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Total Quality Management—Defined

    Total Quality Management (TQM) is management strategy that focuses on producing quality-centric products or services concentrating on customer needs, striving to provide a data-driven decision process, and a management environment that stresses continuous improvement. Total, as utilized in TQM’s title implies that everyone in an organization or enterprise is required to be included and an active participant in the quality improvement process. Quality implies that it is the customers’ needs that define the mission of the organization and not simply fulfilling a need in the marketplace. In other words, quality must have a purpose beyond simply building functionally adequate products or providing a basic service to minimum standards. The management component in TQM infers that TQM is an on-going process that is a function within the organization requiring its own resources and oversight of which everyone and each department contributes to. It is important to note that TQM is not a simple managerial task that is culled from textbooks to be used with other managerial techniques but rather, a process that is integrated into the decision-making and performance measuring activities of a company or enterprise. TQM is a managerial style and process not constrained by time or that is completed after simple objectives are met; it is not a project.

TQM’s Developmental Past

    TQM has its origins in the work of Dr. Deming who had an academic and professional background in statistics. While American corporations were not interested in applying the TQM principles he developed he found a much more receptive audience in post World War II Japan where he was recruited among other experts to assist in the rebuilding of Japan. After being exposed to Deming’s use of statistical tools embodied within his TQM concepts, corporate Japan began to apply these principles to its manufacturing and production facilities with great success. The testament to TQM’s effectiveness has long been recognized by Japan’s rapid rise to its unrivaled status as the world’s quality leader with such processes as the Toyota Production System (TPS) and such concepts as Kaizen, or long-term, incremental improvements. During the 1970s, after American companies began to be overtaken by their Japanese counterparts, especially the automotive industry, corporate America began applying TQM concepts in order to stay competitive. While other quality systems have gained prominence in recent years, most notably Six Sigma, they all owe their basic structure to the principles of TQM as first proposed by Dr. Deming. Additionally, many of them, again such as Six Sigma, can be viewed as a comprehensive extension of TQM.

TQM and Globalization

Many might argue that globalization, with its strategic use of outsourcing and off-shoring, would lead to a breakdown in quality since primary manufacturing and production process are often removed to remote locations. However, the opposite has been the case. Globalization has led to greater emphasis on quality because its primary operator is the introduction of greater competition on a global scale. Thus, organizations in the United States, rather than competing on a national basis where the number and scope of competitors might nominal at best, are suddenly forced to develop products or services that are regularly being outperformed by companies in China or India. Since these companies in China and India have cost-advantage over their North American counterparts they are able to commit more resources to their production processes resulting in greater quality products or services. The result is obvious—North American companies suddenly must do the same in order to keep relevant and competitive. TQM is an effective managerial process that travels well in a global business environment because it ensures that often far-flung operations retain the same performance metrics and processes as the others.

Managerial Styles Compared

    One of the most common managerial styles is the objective oriented style commonly referred to as the Management by Objectives approach. While this managerial style can be effective in a smaller organization it does not scale well and creates a harmful competitive environment within the organization department by department. TQM, on the other hand, scales very well and is ideally suited to the multi-functional enterprise that is most common in today’s business environment.  Another common managerial style is the results driven approach otherwise known as the Management by Results style. This managerial style does not reinforce long-term strategic planning and inordinately elevates the importance of past results. TQM is primarily focused on current business data and reflects on ways to continually elevate results in comparison to current results.   One especially short-term managerial style that is, unfortunately, quite common is the exception oriented style termed Management by Exception. In layman’s terms this is commonly called putting out fires rather than producing real results. This type of management focuses on problems as they occur rather than in developing strategies to prevent them. TQM develops processes to continually prevent exceptions in the production and manufacturing processes of the enterprise so that its managers can focus on current and future results.