TQM, or total quality management is an essential approach for improving both the processes required and the quality of your products for long-term success. While its origin lies in the manufacturing industry, the principles and practices are applicable to any industry, even in 2022. Show
In this guide, we’ll do a deep dive into what TQM requires, its principles, benefits, and how you can apply this management system to your business processes. Get started with monday.com What is TQM (total quality management)?
For example, a manufacturing company creates a large volume of products. By speeding up production, sourcing cheaper materials, or improving efficiency in other ways, you can reduce running costs. The company can then pass on these savings to the customer at a lower price. Even with carefully designed processes, there’s typically a lot of room for improvement. People tend to settle for the status quo, and TQM encourages them to work against this. What are the 8 principles of TQM?The principles of customer focus and continuous improvement are the foundation of total quality management. There are eight principles that contribute to this. Let’s take a closer look.
Many of these principles probably sounded familiar if you’ve read about Lean manufacturing philosophies. What are the building blocks of total quality management?The main building blocks of TQM are culture, analytics, a systemic approach, and long-term investment. You can’t implement any of the TQM principles without mastering these business areas:
Get started Industries using total quality managementTQM started out in manufacturing in smaller companies and as an idea on campuses before engineer and consultant W. Edwards Deming brought it to Japan. As a result, many Japanese and international manufacturing companies adopted it, as well as Toyota and Phillips. Today it’s spread to a variety of industries beyond just manufacturing and technology, like:
If your company has repeatable processes that can benefit from improvement, TQM can help you. Why is total quality management important to an organization?The primary purpose of TQM is to improve and ensure the quality of every product or service your company delivers so you can avoid costly mistakes and product recall. To put it in perspective, check out these statistics:
Even if you don’t sell products with a high potential risk of recall or damages, you’re not safe. Every company that handles some level of customer data faces cybersecurity risks, according to PWC research. (Image Source) Thankfully, with the right processes in place, you can avoid potential issues. TQM ensures your entire organization keeps what really matters in focus — product quality and the customer experience. It helps you avoid quality problems and build healthy long-term relationships with your clients. TQM vs. Kaizen vs. Six Sigma: what’s the difference?TQM, Kaizen, and Six Sigma are all unique management approaches that have a shared focus on processes rather than projects and value continuous improvement— let’s examine where they differ. Six SigmaSix Sigma focuses almost exclusively on the number of defects per million and reducing them. The percentile success rate is the north star. It lays out a concrete framework for finding production problems. (Image Source) First, you must recognize that the issue exists. Your managers may have an idea that production is too slow. Next, you prove that the problem exists using measurement and data. Then you figure out the solution by running different numbers and using that to find a practical approach. Get started KaizenThe Kaizen approach has more in common with TQM as it also aims to improve the work environment as a whole, rather than honing in on defects. Neither Kaizen nor TQM limits itself to fixing mistakes in the production line. The difference is that Kaizen focuses on bottom-up culture-based changes. TQMTQM is almost more of a cultural initiative than a management framework with concrete steps. You can see that in the high-level principles like fact-based decision-making where you involve every employee. Where it differs from Kaizen is the focus on high-level management involvement for decisions like standardizing frameworks and tools throughout the company. How to implement total quality management in different areasLet’s explore how you can use TQM to boost your business performance in different areas. Supply chain managementIf you deal in physical products, your supply chain plays a critical role in your business. If it’s inefficient, your customers end up paying more for a product that takes longer to deliver. There’s also a risk of significant delays or product callbacks if your suppliers are sloppy. On the other hand, if you do it right, you’ve secured a significant part of a good customer relationship. Use the TQM methodology to optimize the entire process, step-by-step.
Employee onboarding and trainingMost businesses undervalue employee onboarding and training because they fail to understand how short-term upskilling and reskilling training boosts productivity and even contributes to company growth. Just look at these numbers from a recent TalentLMS study: (Image Source) Plus, a good employee onboarding program can help you retain more employees. To put your TQM in place, again, you need to start by figuring out the data.
Using digital tools for learning, work, and the onboarding process can help you measure performance and progress. Customer serviceCustomer service is a fundamental aspect of business performance. But don’t think that TQM mandates cutting costs here. Quality management means seeing past cheap shortcuts to the real goldmine. Next-level service means happy, loyal customers. Again, implementing TQM follows a similar process.
Smoother implementation with the right TQM toolIf you only focus on the high-level TQM philosophy, you won’t be able to make the change stick. You need to use practical tools and frameworks to help your teams transition.
Get started Make a smooth transition to total quality management with monday.comIf you want a successful implementation of TQM, you need to start with a foundation that supports a system of managing processes without spreadsheets and endless email threads. You can use monday.com to give your employees a robust digital workspace that includes 40+ integrations, customizable templates, and a REST API to create the exact platform your teams need. Standardize workflows with clear templates and checklistsStart by documenting and standardizing different workflows. It’s a good first step towards a more reliable process. It also makes onboarding new employees a lot easier. monday.com offers a wide range of workflow templates aimed at different companies. For example, the template for design teams looks like this: You can easily add sub-items or comment in a checklist to each item. With access and user permission control, you can ensure that every employee only sees what they need to. No searching through endless email threads required. Track and measure progress and unexpected results in different processes.From the second your first boards are up and running, you’ll get access to real-time data. With handy visualization tools like Gantt charts, you’ll never lose track of a process again. You can also visualize the progress of multiple processes in a single dashboard. Note that all this data is only up-to-date when all your team members actively use the platform. Promoting that must be a part of the cultural change of your TQM effort. Remove data silos between departments and teams with integrations.In 2022, every team and department has their own suite of SaaS tools that they rely on, but usually, no single enterprise tool can effectively complete every possible task. monday.com acts as a central hub for all your company’s various apps. In a single move, you can delete the evil known as “manual data entry” from your company. Not only does this free up valuable employee time, but it also removes the risk of bad data due to typos. Monitor real-time bug and issue reports.You can also use these sources to monitor reliable bug and issue reports. With digital products, bugs are the equivalent of a production error. Striving to minimize them is the bare minimum of TQM. Centralize your TQM with monday.comTotal quality management doesn’t just focus on the final result. It also considers your whole working environment and minimizes excess costs and risks. If you try to take any shortcuts, you might see temporary, localized gains, but you won’t see stable improvements throughout your entire company. Use a ready-made workflow template for your industry’s TQM, like this manufacturing template, to get started today. Get started What is TQM example?Examples of TQM. Automobile manufacturer Toyota is one example of TQM. The adoption of TQM and kaizen at Toyota led to higher product and work quality at all levels of the organization. Toyota adopted a related practice called statistical quality control (SQC) in 1949.
Why is TQM important?TQM provides the quality assurance that customers will get what they expect, as well as a process for managing unsatisfied customers, make needed corrections and prevent similar reoccurrences. Explore the tools you need to achieve TQM.
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