Table of Contents
What is Total Quality
Management
The Voice of the Customer
Quality Function Deployment
The Seven Basuc Tools
The Seven New Management Tools
Continuous Improvement
Total Quality Control
Quality Training
Implementing Total Quality Management
Conclusion
Bibliography
The Voice of the
Customer
The purpose of the voice of the customer within total quality
management is to know the customer’s expectations, voiced desires, and
unperceived turn-ons. It is literally impossible to be competitive
in international markets unless a company can define its customers’ needs.
In order to meet those needs and expectations at a price that they are
willing to pay, a company must first know them. The purpose of quality
management is to deploy the quality necessary to satisfy and even delight
the customer. If an inaccurate representation of the customer’s desires
is obtained, the process will fine-tune the system to bring forth the wrong
product. Obtaining the voice of the customer accurately is critical
for the proper application of planning and designing a product.
Quality Function Deployment
Most Americans associate quality function deployment (QFD) with
the “House of Quality.” It is a system engineering process
that transforms the desires of the customer into the language required
to implement a product. It provides the glue necessary to tie together
all project levels in order to manage the product. It is an excellent
method for assuring that the customer obtains high value from a product,
the intended purpose of QFD. It is a mechanism for deploying quality,
reliability, cost, and technology throughout the product, the project to
bring forth the product, and the enterprise as a whole. Yoji Akao
introduced the concept of quality function deployment in Japan in 1966.
According to Akao, quality function deployment “is a method for developing
a design quality aimed at satisfying the consumer and then translating
the consumer’s demand into design targets and major quality assurance points
to be used throughout the production phase . . . [QFD] is a way to assure
the design quality while the product is still in the design stage.”
Akao also points out that when QFD is appropriately applied, it demonstrates
a reduction of development time by one-half to one-third.
Quality function deployment is a structured process, a visual
language, and a set of inter-linked engineering and management charts whish
uses the seven new management tools. It establishes customer value
using the voice of the customer and transforms that value to design, production,
and manufacturing process characteristics. The result is a system
engineering process that prioritizes and links the product development
process so that it assures product quality as defined by the consumer.
The Seven Basic Tools
These tools are the “classic” TQM tools used in evaluating processes.
They are as follows: histograms, cause and effect diagram, check sheets,
pareto diagrams, graphs, control charts, and scatter diagrams.
The Seven New
Management Tools
The seven new tools compose a rich visual language that allows
the user to easily explore and decompose complexity that cannot be dealt
with otherwise. They were chosen to meet the following criteria:
The ability to complete tasks
The ability to eliminate failure
The ability to assist in the exchange of information
The ability to disseminate information to concerned parties
The ability to use “unfiltered expression”
The seven tools are as follows: relations diagram, affinity diagram,
systematic (tree) diagram, matrix diagram, matrix data analysis, process
decision program chart, and arrow diagram.
Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement seeks continual improvement of machinery,
materials, labor utilization, and production methods through application
of suggestions and ideas of team members. The idea is that improvement
in quality is always possible. An important part of continuous improvement
is benchmarking. While continuous improvement is easy to do internally
for an organization, benchmarking, an external comparison against other
is not quite so easy. The idea is to identify industry leaders and
competitors and see what they are doing. A firm can look to find
the best and most successful industry practices and see how those practices
can be adapted to that organization. Continuous improvement utilizes
benchmarking to help organizations continually rejuvenate and strive for
top quality in their service or product. Continuous improvement does
this by taking into consideration the management, production, and marketing
of a product.
Continuous improvement uses a process that follows the plan-so-check-act-cycle.
In the plan stage, the situation is analyzed and the improvement is planned.
In the do stage, the improvement is tried. In the check stage, data
is gathered to see how the new approach works, and in the act stage the
improvement is either implemented or a decision is made to try something
else. This process of continuous improvement makes it possible to
reduce variations and lower defects to near zero. The processes that
produce good results are standardized and documented. The documented
processes are followed. If the process is changed the documentation
is changed. If an organization lacks this standardization, then improvement
tends to slip. Without standardization, variation is increased rather
than decreased.
Total Quality Control
Total quality control is the system developed to implement continuous
improvement. Total quality control is a forty-year plus improvement
on the teachings of Deming. It is where the rubber meets the rod
in terms of putting quality into place, both within the product and within
the system to bring forth, sustain, and retire the product. The tools
of total quality control include the seven basic tools and the seven new
management tools among others. These tools are the power behind the
process since they enhance the way people think.
Total quality control typically progresses through three phases.
The first phase is awareness where the need for quality control is recognized
and basic principles are learned. The second phase is empowerment.
Empowerment is learning the methods of total quality control and developing
the skill in practicing the methods. Alignment is the third phase
in which the business is harmonized with total quality control and the
practices of the company.
Quality Training
According to a recent survey conducted by Purchasing Magazine,
53% of the companies polled provide quality training of some sort.
Quality training provides employees with more information and a better
understanding in order to improve their level of communication. The
idea is that if an employee understands the internal processes and how
they fit into the big picture, it will be easier for an employee to feel
more responsible and willing to contribute to programs within the TQM and
continuous improvement realm. There are two ways to train employees:
in-house and outside assisted.
In-house training is noted for being cost effective. It
costs less than hiring an outside firm to assist; so, the cost payoff is
felt sooner. It is estimated that 98% of quality training is done
in house. It is flexible, offers direct contact, and is based on
actual experiences inside the organization. Outside training is useful
in situations like the Y2K bug when companies are not equipped with the
means to improve certain situations.
Implementing
Total Quality Management
Many companies continue to demonstrate improvement in achieving
high quality and business performance while others abandon their efforts
toward TQM programs. Frustrated by the lack of visible results, some
organizations question its credibility and view as a management fad.
Failure rates as high as 60% have been quoted in literature. The
question of why TQM is failing needs to be addressed. When a TQM
system has failed, it is not because of there was a basic flaw in the principles
of TQM, but because an effective system was not created to execute TQM
principles. TQM requires unwavering organizational commitment, substantial
time and effort, and drastic changes in the organizational culture and
business practices.
The following characteristics are crucial to the a successful
TQM implementation: strong top management leadership and commitment, customer
focus, employee involvement and empowerment, a focus on continuous improvement,
supplier partnerships, and the recognition of quality as a strategic issue
in business planning. Other needed characteristics are the use of
statistical tools, product and service quality in design, performance measures
focusing on quality, actions based on facts, and the role of a quality
department and quality specialists.
Conclusion
Quality is a difficult term to define. Either a product has quality
or it does not. A manufacturer can produce what they think is a quality
product, but unless it meets the consumer’s standards it will never be
considered a quality product. Once American companies adopted quality
programs, our products competed much better. TQM is a philosophy
that makes quality values the driving force behind leadership, design,
planning, and improvement initiatives. The purpose of quality management
is to deploy the quality necessary to satisfy and even delight the customer.
Most Americans associate QFD with the “House of Quality.” It is a
system engineering process that prioritizes and links the product development
process so that it assures product quality as defined by the consumer.
The seven tools are as follows: relations diagram, affinity diagram, systematic
(tree) diagram, matrix diagram, matrix data analysis, process decision
program chart, and arrow diagram.
Continuous improvement is the idea that improvement in quality is always
possible. Continuous improvement utilizes benchmarking to help organizations
continually rejuvenate and strive for top quality in their service or product.
Continuous improvement does this by taking into consideration the management,
production, and marketing of a product. Continuous improvement uses
a process that follows the plan-so-check-act-cycle. Total quality
control is the system developed to implement continuous improvement.
The tools of total quality control include the seven basic tools and the
seven new management tools among others. Total quality control typically
progresses through three phases. Empowerment is learning the methods
of total quality control and developing the skill in practicing the methods.
Many companies continue to demonstrate improvement in achieving
high quality and business performance while others abandon their efforts
toward TQM programs. Other needed characteristics are the use of
statistical tools, product and service quality in design, performance measures
focusing on quality, actions based on facts, and the role of a quality
department and quality specialists.
Bibliography
Ciancarelli, Agatha. “Training Methods Vary Widely.” Purchasing.
January 14, 1999.
Dean, Edwin B. http://mijuno.larc.nasa.gov/dfc/toc.html
Goal/QPC Research Web Page. http://www.goalqpc.com/research/
Jackson, Andrea. “Applying TQM Principles to the Finance Department:
the City of Auburn Experience.” Government Finance Review.
February 1999.
Miller, Clifford. “The Search for Quality: How a Quest for Improvement
Will Motivate Your Staff.” Supervision. September 1998.
Shin, Dooyoung, Jon G. Kalinowski, and Gaber Abou El-Enein. “Critical
Implementation Issues in Total Quality Management.” SAM Advanced
Management Journal. Winter 1998.
Thorne, George. “TQM Connects All Segments of Marketing.”
Business Marketing. March 1998.
About the Author
Danica Doudican is
from Emporia, Kansas and is currently a senior Accounting major at Emporia
State University. She is currently working at Lyon County State Bank.
Updated 7/26/99