Revisiting total quality management

Citation

Al-Mashari, M. (2002), "Revisiting total quality management", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj.2002.15708baa.001

Revisiting total quality management

Revisiting total quality management

Business process management (BPM) takes an integrative view of the network of parallel and serial processes that represent the work an organization does. BPM acknowledges the interdependence of all processes and addresses the interdependence of strategy, people, processes and technology in achieving business objectives. One of the important features of BPM is its ability to integrate different scales of business process change such as total quality management (TQM), BPR, and innovation in one unified process performance improvement strategy. A group of practitioners and researchers suggest that such an integrative strategy can lead to superior performance (Davenport, 1993; Kelada, 1994; Zairi and Sinclair, 1995). However, success in this respect is essentially conditional on managing adequately the complex context of implementation, which necessitates organizational changes across various key areas such as culture, management systems, and structure, and more importantly, lasting, strong and committed leadership. Failure, on the other hand, is always attributed to problems such as the inability to integrate business performance improvement efforts with business strategy, the impracticality of the way new managerial practices are combined with existing systems, and the obstacles that cultural challenges often place in the way of ambitious efforts.

TQM will always be seen an essential element and a foundation step for BPM initiatives. Organizations that do not have the capacity to absorb incremental changes to their business operations are not likely to succeed in pursuing BPM in the form of more ambitious and large-scale changes such as BPR or innovations. This issue addresses a variety of topics related to TQM. Dale and Wan's paper reports the main findings of an evaluation of four separate quality costing methods which have been trialed in a manufacturing organisation. Among the main findings of their study is that the chosen quality costing method must fit a company's situation, be dependent on the concept of continuous improvement, be applicable to all departments and employ a team approach. They also found that success will be largely dependent on company culture and the discipline of staff to follow the agreed procedures.

Through a rich academic and professional literature, Dory and Schier demonstrate that the rise and plateau of the US quality movement was the outcome of a complex senior management decision process that extended well beyond the problem of closing a quality gap between US and Japanese competitors. Their study shows that firms in many industries adopted quality programs to simultaneously solve several more serious problems than quality. The study also confirms that the managers of these same firms later revised their strategic agendas by replacing quality with new programs that addressed emerging problems that demanded their attention and resources. Dory and Schier's study should help senior managers in many countries to decide whether to commit resources to support new managerial movements, and if so, to determine when to commit these resources.

Interestingly, Osuagwu's article reports on Nigerian companies' strategies in TQM application. The study demonstrates how TQM is being deployed in developing economies. The study investigates the impact of environmental factors on TQM strategies, and the empirical relations of TQM strategies, impact of environmental factors on TQM strategies, and measures of organizational performance. Based on a survey research methodology, the study finds that most dimensions of TQM strategies witness reasonable levels of emphasis, and the impacts of environmental factors on TQM strategies have been substantial. The paper also establishes some statistically-significant empirical relationships between most dimensions of TQM strategies and measures of performance. The findings have support in previous normative and empirical studies. The study suggests replicating the study in specific Nigerian industries and some developing African countries that have embraced the structural adjustment program.

Jones and Ryan propose a contingency model of quality management practices based on organizational theory. The model considers quality management orientation, process choice, and environmental uncertainty as the contextualising variables. The study shows that to maximize quality and firm performance, quality management practices must be congruent with the particular situation within which the firm finds itself. The study, therefore, confirms that no one set of quality management practices can be implemented and be expected to increase performance in all environments. Based on recent research and the popular press, the paper suggests reasons for quality management program failures. The paper also discusses some research propositions and implications.

Finally, Lari argues that the current information system use in quality management and ISO 9000 certification process is typically utilized in administration and documentation. He also explains that the existing software does not satisfy the technical information needs for ISO 9000. Lari's paper shows that there is a need for tools that can help management to decide on technical aspects such as proper corrective and preventive actions or design verification and validation activities. The paper analyzes the information requirements of ISO 9000 standards and identifies the areas where a decision support system can be used. Furthermore, the paper proposes a conceptual framework for company-wide information management. It also explains the modular approach to the system development by introducing and empirically testing the prototype model for a corrective and preventive actions module. The proposed system will provide the conceptual structure for a quality assurance information system within organizations.

Majed Al-MashariKing Saud University

ReferencesDavenport, T. (1993), "Need radical innovation and continuous improvement? Integrated process reengineering and TQM", Planning Review, May/June, pp. 6-12.Kelada, J. (1994), "Is reengineering replacing total quality?", Quality Progress, Vol. 27 No. 12, December, pp. 79-85.Zairi, M. and Sinclair, D. (1995), "Business process re-engineering and process management: a survey of current practice and future trends in integrated management", Management Decision, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 3-16.