A

Case Study

On

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Subject

Production & Materials Management

 TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a business management strategy

aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organizational processes.
TQM has been widely used in manufacturing, education, call centers,
government, and service industries, as well as NASA space and science
programs.

Definition

When used together as a phrase, the three words in this expression have
the following meanings:

• Total: Involving the entire organization, supply chain, and/or

product life cycle
• Quality: With its usual definitions, with all its complexities
Management: The system of managing with steps like Plan,
Organize, Control, Lead, Staff, provisioning and organizing.

As defined by the International Organization for Standardization

(ISO):

"TQM is a management approach for an organization, centered on

quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at
long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all
members of the organization and to society." ISO 8402:1994

One major aim is to reduce variation from every process so that greater
consistency of effort is obtained. (Royse, D., Thyer, B., Padgett D., &
Logan T., 2006)
In Japan, TQM comprises four process steps, namely:

1. Kaizen – Focuses on "Continuous Process Improvement", to make

processes visible, repeatable and measurable.

2. Atarimae Hinshitsu – The idea that "things will work as they are
supposed to" (for example, a pen will write).

3. Kansei – Examining the way the user applies the product leads to
improvement in the product itself.

4. Miryokuteki Hinshitsu – The idea that "things should have an

aesthetic quality" (for example, a pen will write in a way that is
pleasing to the writerTQM requires that the company maintain this
quality standard in all aspects of its business. This requires
ensuring that things are done right the first time and that defects
and waste are eliminated from operationsTotal Quality
Management continues to evolve in the form of the Criteria for
Performance Excellence which was first published in 1988. The
criteria provide the basis for the Baldrige National Quality Program
(BNQP) that is administered by the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST). Organizations benchmark against the
criteria to assess how well their actions are aligned with their
strategies. Results are examined to determine the effectiveness of
their approaches and deployment of these strategies. Dr. Juran once
stated that the Criteria for Performance Excellence is the
embodiment of those philosophies and practices we call TQM.
A comprehensive definition

Total Quality Management is the organization-wide management of

quality. Management consists of planning, organizing, directing, control,
and assurance. Total quality is called total because it consists of two
qualities:

Quality

The quality of return to satisfy the needs of the shareholders, and quality
of products.

Origins

The origin of the expression Total Quality Management is unclear.

"Total Quality Control" was the key concept of Armand Feigenbaum's

1951 book.

Quality Control: Principles, Practice, and Administration.

In a chapter titled "Total Quality Control" Feigenbaum grabs on to an

idea that sparked many scholars' interest in the following decades. The
expression Total Quality Control existed together with the Japanese
expression "Company Wide Quality Control" (CWQC) and the
differences between the two expressions were unclear. Major influencers
for both expressions were W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, Philip B.
Crosby, and Kaoru Ishikawa, known as the big four.

The expression Total Quality Management started to appear in the 1980s

and there are two theories of its origin:

One theory is that Total Quality Management was created as a

misinterpretation from Japanese to English since no difference exists
between the words "control" and "management" in Japanese. According
to William Golomski (American quality scholar and consultant, 1924-
2002) TQM was first mentioned by Koji Kobayashi at NEC (Nippon
Electrical Company) in his speech when he received the Deming Prize in
1974. The American Society for Quality says that the term Total Quality
Management was used by the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command in 1984
to describe its Japanese-style management approach to quality
improvement since they did not like the word control in Total Quality
Control. The word management should then have been suggested by one
of the employees, Nancy Warren. This is consistent with the story that
the United States Navy Personnel Research and Development Center
began researching the use of statistical process control (SPC), the work of
Juran, Crosby, and Ishikawa, and the philosophy of W. Edwards Deming
to make performance improvements in 1984. This approach was first
tested at the North Island Naval Aviation Depot.

TQM and contingency-based research

Total Quality Management has not been independent of its environment.

In the context of management accounting systems (MCSs), Sim and
Killough (1998) show that incentive pay enhanced the positive effects of
TQM on customer and quality performance. Ittner and Larcker (1995)
demonstrated that product focused TQM was linked to timely problem
solving information and flexible revisions to reward systems. Chendall
(2003) summarizes the findings from contingency-based research
concerning management control systems and TQM by noting that “TQM
is associated with broadly based MCSs including timely, flexible,
externally focused information; close interactions between advanced
technologies and strategy; and non-financial performance measurement.”

A discussion of TQM and pay is not complete without considering the

work of Dr. W. Edward Deming. Deming's 14 points include 11.
Eliminate Numerical Quotas and 12. Remove Barriers to Pride of
Workmanship. It can be argued that incentive compensation, goals, and
quotas are extrinsic motivators that interfere with pride of workmanship
and are not consistent with the basic philosophy of TQM. Alfie Kohn's
book, Punished by Rewards, discusses the effects of these extrinsic
motivators and how they displace intrinsic motivation.

Possible Lifecycle:

Abrahamson (1996) argued that fashionable management discourse such

as Quality Circles tends to follow a lifecycle in the form of a bell curve,
possibly indicating a management fad