Tqm, Continuous Quality Improvement, and Quality Circles

TQM, Continuous Quality Improvement, and Quality Circles

TQM, or Total Quality Management, is a combined set of management practices throughout a particular organization. It was first associated with the Toyota production system and is based on the ideas of W. Edward Deming, Phillip B. Crosby, and Joseph M. Juran. The general purpose of TQM is to ensure that the organization meets or exceeds customer requirements. It is easy to understand why TQM would be important to businesses considering that having all-around better quality is one of the keys to a having competitive edge over the rest of the market.

One of the main principles of TQM for businesses is for them to always be customer focused. Essentially, it doesn't ultimately matter what you as a business think of the level of quality of your product or service, but rather what the customer thinks. You can think that something is very marketable and have high quality, but if your customers don't think so, your business probably won't do well. Another great thing to remember about TQM is that you as a business need to insure total employee involvement in your business. You cannot have fear or uncertainties within the workplace, and by ensuring that isn't the case, you will be able to empower your employees to be working at a higher efficiency level. As a business you also need to be continually improving anything and everything about your business to ensure you meet or exceed the current needs of your customer base. This also ties back into successfully keeping a competitive edge over the rest of your particular market. When making important decisions for your business you need to make sure that the decisions you make are fact-based, and not personal or spontaneous thoughts. This is not meant to mean that you should avoid fresh ideas and strategies, but merely that you should generally base your important business decisions on data.

TQM requires active participation on all levels and no one solution is...