TQM: a snapshot of the experts

Citation

(2002), "TQM: a snapshot of the experts", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 6 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/mbe.2002.26706cab.003

TQM: a snapshot of the experts

The value of total quality management (TQM) is acknowledged by countless managers across the globe and plays a key part in innumerable strategic initiatives worldwide. Yet how many of these managers, consultants or employees really know about TQM; where it originated, who conceived the idea, and how it has developed over the years?

This article provides a brief overview of the few quality experts who substantially influenced the development of complex quality management systems. These gurus, despite presenting different solutions to the needs of quality management, all address the same basic principles of TQM.

Dr William Edwards Deming (1900-1993)

Deming was principally interested in what Shewhart (a statistician with whom Deming worked in the 1940s) called "statistical control" and random variation of a work process. Deming began giving lectures on quality control in manufacturing environments across the USA.

However, the management of the US industrial corporations responded very reluctantly to Deming's efforts at that time. This was because of the era of mass immigration after the Second World War that flooded the USA with cheap, but unskilled workers. As a result, the quality issue was not considered to be important; volumes and quantities were crucial – and there was profit enough to cover the extra costs of non-quality.

Consequently, Deming took his theories to Japan in 1947 where they were well received by managers and engineers alike. This led to the Japanese quality revolution. In 1980, Deming's approach to quality was featured in an NBC White Paper, If Japan Can, Why Can't We? (NBC News, 1980). The program was the beginning of the quality revolution in the USA, and Deming was, at rather long last, discovered in his own country.

The main thesis of Deming is: that by improving quality it is possible to increase productivity, which results in the improved competitiveness of a business enterprise. Low quality means high costs, which will lead to a loss of the competitive position of an organization in the market. In order to achieve this aim Deming developed an approach which is summarized in his 14-point program:

1. 1.

   (1) create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service; (2) adopt the new philosophy; (3) cease dependence on mass inspection; (4) end the practice of awarding business on price tag alone; (5) constantly and forever improve the system of production and service; (6) institute modern methods of training on the job; (7) institute modern methods of supervision; (8) drive out fear; (9) break down barriers between staff areas;

2. 2.

   eliminate numerical goals for the workforce;

3. 3.

   eliminate work standards and numerical quotas;

4. 4.

   remove barriers that hinder the hourly worker;

5. 5.

   institute a vigorous program of education and training;

6. 6.

   create a structure in top management that will push every day on the above 13 points.

However, Deming does not consider certain aspects of today's TQM approach, such as the need to positively motivate individual employees to dedicate themselves to quality work. The role of the human resource issue and the vital contribution that the individual can make to his work organization were not covered. Despite the attempt to recognize a holistic quality management system in the work of Deming, it has to be pointed out that statistical methods remain the heart of his ideas.

Dr Joseph Moses Juran (1904-)

Along with Deming, Juran lectured in the 1950s in Japan. He was the first to broaden the understanding of quality control, emphasizing the importance of the managerial aspect. His main contribution was: quality control must be conducted as an integral part of the management function.

Juran deplored the fact that once managing the quality issue was delegated to the subordinate hierarchy, it was no longer considered to be vital for the top management to participate personally. This progressive removal of the company's management from managing the quality issue led to negative effects – in the end, nobody in the company felt responsible for quality. However, because everyone looks up in turn to his or her respective manager, leading from the top is crucial.

The involvement of management can become visible in various ways:

• •

  It is the responsibility of management to establish a quality council.

• •

  Management should establish a quality policy.

• •

  Management has to establish quality goals which should be expressed in numbers and should include a time frame.

• •

  Once a specific goal has been established by management, it is then the responsibility of management to provide the necessary resources needed to achieve the quality goals.

Juran's managerial-based approach broadened the understanding of quality at that time.

Dr Armand Vallin Feigenbaum (1919-)

Feigenbaum can be designated as the originator of the concept of total quality control. In 1951 he published Quality Control, a textbook that deals with elements such as management of quality, the system for total quality, statistical technology and the application of total quality in the enterprise.

In the 1950s Feigenbaum worked as quality manager at the General Electric Company and had intensive contacts with companies such as Toshiba and Hitachi. Feigenbaum contributed two new aspects to the discussion about quality:

1. 1.

   Quality is the responsibility of everybody in the company ranging from top management to the unskilled worker. Quality is produced not only by the production department, but also by marketing, research and development, finance, purchasing, and any other department.

2. 2.

   Costs of non-quality have to be categorized if they are to be managed. Costs of control and costs of failure of control have to be minimized by a quality improvement program. The traditional reaction to higher failure costs has been more inspection. Feigenbaum suggests, in order to reduce failure costs, increasing the expenditure for prevention.

Feigenbaum's intention is not so much to create managerial awareness of quality as to assist a business enterprise to design its own quality system which involves every employee. He offers a highly structured approach to total quality which, however, hardly covers the question of motivation and commitment of the individual employee to quality.

Philip Bayard Crosby (1926-2001)

Crosby has become known for his concept of "Zero defects" and "Do it right the first time" which he expected to be the only standard of performance. Any other acceptable quality levels are not good enough.

The starting point of Crosby's concept is his statement that, "Quality is free. It's not a gift, but it is free. What costs money are the unquality things – all the actions that involve not doing jobs right the first time".

To be able to understand quality it is helpful to deal first with a number of erroneous assumptions held by many managers:

• •

  Quality means luxury or goodness signifying the relative worth of things. Quality has only to be defined as "conformance to requirements". If non-conformance is detected, this means absence of quality.

• •

  Quality is not measurable. It is possible to measure quality quantitatively, as the costs of non-conformance are identical to the costs of quality – the costs of doing things wrong.

• •

  All quality problems originate with the workers of the company. Management has to lead by example and the employees follow its example. Too often, quality inspectors "march blindly past the defects of accounting, engineering, computer programming, and marketing on their way to the manufacturing ghetto to look for errors".

• •

  Quality originates in the quality department. Quality is the responsibility of every employee in the company. It is not the quality department that is kept responsible for resolving problems over which this department has no control or immediate access to.

This leads to Crosby's idea of the "quality vaccine" which can be used by business enterprises to prevent the problem of non-conformance. He argues that a business organization can be vaccinated against non-conformance to quality requirements. He recommends applying his four absolutes of quality management:

1. 1.

   DIRFT – do it right the first time;

2. 2.

   the system of quality is prevention;

3. 3.

   the performance standard is "zero defects";

4. 4.

   the measurement of quality is the price of non-conformance.

However, Crosby does not make any reference to the actual quality tools and techniques required to realize his concept. He only mentions very briefly statistical methods and Pareto analysis. Crosby's approach, which offers more help to managers than to engineers, leads to the criticism that he lacks substance. Certainly Crosby is acknowledged as a great orator, but beyond that, his concept has to be considered to be more motivational than practical.

Kaoru Ishikawa (1915-)

Basing his ideas on the works of Juran and Deming, Ishikawa substantially influenced the Japanese understanding of quality. He has become known for his work on, in particular, four aspects of TQM: quality circles, the question of continuous training, the quality tool "Ishikawa diagram", and the quality chain. His approach to TQM comes very close to today's understanding of TQM.

Ishikawa believes that TQM emphasizes a clear customer orientation – internal and external. The needs of the customer have to be satisfied. TQM involves everyone within the company; every employee should contribute his ideas of how to improve the work processes.

Ishikawa considers the implementation of quality circles as an effective way of getting the shop floor involved in the quality issue. This concept has spread rapidly in Japanese industry. The quality circle is a voluntary group of six to eight employees from the same department. It is the aim to improve the work processes these workers are responsible for. Thereby, the full expertise, job knowledge and human capabilities of each employee can be fully used and the commitment of the individual employee to the quality objectives of the company is increased and strengthened.

This involvement of all employees in the company's problem-solving process requires a continuous education and training of everyone in the company. Ishikawa claims that TQM "begins with education and ends with education". Because the workforce of a business organization is constantly changing, Ishikawa argued, and new employees are starting, education and training must be continued.

But it is not only the workforce which is changing. Also the needs and expectations of the customers are a moving target and subject to constant change, and Ishikawa stresses the importance that, "QC training and education must also be carried out without interruption, through good times and bad".

The widening of understanding which Ishikawa undertakes is remarkable. He describes the importance not only of meeting the requirements of the external customer, but also of paying attention to "internal" customers and internal relationships. We can agree that Ishikawa has contributed and formed a number of important ideas to today's understanding of TQM.

Conclusion

Summing up the work of the five quality "gurus", we can see that the main ideas of their works were primarily oriented to securing the survival of the company by making full use of the company's technical resources.

The quality gurus understood that in the increasingly competitive business world after 1945, where many firms were struggling to survive, companies could not afford to leave any technical resources of the enterprise lying idle. However, the role of the human resource issue and the vital contribution that the individual employee can make to the quality objectives of his company, were hardly recognized by these classical quality gurus.

Management needs to make use of all resources – technical and human. Without the total commitment of all employees, the work organization will have great difficulties in surviving in today's business world. Interestingly, the subject of employee empowerment and commitment is an important dimension of total quality that is ignored by the above writers.

This is a shortened version of "Main schools of TQM: the big five."

Kruger, V. (2001), "Main schools of TQM: the big five", The TQM Magazine, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 146-55, ISSN 0954-478x.