Total Quality Management is a management technique used by managers in the production chain and who deal with the

tactical and operational decisions. The TQM is organised from senior management and implemented by supervisors and employees in the production area. TQM is a process whereby the need to get everything right the first time and to continually improve the business production is required. Getting things right first time is important to ensure that the business focuses on the customer. Total quality management is a management system for a customer focused organization that involves all employee in continual improvement of all aspects of the organization. TQM uses strategy, data, and effective communication to integrate the quality principles into the culture and activities of the organization. Principles Of TQM

1- Be Customer focused: Whatever you do for quality improvement, remember that ONLY customers determine the level of quality. Whatever you do to foster quality improvement, training employees, integrating quality into processes management, ONLY customers determine whether your efforts were worthwhile. 2-Insure Total Employee Involvement: You must remove fear from work place, then empower employee... you provide the proper environment.

3- Process Centered: Fundamental part of TQM is to focus on process thinking. 4- Integrated system: All employee must know the business mission and vision. An integrated business system may be modeled by MBNQA or ISO 9000 5- Strategic and systematic approach: Strategic plan must integrate quality as core component. 6- Continual Improvement: Using analytical, quality tools, and creative thinking to become more efficient and effective. 7- Fact Based Decision Making: Decision making must be ONLY on data, not personal or situational thinking.

8- Communication: Communication strategy, method and timeliness must be well defined. TQM Implementation Approaches

You can't implement just one effective solution for planning and implementing TQM concepts in all situations. Below we list generic models for implementing total quality management theory: 1- Train top management on TQM principles. 2- Assess the current: Culture, customer satisfaction, and quality management system. 3- Top management determines the core values and principles and communicates them. 4- Develop a TQM master plan based on steps 1,2,3. 5- Identify and prioritize customer needs and determine products or service to meet those needs. 6- Determine the critical processes that produces those products or services. 7- Create process improvement teams. 8- Managers supports the efforts by planning, training, and providing resources to the team. 9- Management integrates changes for improvement in daily process management. After improvements standardization takes place. 10- Evaluate progress against plan and adjust as needed.

11- Provide constant employee awareness and feedback. Establish an employee reward/ recognition process. Strategies to develop TQM

1-TQM elements approach: Take key business process and use TQM Tools to foster improvement. Use quality circles, statistical process control, taguchi method, and quality function deployment. 2 - The guru approach: Use the guides of one of the leading quality thinker. 3- Organization model approach: The organization use benchmarking or MBNQA as model for excellence. 4- Japanese total quality approach: Companies pursue the deming prize use deming principles The disadvantages of TQM is that it can lead to bureaucracy where ideas are mentioned and end up being rejected or stifled. The delays by having these inspections and process improvements can also take time to see through and also the money needed to implement TQM principles also adds to costs. By focusing too much on the customers, the production based method might have a cheaper and more faster way of doing business and this method is rejected. Some managers and employee groups might be hesitant to change into a TQM based approach if the company is doing well now. Also the benefits of TQM are not guaranteed to be successful simply based on a complete implementation. Customers themselves along with the market will decide upon the success of the company. Also the costs of inspection of processes as well as Research and development projects might be too costly. 1900 - 1994 W Edwards Deming was an American statistician, considered the father of the modern quality movement. Edwards Deming strongly influenced Japanese industry post WWII with Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Total Quality Management (TQM), similar to Joseph Juran. In 1982 Edwards Deming published Out of the Crisis identifying 14 points for management which if applied would enable Japanese manufacturing efficiencies to be realised.

The W Edwards Deming Institute awards prizes for individuals and organisations that embrace Total Quality Management and drive quality management forward. Demings 14 Points Summarised Create constancy of purpose and continual improvement long term planning must replace short term reaction Adopt the new (Japanese) philosophy by management and workers alike. Do not depend on (quality) inspection build quality into the product and process Choose quality suppliers over low cost suppliers to minimise variation in raw materials and supply. Improve constantly to reduce variation in all aspects e.g. planning, production, and service. Training on the job for workers and management, to reduce variation in how job is done. Leadership not supervision to get people to do a better job, not just meet targets. Eliminate fear encourage two-way communication, encourage employees to work in the organisations interest. Break down internal barriers departments in an organisation are internal customers to each other and must work together. Eliminate slogans (exhortations) processes make mistakes not people. Management harassment of workers will create bad relations if no effort made to improve processes. Eliminate numerical targets management by objectives (targets) encourages low quality. Remover barriers to worker satisfaction including annual appraisals Encourage self improvement and education for all Everyone is responsible for continual improvement in quality and productivity particularly top management Conclusions "Quality programmes can", the study says, "be seen as catalysts", bringing out workers' willingness to take responsibility and providing a focus and rationale for efforts at involvement. But involvement remained within tight limits and there were several factors, notably insecurity and financial constraints, which could undercut the promise of quality programmes. "The challenge", the study concludes, "is to maintain TQM in the face of external pressures".