What Is Total Quality Management?

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management philosophy that prioritizes customer satisfaction by focusing on continuous improvement in all aspects of a business. It emphasizes the involvement of all team members, from product development to customer service, working towards the same goal.

• TQM emphasizes that everyone in the business is focused on the same goal, and each department is held responsible for what it contributes to the overall Customer Experience (CX).
• The ultimate goal of TQM is to increase product or service quality, ultimately offering more value to customers.
• TQM management encompasses everyone who oversees the process of TQM implementation, identifying and resolving points of friction in order to improve efficiency.

Five Approaches To Total Quality Management for Your Small Business To Consider

TQM is a broad concept with various approaches, all centered on developing your product to ensure customer loyalty and satisfaction.

1. Lean Management

Lean Management, or simply "Lean," focuses on waste reduction. It prioritizes eliminating unnecessary processes to increase efficiency. Everything you do should add value for the customer. Resource sinks and time-consuming tasks that don't create value should be cut out.

• Identify value: Determine the problem customers need solved and develop your product or service as the ideal solution. Any process that doesn't add value to the final product should be removed.
• Carry out value stream mapping: Map out key workflows to identify unnecessary elements, redundancies, and so on.
• Create a continuous workflow: Prevent cross-functional teamwork bottlenecks by breaking down work processes into smaller parts.
• Establish a pull system: Ensure a stable workflow by using lean techniques to decrease waste in production processes. For example, new work should only be started if there is demand for it, reducing unnecessary overhead.
• Facilitate continuous improvement: Use various techniques to identify what your organization has done, what it needs to do, and how all team members can make work processes easier.

2. Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a data-driven approach to total quality management that aims to eliminate defects from processes. While Lean focuses on long-term thinking, Six Sigma prioritizes efficiency in the present. It was developed by Motorola in the 1980s and popularized by Toyota, which used its principles to identify friction in its engine production process, leading to a decrease in defective units and improvements in the supply chain.

Six Sigma's Five-Step Approach: DMAIC

• Define: Identify a process to focus on and define the problem to be solved.
• Measure: Measure the performance of the process, set a benchmark goal, and list potential hindering factors.
• Analyze: Analyze the process by examining each input or reason for failure/friction and explore it through testing to find the root cause(s).
• Improve: Implement changes to solve the problem and meet the desired benchmark.
• Control: Decide on control parameters to monitor to ensure the problem doesn't reoccur.

Kaizen: Continuous Improvement

The "KAIZEN" philosophy is an adaptation of Six Sigma, focusing on continuous improvement. Developed to reduce waste in manufacturing, Kaizen emphasizes that everything can be done better or improved upon. It views problems as opportunities to develop your product or service.

3. ISO 9000

ISO 9000 is a set of standards for Quality Management Systems (QMS), acting as functional guidelines for implementing quality management. It formalizes the general principles of TQM into a standardized process that companies can become certified in.

ISO 9000's Quality Management Principles

• Customer focus: Prioritizes customer needs and requirements.
• Leadership: Management's involvement is essential in every decision and step of the process.
• Engagement: Employees are key resources for identifying and resolving problems through communication. They can contribute to improving all processes, from development to customer service.
• Process approach: Analyze and scrutinize each individual variable in the development of a product.
• Improvement: Fosters a culture of quality through performance measurement across the organization.
• Evidence-based decision making: Decisions should be based on objective data, qualitative survey results, etc.
• Relationship management: Businesses that closely monitor and respectfully tend to internal and external relationships nurture more productive and positive involvement, creating a feedback loop of engagement.

4. Quality Function Deployment

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a methodology for translating customer needs and expectations into specific product or service features. It prioritizes the voice of the customer (VOC), encompassing both stated and unstated customer needs.

Four Stages of Quality Function Deployment

• Product planning: Listen to customers, collect feedback, and capture the VOC. Interpret their requirements and consider those as design or service features.
• Design deployment: Identify the design characteristics or product features that directly correlate to customer concerns.
• Process planning: Determine your manufacturing processes or development processes. Identify the specific operations that correlate to the desired design characteristics.
• Production planning: Design, build, and implement the manufacturing or production process. Develop control requirements and establish maintenance requirements.

5. PDCA

PDCA stands for Plan-Do-Check-Act, a four-step process that sustains continuous improvement within an organization or business.

PDCA's Four-Step Process

• Plan: Establish objectives and processes.
• Do: Implement the plan.
• Check: Assess and evaluate the collected and measured results.
• Act: Apply appropriate changes based on the results.

PDCA is used to control the improvement of a process or product and is closely related to both the Six Sigma methodology and the overall Lean approach. It emphasizes identifying potential problems, presenting multiple solutions, and adjusting accordingly.

3 Tips for Applying Total Quality Management To Your Small Business

Implementing these approaches to total quality management can seem daunting, but you don't need to become an expert to achieve success. Here are a few ways to proactively apply the core ideas of TQM without extensive training.

Tip #1: Identify and Understand Customers’ Needs

The core of any TQM strategy is a central focus on the customer. Account for customer needs when making any internal decision, from process changes to new service offerings.

Tip #2: Place Emphasis on Customer Satisfaction

The quality you offer to customers isn't solely defined by your product or service. It's a result of the entire customer experience, from the first interaction to the tenth subscription renewal. Customer service plays a key role in exceeding expectations and building loyalty.

Tip #3: Collect Actionable Consumer-Focused Feedback

Any direct feedback you can obtain from your customers is valuable. It enriches your development process, helps you create higher customer satisfaction, and avoids wasted time on unnecessary changes or testing.

Understanding and Applying The Cost of Quality

The "cost of quality" emphasizes that doing things right the first time costs less in the long run. You avoid redoing or undoing changes and lose fewer customers due to misaligned expectations.

Remember, the "total" aspect of TQM is key. All your employees need to work together towards the same philosophy. It's about creating a culture of customer focus and continuous improvement.