Total Quality Management

Total quality management is a management approach centered on quality, based on organization-wide participation, and aimed at long-term success through customer satisfaction.

TQM focuses on customers, both internal (within the organization, the next party in the work process) and external (end users, stakeholders, regulatory agencies).

Given the fluctuating nature of customer satisfaction, continuous improvement is critical to an organization’s survival. The concept applies to processes and the people who operate them as well as products.

The plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle is a well-known model for continuous process improvement. The four-step process is also referred to as the Shewhart cycle (for Walter A. Shewhart), the Deming cycle (for W. Edwards Deming), and the PDSA cycle (with the S standing for “study”). First, a plan to effect improvement is developed. Next, the plan is carried out, preferably on a small scale. Then effects of the plan are observed. Last, results are studied to determine what was learned and what can be predicted.

TQM’s emphasis on participation recognizes every activity contributes to or detracts from quality and productivity. Leadership from management and employee involvement are crucial for success.

Management’s role in TQM is to develop a quality strategy aligned with organizational business objectives and based on customer and stakeholder needs. After that strategy is defined, managers must participate in its deployment regularly and at every level.

Employee involvement can take several forms. Typically, quality improvement requires teams involving employees across functional boundaries. When employees are involved in quality, their organizations are more likely to make well-informed quality decisions and feel responsible for those decisions. Organizations empower employees by allowing them to make decisions that improve work processes within defined boundaries.