Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | C | Chartered Management Institute: Checklists: Operations and Quality

Total Quality: mapping a TQM strategy.

Article Excerpt
Introduction

The successful implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) can lead to improvements in the quality of products and services, reductions in the waste of resources, and overall increases in efficiency and productivity. Such improvements contribute to good customer relations, growth in market share and sustained competitive advantage. However, the introduction of a quality strategy is a major strategic change which requires considerable research and planning and it is important to combine the "hard edge" of quality (its tools and techniques) with the "soft" side of cultural change. TQM involves everyone in the organisation and needs to become a way of life, if it is to be successful.

National Occupational Standards for Management and Leadership

This checklist has relevance to the following standards:

B: Providing direction, unit1

Definition

TQM is a style of managing which gives everyone in the organisation responsibility for delivering quality to the final customer, quality being described as 'fitness for purpose' or as 'delighting the customer'. TQM views each task in the organisation as fundamentally a process which is in a customer/supplier relationship with the next process. The aim at each stage is to define and...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!