The principles of total quality management

Posted by AmandaTom on September 2nd, 2013

TQM or total quality management represents a modern management system that although has been ignored in the past, it nowadays gains more and more adepts. The implementation of this kind of system can help any organization improve its customer focused parts by involving all of its employees in the process of manufacturing. TQM aims at improving all the aspects of an organization. Therefore, it generally uses effective communication, strategies and special data. Total quality management also integrates quality principles in the activities and the culture of organizations, so that its purpose can be reached in an effective manner.

One of the most important principles of TQM is the one according to which organizations should be customer focused. Regardless of what is being done for the improvement of the product’s quality, the ones who can determine the quality level of a product are the customers. Thus, whether managers decide to train their employees, to raise the quality improvement or to integrate new methods in the processes management, their clients will determine in the end if it was all worthwhile.

Another principle of total quality management is to ensure a proper environment for the employees to be able to develop. Fear must necessarily disappear from the work place and employees must be empowered in order to communicate more and therefore to do their best at the work place. In addition, the focus needs to be centered on process thinking. Moreover, all of the organization’s employees should know the mission of the place they are working in and the vision of the company, as this way they will give more when it comes to work.

The approach of TQM is systematic and strategic. Quality is its main goal and for this to happen a continual improvement process must always be in place. By using creative thinking, quality and analytical tools, the total quality management can make any organization more effective and efficient in its product or service manufacturing.

Another important principle of TQM is represented by the fact that this trains managers to only base their decisions on clear data, and not on situational or personal thinking. One last principle is that of communication in the sense that total quality management defines very well timeliness and communication methods and strategies.

In order to develop TQM in an organization, there are multiple strategies that can be used. One of them is the Elements Approach according to which one must take the key business processes and tools in order to determine improvement. This refers to using the quality function deployment, quality circles and also the statistical process control. Another strategy is the Guru one which is based on the guides that the leading thinkers gave. The last two total quality management implementation strategies are represented by the Organization Model Approach and by the Japanese Approach. The first one suggests the use of benchmarking so that different organizations can achieve excellence, while the latter suggests relying on Deming principles.

Online Project Management schools can help you learn more about TQM which is short for Total Quality Management by offering affordable, flexible yet professional courses on the subject which will allow you to change the future of your business.