The Concept of Total Quality Management in a Holistic Context

Berry, L. L. (2000). Cultivating service brand equity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(1), 128-137. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1177/0092070300281012

Total quality management is a management philosophy aimed at continuous growth in quality improvement of products, processes and services to achieve and surpass quality standards. It consists of strategic planning, organizing and implementing each process activity and of removing all the wasted effort and energy that is routinely spent. It is a methodology of strategic overview of quality and focus on prevention not detection of problems.

Yasin and Alavi (1999) conducted a quantitative study to determine if Total Quality Management (TQM) can produce quality improvement

The total quality management (TQM) incorporates quality into all the activities of the organization through an ongoing process. This control makes sure that there is a continuous improvement in all the activities and there will not be any chances for defects. TQM ensures safety and helps improve customer satisfaction (Daft, 2014).

In this argument, I will exhibit the process of the total quality management within the Fox Car Rental, Inc. and the Apple, Inc. Firstly, I will provide a history of both companies and the industries of which they are involved. Secondly, I will provide a meaning of the term total quality management, and argue how this system is integrated into both the Fox Car Rental, Inc., and the Apple, Inc. I will also describe the total quality management process that is implemented in these organizations, and the effects of this systematic management process of both companies. The Fox Car Rental, Inc. and the Apple, Inc. will also be compared against the principles of the ISO 9000:2000 quality management process, and among each other. I will also provide recommendations for the development of the Fox Car Rental, Inc.; an organization of which I was recently an employee.

First, it is essential to decompose the concept “Total Quality Management” to clearly understand its goal: “Total” goes for the fact that quality involves everyone and all activities in the company, “Quality” means conformance to Requirements “ Meeting Customer Requirements” and “Management” because Quality can and must be managed. 2 The TQM model is based on the hypothesis that a company’s survival is only possible if a competitive level is achieved and maintained for each of the so called «6 dimensions of quality»: • • • • • • Product & service quality On-time delivery Fair price Employees satisfaction Product & process safety Environment conservation.

Total quality management focuses on several aspects such as Continuous improvement and the Customers to improve the quality of the products. Ford Company has in place a strong set of values, norms, and artifacts which it strongly enforces. The mission statement for the company is based on a simple phrase, “One Ford: One team, one plan, one goal.” The company vision is, “To become the world’s leading consumer company for automotive products and services.” (Haas-kotzegger, Schlegelmilch, & Ambos, 2013) Both these company philosophies give the company a good favor towards the consumers.

Total Quality Management or TQM is a management strategy to embed awareness of quality in all organizational processes. The philosophy of TQM goes back to the 1940's when Dr. Deming started his quality endeavours in Japan and has steadily become more popular since the early 1980s. Then fore, The Japanese became so proficient at quality management that their success was a catalyst for Western companies to adopt the philosophy and practices.

This created great pressures on organizations and made them willing to create and innovate so that they can gain competitive advantage over their rivals in the world markets. Adding quality to the final products may be one element that attracts and satisfies the customers. However, elements there have been numerous elements or factors that started to occur in the management and organizational domains. These included TQM or Total quality Management and COQ or Cost Of Quality. These concepts and more became dominant aspects that required concentration from companies. TQM is not only a strategy to be applied; it is an approach of management that must prevail all over the whole organization. The practices of the TQM are essential to exist in the

It is unpromising to comprehend the total quality management phenomenon, emerging in the twentieth century, and to acknowledge its competitive advantages and obstacles, unless the underlying philosophy of quality is examined.

Hence, in order to stay competitive in the market, organizations design guide lines to continuously improve the quality level. These concepts are Total quality management. Meanwhile, as these TQM are dealing with the processes of

The level of quality is greatly dependent upon the marketing segment being targeted. For example, a segment that is very price sensitive is not likely to make purchases with a high concern for quality. Therefore, the company may choose to manufacture a product with less expensive materials. However, it is generally more profitable to offer higher-quality products since they can justifiably be sold at higher prices. Total quality management (TQM) is a system that attempts to achieve zero-defects in its products from production design all the way through the production process. The idea behind TQM is that the company will save more time and money (both critical resources) by creating a high quality product and not having to concern themselves with repair, warranties, returned products, discounts, recalls, and other poor quality induced costs. Prevention costs—such as quality inspections, higher cost materials, effective machinery and production processes—are generally less than the accumulated costs to the company resulting from a poor quality product.

Introduction - Total quality management (TQM) has been defined as ‘continuous improvement of every production output whether it be a product or a service, by removing inefficient variations and by improving the backbone of the work process’. International managers like their domestic counterparts have found that incorporating the notion of total quality management into their management process and style can give the competitive advantage.

Total Quality Management (TQM), is a philosophy that focuses on quality and customer satisfaction. Being an expert in TQM gives numerous opportunities for me to show organizations how to effectively use TQM models. In my present job, I will determine and select a Total Quality method to present to an organization for the incorporation into the strategic planning process. The model will need to be compatible with current organizational strategic plans and increase internal and external customer quality. The chosen method will also benefit the organization financially, effectively, and efficiently while still serving the need of TQM.

Most of the quality philosophies from all over the world factually determine that only when the processes and machinery are more on the verge of continuous improvement and quality implicated, then only a very high quality and customer specific system is produced. Having said this, on the parallel floor here human labor is involved in working out on a product, only highly trained and heavily skilled workers can result in the desired end product. Also a high sense of responsibility that the deliverable which is high in quality is required must be imbibed in the organization at each level. All this is possible only when the quality management techniques are applied both to the products and the processes.