Benefits of TQM programs

TQM program

TQM or Total Quality Management refers to management methods that aids in enhancing the quality of productivity in an organization, especially pertaining to businesses. Total Quality Management is a comprehensive system that works for any organization involving all departments and employees and extends horizontally both backward and forward to include both suppliers and customers or clients.

Total Quality Management is just but only one acronyms that are used to label management systems and protocols that focuses on quality. The other acronyms that have been used to describe similar management programs and philosophies includes SQC (Statistical Quality Control), CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement), QIDW (Quality in Daily Work), QFD (Quality function Deployment) and TQC (Total Quality Control).

However despite the ambiguity of the popular term TQM, the acronym is of less importance than the substance of the management theory and ideology that underlies it.
It is wiser to say, that TQM is a framework that implements effective quality and initiatives that can enhance the competitiveness and profitability of an organization.

Here are some of the benefits that has been found by implementing TQM in any organization across the globe:

Reduction in cost

When the TQM program is applied consistently in any organization over time, TQM can decrease costs all the way through an organization. It especially works in the areas of rework, scrap disposal, on-field services and manufacturing warranty-cost reduction services. As it goes by the common logic, that reduction in cost flow straight through to bottom-line profits, hence there can always be startling development in profitability by implementing TQM in the organization.

Improve customer satisfaction

Since by implementing TQM, companies have better products and services and so its interactions with the customers becomes relatively error-free, which leads to less customer complains. Apart from this, fewer customer complains at times also means that the resources devoted to customer service can also been be reduced by implementing TQM. Higher level of customer satisfaction also leads to increase in market share, which is another benefit of applying TQM in any company.

Defect Reduction

Total Quality Management also has a strong emphasis in improving quality within a process, rather than inspecting quality into the job. This aspect of TQM not only reduces time for fixing the errors in production and services, but also makes it less necessary to employ a team of quality assurance personnel that helps in lowering the head count within the organizational setup.

Improvement in Morale

The proven and ongoing success of Total Quality Management and in particular the contribution and participation of the employees in that success story leads to a clearly perceivable improvement in the morale of the employees working it the organization.

Reduces employee turnover

By implementing TQM in an organization it has been observed that this management framework helps in reducing employee turnover which in turn reduces the cost of hiring and training new employees.

Although Total Quality Management technique was adopted by several organization even prior to World War II, but the philosophy of TQM is generally attributed to Dr. W. Edwards Deming. While working as a summer employee in the Chicago based Western Electric Company Dr. Deming found worker motivational systems to be economically unproductive and degrading. He also noticed working over there in the late 1920s that incentives in Western Electric Company were tied directly to quantity of output and ineffectual postproduction inspection systems were used to find flaw in the goods, which thereafter made Dr. Deming to invent “Deming Management Method’ which are the basics of Total Quality Management theory.

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