Conducting Polymers: Definition, Examples, Properties and Applications

Image
What are Conducting Polymers? As the name suggests organic polymers that conduct electricity are known as conducting polymers. They are also known as intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs) and they have alternating single and double bonds along the polymer backbone (conjugated bonds) or that are composed of aromatic rings such as Phenylene, naphthalene, anthracene, pyrrole, and thiophene which are connected through carbon-carbon single bonds. Examples: Polyacetylene, Polypyrrole, Polyaniline, etc What is the reason behind conducting nature of these polymers? Conducting polymers comes in two forms that are doped conducting polymers and non-doped conducting polymers. The conductivity of non-doped conjugated polymers is due to the existence of a conductivity band similar to a metal. In a conjugated polymer, three of the four valence electrons form strong sigma bonds through sp² hybridization where electrons are strongly localized. The remaining unpaired electron of each carbon atom re
Read more

Crime Scene: Definition, Types and Characteristics

Image
What is a Crime Scene ? A place where the crime is committed or where the maximum physical evidence related to crime is found is known as a crime scene. A crime scene is a starting point of the investigation which provides information about the suspect and the victim. This helps to reconstruct the crime and fast resolution of the case. It is noted that the crime scene is not limited to a single place but may extend to a wider area depending upon the nature of the crime committed. For example, In a murder case where murder is done at one place and the body is disposed on another place. In this case, we have two crime scenes that give information about the crime. Types of Crime Scene Based on evidence found on the crime scene: 1. Primary Crime Scene The crime scene where the actual crime occurred or where more usable pieces of evidence were found is known as the primary crime scene. For example, A murder scene, theft, assault, etc. 2. Secondary Crime Scene The crime scene which is some
Read more

Documentation of the Crime Scene: Step by Step

Image
What is documentation of the crime scene and Why it is done? After securing the crime scene, the next most important step is documentation of the crime scene because documentation permanently records the crime scene and its physical evidence. Documentation should be done without any wastage of time as the scene and its evidence may get altered over time. The documentation should be done innovatively and the originality of the crime scene should be maintained and documentation should not have pauses or breaks, it should remain constant till the whole crime scene is documented. There are four main tasks of documentation that is note-making, photography, videography , and sketching . It should be noted that all four tasks are necessary and none is a substitute for another. For example, notes are not substitutes for photography, video is not a substitute for sketching, etc. Following are the sequence for crime scene documentation: 1. Note making Documentation of crime scene in the f
Read more