Does quality management actually work?

Over the years beginning with quality circles and progressing through TQM to BPR, Continuous Improvement and a host of international framework quality management has become popular. But for some of it is just another management fad that will pass soon as many programs which have promised a lot have ultimately failed to deliver.

Consider the contributions of the 'gurus' of quality as put forward in Volker's article "Main Schools of TQM: The Big Five". I would like to share my current attitude to this issue as well as the 'gurus" contribution applicable to my organization including quality program and success story.

What is quality management? Basically it is about doing things right at first time. Many businesses have used quality management to assist by providing a clear business focus, improve efficiency, increase customers’ satisfaction, improve communication, increase cash flow, and the potential for profit.

Quality management was seen as early as 1881 when Federick Winslow Taylor introduced scientific management. He wanted to prove that man could ‘work smarter’. Taylor’s research led him to produce an instruction cards that workers did not need to think but instead followed the written instruction cards on how to complete the required job.

Ehrenberg and Stupak (1994) claimed that quality management is an eclectic mix of management ideas. It represents the collective intellectual output of numerous of contributors including Deming, Juran, Feigenbaum, Crosby, Ishikawa, and many others. Selladurai (2002) quoted that the two popular and widespread organizational models, total quality management (TQM) and business process re-engineering (BPR).

TQM, based on many of the ideas of Deming, Juran and Crosby, aims to improve the process within an organization by emphasizing organization-wide continuous quality improvement. It focuses on implementing incremental change with minimal variation to existing process. BPR, based on primarily on the works of Davenport & Short (1990) and Hammer (1990), focuses on improving business process through implementing change radically and rapidly, including creating new process to displace the old one.

Does quality management actually work? Volker (2004) mentioned the early development of complex quality management system was substantially influenced by only a few American-Deming, Juran, Feigenbaum, Crosby and Japanese-Ishikawa quality expert.

The modern world provides an environment where business is facing a lot of challenges. Globalization of the market has caused in not only competition from domestic market, but also from business abroad where prices are typically lower. As the result, local companies need to focus on other aspects of their business beside price.

Proper implementation and commitment to TQM can lead a company to success by focusing on the customers’ expectation and requirement. However, without this commitment TQM will not flourish into a productive business tool. Statistics show that 20% to 40% of US organizations tried TQM, but 70% of them failed; leaving only 10% of organization using it correctly (Harrington 2004).

We are one of the big MNCs in Penang, Malaysia, we believed that our customers define quality. Customers buy products and services based on perceived value-measure benefits against the costs.

Our organization has implemented a quality program in production floors, known as “Instrument Methodological ProActive Control” (IMPACT) a derivative of JEDEC (EIA 659) & FMEA. IMPACT is a customer focused manufacturing process control, as well as a tool to eliminate manufacturing potential problems and emphasizes on Mistake Proofing Solution or Poka-Yoke.

The implementation steps has adopted Deming’s systematic approach to problem solving and promoted known as Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle - Deming cycle Landesberg (1999). The success of IMPACT has improved product quality for achieving customers’ satisfaction. In additional, our organization has started Six Sigma Program in early FY05 for achieving significant improvements in process efficiency, customer satisfaction and financial performance.

References:
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Ehrenberg, Rudolph H., jr. and Stupak, Roland J. (1994) Total quality management: Its relationship to administrative theory and organizational behavior in the public sector, Public Administration Quarterly 18 (Spring), pp 75-98

Harrington, James. H. Retrived from web on June 14,2005, website:http://nunic.nu.edu/~ckettemb/Harrington.html

Landesberg, Phil (1999) In the beginning, there were Deming and Juran, The Jourmal For Quality & Participation, pp 59-61

Selladurai, R (2002) An organizational profitability, productivity, performance (PPP) model: going beyond TQM and BPR, Total Quality Management, vol.13, no.5, pp 613-619.

Stringham, H. Shand (2004) Does quality management work in the public sector? Public Administration and Management: An Interactive Journal, vol. 9, no.3, pp 182-211

Volker, K (2001) Main school of TQM:”The big five”, TQM Magazine, 9(3), pp 146-155