Please post a response to each of the following. As it relates to the Total Quality Management paper below

What is poor quality? What are some effects of poor quality?

How do the effects of poor quality affect an organization?

What were some of the most important ideas about Quality Management from the paper below?

How might this be applied to business life?

Total Quality Management

Introduction

The demands and requirements of the people are increasing and they require high quality in the products and services. For total quality management, the first thing that management has to do is to educate its employees about it. Management has to understand why the system needs total quality management. Economics is being driven by quality in this competitive world. Every organization should be made aware of the concept of total quality. TQM provides a competitive edge for the company and helps it to fight the global competition. It improves the economic performance of the company. It also helps in organizational improvement.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM is a concept which helps in managing business in which there is assurance for quality at every stage from products and services to after sales services. TQM increases customer satisfaction and provides products at competitive prices and variety. This system is built on the basis of motivation, awareness, understanding and commitment of all the employees. To implement the TQM approach in an organization, it requires regular update of information and technology. The quality improvement process proves to be progressive for the success of the company. Each person in the organization should understand his role and perform the work accordingly.

There are various elements that are essential for implementing the TQM approach in the organization. The customer focus is the main element of TQM. An organization should always produce the products according to the customer requirements. Customer satisfaction should be the main aim of the business. For this, there should be improvements in the quality. The dedication and commitment of the management is also essential for quality management. Also, employees at all levels should be involved in TQM process. For proper implementation of the TQM approach, the work environment should be motivating, interesting and challenging (Williams, 1994).

The quality management process also requires continuous reward and feedback system. It should encourage the employees to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. For TQM approach, it is very essential that the organization should be properly informed and update its knowledge from time to time. There are many approaches for implementing the concept of TQM in the organization. They are quality control & high technology circles, statistical process control, automation, process improvement, process re-engineering, total preventive maintenance, customer aided design etc.

Impact of globalization on quality

Globalization has created a great impact on the quality of the products and services. It has increased competition among the companies which has led to high quality production in the market. The competitors try to produce the best quality for the customers and satisfy them to the best possible extent. Globalization leads to quality improvement in the product quality. As the companies expand their business at a global level, there is increase in demand for the JIT (just-in-time) management which helps in implementing the TQM approach. This leads to fast growth in the activities and push the companies more towards globalization. So, globalization makes things fast and embraces the TQM philosophy. Globalization leads to innovative and creative technologies for satisfaction of the customer demands (Hakes, 1991).

Compare & Contrast

The quality focused management styles have totally changed the concept of quality. There have been many changes related to the quality levels. In the traditional management styles, the main focus was on the internal activities. It was assumed that whatever goods and services are produced by the organization with its best efforts is the highest quality. But in quality focused management styles, customer is the main focus of the organization. The level of quality is decided by the customer and the products and services are manufactured as per their requirements. The main objective is to provide customer satisfaction.

In the traditional management style, it was believed that if problems occurred in the quality of the product, it was due to inefficient work of the labor. But, on the other hand, in quality focused management style, it is believed that quality is the responsibility of the management. So, the organization gives middle management the responsibility of managing the quality of the product. In traditional management style, whole organization does not participate in quality management. While in quality based management style, functional teams are organized and the whole organization works as a single unit for managing the quality of the product or service (Total quality management vs. traditional management style, 2008).

In traditional management styles decisions related to quality are made on the basis of various assumptions but, in quality based management styles they are made only on the basis of facts and figures. There is also assurance for quality in the quality based management styles. It is a continuous process which leads to cyclic thinking in the organization. This concept has totally changed the thinking styles and cultural patterns of the organizations.

There are also certain similarities between the two management styles. Both add to the competitive advantage of the company and lead improvements in the quality. Both the management styles bring value to the organization and help it in delivering quality products.

Applying to my organization

For improving the quality of products and services provided by my organization TQM is an effective technique. It can be implemented by adopting various approaches meant for TQM like automation, Just-In-Time, process improvement, management tools and techniques, process re-engineering etc. For properly implementing the system, the organization has to plan the structure in a systematic way. First the organization should focus on quality planning which will provide a guideline to proceed further. After this, the organization will come to quality control which is an important step. In this step it will use the above mentioned approaches to control and keep a check on the quality of the products & services. This will lead to quality improvement and increase the satisfaction of the customers. The organization should identify the problems related to the quality and then take the required steps for its improvement. The process also requires strong leadership in the organization (Adams, 2001).

References

Adams, P.E. (2001). How Does Total Quality Management Apply to an Organization? Retrieved March 3, 2009, from http://www.morebusiness.com/running_your_business/management/d1001270886.brc

Hakes, C. (1991). Total Quality Management: The Key to Business Improvement: a Pera International Executive Briefing. Published by Springer.

Total quality management vs. traditional management style (2008). Retrieved March 3, 2009, from http://www.leanmanufacturingconcepts.com/TQMVsTraditionalManagementStyle.htm

Williams, R.L. (1994). Essentials of Total Quality Management. Published by Amacom.