PearlMark Total Quality Management
What is Total Quality Management?
If you’re a CEO reading this your company doesn’t have it and you’re searching for ... something. Your company has probably been losing customers for a long time and NOW you’re getting desperate to turn things around. If you’re NOT the CEO you can’t implement TQM but you CAN learn about it and discuss its potential for building a good company with your boss. There are a LOT of quality programs and initials out there: Six Sigma, Malcolm Baldrige, ISO 9000, etc., etc. but WE go back to where it all started (W. Edwards Deming).
What will TQM do for you? It will increase your sales and customer base by enticing customers to come back to you for future purchases and recommend you to others who may want/need your products-services. Product returns, expenses and re-work will go DOWN because your reputation, quality and customer service will go UP.
Is tqm fast?? NO! It's taken you quite a bit of time to build your organization and trash your current customers. They are not going to flock back to you because someone tells them you've satisified one customer, or you advertise that now, quality is job 1. Neither are you going to implement ONE great idea that will increase your quality over-night. If your company is on the verge of bankruptcy next week (or next month) you may have to resort to the old bean-counter, slash and burn technique of cutting expenses and maybe downsizing in the short run. If you do slash and burn, do NOT emulate the government by being "fair" and starting a policy of "every department has to reduce by 10%". This is a shot at making things right and better, not worse.
Is it hard? YES! Seat-of-the-pants authoritarian management probably got you where you are; it can't get you where you WANT to be and change is HARD!
We help companies implement TQM using the approaches developed by W. Edwards Deming (to see who *We* are, click on the ABOUT US button). Deming’s first (and best) book is entitled “Out of the Crisis” and if you THINK you really want a TQM organization, buy it and read it (it’s not a long read and only about $11 from Amazon.com if you buy it used). If you never heard of Deming, here’s his write-up from Wikipedia:
William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American statistician, professor, author, lecturer and consultant. He is perhaps best known for his work in Japan. There, from 1950 onward, he taught top management how to improve design (and thus service), product quality, testing, and sales (the last through global markets)[1] through various methods, including the application of statistical methods.
Deming made a significant contribution to Japan's later reputation for innovative high-quality products and its economic power. He is regarded as having had more impact upon Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being considered something of a hero in Japan, he was only just beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death
Some authors paint Deming almost as a God, revered by the Japanese. He was however, just a principled man, a statistician who recognized where companies were going wrong. Here are Deming’s famous 14 Points as enumerated in “Out of the Crisis.” Most QA experts credit Dr. Deming with providing the foundation of the Japanese quality miracle. He developed the following 14 points for managing the improvement of quality, productivity, and competitive position:
1. Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
4. End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier.
5. Improve constantly and forever every process for planning,
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Adopt and institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between staff areas.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical
12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride in their work, and eliminate the annual
rating or merit system.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.
14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.
Basically, that’s (above) it. Looks simple but human beings, being what they are, complicate matters and make its implementation nearly impossible. After WW II, Japanese manufacturing leaders implemented most of these strategies and more (like Just-In-Time concepts, etc.) because the country was ravaged and it was a matter of survival, just as it MAY be for YOUR company.
When you’re desperate enough to REALLY look into why your customers aren’t coming back, why you have recalls, and why returned products are costing you too much money and why various processes in YOUR company aren’t better than your competition give US a call or read “out of the crisis”. If you tried TQM and it didn’t work for you we can tell you why (you won’t like the answers - we don’t BS you at all) and we CAN help you. To contact us, click on the CONTACT US button.