Unit 2 (IIM)

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Quality

Quality refers to how good something is compared to other similar things. In other
words, its degree of excellence. When used to describe people, it refers to a distinctive
characteristic or attribute that they possess.

Total quality control

Total quality control is a broad-ranging set of techniques that are employed to


minimize errors throughout an organization. By doing so, an organization can greatly
improve both its profits and customer satisfaction. It requires the involvement of
employees across the organization who are empowered to make changes. This approach
involves a number of concepts, which include:

• The customer's perception of quality is what matters.

• Error reduction focuses on process improvements.

• Processes must continually be improved, so there is no end to the total quality control
effort.

• There must be continual feedback loops and close integration of motivational tools with
the quality improvement goal.

Quality control benefit:

As you can imagine, TQM has a deep impact on how a business operates. Here are just a few
of the many benefits of applying Total Quality Management (TQM) to your business:

Operation cost reduction

Total Quality Management (TQM) helps you significantly cut cost of operations. To reduce
cost, it helps you reduce waste. It also cuts down on defect. This doesn’t just help save
money, but also reduces the time and personnel needed to correct these errors. Naturally,
these translate to increased overall profitability.

Communication quality
For your organization to keep running profitably and growing, an adequate system of
communication is required. Total Quality Management (TQM) helps you improve the
interactions between employees and departments, improving morale and productivity.
Consequently, the quality of work in your business improves.

Customer satisfaction

Remember Total Quality Management (TQM) covers even the customers. When you
combine better products and services with better customer relationships, your customers are
happier and pleased with your service. This translates to more sales and referrals from
satisfied customers. With customer complaints reduced, you can also cut back on the
customer service department.

Dynamic and continuous improvement

Since Total Quality Management (TQM) continuously reviews company activities and
monitors progress, more actions can be taken to improve the business. This helps prevent
stagnancy and complacency. As product and service quality keeps improving, you can easily
knock the competitors out of the water.

Efficiency and productivity

Total Quality Management (TQM) helps you maximize the use of company resources.
With engaged employees and powerful technology, all motivated to make the most of
everything, efficiency and productivity increases. Redundancy reduces and work duplication
is eradicated.
Total quality management

Total quality management (TQM) is the continual process of detecting and reducing or
eliminating errors in manufacturing, streamlining supply chain management, improving the
customer experience, and ensuring that employees are up to speed with training.
Total quality management aims to hold all parties involved in the production process
accountable for the overall quality of the final product or service.

Features

• Total quality management (TQM) is an ongoing process of detecting and reducing or


eliminating errors.
• It is used to streamline supply chain management, improve customer service, and
ensure that employees are trained.
• The focus is to improve the quality of an organization's outputs, including goods and
services, through the continual improvement of internal practices.
• Total quality management aims to hold all parties involved in the production process
accountable for the overall quality of the final product or service.
• There are often eight guiding principles to TQM that range from focusing on
customers, continually improving, and adhering to processes.

Total Quality Management: 7 principles of Total Quality Management:

1. Customer Focus
2. Leadership
3. Engagement of People
4. Process Approach
5. Improvement
6. Evidence-Based Decision-Making
7. Relationship Management
Each principle has a mission statement that outlines its fundamental characteristics and goal.
Let’s explore these 7 Principles of Total Quality Management and extract key methodologies
to strengthen your quality management practices.
Principle # 1: Customer Focus
Mission statement: “The primary focus of quality management is to meet customer
requirements and to strive to exceed customer expectations.”
It's no surprise that customer focus is at the top of the list for the 7 principles of total quality
management. Quality is intrinsically linked to the requirements of your customers. To be
successful, quality needs to match or exceed customer expectations.
But this is not an easy task. Customer requirements and expectations are often growing and
shifting over time. In light of this, quality should always be considered from the perspective
of the consumer.
Each customer interaction is an opportunity to take note of their wants and needs. By
focusing on increasing value for the consumer, your business takes hold of a powerful vision
and purpose. Customer Focus allows you to receive greater loyalty, better reputation, and
further revenue. Without this focus on the customer, the reason for your organization is lost.
It's not only about making money, it's about sharing your company’s purpose with the
intended market.
A key method of adhering to customer requirements is with work instruction software.
Documenting key processes and procedures into clear and visual instructions helps
businesses achieve exact specifications and exceed the expectations of the consumer.
With a customer-oriented focus, operators, quality inspectors, and other players in the project
come under the same goal and direction.
Principle #2: Leadership
Mission statement: “Leaders at all levels establish unity of purpose and direction and create
conditions in which people are engaged in achieving the organization’s quality objectives.”
Company leadership does not only flow from top to bottom, it flows in all directions. When
talking about quality, leadership is less about telling people what to do, and more about
unifying the workforce.
Leaders of all levels must be on the same page; aligning their people, their strategies, and
their objectives. With leadership that points in one direction, the rest of the workforce follows
suit under the same purpose and focus.
A smart way for companies to maintain unity, share vision, and ensure compliance is with
digital work instructions. Engage employees with top-down and bottom-up communication
while monitoring progress and tracking quality.
Principle #3: Engagement of People
Mission statement: “Competent, empowered, and engaged people at all levels throughout the
organization are essential to enhance its capability to create and deliver value.”
No matter the size of your operation, your company is a team. To manage any team
efficiently, you need to involve all members. Otherwise, you will not pull quality and value
from every area of your operation.
To get the most out of your employees, you need to first believe that each person has value to
give. Valuing your personnel's skills, knowledge, and uniqueness will enable them to share
their insights and expertise. This is essential for Total Quality Management as the effort is a
company-wide objective.
Additionally, incorporating employees into the larger picture serves to enhance their
comprehension and capabilities. With more knowledge and communication, employees are
better able to make value-adding decisions.

To put it simply: an engaged worker is an enhanced worker.


One method of engaging employees is to involve them in the ongoing improvement processes
and the future direction of the company. These sessions are a great opportunity to align
everyone under the same strategic pursuits and motivation while also gathering invaluable
information from them.
With work instruction software, every employee is connected. Gather input from the people
on the shop floor and create your procedural documents with the employees who will use
them. This will help your teams understand what changes are being made as well as allow
you to gather valuable feedback.
Principle #4: Process Approach
Mission statement: “Consistent and predictable results are achieved more effectively and
efficiently when activities are understood and managed as interrelated processes that
function as a coherent system.”
No action within any company exists in isolation. Every process is connected to at least one
other procedure. There is no point in managing each process individually.

Total quality management brings every activity into account when making changes or
seeking opportunities for continuous improvement. Having a clear understanding of your
companies interrelated activities will break down cross-functional barriers and provide
consistent and predictable results.
Work instruction software is a system that integrates all of your processes, work instructions,
and factory performance monitoring. Every interaction within the application is captured as
data. Traceability and analytics help correlate all that is happening within the organization.
This enables you to make informed and well-calculated decisions and provides the ability to
create consistent quality at every level.
Principle #5: Improvement
Mission statement: “Successful organizations have an ongoing focus on improvement.”
Our industry is constantly changing. With new technological advancements and customer
expectations growing at unprecedented rates, companies need to pursue improvement at an
equal pace.
For this rate of improvement to be possible, companies need knowledge and flexibility. They
need the ability to gather accurate data and incorporate the best methods as fast as possible.
Digital work instructions provide strength and flexibility to your operation. Your operators
can receive live updates and instant communication from equipment, tools, and other people.
You can also quickly update multiple procedures with just one click. This enables you to
have the latest and most advanced methods for your workers.
This means that with the best practices and procedures, your product never falls behind in
quality. Accurate and trustworthy data enables quality to consistently grow and improve.
Principle #6: Evidence-Based Decision-Making
Mission statement: “Decisions based on the analysis and evaluation of data and information
are more likely to produce desired results.”
Often when faced with a decision, we are receiving information from multiple sources. This
can muddy the waters when it comes time to make changes as each source does not contain
the whole story.
Without trustworthy data, how can we perform evidence-based decision-making?
What is needed is factual data from a trusted source that monitors all aspects of your
operation. This clear perspective will provide a firm grasp of the cause-and-effect
relationships within your organization.
Our software provides real-time production data for rapid and enlightened decision-making.
Track real-time data and monitor fluctuations over time to see trends and areas for
improvement. Traceability data is available permanently so that you always have key
information for optimized analysis and better risk assessment for future projects.
Principle #7: Relationship Management
Mission statement: “For sustained success, an organization manages its relationships with
interested parties, such as suppliers.”
In the same way that no process stands alone, no company does either. There are a lot of
separate elements and parties within a supply chain. These interested parties are all connected
to some degree and need to work together.
Total quality management benefits and advantages:

• Strengthened competitive position


• Adaptability to changing or emerging market conditions and to environmental and other
government regulations
• Higher productivity
• Enhanced market image
• Elimination of defects and waste
• Reduced costs and better cost management
• Higher profitability
• Improved customer focus and satisfaction
• Increased customer loyalty and retention
• Increased job security
• Improved employee morale
• Enhanced shareholder and stakeholder value
• Improved and innovative processes

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