5 Tips To Jump From Partial Quality Management To Total
5 Tips To Jump From Partial Quality Management To Total Quality Management
Establishing “Total Quality Management” in the workplace is not as easy as some assume. The idea implies action as well as quantifiable improvements in quality and service. But some implementations turn out to be entirely ineffective. One study conducted by Canada’s Conference Board revealed that about 70 of North American companies experimenting with TQM fail even to show a useful “total quality strategy.” However TQM is not some passing fad; many companies which could benefit have yet to give the plan a real trial. Some proponents of TQM may only be making halfhearted efforts or doing what could best be described as PQM or “Partial Quality Management.”
Lou Holtz a football coach for Notre Dame has observed that people often say and promise more than they will actually accomplish. In spite of all the things actually “said” and promised in the form of catchy slogans impassioned speeches clever advertising wellmarketed videos pressing sales pitches pretty brochures quality and service provided by most companies and organizations still suffers a great deal.
It can be very difficult to make the leap from PQM to TQM. It requires that your company take more action and do less talking. Some suggestions are listed here:
Involve your Senior Management! Lip service not even passionate and permission are not enough. The bosses’ visible priorities become the priorities of managers and supervisors. Improvement of service and the quality of services are often relegated from top level to middle level who relegates it to the bottom level. Finning Ltd in Vancouver largest Caterpillar dealer in the world Jim Shepard CEO and the executives have taken the initiative to be the first to take all of the service and quality training that all other employees receive. Not only that they often train and teach the sessions to their employees as well.
Teams for Support and Focus At the center of many of today’s highvolume organizations are work groups and departmental branch process improvement or progress teams. Many managers make the mistake of having more teams than they are needed. Most medium and large companies cannot host more than a handful of teams in their first few years. Organizations that are illprepared find that their improvement teams clash with the “old guard” managers and supervisors these employees often feel that coaches belong in sports arenas and the term “fostering innovation” is synonymous with “If I want to hear your ideas I will tell you what to say”. Suggestions made to realign systems that are inhibiting quality and processes that are crossfunction receive a lukewarm reception at best by these “oldguard” specialists and managers that install and micromanage them.
Improved Reporting and Planning The quality and service improvement that should be overseen with rigor and discipline which proper business planning is all about. Supervisors with more subordinates money and training at improving the business has little expectation. Often it ends with even less or no service or quality. A superior organization can be most effective with teamwork from management work teams board members or union members with a little extra effort from the vendors or customers that will develop the quality strategy. The same effort given to financial statements should be put into quality and service ratings and the reporting system.
An indication that PQM is being implemented is the excessive reliance on a few improvement techniques and the exclusion of others. TQM on the other hand requires using a wide range of techniques such as awareness of what constitutes excellent customer service understanding the basic principles behind quality improvement understanding the meaning of value and learning how to improve processes at all levels using the Xerox principle of “management based on fact”. The goal is to incorporate all of these ideas and practices into the company culture.
Improving Both Understanding and Proficiency Employees and managers alike can learn all the booklearning they want about team direction and overseeing processes from the most charismatic of presentations slide shows videos and tons of literature but this will not teach them the more intricate skills of conflict resolution or focusing meetings. We know that having common sense and putting that common sense into practice through action are two completely different concepts. We accept this in physical fitness training but many programs that are used for business training purposes have no effect because they only use technology geared toward educating the minds of the trainees and leaving them energized and informed but no more skilled than they were before to act on their newfound knowledge.
When performed properly total quality management yields excellent results. Moving from a longstanding PQM system requires consistency discipline and breaking old habits to acquire new ones. It can be a lot like finally getting off the diet yoyo in your personal life and just beginning healthy eating habits. Both require dedication and commitment to a permanent and significant change.
About the writer: Daiv Russell is a management and marketing consultant with Envision Consulting in Tampa Florida. If you like the 5 Total Quality Management Tips Learn more about Total Quality Management at totalqualitymanagement.info and learn to Define Kaizen
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