Introduction
Total Quality Management (TQM) is an undeniably important process in facilitating an organization’s growth, competitiveness, and success. Founded and developed by Edward Deming, it is a structured and comprehensive organizational management tactic which emphasizes on ceaseless services and product quality enhancement by relying on customer feedback. The main aim of the approach is to sustain or improve consumer satisfaction and maintain their loyalty. It applies to several types of organizations, including banking, hospitals, and schools among others. This continuous process entails identifying manufacturing flaws and minimi zing or eradicating them, optimizing supply management, providing the best customer experience, and up-to-date employee training. The organization’s management holds all relevant parties responsible for the final services or products’ quality. Total Quality Management is beneficial in that it facilitates lower production costs, minimal product flaws, the establishment of a good organizational culture, and the satisfaction of customers. An organization’s TQM standards are often a reflection of industry standards and their internal preferences. Organizations most commonly utilize the total quality management strategy to achieve long-term improvements rather than short-term objectives. TQM is thus an effective approach that facilitates systemic change within an organization cohesively between all departments.
Edward Deming’s Development of Total Quality Management
Experts assert that statistician Walter Shewhart formulated earlier versions of viable quality management, which engineer Joseph Juran later utilized. However, there is a consensus that Edward Deming developed a practical and applicable version of Total Quality Management that organizations widely use today. Notably, Deming widened the scope of quality management from that of the product only to that of all the aspects within any organization, hence the phrase ‘total quality.’ Interestingly, Deming did not use the specific term Total Quality Management; a term coined later on in history. In the 1950s, post-World War II, many global consumers perceived Japanese products to be inferior and sub-standard, a problem which Japan’s industrial leaders acknowledged. Japan’s officials and industry leaders invited Deming, a renowned statistician, to go lecture in Shewhart’s statistical quality control and help with the coordination of the upcoming Japanese census. Deming assured the Japanese industry leaders that he would remedy their product quality issues within five years. Deming opposed the then prevailing US-based strategy that placed only engineers and organizations’ management in charge of quality control processes. In his lectures, Deming emphasized on the role of everyone in an organization, including ordinary line workers, in the quality control process ( Weckenmann, Akkasoglu, & Werner, 2015 ). Japanese executives were receptive to this notion and implemented it widely in their company’s operations. Undeniably, it brought about a significant improvement in the overall quality of Japanese products and subsequently a dramatic increase in exports. Japanese companies, such as Fuji, Toyota, and Sony were some of the early adopters of Deming’s approach and saw significant quality increases, which led to better sales due to increased demand. Additionally, they managed to drive down their costs and sustain a competitive advantage over other industry players.
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Deming, through his Total Quality Management strategy, not only made executives see the worth of ordinary employees in quality control but also made the latter discover their worth. Consequently, his approach was an instrumental premise in the establishing of the quality control circle concept by Kaouru Ishikawa in the early 1960s. Notably, this refers to a close-knit kaizen group of work colleagues who handle similar tasks and brainstorm regularly to assess, detect, and rectify any work-related problems. In addition, they come up with potential ideas to enhance the workplace, productivity, or the products and present them to the management. Analysts attributed increased employee motivation to the establishment of quality control circles. Deming’s TQM strategy was so effective and beneficial that US companies among others, adopted it in a bid to gain a competitive edge ( Petersen, 1999 ). The Deming Prize, an award accorded for excellence in total quality management, is a perfect testament to Deming’s invaluable contribution.
Deming’s Total Quality Management Points
Deming created distinct points that served as the core principles of his total quality management strategy. They form a great outlay of excellent management practices to ensure quality control within an organization. Experts identify some of those points as being of more significance than others. One of the key points is an organization creating a permanence of purpose towards improving what they offer to the consumer (Dahlgaard, Khanji, & Kristensen, 2008). Indeed, this is a long-term customer-focused philosophy rather than a shorter-term responsibility. Therefore, it needs seamless adaptation and implementation to facilitate continuous innovation that maintains or improves an organization’s consistency and competitiveness. Moreover, this point calls for a practice that would retain and create jobs in the future. For instance, camera companies, including Sony and Canon, adopted digital technology and focused on endless innovation, which has led to great quality products and sales. Polaroid, on the other hand, was hesitant to embrace digital technology and suffered significantly because of that.
Deming also claimed, through one of his points, that it is prudent for any organization to deal with a single supplier for specific items. For instance, Disney solely utilizes Point360 for their animation films’ post-production demands unless constrained by circumstances. Deming emphasized on the importance of an organization settling on a mutually beneficial high-quality supplier. He stressed on getting a sole supplier for any of an organization’s inputs as it motivates the supplier to meet its obligations and even exceed the requirements. Besides, it is easier to achieve consistent product quality when using a single supplier and thus make quality management easier ( Trent & Monczka, 1999 ). Forging a long-term relationship with a supplier allows them to adapt to any changing needs an organization may have.
Since Deming’s TQM strategy focuses on all the relevant parties in an organization, his core points entail internal training and leadership. Deming perceived the employee as a valuable asset rather than an expense and saw the benefit of training them on-the-job. Employee training includes the production process, customer needs, and employee-onboarding for those recently hired. Ideally, it leads to consistency and high-quality production by employees. However, even the best-trained employees require quality leadership to function effectively. Deming’s contribution here was that an organization’s management should lead their employees and not just superintend over them. Deming asserted that leaders should have authority to address issues and communicate necessary changes, which is essential in fields such as medicine (Williams & Howe, 1992). He also recommended collaboration so that leaders may understand their employees and guide them on the best way to transform or improve their companies.
Several of the other key points that Edward Deming raised revolved around eliminating barriers. He called for the breaking down of the departmental obstacles. While individual departments are necessary for any organization, they must not work in isolation, but rather in harmony with each other ( Talib, Rahman, Siddiqui, & Qureshi, 2011 ). For instance, it would be prudent for staff from the product design department to work closely with those in the manufacturing department to ensure that the latter meet their specifications and designs. All departments should work cohesively and interdependently in every stage and share expertise that could improve product quality. In his core points, Deming also recognized that organizations should strive to eradicate barriers to workmanship pride. He firmly believed that for a worker to produce high-quality services or products, it is quintessential for them to feel proud of their work. Deming acknowledged that incessant employee criticism and comparing them with other employees are barriers to workmanship pride. Naturally, some employees will adopt skills faster than their counterparts, but they should not serve as the basis for comparison with lesser performing employees. Therefore, Deming argued that managers should make employees feel proud of their work without comparison against others or rating them. Merit systems and ratings are detrimental to employees’ productivity in that they deprive them of self-esteem, pride in their work, and even motivation. Additionally, at this point, Deming suggested that leaders should treat employees equally and not pit them against each other in a competition for rewards. According to him, the quality system eventually facilitates lower-performing employees to reach the higher work standards of their higher-performing counterparts.
Conclusion
Deming left an indelible mark in quality production. Through his development of total quality management, he revolutionized how organizations from different sectors of the economy assure continuous quality. With its implementation, starting mainly in Japan, it provided a replicable framework for many organizations around the world. Indeed, it is undeniable that the TQM framework gave Japanese companies a significant competitive edge by facilitating the creation of high-quality products, which attracted plenty of demand. Edward Deming summed up his framework in several guiding points that serve as a valuable guide for prudent company practices to ensure high-quality productivity, consistency, growth, and competitiveness.
References
Dahlgaard, J. J., Khanji, G. K., & Kristensen, K. (2008). Fundamentals of Total Quality Management . Routledge.
Petersen, P. B. (1999). Total quality management and the Deming approach to quality Management. Journal of Management History , 5 (8), 468-488.
Talib, F., Rahman, Z., Siddiqui, J., & Qureshi, M. N. (2011). Total quality management and service quality: an exploratory study of management practices and barriers in service industries. Talib, F., Rahman, Z., Qureshi, MN and Siddiqui, J.(2011)‘Total quality management and service quality: an exploratory study of quality management practices and barriers in service industry’, Int. J. Services and Operations Management , 10 (1), 94-118.
Trent, R. J., & Monczka, R. M. (1999). Achieving world-class supplier quality. Total Quality Management , 10 (6), 927-938.
Weckenmann, A., Akkasoglu, G., & Werner, T. (2015). Quality management–history and trends. The TQM Journal , 27 (3), 281-293.
Williams, T., & Howe, R. (1992). W. Edwards Deming and Total Quality Management: An Interpretation for Nursing Practice. Journal For Healthcare Quality , 14 (1), 36–39. doi:10.1111/j.1945-1474.1992.tb00011.x
