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Hagan further notes that TQM’s basic strategy is ‘to integrate primary management techniques, existing improvement efforts, and technical tools into a disciplined approach focusing on how to improve the way work gets done’. This directly addresses customer satisfaction, the elimination of chronic waste, and the reduction of excess variability in performance. TQM involves the management of four basic pillars of business:
1. Customer - "management must become customer-driven, for both the external and the internal customer. This means anticipating and meeting or exceeding the customers’ needs and desires.
2. Quality - with quality being as defined by the customer, it must become the number one priority of the enterprise, taking precedence over all other considerations, specifically over cost and schedule.
3. Continuous process improvement - lasting improvement can only be obtained by focusing on the process.
4. People - these are the important part of any process. They should be treated more as a resource rather than as capital177.
However, as the author has argued elsewhere, there are five rather than four basic pillars of TQM178:
1. Continuous improvement 2. Quality measurement 3. Customer is king 4. Everyone participates 5. Aligned corporate systems
The argument being that the five principal elements must work in unison for a quality transformation to take place.
Bergman, in his definition of TQM, takes a three dimensional perspective. Firstly, he defines ‘Total’ as meaning that it is not only external customers that count. To achieve high external quality it is necessary also to satisfy the internal customers. Every process in the company has customers. All of these have to be satisfied in order to be able to do a good job. Secondly, he notes that TQM is about leadership and employee participation. It involves cultural change towards an organisation which is strongly customer focused and strongly committed to continuous improvement in all of its processes. The central part of today’s quality he ascribes to the customer’s orientation. Thirdly, he proceeds to state that the quality strategy of an organisation has to be revered by everyone in the organisation. Everyone is responsible for a process. Everyone should make improvements based on facts interpreted in the light of process knowledge. Everyone has to be involved. Thirdly, he advocates the importance of top management commitment in achieving TQM. ‘Top management has to create respect for quality and the quality strategy of the organisation’179. To Bergman’s list the author will add the need for demonstrated and committed leadership from top management, particularly the Chief Executive Officer, who must be seen to be overtly involved in the TQM programme.
Foster and Smith180 view quality management as a generic term that includes all of the activities, whether clinical or non-clinical, that are being employed to improve the quality of service to patients and customers, but more specifically, they further defined QM as a strategy for ensuring a process of planned organisational change which aims to anticipate and meet internal and external customer/patient requirement as efficiently and effectively as possible181. However, the major premise of TQM is the definition of quality by Juran as "fitness for use" which may be seen to be the key to business success in the 1990’s; it is this, rather than price or delivery, that holds the key to competitive advantage182. The aim is to have quality built-in rather than inspected-in, with quality being the responsibility of all employees, rather than the exclusive presence of a specialist department. This will lead to costs falling because of a decline in failure rates, warranty costs, returned goods, and a reduction in the costs of
external customer. In addition, those employees who do not have direct contact with external customers are encouraged to view their colleagues as internal customers184. Wilkinson et al, quoting Smith, state that every organisation member has a customer for his work; the department which receives the data, the next operator in the process line, the users of the service, the boss and the secretary, who is the customer depends on the transaction. Yet each transaction must have an identified customer. Without a customer response it is impossible to discern whether value has been added185. Thus, Wilkinson et al suggest that all employees should be seen as part of a chain, from supplier through to external customer; a chain which includes both line and support functions. In this way, TQM attempts to emphasise that all employees are ultimately involved in serving the final customer, with that quality mattering at all stages and with teamwork and co-operation being deemed to be essential186. Wilkinson et al, suggest that there are mainly two aspects to TQM; ‘hard and soft’. The former involves a range of production techniques, including statistical process control, changes in the layout of design, processes and procedures of the organisation, just-in-time inventory control and, most importantly, the seven basic TQM tools used to interpret data: process flow charting, tally charts, pareto analysis, scatter diagrams, histograms, control charts, and cause and effect analysis187.
The ‘soft’ side of Total Quality Management is largely concerned with creating customer awareness within an organisation and as such could represent a form of internal marketing188. Thus, in manufacturing companies, programmes may be run to show the workforce the end product, i.e. outcome measures, while in service organisations there is a major emphasis on customer-care programmes; thus highlighting the importance of the soft side of TQM. In highlighting the soft side of TQM, Oakland189 states that "TQM is concerned with moving the focus of control from outside the individual to within, the objective being to make everyone accountable for their own performance, and to get them committed to attaining quality in a highly motivated fashion". The assumptions a director or manager must make in order to move in this direction is that people, employees do not need to be coerced to perform well, but that employees want to achieve, accomplish and influence activity and challenge their abilities190.
Within such a context there are clear implications for the workforce in the message that "quality is everyone’s business. Firms are urged to move away from supervisory approaches to quality control towards a situation where employees themselves take responsibility191. Therefore, the soft side of TQM puts emphasis on the management of human resources in the organisation192. Nonetheless, at the initial stages of TQM (one to two years) quality should be the responsibility and ownership of top management. This would ensure its understanding of TQM and thus, win its commitment and leadership to the process as a precursor to the involvement of first level operatives.
Foster et al193, echoing the soft aspect of TQM, see TQM as an effective approach to improving managerial and organisational performance both in the short and long term. They infer that total quality management aims to continuously improve the quality of service by:
setting standards to meet and then surpass service requirements measuring the standards of service provided
creating organisational policies, procedures and practices focused on service standards
eliminating wasted time, effort and resources by achieving those standards first time
establishing relevant service monitoring and review procedures194. However, their definition seems to imply that, in TQM, performance is defined as the quality of service delivered to customers by meeting previously specified standards. This may not necessarily be so, because some organisations set standards based on
specified standards does not necessarily guarantee a quality service or product. High quality service involves adherence to customer expectations, not a compromise between what the customer wants and what the organisation is comfortable with providing. Macdonald and Piggot, quoting Ishikawa, state that: "quality management is a revolutionary management philosophy characterized by the following strategic goals"195:
seek quality before profits
develop employees’ infinite potential through education, delegation and positive support
build a long-term consumer orientation, both outside and inside the organisation
communicate throughout the organisation with facts and statistical data and use management as motivation
develop a company-wide system focusing all employees on the quality related implications of every decision and action at all stages of development of the product or service, from design to sales
Ishikawa notes that in all types of organisations it is necessary to know about customers’ likes, tastes, and applications196. In addition, organisational functions should recognize the internal supplier-customer relationships, with the next process being the customer. However, there are many in the quality movement who argue against the idea of an internal customer, because it takes away the ‘focus’ on the end customer197. This is evidenced by Motorola, widely regarded as one of the quality success stories, firmly rejects the "internal customer" approach arguing that there is only one customer; the ‘person’ who pays the bills198.
Kanji notes that the modern concept of quality is defined as conformance to requirements, and requirements are defined as the task to be accomplished in meeting customer needs. In general he notes that TQM is defined as follows199:
Quality - Is to satisfy customer’s requirements continually. Total Quality - Is to achieve quality at low cost.
TQM - Is to obtain total quality by involving everyone’s daily commitment. Kanji further suggests that TQM is about continuous performance improvement; of individuals, of groups, and of organisations. What differentiates TQM from other management processes, he notes, is the emphasis on continuous improvement. TQM, he argues, is not a quick fix; but is about changing the way things are done - for ever200. In order to improve performance, Kanji suggests that, organisations need to know ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do it’, ‘have the right tools to do it’, be able to measure performances, and to receive feedback on current levels of achievement. TQM provides this by adhering to a set of general principles. These are discerned as being201:
(1) delight the customer (2) management by fact (3) people-based management (4) continuous improvement
Furthermore, Kanji advocates a four-sided pyramid principles together with core concepts which he argues need to be present in any TQM environment:
FIGURE 11
PYRAMID PRINCIPLES OF TOM
WANAOKMKOT W FAC {
Source: Kanji and Asher (1993) ‘TQM Process: A Systematic Approach’, Cartax Publishing
However, a number of studies202,203 seem to challenge the pro-TQM stance taken by Kanji. They argue that TQM has historical roots in Taylorism and Fordism in ways which lead to dysfunctional results. Thus, in practice TQM is an extension of the
restrictions, government agency restrictions, union work rules, removal of employee rights, and institute the idea of letting management manage’, without any recourse to improving the employees’ welfare204. Therefore, TQM is not about changing the ways things get done but a repackaged Taylorist agenda that would exist as a conspiracy to de-humanise the worker using self pretentious principles such as teamworking, empowerment and motivation205.
Cuylenberg sees TQM as part of the corporate culture; "TQM must be accepted as a natural way of working by every employee. In such a culture every employee cannot help but be involved..., this would involve an awareness of the hundreds of business processes which combine to make any company work"206.
Similarly, to Shirley207, TQM is a cultural based approach. He notes, that for TQM to succeed management must operate an open and participative management style. Management must communicate with employees and, more importantly, must trust and respect them. All too often in the U.K., managers treat members of the workforce as if they were incapable of anything except exercising a limited range of mechanical skills. Thus, in this kind of environment to ensure the cultural change takes place there must be a fundamental review of the:
approach to quality determination and improvement scope of the quality programme
philosophy of quality assurance standards of work
review mechanisms
Shirley argues that an adherence to these key elements, will ensure a change from retrospective quality control to the ‘right first time’ philosophy208.
there must be clear communication in each direction
it requires continuing leadership from management throughout the process
all disciplines, all levels and therefore, all staff must be involved quality activities must be consumer focused
it requires a good quality system which allows a coherent and co ordinated strategy to be put into action.
However, Dumaine210 argues that for culture change to happen, it must come from the bottom, and the CEO must guide it. Organisations have to start with the premise that people at all levels want to contribute and make the business a success. This means that the CEO must live the new culture and become the walking embodiment of it?11. He must also spot and celebrate managers and employees who exemplify the values he wants to inculcate212. This would ensure that quality becomes a way of life that permeates every part and all aspects of organisational activities. The essence of TQM lies in its ability to bring together, under a single integrated approach, four areas of organisational life of equal importance213:
FIGURE 12 Tasks Methods Teams Leadership Information Internal Market
Source: Adrian Wilkinson and Barry Witcher- Managcment Decision 1991, pages 46/51
However, recent events at Milliken’s European division at Wigan, seem to suggest that at the present time TQM is still an aspiration rather than an ideal for most companies214. The Managing Director of Milliken, Mr. Jeans, was quoted as saying, ‘Some companies have been working at quality for 30 years... To think we could catch up in a decade would be lunacy. Like every company embarking on the quality voyage, Milliken finds that the further it advances, the longer the road seems. Cresting the top of one problem reveals the foothills of the next’215. Similarly, within the National Health Service, which started experimenting with TQM since 1989, it is possible to visualise the confusion, the patchy traces of quality within departments while, for the meantime, TQM constitutes a mere ‘aspiration’.
systems are complex but, with effort, understandable. Thirdly, most people are motivated to work hard and do well. Fourthly, simple statistical methods can determine the faults in the production systems and will produce information to enable the continuous improvement of those processes to be undertaken216. Thus, TQM represents an application of quality assurance to every company activity, so that zero defects are achieved through continuously improving customer satisfaction by quality- led-companywide management217.
Atkinson defines TQM as a strategic approach to producing the best product and service possible through constant innovation218. This is a recognition that concentrating not only upon the production side but also on the service side of a business is tantamount to success. TQM, he suggests, is an organisation-wide commitment ‘to getting things right’. However, Burr219 sees TQM as a concept rather than a single programme or method. The concept of TQM, he argues, is based on two precepts:
(1) Planning - Any organisation will function most effectively if the efforts of all of its people are directed at a common objective, goal or vision. Given this common objective, each individual’s efforts must be directed to specific actions that will, collectively, accomplish the overall objective.
(2) Communication - Every individual in an organization must contribute to its success. Through ‘continuous and effective communication’. He goes further to suggest, what he calls, ‘six common manifestations’ of TQM220:
(1) TQM starts at the top
(2) TQM requires total involvement (3) TQM focuses on the customer (4) TQM uses teams
(5) TQM requires training for everybody
For Lemmermeyr221 people are the key to TQM. If their actions, and reactions are quality oriented then expensive failures and the accumulation of hidden costs maybe reduced to an acceptable minimum or even prevented altogether. Quality should be in the mind, influencing all activities rather than starting and ending at a prescribed point. Only by recognising quality as a philosophy, a philosophy of good human relationships and thoughtful activities, can cumulative errors be prevented and subsequent costly repairs avoided.
Lemmermeyr suggests that TQM is a holistic concept that requires the motivation of all the people within an organisation towards a common goal222. Gabor holds a similar view that TQM is holistic in that it can only be conceived if it includes all the functions in the organisation, all the people who work there, and all the other organisations and individuals supplying and receiving goods and services from it223. However, there is no one single organisational pattern for quality. To expect the establishment of a favourite organisational structure to produce the required results is naively optimistic, disregarding the imperfections of human nature224. To achieve TQM, the necessary links must be built-up between real living people; employees are not only the organisation’s greatest and most expensive asset, but they alone are the creators of quality225.
For Woollas, TQM is the ‘strategic approach to developing the best service possible’. It needs the full medical practices commitment to getting things right. She suggests that TQM is the umbrella for all the activities of medical practice226:
FIGURE 13