Text14. Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a strategy that puts awareness of quality at the heart of all organisational processes.Itis a system that aims at a continual increase in customer satisfaction with continually lowering costs by eliminating wastes and defects. The basic goal of TQM is to ensure that the products, services, or processes provided meet specific requirements and are dependable, satisfactory, physically sound and aesthetically pleasant. To improve performance managers are trying to make processes visible, repeatable and measurable. They also examine the ways the customer actually uses the product in real life in order to improve it if it is necessary.

As for quality control, it involves the examination of a product, service, or process for a certain level of quality. The goal of a quality control team is to identify products or services that do not meet a company’s specified standards of quality. If a problem is identified, the job of a quality control team or professionals may involve stopping production temporarily. Depending on the particular service or product, as well as the type of problem identified, production or implementation may not cease entirely. Usually it is not the job of a quality control team or professionals to correct quality issues. Typically, other individuals are involved in the process of discovering the cause of quality issues and fixing them. Once such problems are overcome, the products, services, or processes continue production or implementation as usual.

Quality control can cover not just products services, and processes, but also people. Employees are an important part of any company. If a company has employees that don’t have adequate skills or training, have troubles understanding directions, or are misinformed, the quality of product may be severely diminished. When quality control is considered in terms of human beings, it concerns correctable issues. However, it should not be confused with human resource issues.

Often, quality control is confused with quality assurance. Though the two are very similar, there are some basic differences. Quality control is concerned with the product, while quality assurance is process–oriented. Even with such a clear-cut definition, identifying the differences between the two can be hard. Basically, quality control involves evaluating a product, activity, process, or service. By contrast, quality assurance is designed to make sure processes are sufficient to meet objectives. Simply put, quality assurance ensures a product or service is manufactured, implemented, created, or produced in the right way; while quality control evaluates whether or not the end result is satisfactory.

Answer the questions:

1. What is Total Quality Management?

2. What is the basic goal of TQM?

3. How should managers act to improve performance?

4. How does a quality control team function?

5. Why can production of goods be stopped?

6. Does a quality control team correct quality issues?

7. Why can quality control be reffed to employees?

8. What can happen to quality of product is the staff has inadequate skills or training?

9. What is the difference between quality control and quality assurance?

10. What is the aim of quality assurance?