The 8 Primary Principles of Total Quality Management
TQM is considered an ongoing customer-focused management approach that is about consistently improving business operations from all levels and in all aspects.
There are 8 universally accepted principles of TQM required to meet and exceed customer expectations:
Focus on Customers: The overarching and top principle of TQM is that the customers define whether or not your products are high quality. An organization can work to improve all areas of the business but, in the end, the customer determines whether the efforts were worthwhile—which means post-market metrics to be consistently captured and analyzed.
Full Employee Commitment: When an organization decides to adopt this management style, they must ensure all employees buy into the processes and system. This can only happen in an open workplace where employees don’t fear change and are empowered to learn while top management ensures the proper environment for success of TQM, including training.
Strategic and Systematic Approach: The processes and procedures of each company should be a direct reflection of the organization's vision, mission, and long-term plan. This means quality and customer satisfaction are baked into the overall ethos of the organization and production process. All of which require a documented strategic plan for the long term.
Adherence to Process: In TQM, it is believed that every activity can be deconstructed into a clear process that should be documented, adhered to, analyzed, and iterated on. Statistical process control is a cornerstone of TQM.
Fact-based Decision Making: Being data-driven is at the center of TQM. Policies and procedures must be followed once implemented and then analyzed based on collecting data throughout the process flow to see opportunities for improvement.
Effective Communication: During the adoption of TQM and throughout the day-to-day operations and initiatives, having clear communication channels that both employees and customers feel empowered to use is critical.
Continual improvement: TQM is not a one-and-done thing. It requires an organizational mindset shift that requires continuous iteration for both process improvement and quality improvement.
Integrated Systems: In TQM, systems should talk to each other, convey useful information across departments, and help make informed data-driven decisions. A shared vision, including knowledge of and commitment to the principles of TQM, keeps everyone on the same page.
In order to find success in total quality management, company-wide buy-in of every principle is critical. If a company can not achieve complete buy-in, the benefits of TQM can’t be realized.
This means working with all employees to make sure they feel like this is the best thing for them, the organization, and the customers.
Every person, team, and process throughout the organization is aimed at always delivering customer satisfaction to ensure long-term customer loyalty.
A common platform is imperative to achieve this buy-in. It’ll be easier to convince your team if they have a solution that provides full visibility into how their work will affect everyone from compliance all the way downstream to the customer.
If your quality management system isn’t connected to your other product management systems, it’s hard to get the full picture needed to be successful with total quality management.
The solution provider Propel, for instance, prides itself in working with customers and partners to help them realize true total quality management at their organizations and that's why Total Quality Management is already packaged together in their product value
In Part III, we cover:
How to Get Started with Total Quality Management in the Digital Age
Tools of Total Quality Management
How to Operationalize Total Quality Management at Scale
