What is TQM?
Total Quality Management assumes maximum effectiveness and efficiency within an organization by putting in place processes and systems which will ensure that every aspect of its activity is aligned to satisfy customer needs and all other objectives without waste of effort and using the full potential of every person in the organization. This philosophy recognizes that customer satisfaction, health, safety, environmental considerations and business objectives are mutually dependent.
In TQM approach Statistical process control, employee involvement and team problem solving systems could be effectively combined and focused on management’s strategic goals. When an organization provides value even its customers had not anticipated it is wielding quality as a competitive weapon.
World class leaders consistently recognize that customer loyalty, employee commitment and operating efficiency are all essential elements of business success. They consistently listen to:
The voice of the customer: What customers need and value?
The voice of the employee: the sum total of what employees think, feel, need & believe?
The voice of the process: to continually tap into the process data that tell how work actually gets done in the organization so as to key work processes thereby controlling and improving results.
The tools of world class leadership are TQM tools. Total quality management is mind set. It’s 90% attitude. What is needed is training people in quality management techniques and empowering them to implement total quality approach in their work place.
Since truly competitive edge comes from people who know why they are there, what their job is and how it fits in to the larger picture. Therefore the training and retooling the mind becomes necessary.
Company ethos and the values of those who lead have to be of the highest order to command respect. The statements and actions of leaders have to be such that when managers translate these values in to daily practice; their subordinates respect them and align themselves with the organization. Employees believe in the chain of command. They know what the top management says is important but they study their immediate managers and supervisors to interpret what is real and what is just talk.
Breakthrough leadership calls on the organization to articulate a clear vision (where are we going?),a mission(What do we do?) and values(what do we stand for?)
TQM is a fact based management process. It requires everyone to analyze, understand and continuously improve their own work processes. The main issue in TQM approach is cultural change not skills training. What the system needs is people who are more resourceful, innovative and educated, who can operate in the new culture with its new values, new attitudes and life styles.
Organizational change through training is a slow process. Any input which is meaningful should cover all people involved in the process of change. Learning must be by actual doing, by experiencing, by living through a long series of situations in which a new behavior is made highly satisfactory and old ones not satisfactory.
The business leader’s most fundamental task is to align the organization’s employees and work processes with every changing customer requirements.
A TQM effort that involves people but fails to enhance competitive advantage is not functional. The key to making quality work is leadership that prepares the organization to withstand any competitive threat, from any source.
