Total Quality Management (TQM) is a participative management style that
stresses total staff commitment to "customer" satisfaction. It is a holistic approach
to managing complex organizations and replaces top-down management with
decentralized customer-driven decision making. Total Quality Management is an
integrated management system for creating and
implementing a continuous
improvement process -- eventually producing
results that exceed customer expectations. It is
based on the assumption that 90 percent of problems are a result of process, not employees.
The development of TQM can be traced to several consultants including Deming, Juran and Crosby. TQM is a process and strategy that in certain situations can improve an organization's effectiveness and efficiency.
TQM places responsibility for quality problems with management rather than on the workers. A principal concept of TQM is the management of process variation which seeks to identify special and common needs. The objective of TQM is the continual improvement of processes, achieved through a shift in focus from outcomes (or products) to the processes that produce them. TQM achieves its objective through data collection and analysis, flow charts, cause and effect diagrams, and other tools which are used to understand and improve processes.
The development of Total Quality Management can be traced to the first management consultant, an engineer named Frederick W. Taylor. His application of science to complex human endeavors was built upon by Walter A. Shewhart, a statistician who developed work sampling and control charts that attracted the interest of another statistician, Edwards Deming. Joseph M. Juran, an investigator at the Hawthorne Works experiments, like Deming, drew from Shewhart's work and recognized that system problems could be addressed through three fundamental managerial processes (planning, control and improvement). Philip B. Crosby advocated the "zero-defects" program adopted by the US federal government defining quality as "conformance to requirements". Work regarding quality improvement is continuing. The application of these concepts to service industries is resulting in new concepts based on Philip Kotler's marketing approach and a strong customer focus. Deming, Juran, and Crosby, who initiated the TQM process, share a common theme of participatory management. Management participation and attitude, professional quality management, employee participation, and recognition reflect a philosophy making internal and external customer satisfaction as the organization's primary goal.
Deming determined that quality is not determined by the capabilities of the workers but by the system of work that determines how work is performed. If the workers have attained process stability (removal of all the variations that could occur within the work process) and output is still unacceptable, then a redesign of the system is warranted. For more on Deming's work see http://www-caes.mit.edu/products/deming/home.html. His work lead to TQM.
Juran, an investigator at the Hawthorne Works experiments, recognized that system problems could be addressed through three fundamental managerial processes (planning, control and improvement). His work drew from well understood financial management processes, but recognized the positive aspects of prevention and the costs associated with auditing, verifying, checking, and final inspection. His work is considered part of TQM.
Crosby advocated the "zero-defects" program adopted by the US federal government defining quality as "conformance to requirements". He emphasized prevention rather than inspection (audits) and promoted a definition of quality as "meeting the customers requirements the first time and every time". His work is part of TQM.
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http://www.eskimo.com/~mighetto/lstqm.htm - last update January 11, 2001.