otal Quality Management TQ
Researched by:
Joe P. Banuelos
- Quality Management
History
- Gurus
- TQM Theories
- Process Improvement
- Organizational
Excellence'
The history of quality management, from mere 'inspection' to Total Quality
Management, and its modern 'branded interpretations such as 'Six Sigma', has
led to the development of essential processes, ideas, theories and tools that are
central to organizational development, change management, and the
performance improvements that are generally desired for individuals, teams and
organizations.
These free resources, materials and tools are an excellent guide to the quality
management area, for practical application in organizations, for study and
learning, and for teaching and training others.
These free pdf materials are provided by permission of the UK Department of
Industry - now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform -
which is gratefully acknowledged. The materials listed and linked from this page
are subject to Crown Copyright.
Please note that since the replacement of the UK Department of Industry by the
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the branding on
the materials is now obsolete. Nevertheless, since the Quality Management
technical and historical content is unaffected by the DTI branding the materials
remain relevant for training, learning and reference.
It is appropriate to note the passing a little while back now, of Joseph Juran, a
seminal figure in the history of quality management, who died 28 February 2008,
age 103. Juran did more than teach the Japanese about quality management. He
was also arguably the first quality expert to emphasise that no quality
management system works unless people are empowered and committed to take
responsibility for quality - as an ongoing process - effectively for quality to
become part of part of people's behaviour and attitudes - an ethos. The section
below on Kaizen explains the connections between the true ethos of quality
History of Quality Management
The roots of Total Quality Management
can be traced to early 1920's production
quality control ideas, and notably the
concepts developed in Japan beginning in
the late 1940's and 1950's, pioneered
there by Americans Feigenbum, Juran
and Deming... More about Quality
Management and TQM history.
Quality Management Gurus and Theories
Quality Management resulted mainly from the work of the quality
gurus and their theories: the American gurus featured in the
1950's Japan: Joseph Juran, W Edwards Deming, and Armand
Feigenbum; the Japanese quality gurus who developed and
extended the early American quality ideas and models: Kaoru
Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi, and Shigeo Shingo; and the 1970-80's
American Western gurus, notably Philip Crosby and Tom Peters,
who further extended the Quality Management concepts after the
Japanese successes... More about the Quality Management gurus
and their theories, including the development and/or use of the
Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle, Pareto analysis, cause and
effect diagrams, stratification, check-sheets, histograms, scatter-
charts, process control charts, system design, parameter design,
tolerance design ('Taguchi methodology'), Quality Improvement
Teams (QIT), Just In Time (JIT), Management By Walking About
(MBWA), McKinsey 7-S Framework, etc.
Total Quality Management (TQM)
Total Quality Management features centrally the
customer-supplier interfaces, (external and
internal customers and suppliers). A number of
processes sit at each interface. Central also is an
organizational commitment to quality, and the
importance of communicating this quality
commitment, together with the acknowledgement
that the right organizational culture is essential for
effective Total Quality Management.... More about
the fundamentals and structures of the TQM
model, including the people, processes and
systems in the organization.
Processes - Understanding Processes
and Methods for Process Improvement
Understanding processes is essential
before attempt is made to improve them.
This is a central aspect to Total Quality
Management, and also to more modern
quality and process improvement
interpretations and models such as Six
Sigma.... More about Total Quality
Management process and process
improvement methods.
Quality Process Improvement Tools and
Techniques
A wide range of tools and techniques is used for
identifying, measuring, prioritising and improving
processes which are critical to quality. Again these
ideas and methods feature prominently in modern
interpretations of Total Quality Management
methodology, such as Six Sigma. These process
improvement tools and techniques include: DRIVE
(Define, Review, Identify, Verify, Execute), process
mapping, flow-charting, force field analysis, cause
and effect, brainstorming, Pareto analysis, Statistical
Process Control (SPC), Control charts, bar charts,
'dot plot' and tally charts, check-sheets, scatter
Developing People and Teams
People are a fundamental component within any successfully
developing organization. Take away the people and the
organization is nothing. Take away the people's motivation,
commitment and ability to work together in well-organised
teams, and again, the organization is nothing. Conversely,
inspire the people to work well, creatively, productively, and the
organization can fly. Logically therefore, the development and
proper utilization of people are vital to the success of all quality
management initiatives. There are a wide range of models that
are used in selecting, assessing, training and developing and
motivating people, among which are classical models such as
Belbin, Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Bruce Tuckman's 'Forming,
Storming, Norming, Performing' model, John Adair's Action
Centred Leadership model.... More about people and culture
within quality management.
Quality Management Systems QMS
A 'Total Quality organization' generally benefits from
having an effective Quality Management System
(QMS). A Quality Management System is typically
defined as: "A set of co-ordinated activities to direct
and control an organization in order to continually
improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its
performance." Customer expectations inevitably drive
and define 'performance' criteria and standards.
Therefore Quality Management Systems focus on
customer expectations and ongoing review and
improvement.... More about Quality Management
Systems, what they are, and how to set up a good
Performance Measurement and
Management
There are many ways to measure
organizational performance other than
financial output or profit. Modern
measurement focuses on the essential
activities, resources and other factors -
many less intangible than traditional
indictors - that impact on final outputs.
These include modern methods such as
Balanced Scorecard... More about
Excellence and The European
Quality Management Model
The European Foundation for Quality
Management (EFQM) Excellence
Model is a useful framework for
developing quality and excellence
within an organization...
TQM Self-assessment and Awards Using the
EFQM Model
Any organization can assess itself provided it has the
commitment to so so, and a framework for the self-
assessment... a process for quality and excellence
self-assessment.
TQM Benchmarking and Questionnaire
(readiness for benchmarking)
Benchmarking is a widely used term within the
field of organizational measurement and
management .... Here is an explanation of
benchmarking, and a questionnaire by which an
organization (or a department or process team)
can assess its readiness for benchmarking.
TQM Implementation Framework and Blueprint
Here is a framework and 'blueprint' for the implementation of
a quality improvement or 'excellence' initiative. It includes the
following elements:
TQM Processes
Tools and techniques
People and teamwork
Quality management system
Performance measurement
EFQM Excellence Model
Self-assessment
This blueprint for achieving organizational excellence is based
on many years of research, education and advisory work in
the European Centre for Business Excellence (ECforBE), and
the research and education division of Oakland Consulting plc.
It is, along with the other resources in this section, information
and advice initially from the UK Department of Industry, now
replaced by the Department for Business, Enterprise and
Kaizen
Kaizen is a very significant concept within quality management and
deserves specific explanation:
Kaizen (usually pronounced 'kyzan' or 'kyzen' in the western world) is a
Japanese word, commonly translated to mean 'continuous
improvement'.
Kaizen is a core principle of quality management generally, and
specifically within the methods of Total Quality Management and 'Lean
Manufacturing'.
Originally developed and applied by Japanese industry and
manufacturing in the 1950s and 60s, Kaizen continues to be a
successful philosophical and practical aspect of some of the best
known Japanese corporations, and has for many years since been
interpreted and adopted by 'western' organizations all over the world.
Kaizen is a way of thinking, working and behaving, embedded in the
philosophy and values of the organization. Kaizen should be 'lived'
rather than imposed or tolerated, at all levels.
The aims of a Kaizen organization are typically defined as:
To be profitable, stable, sustainable and innovative.
To eliminate waste of time, money, materials, resources and effort
and increase productivity.
To make incremental improvements to systems, processes and
Key Concepts of Kaizen:
Every is a key word in Kaizen: improving everything that everyone
does in every aspect of the organization in every department, every
minute of every day.
Evolution rather than revolution: continually making small, 1%
improvements to 100 things is more effective, less disruptive and more
sustainable than improving one thing by 100% when the need becomes
unavoidable.
Everyone involved in a process or activity, however apparently
insignificant, has valuable knowledge and participates in a working
team or Kaizen group (see also Quality Circles below).
Everyone is expected to participate, analysing, providing feedback
and suggesting improvements to their area of work.
Every employee is empowered to participate fully in the improvement
process: taking responsibility, checking and co-ordinating their own
activities. Management practice enables and facilitates this.
Every employee is involved in the running of the company, and is
trained and informed about the company. This encourages commitment
and interest, leading to fulfilment and job satisfaction.
Kaizen teams use analytical tools and
techniques to review systems and look for
ways to improve.
At its best, Kaizen is a carefully nurtured
philosophy that works smoothly and
steadily, and which helps to align 'hard'
organizational inputs and aims (especially in
process-driven environments), with 'soft'
management issues such as motivation and
empowerment.
Like any methodology however, poor
interpretation and implementation can limit
the usefulness of Kaizen practices, or worse
cause them to be counter-productive.
Kaizen is unsuccessful typically where:
Kaizen methods are added to an existing
failing structure, without fixing the basic
structure and philosophy.
Kaizen is poorly integrated with processes
and people's thinking.
Training is inadequate.
Executive/leadership doesn't understand or
support Kaizen.
Employees and managers regard Kaizen as
some form of imposed procedure, lacking
meaningful purpose.
Kaizen works best when it is 'owned' by
people, who see the concept as both
empowering of individuals and teams, and
a truly practical way to improve quality
and performance, and thereby job
satisfaction and reward. As ever, such
initatives depend heavily on commitment
from above, critically:
to encourage and support Kaizen, and
to ensure improvements produce not only
better productivity and profit for the
organization, but also better recognition
and reward and other positive benefits for
employees, whose involvement drives the
change and improvement in the first
Fascinatingly, we can now see that actually very close
connections exist between:
the fundamental principles of Quality Management -
which might be regarded as cold and detached and
focused on 'things' not people, and
progressive 'humanist' ideas about motivating and
managing people - which might be regarded as too
compassionate and caring to have a significant place in
the optimization of organizational productivity and
profit.
The point is that in all effective organizations a very
strong mutual dependence exists between:
systems, processes, tools, productivity, profit - the
'hard' inputs and outputs (some say 'left-side brain'),
and
people, motivation, teamwork, communication,
recognition and reward - the 'soft' inputs and outputs
('right-side brain')
Quality Tools
'Quality Tools' refers to tools and techniques
used in support of Kaizen and other quality
improvement or quality management
programmes and philosophies.
Based mainly on statistical and
manufacturing process tools, Quality Tools
are used at all levels of an organization -
typically in 'quality circles' or Kaizen work
teams to analyse and review activities and
uncover inefficiencies.
The main Quality Tools are:
The '5 Whys' - asking 'Why?' at least five times to uncover root cause of a problem.
Flowcharts - boxes and arrows method of examining activities, potentially used in
brainstorming, also found in business process modelling.
Fishbone/Ishikawa Diagrams - fishbone-structured diagram for identifying
cause/effect patterns, in which primary categories are generally pre-determined
according to context. See fishbone diagram and usage examples for project
management.
Run Charts - a graph which plots data/change along a timeline.
Pareto Charts - a line and bar graph displaying cause/effect ratios, especially biggest
relative cause, based on Pareto theory.
Histograms - a bar graph displaying data in simple categories which together account
for a total.
Checklists/Checksheets - pre-formatted lists for noting incidence, frequency, etc.,
according to known useful criteria
Control/Shewhart Charts - a standard pattern of performance/time for a given
process, often in Run Chart format, which acts as a template to check conformance and
deviation.
Scatter Diagram/Scatterplot - a graph which plots points (typically very many
individual instances) according to two variables, which produces a useful visual
indication of the relationship between the two variables.
Some quality tools, like flowcharts and checklists, have become part of mainstream
management.
Others tools such as the Fishbone diagram have stayed quite specific to the engineering
Quality Circles
Quality circles, similar to Kaizen teams, are a key part of any
continuous improvement programme.
In this context the word 'circle' refers to a team of people.
Teams or small groups (the circles) meet to analyse, and
review working practices with a view to making suggestions
for improvement in their work and the systems.
As with many Quality Tools, the specific use of Quality Circles
is chiefly concentrated among manufacturing and
engineering organizations or in technical departments of this
sort.
The term Quality Circles may be found in more general use
outside of these traditional areas, in which case the name
tends to imply or symbolise that teams are working in an
empowered, cooperative way, especially focused on
problem-solving and improvements, rather than a strict
adherence to technical Total Quality Management or related
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