Basics of TQM

Basics of TQM(Total Quality Management)

What is quality?

For Customer: It is the fitness of the product and services delivered to him / her for use.

For Manufacturer: It is conformance to those specifications that would lead to customer satisfaction.

In General terms: Quality is affordable excellence.

It is now widely believed that quality is meeting the needs of the customer nay delighting the customer. The focus on the customer is very important. It is the customer who defines the quality expectations in the market place. But today quality in terms of its management has several other important dimensions. These relate to cost. This at the supplier’s end leads to controlling and cutting costs while maintaining and  / or improving quality of products / services, which is possible through involvement of people, connected with the processes at all levels capable of giving consistently high level of performance. Through this comes effectiveness and efficiency. The word Total in TQM encompasses all activities and functions related to the management of quality- it covers man, machine, material, process and system. This can be managed by effective leadership on a continuous improvement basis only.

General Announcement

General Announcement

The regular classes commenced from 1st November 2010.

Following Training modules are available:

Spoken English for students, employees, teachers, housewives & businessmen

Personality Development

Interview Skills

Presentation Excellence

Communication Skills

Time management

Motivation

ISO 9001 Quality Management System

ISO 14001 Environmental Management System

OHSAS18001-Occupational Health and Safety Management System

Total Quality Management

5S Japanese techniques

COPQ (Cost of Poor Quality)

Q.C. Tools

Brain Storming

Cause & effect diagram

Control Charts

Data Collection

Market Leadership

Flow Diagram

Interface

Mindset

Scatter diagram

Problem Solving

Meeting

Quality Circles
Q.C.Story

How to communicate?

Communication Skills

Communication in simple terms is depicted below:

Convey your message to other people clearly.
Receive information from other people clearly.

Communication is successful when both sender and receiver are having total clarity about the message sent/received.

The two types of communication are

Auditory Means &

Non-verbal

Auditory Means:

Speech

Song

Tone of voice

Non-verbal:

Body language

Sign language

Touch

Eye contact

Media (pictures and graphics)

Sound and writing.

Communication skills are essential for successful relationship among employees and employer.

In order to maintain proper communication, every organization prepares a set of standing orders in place for smooth working. These standing orders comprise of a communication system between top management and employees. Internal communication is very important especially in process industries where lot of unit operations is involved. In such cases standard operating procedures, work instructions are prepared and displayed with utmost clarity.

Also there are communications channels open for sharing of information, like in-house magazines, etc.

Communication is an integral part of job interviews where the prospective candidate is judged by the various communication methods he applies during the interview.

In a nut shell one can not ignore communication right from childhood in order to achieve goals in life.

How to manage time?

Time Management

How to manage Time?

We often use the sentence "I don't have time." on many occasions. This means that we don't have absolutely no control on us as far as planning and execution are concerned. A person with no or poor time sense is fit for nothing and ends up in a mess.Time is as precious as money.Once it is lost it is lost for ever.

We give below some important points related to time management:

Planning:

For any task or activity, a scrupulous planning is very much essential.

Goal Setting: 

Unless a goal is set you can not achieve that in a given time frame.

Delegation:

One of the most important points is to delegate the things/tasks.

Time Analysis:

For any work carried out we have to assess the time taken for completion of the job.

Monitoring:

It is not sufficient to delegate the work but one has to monitor the progress of the task assigned.

Organizing:

One has to organize the work in a systematic manner in order that the results are good.

Scheduling:

One has to prepare a schedule of tasks with all relevant details pertaining to job assigned,name of the person and time frame that includes the responsibility.

Prioritizing: 

One of the foremost things for time management is prioritizing the jobs/tasks.
 

How to face an Interview?

How to face an Interview?

Interview is a tool used to select the right candidate for the right job.With the existing competition in job market mounting, facing the interview for a job is an imminent procedure for the aspiring candidates.There are varieties of interviews conducted by the organizations  to choose the right candidate.To name a few they are;personal interview,group interview,panel interview,etc.Making interview skills is a vital tool for applicants. Clarity in communication under pressure is very important. The ability to express yourself is very high. This can make the difference between being hired or not.

We all think about ourselves only during job search. We must remember that the prospective employer is equally looking for a successful candidate who can turn around their business. The employers wish to hire the right person to help the organization grow. As an aspiring candidate, you should be ready to communicate the skills you possess that set you apart from others. We give below some of the basic requirements as part of interview skills:

Skills & Knowledge:

We have to assess our own skills and qualifications and express relevant points intelligently.

Practice your pitch:

You have to convey to the potential employer why you are a perfect fit for their organization, in a time span of thirty seconds to one minute.

Dress Code:

Be professional and maintain the dress code as customers/clients see the employees who represent the company.

Punctuality:

It is always suggested that the candidate who is going to attend the interview reach the venue 15 minutes early to overcome anxiety.

Courtesy:

It is recommended to be professional the moment you enter the reception through the interview panel. This leaves a lasting impression on the people you meet.

Skills and Talents:

Carry extra copies of your resume to leave behind. Also carry transcripts, awards and rewards, major achievements on the job front,and photos of projects handled.

How to speak English?

How to speak English?

There are number of resources available to learn the English language:

1.     English newspapers

2.     English Television News

3.     Fiction

4.     Language Institutes

5.     Home Tutorials

6.     Online coaching

When a person of a particular state / region visits a different state / region he / she becomes uncomfortable due to the local language and this has necessitated having a common link language like English for overcoming the problem.

One should commit to learn a certain amount of new words in a fixed time frame. The newly learnt words are to be practiced through regular conversations. This is one of the potential means of learning English language. It is recommended to practice the vocabulary daily in order to speak correct English.

ONE OF THE KEY AREAS IN LEARNING ENGLISH IS PRACTICE.

The more we practice to speak in English the faster we learn the spoken language.

Why to speak English?

Why to speak English?

The world has become a small village with the advent of globalization. We speak 80-85% of English words daily in our day to day conversations irrespective of the region / location we belong to. English has become an integral part of our daily routine, and has emerged itself as global language. It is a link language to connect people across the globe. We can not conduct any transactions with out English. Today we see movies from all over the world with English subtitles and this has removed the language barrier in the entertainment area.

It is not difficult to learn the language but one should have tremendous amount of will power, commitment and dedication.

Attitude to learn the language is very much essential to get command over spoken English. 

Kukatpally Bhagyanagar Personality Development- A Synopsis

Kukatpally Bhagyanagar

Personality Development- 

A Synopsis

Every effort is bound to bring success and satisfaction proportional to the attempt. Personality development is essential for success in any sphere. The development of personality calls for hard work, dedication, commitment and internalization of what is learnt.

Meaning of Personality:

Your personality is the type of person you are, which is shown by the way you behave, feel and think

Whole nature or character of a person

Mind plays a vital role for determining the behavior, feelings and thinking of a person under certain circumstances. Appearance, mannerisms, and speech do not reflect the real personality. We should have a clear grasp of the nature of our mind, and how it functions.

Why we should know our mind?

In order to execute the resolutions we make, our mind should be well trained and disciplined. We should take control of our mind from wandering.

What are the functions of the mind?

Memory: Past experiences and memories present various possibilities before the mind. The mind stores the good and bad impressions and the sum total of these impressions determine our character.

Deliberation: The mind examines the many options presented before it and deliberates on several things.

Decision making: It is the aspect of a person to discriminate between the real and the unreal, the moral and immoral. The will power is very essential for personality development to make decisions.

Self-consciousness: Human life is dictated by events and circumstances of the world. Once the mind gets refined one gets to know the real source of self-consciousness and becomes balanced.

What is character?

The impressions in our mind determine how we behave at a given moment, how we behave at a given moment, how we respond to a given situation. The sum total of all our impressions determines our character.

Personality Development- Essential Qualities:

Positive thinking

Self confidence

Learning from mistakes

Self reliance

Service

Personal magnetism of a person is what impresses others and hence it is personality that counts. The person who influences is a dynamo of power and when the person is ready, he/she can do anything and everything he/she likes. The person who has control over his own mind definitely will have control over every other mind.

The cause of all miseries is that we think pleasure to be the ideal to strive for. After a time we find that it is not happiness, but knowledge, towards which we are going and that both pleasure and pain are great teachers, and that we learn as much from evil as from good.

Our mind gets impressions for every work that we do, every movement of the body, every thought we think. What we are is decided by the sum total of these impressions on the mind. A person’s character is determined by the sum total of these impressions. The character becomes good if good impressions influence. If we continuously hear bad words, think bad thoughts, does bad actions our mind will be full of bad impressions, and influence our thought and work.

We have to control our negative emotions in order to build our personality. We have to be friendly towards others, merciful towards those in misery, happy when people are happy, and indifferent to the wicked people.

Before trying to change the people around we have to change ourselves. We have to own the responsibility ourselves for the past, present and future. Let us not throw blame on others, for our faults. We make our own future by taking the whole responsibility on our shoulders. We are the creators of our own destiny.

Let us do well and be good towards the poor. Let us not have any selfish motives and be patient in carrying out the work assigned.

Improving our strength stepwise we may reach a state in which it shall be our privilege to do the most coveted and honored duties in life and society.

A person who helps the world helps himself. Thinking of ourselves first results in selfishness, being unselfish brings success.

A person who shows heroism shall be acknowledged great by the world. Having faith in oneself is one of the essential traits for personality development.

A person develops his personality by innovation but not imitation. Sympathy towards fellowmen is an ethical part of personality development.

All success in any line of work is the result of concentration. We are all equal and inequality should not be practiced.

One should go ahead with commitment and execute the tasks assigned for a fully developed personality.

Kukatpally Bhagyanagar Spoken English

Kukatpally Bhagyanagar 

Spoken English

Model Questions

We present below some of the most common questions we come across in our daily conversations.

How are you?

What is your name?

Where do you live?

What is your phone number?

Are you married?

What is your qualification?

Where do you work?

Are you married?

How many children you have?

What are their ages?

What is your father?

What is your mother?

How do you go to work?

Do you have a car?

How many brothers you have?

How many sisters you have?

Do your parents live with you?

Do you read an English newspaper daily?

Do you listen to English news regularly?

Do you watch English channels in television?

What is your wife?

What is your job?

How many years experience you have in the current job?

Have you visited any foreign country?

Do you have a valid Passport?

Are you ready to relocate?

Where did you study Engineering?

Upper Management Leadership

TQM

Upper Management Leadership

The need for upper management leadership stems from the need to create major changes. We do not know the extent to which Western Upper managers should take leadership of the quality function. The need varies from company to company. We also know that most upper managers are handicapped in charting an optimal course. They lack knowledge in depth as to what is going on in the quality function. What is recommended to these upper managers is:

Undertake a comprehensive review-an audit –of what is going on in the company with respect to quality. Based on the inputs secured from this audit, make the needed revisions in quality policies, organization, human relations, etc. including a decision on the extent to which upper management should take leadership of the quality function.

The comprehensive audit:

The areas to be audited should certainly include such major functional activities as: product development, purchasing and materials management, manufacture, inspection and test, marketing, and field service. One scenario for such audits is to schedule them about two months apart. For each area, and prior to the audit, a designated task force puts together some pertinent information including open questions of an upper management nature: policy information, organization and co-ordination, etc.

What should be the quality mission of the company?

What are the key qualities as seen by clients?

As to the key qualities, what is our state of competitiveness?

What opportunities do we have for quality improvement and reduction of quality related cost?

What can we do to make better use of the human resources in the company?

What threats are coming over the horizon?

The quality mission of the company is a good case in point. There is a school of thought which contends that the company’s mission is one of conformance to specifications, standards, etc. This contention is mostly valid when applied to the mission of individuals and departments in the company. However, it is mostly a serious misconception as to the company. The quality mission of the company is fitness for use.

Another broad category of questions turned up in the audits relates to organization and coordination. There are many ways in which actions taken by one department can create severe problems elsewhere in the company.

For example:

Some components purchased solely on the basis of price turn out to be the most expensive due to the quality problems they create during further processing.

The coordination needed to optimize company performance requires inter-departmental machinery of all sorts: early warning systems, communication, committees, etc. Upper management is well poised to create this machinery. However it must first learn what the needs are and what are the obstacles behind the needs.

A further and major element of upper management review will be that of the basic company organization structure of the quality. In West this organization structure features a large central quality department with numerous functions of quality planning, coordination and auditing. In many of the Western companies this same department also has direct command of the inspection and test personnel. All this contrasts sharply with the organization forms prevailing in Japan. There most of these quality- oriented functions are carried out by line personnel (who have the necessary training to carry out such functions). The Japanese do have quality departments but hey are small in terms of personnel and they perform a limited array of functions: broad planning, audit and consulting services.

To-date Selective Training

TQM

To-date Selective Training

In India training in the quality sciences has been largely confined to members of the specialized quality departments: quality managers, quality engineers, reliability engineers, inspection supervisors, and quality auditors. Such categories constitute only about 5% of the managerial and specialist forces in the companies. In contrast, the Japanese have trained close to 100% of their managers and specialists in the quality sciences. With such an imbalance in training there is no possibility for us to overtake the Japanese.

Variation in Training needs:

The major commonalities include

-The universal sequence of events for improving quality and reducing quality-related costs. (Creation of beneficial change)

-The universal feedback loop of control (Prevention of adverse change)

-Fundamentals of data collection and analysis

Other training needs vary widely. Here are some examples relative to specific functional departments:

Production design: Design review, reliability analysis, maintainability analysis, safety analysis, failure mode and effect analysis, fault tree analysis, design of experiments and analysis of variance, and life cycle costing.

Purchasing: Vendor survey, vendor qualification, audit of decisions and vendor rating.

Process Engineering: Process capability analysis, quality cost analysis, process control, concepts of operator self-control and self-inspection, measurement error, design of experiments and analysis of variance.

Production: Quality cost analysis, process capability analysis, concepts of operator self-control and self-inspection, process control, equipment maintenance, audit of decisions and trouble shooting.

Massive training requires thorough planning:

The need for such planning becomes evident when we realize that:

The massive program will take years-even a decade to work its way through the hierarchy.

The special needs of each functional department and job category should be identified and provided for.

The costs are substantial.

It is recommended that:

Establish a special task force to do the planning on a company-wide basis. The task force should consist of selected line managers plus a training manger and a quality manager. The mission of the task forces is to:

Identify the subject matter of the training needed by each job category

Identify possible sources for training materials and for leaders to do the training

Estimate the investment required in money, facilities and personnel.

Recommend a program including training media, locations, leaders and a time schedule.

A major limitation in setting up these training programs is a shortage of adequate training materials. We need badly an extensive array of training materials which cover management of quality for all functions and at all levels. Moreover, these materials should be designed to facilitate in-house training or at least, training by local leaders. Otherwise, companies will face the heavy burden of sending managers to distant cities, at high cost an with associated interruptions in work schedules.

A Massive Training Program for Us

TQM

A Massive Training Program for Us

We are not talking about training in technology. Indian designers, process engineers, production supervisors, workers etc; are quite as well trained as any one else in science, technology, machines, tools, methods, etc.

What we are talking about is training in the ‘quality sciences’ or ‘quality disciplines’ – a body of quality-oriented concepts, methods, tools, techniques and skills through which we manage the quality function. We can best understand the nature of the quality sciences by looking sideways at the finance function.

The financial analogy:

All companies, no matter what is their product, exhibit wide commonalities with respect to finance. They receive income from multiple sources and they spend money for multiple purposes. They face sever consequences if they fail to keep income and outgo in proper balance, both short run and long run. The companies can help to avoid these consequences by making use of the tools of financial management. These tools have been evolved over the centuries and consist of such things as budgets, return on investment evaluation, profit statements, balance sheets, sales analysis, expenses and cost reports, and financial audits. Through such tools, trained managers can plan the financial direction of the company, review actual performance and make decisions accordingly.

Within the quality function there is a corresponding array of tools for managers, and a corresponding infrastructure, as well as an associated body of specialists. The striking difference between the worlds of finance and quality is in the extent to which the managers are trained in use of the respective available tools.

Managing Finance:

Finance planning

Budget

Fund flow

Finance Control

Return on investment evaluation

Balance sheet/Sales Analysis

Cost Control/Expenses Control

Finance Improvement

Cost Reduction

Profit Improvement

Managing Quality:

Quality Planning

-Determine who the customers are

-Determine customer needs

-Develop product features to respond customer needs

-Develop processes able to produce the product features

-Transfer plans to operating forces

Quality Control

Evaluation of actual product performance

Compare actual performance to product goals

Act on differences

Quality Improvement

Establish infrastructure

Identify the improvement

Project

Establish project teams

Provide the team with resources, training & motivation

-diagnose causes

-stimulate remedies

-establish controls to hold the gains

Fundamental Changes for us

TQM

Fundamental Changes for us

We keep getting better but the pace is not fast enough-the Japanese pace is faster. Clearly we must accelerate our pace and should start this promptly. For us to catch up with the Japanese (and hopefully to overtake them) requires some very fundamental changes in our approach. The really fundamental changes to be considered by us have a marked resemblance to those already undergone by the Japanese:

Structured annual improvements in quality

A massive quality oriented training program

Upper management leadership of the company’s approach to product quality

Annual quality improvement for us

Of all the fundamental changes needed, the structured annual improvement program has the shortest lead time. It can be made effective this year or any year. It provides tangible results in a matter of months.

The broad objective for these improvement programs should be to develop among all managers, specialists and ultimately workmen:

1. A sense of responsibility for active participation (for making improvements)

2. The skills needed to make improvements

3. The habit of annual improvements so that each year the company’s quality is significantly better than it was a year ago.

Large scale integrated circuits – a case example

To illustrate the limitations of responsibility and skills, consider the case of silicon chips which carry the large scale integrated circuits (LSI) used in computers. Data which suggest that Japanese yields in manufacture of LSI chips are higher than those of the west by a factor of two or three. If these limited data are representative of the entire industry it would be very serious indeed.

Let us examine the practices of some western companies relative to improving the yields. Ask the upper managers:” Who is responsible for improving the yields?” The usual answer “The process engineers”. Then if you ask to process engineers, their reaction is 1) they have never been given any such responsibility and 2) in any case they would have no time to carry out such a responsibility since they are under intense pressure to plan the manufacture of a never ending procession of new designs of LSI chips.

Beyond the reaction of these upper managers and process engineers there is an added reaction. The process engineers would be unlikely to improve the yields even if they had the time. The limitation is not in the technology.-they are well trained in the pertinent technology. The limitation is mainly in the problems of data collection and analysis. The LSI manufacturing process involves numerous steps each exhibiting numerous variables. The crux of the solution is to discover which the key variables are and how they affect product quality. It is a complex exercise in design of experiments and analysis of variance, and the process engineers lack the training needed to carry out this exercise.

There is universal sequence of events for making quality improvements. This sequence is built around the project concept. A project is problem scheduled for solution. All improvement (breakthrough) is made project by project and in no other way.

In practice, the company sets up a committee of managers to guide the annual quality improvement program. The committee solicits nominations for projects, screens them, and chooses the projects to be tackled in the year ahead.

For each project a team or task force is appointed. This team mobilizes the necessary company resources to

Study the symptoms of the defects and failures.

Theorize as to the causes of these symptoms

Test the theories until the cause is known

Stimulate remedial action by the appropriate line department.

This universal sequence is now well known and is widely sued. The Japanese make extraordinary application of this sequence, annually. In the rest of the world, the application varies widely from company to company. Some companies have well structured annual quality improvement programs. Most do not. In companies which lack such structured programs any improvements must come from the initiatives of specific middle mangers. It takes a good deal of determination by such middle managers to secure results since they lack the legitimacy and support that comes from an official, structured program.

In the early 1950s the Japanese faced rim reality. No alarm signal is as inconsistent to industrial managers as inability to sell the product. Since their major limitation was quality, not price, they directed their revolution at quality. They learned how to improve quality became proficient at it and have acquired the habit. Their managers are equally at home in meeting current goals and in making improvements for the future.

During most of those same years the grim reality facing the Western countries have been price competition, not quality competition. The improvement programs of the West reflected this reality. (For example, much labor intensive manufacture was subcontracted to countries in Asia)