Effective TQM implementation: critical issues

Abstract

Quality improvement efforts in the 1980’s and continuing into 1990’s throughout the world have been fueled by a host of good ideas to make quality integral to the business decision making process.

On the technical front, SPC, JIT, DOE, Taguchi methods, QFD, and TPM philosophies and methodologies have been attempted. On the system front, ISO9000 has been interpreted as a must. On the human front, Total Employee Involvement (TEI), participative management, and quality circles have attracted the attention of many companies. On the motivational front, many quality improvement awards have been instituted.

In spite of widespread interest and massive investment, there are reports of only isolated successes. By and large, quality is not yet integral to all businesses or all activities in any given business. The progress is only in terms of how many people are trained rather than how many inherent quality problems have been recognized and resolved.

The Total Quality Management (TQM) concept has the potential to integrate all the improvement philosophies proposed thus far. However, TQM can end up being diffused like all other improvement philosophies if the TQM concept is not well executed.

The execution difficulties arise from the fact that the TQM is a soft science and as such invites philosophical discussion. The elements of TQM are rather straight forward; but the execution is quite difficult. After finishing initial conceptual journey, many companies falsely believe that TQM is simply a matter of applying common sense.

The purpose of the paper is to illustrate that TQM concepts may be simple but their execution is not. TQM implementers must be aware of the execution options. Some options are very effective where as others sputter after initial eager blips. Without the awareness and analysis of critical implementation issues, it is not possible to make a better choice. This paper provides the breakthrough ideas to get a freedom from expensive conceptual TQM rut to effective TQM implementation.