Chapter - 1

Concept of Quality and TQM

Dr. Shyamal Gomes

Part – A:

“Quality is not an art, it is a habit” - Aristotle

Introduction:

Till 300 years ago, people used the power of their own muscles, animals or the force of
wind and flowing water to do all works. With the invention of the ‘steam engine’ they got
a powerful method of running their machines. This provided a tremendous boost to
Industry. Goods started getting produced in larger quantities using machines. This led to
the beginning of the factory system. The significant change from hand-made goods to
machine-made goods, which began in Britain in 18th century, is known as the Industrial
Revolution. Why it was called Revolution? Because of the large scale changes it brought
about our economy, society and culture. IR soon spread to other nation like Germany,
France, Portugal. As these countries became industrialised, they needed two things:

1. Raw materials for manufacturing and

2. New markets to sell the goods they made.

They found both raw materials as well as new markets to sell their goods in the non-
industrialised countries of Asia and Africa. So they started annexing to meet the needs of
their new factories. Soon they became jealous of each other, and wanted their own
empires to grow. They started fighting among themselves. This finally led to a great war in
which several nations of the world were involved. It came to be known as World War- I
(August 1914-1918). Millions of soldiers and other people were killed or wounded. Cities
were destroyed and there was shortage of food and everything else. In 1939, there was
another war, called World War II. It lasted for 6 years and ended in 1945 after USA
dropped atomic bombs over two Japanese cities – Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After world
war – II, most Japanese companies had to start literally from Scratch. Everyday brought
new challenges to managers and workers alike, and everyday meant progress. They
observed hard working ability and bringing new-new technologies are not enough need a
culture change towards “TOTAL COMMITMENT and TOTAL IMPROVEMENT”. They also
felled that human resource of Japan is highest important and precious but they need more
training for continuous development. Fortunately Japan called / invited American Experts
like Edward Deming, Joseph M. Juran and others in 1950s and early 1960s.

Therefore, Japanese learnt from the seed courses of Dr. E. Deming's on statistical methods
for quality control and Dr. J. Juran's courses on Quality Management. With zeal for
learning and self- sufficiency, they vigorously promoted quality education by local experts
across their country. It began with massive education of engineers, and then top and
middle managers, supervisory levels.

In 1960, The concept of ‘Zero – defects’ gained favour. Philip Crosby, who was the
champion of Zero – defects concept focused on employee’s motivation and awareness.
The first quality control circles were formed in Japan for the purpose of quality
improvement by Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa in 1961.

In early 70s and 80s U.S Managers were frequent troops to Japan to learn the Japanese
miracles. A quality success began to occur in U.S products and services. In 1980, the
concept of TQM was being publicized.

Massaki Imai, the chairman of the Cambridge Corporation, an international management

consultancy firm based in Tokyo, propound the useful and vibrant technique “Kaizen”
(Continuous Improvement) in 1986.

The great Economic Liberalization – world wide in 1991, bound to think every business
organization for the first time that the best option is “QUALITY” for survive and sustain in
highly competitive environment.

Basically the quality aspects were first emphasized in the auto industries. Saturn
Automobile ranked first in customer satisfaction, in 1996. In addition, ISO – 9000 ( a series
of standards) became the model for a quality management system world wide, ISO –
14000 was approved as the world wide model for Environment Management system, this
time. Quality assurance begins as a priority for engineers and managers.

In quality movement world wide the Globalization took an important role in 2000. Due to
transmission to open economy, a domestic and international competition starts. Gradually
TQM considered as the ultimatum for continuous improvement and sustainable growth in
present day business.

However, in 21st century, high growth of economy- the new millennium brought about
increased emphasis on world wide quality and the Internet. Japanese and other worlds
business organization started not only for quality product and services for External
customer satisfaction but started satisfying them by trying to achieve the highest business
excellence model – Deming Award, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, CII – EXIM
Award and TPM Award and others. Thanks – QUALITY.

What is this Quality then?

Quality is an attribute of a product or service that fulfills or exceeds the human

expectations. These expectations are based on the intended use and selling / service price.
It is somewhat of an intangible based on perception. That is why quality is a relative term
and each person has his or her own definition.

As per ISO – 9000:2000: Quality means “The degree to which a set of inherent
characteristics fulfills requirements”. Here, Degree – quality such as poor, good, and
excellent, Inherent – Permanent attribute, Requirement – need based or expectation.

According to the oxford dictionary for the business world, “quality is defined as the degree
of excellence”. The father of Total Quality Management, Dr. William Edward Deming
defined Quality should be aimed at the needs of the customer, present and future
(continuous Improvement)

Quality Guru, J.M. Juran defined quality as: “Fitness for use / Purpose”

Quality Guru Philip Crosby defined quality as: “Conformance to specifications”

Quality guru Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa defined quality as: Most economical, useful and always
satisfactory to the customer / audience.

Eminent Japanese Scientist Armand V. Feigenbaum defined: Quality is the total composite
of product and services characteristics of marketing, engineering, manufacturing and
maintenance through which the product and service in use will meet the expectations of
the customer.

Broh: Quality is the degree of excellence at an acceptance price and control of variability
at an acceptable cost.

IBM: Quality meets the requirements of customers, both internal and external, the
organization for defect-free product, services and business processes.

Therefore, from its definitions we can assume what QUALITY stands for:

Q Quest for Standard

U Understand the requirements of customer
A Action to achieve Customer’s appreciation
L Lead to participate in training or education
I Involving all People for innovation
T Togetherness to achieve common goal and
Y Yardstick to measure continual Improvement

However, there is an international definition of quality: ‘Totality of characteristics of an

entity that bears on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs’ (BS EN ISO 8402,
1995)
Now, Quality can be quantified as follows: Q=P/E Where, Q = Quality, P= Performance
and E = Expectations. If Q is greater than 1.0 then the customer has a good feeling about
the product or service.

Types of Quality: Kano breaks down quality into four categories to understand its
relationship to competition. These types or categories of quality are: indifferent quality,
expected quality, one dimensional quality and exciting quality.

1. Indifferent Quality (Fine but who cares?) For example a garnish on a dinner plate
or finger bowl, while nice, would probably not seen very important.
2. Expected Quality: is the quality that the customer expects and demands. For
example, people expect cars to be safe and reliable, hotel rooms to be clean and
quiet and coffee to be hot. People notice expected quality only when it is missing.
3. One-dimensional Quality: Is the quality that the customer expects, but that does
not necessarily results in lots of order or displeased customer, when lacking. For
example, a restaurant server who is rude and slow may not cause customers to
leave, though they might leave smaller tips. However, customers would leave if if
they found an insect in the food served to them.
4. Exciting Quality: is the quality that exceeds the customer’s expectations, attracting
favourable attention of customers. For example, quality experienced by owners of
Mercedes-Benz and BMW cars while driving these cars.

Importance of Quality:

• Good quality of goods and services can provide an organization with competitive
edge.
• Good quality reduces costs due to product returns, rework and scrap.
• Good quality increases productivity, profits and other measures of success such as
brand image, product image and company goodwill.
• Most importantly, good quality generates satisfied customers today and
tomorrow.
• Good quality creates an atmosphere for high employee morale, which improves
productivity.

Dimensions of Quality:

Quality has different dimensions; these dimensions are somewhat – Independence.

Therefore a product can be excellent in one dimension and average or poor in another.
Very few, if any, products excel in all dimensions now- a -days. In his Book - Managing
quality: The strategic and competitive edge (1988), David A.Garvin has developed a list of
nine dimensions of product quality:
1. Conformance: Meeting the specifications of the customer.
2. Performance: Primary product functions such as clarity of voice received in Mobile
phone, Radio.
 3. Features: Added functions (secondary functions) to a product such as recording
system in a television set.
4. Durability: Lifetime of the products, which include repairs.
5. Reliability: The probability of a product performing its intended duty under stated
conditions without failure for a given period of time.
6. Serviceability: The speed, Cost and convenience or ease of repair and
maintenance
7. Aesthetics: The external finish given to a product to attract the customer.
8. Perceived Quality: Reputation and other indirect measures of quality.

There are 5 important dimensions of Service Sector are: Reliability, Assurance,

Responsiveness, Empathy, and Tangibility. However, these dimensions again can be
classified in the following:

Determinants Means
1. Reliability Consistency of performance and dependability – the firms
performs the service right the first time.

2. Responsiveness The willingness or readiness of employees to provide

service
3. Competence Possession of the required skills and knowledge to perform
the service.
4. Access The service is easily accessible by telephone, convenient
time of operations

5. Courtesy Politeness, respect, consideration, and friendliness of

contact personnel.

6. Communication Keeping customers informed in the simple language they

can understand and listen to them

7. Credibility Trustworthiness, believability and honesty

8. Security Freedom from danger, risk, or doubt

9. Tangibility Physical evidences of the services

10. Understanding / KYC - 10 Understand the needs of the customers

Table -1.1: Dimension of Service Quality

These dimensions (Product or services) were proposed to facilitate strategic quality
analysis by breaking down the word quality into manageable parts so that the
management can define the quality niches in which to complete.
Quality Culture:
Quality culture can be defined as ‘the configuration of the learned behavior and result of
the behavior whose component elements are transmitted / shared by the member of an
organization. The quality culture differs from company to company. Somewhere, it is
developed somewhere it is rudimentary. According to Sandholm (1999), 5 stages of
Quality culture can be identified:
Maturity Stage
Action Stage

Groping Stage

Awakening Stage

Dormant Stage

Fig – 1.1 Stages of Quality Culture

Dormant Stage: No evident interest in becoming involvement in quality. Things are as

usual profitability is acceptable and there are no fillings of external threats.

Awakening Stage: Stiff competition, as usual thinkers / manufacturers started to lose

market shares and incurring losses. Crisis started.

Groping Stage: Where a crisis occurs, some thing has to be done. The question is what? As
a general tendency Top Management invites meeting, seminars on trendy methods and
approaches to identify the solutions. This is actually not wrong method or practices but
the application is wrong.
Generally, the management use strategies of improving the performance of the
organization in the quality field, rather studying the situation properly.

Action Stage: As a result, the organization generates marginal outputs, which is not safe
enough; therefore, the management realizes the important of strategic plan for the
development of activities, followed by their implementation.

Maturity Stage: Therefore, actual quality culture is born in an organization. Quality

development and a clear focus on customers need wants and satisfaction is a natural part
of this stage.

According to Madu (1997) quality is a major factor in achieving competitiveness. With the
increased globalization of markets and liberalization of local economics, it has become
necessary for any business all over the world to develop competitive strategies for
Quality.

The Universal Process for managing quality (Juran’s Trilogy)

Juran’s Trilogy is constitutes by three steps: quality planning, quality controlling and
quality Improvement.

QUALITY QUALITY
PLANNING CONTROL

QUALITY
IMPROVE
MENT
Fig. 1.2 Juran Trilogy
Quality Planning consists the following steps: Establish quality Goal, Identify customer &
their needs, develop product features, Develop process features, Establish process
controls and Transfer to operation

Quality Controlling: Choose control subjects, Choose units to measure, Set goals, Create a
sensor, Measure actual Performance, Interpret the difference, Take action on the
difference

Quality Improvement: Prove the need, Identify projects, Organize project teams,
Diagnose the causes, Provide remedies, Deal with the resistance, Change and control,
Hold the gains.
The main logic here – in planning phase the producer of the product has to determine the
customer’s requirements and design accordingly, once the operation begin, usually 20%
percent work has to redone due to quality deficiencies. It is not possible to get rid of this
chronic waste; therefore they perform quality control to prevent the situation. That time
the process may go up to 40% rework and has brought back within control limit by taking
appropriate measures. Over a period of time by employing quality improvement the
chronic waste can be reduced even up to zero level. (Juran 1999)
Fig.1. 3: Chronic Waste Reduction in Quality Problem

Cost of quality is a handy tool for drawing the attention and focuses of the top
management towards quality – related issues as it understands the language of bottom
line. Actually, the costs of quality are often called as cost of poor quality or COPQ which
are the certain costs associated with product and service quality. Some costs are
associated with preventing poor quality and some costs occur after poor quality occurs.
Most experts on the cost of poor quality estimate losses in the range of 20-30% of gross
sales for defective or unsatisfactory products.

Joseph M. Juran (Quality Guru) has observed that the cost of the product related to fixed
costs and variable costs. Fixed cost like cost of raw material, machinery or manpower
costs are standard for everyone but the variable costs like training costs, electricity costs,
rework cost, appraisal costs etc. varies from one organization to another organization and
one culture to another. Company can give maximum dimensions (as per requirements of
the customers) in a single product within an affordable price when they can give
maximum attention of prevention and control the variable costs or cost of poor quality as
much as possible. Finally, Juran classified these costs of poor quality under 4 major heads:
Prevention Cost Associated with preventing defects before they happen.
They include – the cost of redesigning the product , redesigning the
process to remove causes of poor quality, training employees in the
method of continuous improvement, charting of quality
Appraisal Cost Assessing the level of quality attained by the operating system.
They include the cost of detecting defects i.e. cost of inspection,
testing and other quality control activities like measuring,
evaluating and auditing cost.
A preventive measures improve quality, appraisal costs decrease,
because fewer resources are needed for quality inspections and the
subsequent search for the causes of any problems that are
detected.
Internal Failure Cost Relate to the failure of the products to meet customer
specifications prior to its dispatch to the customer. This costs
include the cost of producing the items that are scrapped, the cost
of repairing, reworking and re testing defective products
External Failure Costs incurred by the company after the product has been
delivered to the customers and failures of the product take place at
the customer’s end. The costs include warranty, product liability
suits or resettlements, the cost of product returns or recalls and
lost business and customer goodwill.
Table – 1.2: Cost of quality in 4 major heads

How to reduce the cost of quality? Organizations especially in India have been paying more
attention towards reducing the internal and external failure costs by way of inspection
because costs incurred here give more tangible results by way of reduction in the number of
defects. But as per Juran observation if the organization keep on give priority on prevention
cost (even up to double the prevention cost in the first quarter) from second quarter, the
other costs of poor quality like appraisal costs, internal failure costs and external failure costs
will come down gradually (1:10:100 Rule) and the COPQ could be below 10% or almost zero at
the fourth quarter.
Say for an example: ABC Company in Kolkata, reported the following costs for a quarter:
Design Review cost = 40,000/-; Inspection & Testing = 60,000/-; Excess Inventory = 30,000/-;
In house Scrap = 55,000/-; Customer Return = 40,000/- and the approx revenue per quarter
is Rs. 5,25,000 ; Through Juran process how that organization will reduce the COPQ or make
quality as almost free?

Here we can consider:

 Prevention cost = 40,000/-
 Appraisal Cost = 60,000/-
 Internal failure cost = 85,000/-
 External Failure cost =40,000/-
 Total = 2,25,000/- i.e 42.85% (3 Sigma Level)
Now as per Juran process if the organization give highest priority on Prevention measures
during the second quarter (controlling stage) the cost size could be the following:

Details of the 1ST Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter
COPQ (Rs.) (Rs.) – 2: 1/2 (Rs.) – 1/4 (Rs.) – 1/8
Prevention cost 40,000 80,000 10,000 5,000
Appraisal Cost 60,000 30,000 15,000 7.500
Failure Cost 1,25,000 62,000 31,250 15,625

Total 2,25,000 1,72,000 56,250 28,125

% 42.85 31.76 10.71 5.35
Table 1.3: Juran Process (COPQ)

This is simply we can consider as continual improvement cycle. If the company can follow this
process at the end of the third year the COPQ may reach up to Zero level. Many scholars in
TQM noticed that large nos. of organization in the Western world such as GE, Motorola, and
Ford etc. invested huge amounts money in their SIX SIGMA initiatives (Define, Measure,
Analysis, Improve and Control) which is relatively the prevention costs and received
astronomical benefits as a return of those investments. They also feel that it is high time that
Indian Organizations also focus upon changes their accounting practices to include systems
like Activity Based Costing (ABC) so that a clear picture may be made available to their top
management regarding the several of costs of Quality.

Therefore, the total cost of quality can be minimized by observing the relationship between
cost of quality and the degree of conformance to customer requirements. When the degree
of conformance is very high (low defects), the costs of failures are low but the costs of control
are quite high. When the degree of conformance is low (high defects), the opposite situation
exists. Thus there is, between the two extremes, an optimal level of conformance where total
quality costs are minimized.

Now refer to Fig. 1.3 that illustrates the quality hierarchy. The concept of quality started with
inspection followed by Quality Control (QC), Quality Assurance (QA) and then Quality
Improvement or Total Quality Management (TQM).
Fig.1. 4: The Quality Hierarchy (Evaluation)

Total Quality Management

Total – Made up of the Whole; Quality – Degree of Excellence a product or service provides;
Management – Act, art or manner of handling, controlling, directing.

Therefore, TQM is the art of managing the whole to achieve excellence. It is the application of
quantitative methods and human resources to improve all the processes with in an
organization and exceeds customer needs now and in the future ( Besterfield)

In the book Essential of Strategic management J.David Hunger and T.L Weeler mentioned that
“Total Quality Management (TQM) is an operational philosophy that stresses commitment
to customer satisfaction and continuous improvement”.

Table – 1.4: Conceptual development of TQM (In Indian Scenario)

Step – 1 The year 1991 (economic liberalization) brought about a lot of changes
in the Indian Economy and over all business environment in our
country.
Step – 2 Lots of Foreign MNCs started operations in India in the form of Joint
ventures (JV) like – Hero Honda, Maruti Sujuki, etc.
Step – 3 Professor Yasutosi Washio, has predicted that the quality of Indian man
will overtake that of Japan in 2013.
Step – 4 Mahindra’s Tractor unit is the first tractor unit in the world to win
DEMNG Award.
Step – 5 Indian industries even small industries interested to involve themselves
under total quality management process by using the tools and
techniques like TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) and other
techniques for moving towards business excellence model.

The Japanese Union of scientists and Engineers (JUSE) define that TQM is a set of
systematic activities carried out by the entire organization to effectively and efficiently
achieve company objectives so as to provide product’s and services with a level of
quality that satisfies customers at the appropriate time and price.

Therefore, from the above definitions we can easily understand what TQM is:

 Intense focus on the customer – both external and internal

 Concern for continuous improvement – quality can always be improved
 Improvement in the quality of everything the organization does – not only
related to final product, but also to services, response to complaints and the
like.
 Accurate measurement of every critical performance variable in the company’s
operations.
 Empowerment of employees – TQM involves the people on the line in the
improvement process. Teams are empowered for finding and solving problems

Goal, objective, strategy and methods of TQM

Goal: : Total Customer Satisfaction

Objectives : To create a Culture of “Continuous Improvement” for zero defects,
zero loss and zero accident.

Strategy : “Do the Right Things, right the first time, and every time.”

Methodology : Review,Plan, Train, Empower, Team, Learn from Document,

Standardize the Process, Reduce Variation, Auditing the
performance, Reward & Recognition

TQM has 4 Targets:

1. Better, less variable quality of the product and service
2. Quicker, less variable response in processes to customer needs
3. Greater flexibility in adjusting to customer’s shifting requirements
4. Lower cost through quality improvement and eliminating of non value adding
work.
Therefore, to fulfill those targets, TQM requires six basic concepts:

1. Management must participate in the quality programme in the following manner:

 Establishing a quality council to develop a clear vision, mission and objectives,
the business plan.
 An annual quality improvement programme
 Implementing plan by building the capacity of entire workforce as a team.

2. The key to an effective TQM Programme is its focus on the customer.

3. TQM is an organization wide challenge that is everyone’s responsibility. All personnel

must be trained in TQM, so they can effectively participate on project teams. Changing
behaviors is the goal. People must come to work not only to do their jobs, but also to
think about how to improve their jobs. People must be empowered at the lowest
possible level to perform processes in an optimum manner.
4. There must be a continual striving to improve all business and production
processes like –
 On time delivery
 Order entry efficiency
 Building the error rate
 Cycle time
 Scarp reduction
 Supplier management
 Bench Marking
 Quality function development etc.

5. The focus should be on quality and life cycle costs rather that price. Suppliers should
be few in number so that true pertaining can occur.
6. Performance measures such as up time, percent of non-conforming, absenteeism and
customer satisfaction should be determined for each functional area.

Therefore, TQM is a culture Change. This change is substantial and will not be accomplished in
a short period of time. Small organizations will be able to make the transformation much
faster than large organizations.
Table – 1.5: New and old Cultures – TQM Environment

Quality Element/ Previous State or before After TQM

Culture TQM (Small ‘q’) (Big ‘Q’)
Business Focus Product Oriented Customer Oriented
Quality Definition Product Oriented Process Oriented
Priorities Second to service and cost First among equals of service and costs
Decisions Short term Long term
Emphasis Detection Prevention
Errors Operations System
Responsibility Q.C. / Q.A. Department Every one
Prob. Solving Manager’s part Team’s part
Procurement Price Life – cycle costs, Partnership
Managers Role Plan, assign, control and Delegate, coach, facilitate and Mentor
enforce
Benchmarking Others Self

Benefits of TQM:

Before explain the benefits, once again we have to realise the importance of 100% quality.
Here, the things had done right 99.9 % of the time means:

• One hour of unsafe drinking water per month

• Two unsafe landings at O’Hare Airport each day.
• 16,000 lost pieces of mail per hour
• 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions per year
• 500 incorrect surgical operations per week
• 50 newborn babies dropped each day by doctors

So we don’t need 99.98% but we need 100% quality environment. This quality of
goods and services can impart a competitive edge to an organization. The importance
of quality is stated in the sentence – No quality no sales, no sale no profit, no profit no
jobs. Today, ‘quality’ is the watchword for the survival and growth of any organization
in the global business environment. Quality increases profits in addition to enhancing
the image of the company:

1. TQM is providing a holistic development of an organization, the quality product

and / or service to customers.
2. Helps to increasing productivity in lowest cost.
3. With a higher quality product and lower price, TQM helps to the organization to
build competitive position in the market place.
4. Allow the organization to achieve the objectives of profit and growth with greater
ease.
 5. TQM creates a satisfactory work environment and job security for entire
workforce. Therefore attrition rate goes down and a healthy HR Practiced
enhanced.
6. Makes company a leader / Brand Image and reduce resistance to change
7. Through training TQM helps to empowerment people in terms of knowledge /
skills, recognize their efficiencies and build a sense of ownership.
8. Assure better customer care and fewer problems with the products / services.

Obstacles of TQM – Implementation:

Many organizations, especially small ones with a niche, are comfortable with their current
state. They are satisfied with the amount of work being performed, the profits realized,
and the perception that the customers are satisfied. Organizations with this culture will
see the little need for TQM until they begin to lose market share. For survival, these
organizations starts initiative for TQM but few are of them succeeded. Question is why?
Prof. Robert J. Masters observed the most important 8 obstacles for this failure and
ultimate reason is – “LACK OF MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT”, which are:
1. Lack of attention to Internal and External Customers
2. Lack of Information / Data
3. Improper Planning
4. Lack of continuous Training and Education
5. Incompatible organizational structure and Isolation
6. Inadequate use of empowerment and Team work
7. Failure to continuous improvement
8. Inability to change organizational culture

Therefore, the Road – Map to obtain Total Quality is: the implementation process
Steps for achieving Total Quality Management:

 Top management commitment and involvement

 Customer involvement
 Design products for quality
 Design production processes for quality
 Control production processes for quality
 Develop supplier partnerships
 Customer service, distribution and installation
 Building teams of empowered employees
 Benchmarking and continuous improvement by using the effective tools like TPM,
SIX SIGMA,
 Team Action through PDCA
 Quality Audit

Therefore, TQM companies need SQM (Strategic Quality Management) today. SQM is to
ensure a process or method by which a continuous assessment of internal and external
changes with regard to quality; and an adjustment of the competitive approach based on
that assessment. Moreover, SQM is the process of establishing long range goals and
defining the approaches to meeting those goals. Though the top level management is
ultimate responsible for the planning of SQM, but for implementing and review, everyone
is involved. The researchers have observed that there are 8 important steps in SQM:
1. Identify the customers and their needs
2. Customer positioning
3. Predicting the future
4. GAP analysis
5. Bridging the GAP.
6. Alignment with Vision – Mission and core values of the organization.
7. Prepare quality statement / Quality Policy
8. Implement and Review.

Five phases of SQM:

Based on the concept of SQM, Aravidan et.al (1996) have identified five phases involved in
SQM, as depicted in Fig. 1.5. As shown, phase – I marks the beginning of SQM, during
which the quality mission of the firm is established with the involvement of the
manufacturer. Phase – II passes through the development of a quality profile with the
considerations of quality mission and external environment comprising competitors’ and
customers’ perceptions. The end of phase II is marked by the declaration of a quality
policy. Phase – III is devoted to listing or modifying long term and annual quality objectives
(targets / goals). During phase IV, efforts are made to infuse quality at the design stage.
Phase – V constitutes the development of SQM system, which signifies the whole process
of SQM. The results obtained after phase V are compared with the desired results / Global
performance.
 The outcome of this comparison determines the need for further refinement of the SQM
process presently being followed. Actually, ‘Quality Policy’ is a broad guideline to maintain
quality in action. It is a statement of principles, which would be in line with the company
mission and values.
I
Establishing Quality Mission

External Environment
Developing Quality • Competitor
Profile
• Customer demands & Feedback
Declaring Quality Policy II

III
Long Term Quality Objectives
IV
Designing for Quality

Quality Planning Q. Evaluation V

cs
Quality Controlling Q. Improvement

Needs Improvement
Total requirements
Performance in Global Market Observed

Fig. 1.5: Five phases of SQM

Thus, it can be conclude that TQM is an operational philosophy based on some tools and
techniques such as QFD (Quality Function Deployment), Benchmarking, Kaizen
(Improvement), Quality Circle, Total Productive maintenance (TPM) and 5S (Sort, Sort in
Order, Shine, Standardize and self discipline), Six Sigma and Zero Quality Control etc.
where the ultimate focus is customer and their satisfaction. To fulfill the customer’s need and
wants as well as for business growth; all the quality gurus suggested that to develop a culture
for continuous improvement. They also explained that continuous improvement is a process
to build a system that can consistently produce a quality product / services. Here, both
management and the workers role are crucial because they must identify and eliminate waste
and variability through-out system; take the equal responsibility for proper tools and
knowledge uses and team leadership and empowerment for entire organization or centre for
excellence. This is not so easy task but it is possible with the help of Quality Management
System (ISO 9000) which is generic and Business Excellence Model like CII –EXIM Bank award,
MBNQA award, Deming award etc. Finally if any organization really wants to develop a culture
for continuous improvement, the top management must develop and follow some strategic
steps for long term achievement. So, the thematic overview of TQM could be depicted by the
following fig.

Objective:
To create a Culture of
TQM – Operational Philosophy “Continuous Improvement”
(Continues Improvement Process)
for zero defect
zero accident and zero loss.

Contribution from
Tools quality GURUS (Techniques)

Benchmarking, QFD, BPR, TPM, Six

PDSA, PDCA, 7 Management Sigma, ZQC – Poka Yoke, Kaizen and
tools (Statistical and Non – Quality Circle
Statistical), 5S

B. Excellence

Business Q.M.S
Excellence Models (ISO 9000)

Fig. 1.6: TQM overview (tools and techniques in TQM)

References:

1. Bedi, Kanishka. (2006). Quality Management. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
2. Bhat, K.Shridhara (2018). Total Quality Management: Text and Cases. (First
Edition). New Delhi : Himalaya Publishing House.
3. Besterfield, D.H (2008). Total Quality Management. (Third Edition). New Delhi:
Pearson Education.
4. Juran, J. M. Gryna, F.M & Frank M Jr. (1970). Quality Planning and Analysis. New
Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.
5. Gopalkrishnan, N (2012). Simplified Six Sigma: methodologies, tools and
implementation. New Delhi: PHI private Limited.
6. Charantimath, P. (2011). Total Quality Management (Second Edition) New Delhi:
Pearson Publication.
7. Rose J.E (2006). TQM: Text and Cases. New Delhi: Deep and Deep Publication
limited.
Thanks: Dr. Shyamal Gomes