Methods Of Tqm Total Quality Management example essay topic

REPORT ON THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR AND HOW THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TQM HAS AFFECTED ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT Total Quality Management (TQM) Total = Quality involves everyone and all activities in the company. Quality = Conformance to Requirements (Meeting Customer Requirements). Management = Quality can and must be managed. TQM = A process for managing quality; it must be a continuous way of life; a philosophy of perpetual improvement in everything we do. THE NEED for TQM' The customer is the king' is truer today than ever before. As the quality of life improves, demand for better quality services and products also increases.

Customers all over the world now demand that they be assured and satisfied that the product or services for which they are paying will meet their specifications and expectations and will perform as anticipated. In this changed environment of the economy and the industry driven by the customers, the business is open to competition worldwide. With the transformation of the entire world into a boundary less global village, echoing the new mantra of ' World class Product / Services', the factors that contribute to competitiveness - quality, competitive pricing and timely delivery- play a primordial role. This emphasis on quality in product and services is forcing the industries to adopt internationally recognized and proven quality management systems in their operations to stay in the business. This reminds us to the prediction of J.M. Jur an, the quality Guru of the world, who said that business in 21st century shall be decided by ' Quality ' and industries ignoring this fact shall be wiped out. Internationally, there have been several authoritative studies to compute the cost of non-compliance and they point out that while manufacturing industries that don't adhere to the TQM precepts may lose around 25% on this account alone, the loss by way of cost in the service sector could be as high as 40-50%.

TQM as Large-Scale Systems Change TQM is at first glance seen primarily as a change in an organization's technology, its way of doing work. In the human services, this means the way clients are processed, the service delivery methods applied to them, and ancillary organizational processes such as paperwork, procurement processes, and other procedures. But TQM is also a change in an organization's culture, its norms, values, and belief systems about how organizations function. And finally, it is a change in an organization's political system: decision making processes and power bases.

For substantive change to occur, changes in these three dimensions must be aligned: TQM as a technological change will not be successful unless cultural and political dimensions are attended to as well (Tic hey, 1983). TQM results in a radical change in the culture and the way of work in an organization. A fundamental factor is leadership, including philosophy, style, and behavior. These must be congruent as a leader presents them. Many so-called enlightened leaders of today espouse a participative style, which is not, in fact, practiced to any appreciable degree. Any manager serious about embarking on a culture change such as TQM should reflect seriously on how she or he feels and behaves regarding these factors.

For many managers, a personal program of leadership development and TQM training may be a prerequisite to effective functioning as an internal change agent advocating TQM. Other key considerations have to do with alignment among various organizational systems. For example, human resource systems, including job design, selection processes, compensation and rewards, performance appraisal, and training and development must align with and support the new TQM culture. Less obvious, but no less important, will be changes required in other systems. Information systems will need to be redesigned to measure and track new things such as service quality. Financial management processes may also need attention through the realignment of budgeting and resource allocation systems.

Organizational structure and design may become radically different under TQM: layers of management may be reduced and organizational roles will certainly change. In particular, middle management and first line supervisors will be operating in new ways. Instead of acting as monitors, order givers, and agents of control they will serve as boundary managers, coordinators, and servant-leaders who assist workers in getting their jobs done. To deal with fears of layoffs, all employees should be assured that no one will lose employment as a result of TQM changes: jobs may change, perhaps radically, but no one will be laid off.

This no layoff principle has been a common one in joint labor / management change processes such as quality of working life projects for many years. TQM is often proposed based on environmental conditions such as the need to cut costs or demands for increased responsiveness to stakeholders. A manager may also adopt TQM as a way of being seen at the proverbial cutting edge, because it is currently popular. This is not a good motivation to use TQM and will be likely to lead to a cosmetic or superficial application, resulting in failure and disappointment.

TQM should be purpose oriented: it should be used because an organization's leaders feel a need to make the organization more effective. It should be driven by results and not be seen as an end in itself. If TQM is introduced without consideration of real organizational needs and conditions, it will be met by skepticism on the part of both managers and workers. People's Expectations and Perceptions Many employees and old-timers may see TQM as a fad, remembering past 'fads's uch as quality circles; management by objectives, and zero based budgeting. As was noted above, TQM must be used not just as a fad or new program, but must be related to key organizational problems, needs, and outcomes. In another vein, workers may perceive management as concerned only about the product, not staff needs.

Management initiatives focused on concerns, such as budget or cost, will have their priorities known by workers, but lose the heart of TQM. Furthermore, staff may see quality as not needing attention: they may believe that their services are already excellent or that quality is a peripheral concern in these days of cutbacks and multi-problem clients. For an IT systems support person, just getting through the day and perhaps mitigating the most severe emergencies may be all that one expects. This is partly true because of heavy service demands placed on IT individuals. Other reasons are because of professional training, which places heavy value on direct problem solving, or there may be a lack of interest on the part of many support workers in efficiency, effectiveness, and outcomes. This challenge should be addressed by all administrators, and in particular any interested in TQM.

Workers may have needs and concerns, such as lower caseloads and less bureaucracy, which are different from those of administration. For TQM to work, employees must see a need (e.g. for improved quality from their perspective) and how TQM may help. Fortunately, there are win / win ways to present this. TQM is focused on quality, presumably a concern of both management and workers.

Methods of improvement should eliminate wasteful bureaucratic activities, save money, and make more human resources available for core activities -- specifically client service. Sources of Resistance Implementation of changes such as TQM will inevitably face resistance, which should be addressed directly by change agents. A key element of TQM is working with customers. Solicit feedback / expectations from customers / clients and collaborate with them, perhaps with customers defining quality. At another level, management resistance to employee empowerment is likely.

They may see decision-making authority in these terms: if employees have more involvement in decision-making, managers will have less. In fact, one principle in employee involvement is that each level will be more empowered, and managers lose none of their fundamental authority. There will undoubtedly be changes in their roles, however. As was noted above, managers will spend less time on control and more on facilitation. For many traditional managers, this transition will require teaching / training, self-reflection, and time as well as assurances from upper management that they are not in danger of being displaced. Resistance in other parts of the organization will show up if TQM is introduced on a pilot basis or only in particular programs.

If TQM is not understood or absorbed by the entire organization cultural conflicts occur almost immediately. Managers and departments will have the 'It doesn't apply to me's yn drome, and will frustrate the fulfillment of change. Understanding that change can happen in a company or department that has limited need for interaction with others. The more processes are interrelated, the more total TQM process is necessarily a system wide culture. Dealing with Resistance One way to address resistance is to get all employees on the same side, in alignment towards the same goal. Leadership is the mechanism for this, and specific models known as transformational or visionary leadership are the most effective.

Research on change implementation has identified four methods. The first, 'intervention,' involves a key executive justifying the need for change, monitoring the process, defining acceptable performance, and demonstrating how improvements can be made. This was found to be more successful than 'participation,' in which representatives of different interest groups determine the features of the change. Participation was found to be more successful than 'persuasion' (experts attempting to sell changes they have devised) or 'edict,' the least successful. Transformational or visionary leadership, the approach suggested here, is an example of the intervention approach. This would involve a leader articulating a compelling vision of an ideal organization and how TQM would help the vision be actualized.

These principles will be discussed in more detail in a later section, as a framework for the change strategy. Because all people are different and therefore motivated by differing styles of leadership it is my opinion that leaders and change agents should understand all four aspects. A powerful way to decrease resistance to change is to increase the participation of employees in making decisions about various aspects of the process. There are actually two rationales for employee participation. The more common reason is to increase employee commitment to the resultant outcomes, as they will feel a greater stake or sense of ownership in what is decided. A second rationale is that employees have a great deal of knowledge and skill relevant to the issue at hand (in this case, increasing quality, i dent if ying problems, and improving work processes), and their input should lead to higher quality decisions.

A manager should consider any decision area as a possibility for employee participation, with the understanding that participation is not always appropriate. Employees or their representatives may be involved in decision areas ranging from the scope and overall approach of the TQM process to teams engaging in quality analysis and suggestions for improvements. They may also be involved in areas such as redesign of the organization's structure, information system, or reward system. A change agent should understand that, overall, change will occur when three factors (dissatisfaction with the status quo, desirability of the proposed change, the practicality of the change) added together are greater than the 'cost' of changing (time spent in learning, adapting new roles and procedures, etc. ). This is represented in the formula in Exhibit II.

Any key group or individual will need a level of dissatisfaction with the status quo, must see a desired improved state, and must believe that the change will have reasonable disruption. In other words, the change must be seen as responding to real problems and worth the effort or cost in getting there. Modifying these variables may create conditions favoring change. The change agent may try to demonstrate how bad things are, or amplify others' feelings of dissatisfaction; and then present a picture of how TQM could solve current problems. The final step of modifying the equation is to convince people that the change process, while it will take time and effort, will not be prohibitive to current performance requirements and have overall benefit to the individual, the organization and the customer.

The organization as a whole and each person will be judging the prospect of TQM from this perspective. A variation of this is the principle: 'What's in it for me?' To embrace TQM, individuals must be shown how it will be worth it for them. Implementing TQM essentially involves organizational transformation: beginning to operate in new ways, developing a new culture. This also includes redesigning other systems, as has been described above. Such change, while difficult at times, is possible, and worth the effort. Steps in Managing the Transition Identifying tasks to be done, creating necessary management structures, developing strategies for building commitment, designing mechanisms to communicate the change, and assigning resources.

Task identification would include a study of present conditions (assessing current reality, as described above); assessing readiness, such as through a force field analysis; creating a model of the desired state, in this case, implementation of TQM; announcing the change goals to the organization; and assigning responsibilities and resources. This final step would include securing outside consultation and training and assigning someone within the organization to oversee the effort. This should be a responsibility of top management. In fact, the next step, designing transition management structures, is also a responsibility of top management. In fact, Management must be heavily involved as leaders rather than relying on a separate staff person or function to shepherd the effort. An organization wide steering committee to oversee the effort may be appropriate.

Developing commitment strategies was discussed above in the sections on resistance and on visionary leadership. To communicate the change, mechanisms beyond existing processes will need to be developed. Special 'all staff' meetings attended by executives, sometimes designed as input or dialog sessions, may be used to kick off the process, and TQM newsletters may be an effective ongoing communication tool to keep employees aware of activities and accomplishments. Management of resources for the change effort is important with TQM, because outside consultants will almost always be required.

Choose consultants based on their prior relevant experience and their commitment to adapting the process to fit unique organizational needs. While consultants will be invaluable with initial training of staff and TQM system design, employees (management and others) should be actively involved in TQM implementation, perhaps after receiving training in change management which they can then pass on to other employees. A collaborative relationship with consultants and clear role definitions and specification of activities must be established Methods of TQM Total quality management can be implemented by putting into practice suitable methods. There are many methods of TQM and are broadly classified into four as mentioned below: -1) Management Methods: BenchmarkingPokayoke (Error Proofing) ISO 9000 JITKAIJENQuality function Deployment Total Productive maintenance Business Process re engineering. Etc. 2) Analytical Methods: Cause & Effect analysisStratificationTaguchi Methods etc.

3) Data Collection, Analysis & Display: Bar Charts Flow charts Pie chart etc. TQM: The Journey to Excellence Excellence Quality Improved Journey to TQM Uncommitted Operation of TQM in an Organization Any organization wishing to implement TQM must be very clear at the outset that TQM is not a management technique, it is a change program. Like any other change program, it needs to be designed, sequenced and managed. Adopting the right kind of method is one of the most important jobs of senior management and degree of success obtained will depend on their knowledge and understanding these methods.

TQM methods are unlikely to be very useful if not used properly. The following points must be kept in mind for successful working of TQM in any organization. 1) Establishment of corporate TQM steering committee and formation of TQM council at the unit level involving senior Mgt. staff. Even TQM center can be formed to plan, manage and train employees for implementing TQM. 2) Selection of proper TQM methods required for the organization on conducting required survey based on the need and the organizational climate.

3) Complete knowledge for implementation of TQM tools for problem solving. 4) In order to make TQM a success and powerful, quality culture must be put in place, which is all about culture change based on a desire to satisfy the customer and eliminate existing problems permanently. 5) Sustained and continuous effort must be made for company wide TQM activities and avoid it as one time activity / project. HR Interventions for TQM TQM is primarily an organizational strategy considered as a change programme to achieve excellence and therefore HR has an important role to play in designing the interventions to prepare the people and the organizations for the desired change. Development of Total Quality People As discussed earlier, the first pillar of TQM is internal customer satisfaction. People involved in each process have to treat those next in the process as their customer.

In addition to the external customer, every activity in the factory has an internal customer. The service to the internal customer is the one which will help gear up the organization to deliver finally the required service to the customer. For example if Marketing dept. deals with external customer, it's commitments are to be backed up by other departments for whom the marketing dept. itself becomes a customer. Therefore, all the departments and the people are to be oriented towards achieving total quality and the attitude of ' Help us to help you better ' must be developed on the philosophy of internal customers. Here lies the importance of HR in developing total quality people i.e. people with positive attitude, values in consonance with organizational mission and change the mindset so that the foundation becomes very strong.

The HR effort should be to bring in / foster real spirit of TQM i.e. spirit of reciprocity in interactions and not merely the mechanics of it. The HR initiative in TQM activity should be oriented to demonstrate the efficacy of Win-Win relationships as contrasted to Win-Lose or Lose-Lose relationships and thereby enabling effective spirit of team work. Training HR has also to undertake intensive training of personnel in understanding the application of TQM methods & its tools. In Japan, this part of applying TQM methods & tools are very much wide spread & people at all levels starting from top to bottom are very much conversant with this and apply in all spheres of their activity. HR initiatives in this context have to address in training of personnel in becoming 'data minded than opinion minded'. The mindset of ' What is wrong' than ' Who is wrong' to be generated & built up.

Though it is a formidable task, HR has to trigger this thinking in an organization to realise thought revolution of TQM dimension. Employee Involvement Further, HR has to initiate employee involvement in TQM activity. Ultimately, the operator on the shop floor physically produces quality. It is therefore very important that he understands the quality requirements of his job. This is possible provided his involvement in the job is very high and he is a very committed and empowered worker. It is in this context that Japanese have introduced Quality Circles which have generated high level of commitment of workers and finally helped Japan to become as world leader in the business.

Quality circles are based on the fundamental principles of collaboration, involvement & empowerment. HR has to facilitate the culture of team work either in the form of Quality Circles, Quality Teams, Task force, CFT, Suggestion schemes or any such others innovative employee involvement schemes for TQM activity. Finally HR has to create TQM mindset by focusing following three main orientations: -1) The customer orientation 2) The process orientation 3) The people orientation. This can be made possible through an integrated & dedicated approach flowing from corporate value system built around the principle of ' Do things right, the first time and every time' REFERENCESBeckhard, R. & Harris, (1987). Organizational Transitions: Managing Complex Change. (2nd ed.) Reading, MA: AddisonnotWesleyChaudron, D. (1992).

'How OD can help TQM. ' OD Practitioner

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