TQM AND HR INTERVENTIONS
Contributed by B. K. Das, Dy. Manager (Personnel), NTPC, Corporate Centre, New Delhi
THE NEED for TQM
"The customer is the king" is truer today than ever before. As the quality of life improves, demand for better quality services and products also increases. Customers all over the world now demand that they be assured and satisfied that the product or services for which they are paying will meet their specifications and expectations and will perform as anticipated.
In this changed environment of the economy and the industry driven by the customers, the business is open to competition worldwide. With the transformation of the entire world into a boundaryless global village, echoing the new mantra of "World class Product/Services", the factors that contribute to competitiveness - quality, competitive pricing, and timely delivery - play a primordial role.
This emphasis on quality in product and services is forcing the industries to adopt internationally recognized and proven quality management systems in their operations to stay in the business. This reminds us of the prediction of J.M. Juran, the quality Guru of the world, who said that business in the 21st century shall be decided by "Quality" and industries ignoring this fact shall be wiped out. Internationally, there have been several authoritative studies to compute the cost of non-compliance, and they point out that while manufacturing industries that do not adhere to the TQM precepts may lose around 25% on this account alone, the loss by way of cost in the service sector could be as high as 40-50%.
GENESIS
TQM is widely believed to have originated in post-World War Japan. Many Japanese companies were very conscious of their image as producers of shoddy products. The Japanese invited two American statisticians W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Juran to teach them basic principles of quality control. The Japanese were very receptive to the ideas of Deming and Juran. They eagerly adopted these ideas and developed them over a period of 20-30 years. By the late '70s and early '80s, Japanese companies had become a major competitive force to reckon with worldwide. US companies lost the market share to their Japanese counterparts. American and other western companies launched vigorous quality improvement campaigns ushering in a quality revolution across the world. Today, 1 out of 3 American companies has adopted TQM in their industries. In Japan and some South Asian countries, TQM has been adopted as a mission. In India, TQM started in the true sense of the term in the early '90s and is yet to take any deep root in the Indian organizations excepting some companies such as L&T, Kirloskar Group, Sunderam group of companies, Telco, and a few other Automobile Companies. Janak Mehta, the prominent advocate of TQM in India, has said that in India more than manufacturing, it is the service sector which took its time to recognize the importance of TQM.
TQM: A CONCEPTUAL LOOK
TQM is defined as a "Management approach of an organization, centered on quality, based on participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction and benefits to all members of the organization and to society."
TQM is an overall organizational strategy that is formulated at the top management level and then is diffused throughout the entire organization. Everyone in the organization, from the CEO to the lowest-paid workers, is involved in the TQM process.
The total part of TQM encompasses not only the external end-user and purchaser of the product/services but also internal customers such as co-workers or other departments. In TQM, all work is seen as a "Process" and TQM is a continuous process of improvement for individuals, groups of people, and the whole organization. It involves a set of four principles and eight concepts. The four guiding principles are:
1. Delight the customer
2. Management by fact
3. People-based Management
4. Continuous improvement
The process of TQM can best be explained by the following chain:-
Supplier Employees Customer
as as as
Partner Assets Guides
Each of the principles can be used to drive the improvement process. However, to achieve this, each principle is expressed with the help of two core concepts to make the principle workable. The principles and core concepts are depicted below:
Principles & Core Concepts of TQM
Principles Core Concepts
Delight the Customers Customer Satisfaction
Internal customers are real
Management by Fact All work is a process
Measurement
People-based Management Teamwork
People make quality
Continuous Improvement Continuous improvement cycle
Prevention
Delight the customer
This focuses on the external customer and asks "what would delight them." "Delight" means being the best at what really matters most to the customers and this can change over time. Being in touch with these changes and always satisfying the customer are an integral part of TQM.
Management by Fact
Knowing the current quality standards of the product or service in the customer's hands is the first stage of being able to improve. We can only mean improvement if we know the base we are starting from.
People-based Management
If people understand what to do, how to do it, and obtain feedback on their performance, they can be encouraged to take responsibility for the quality of their work. The more people feel involved, the greater will be their commitment to customer satisfaction. Systems, standards, and technology themselves will not provide quality. The role of people is extremely important in the continuous improvement of quality within an organization.
Continuous Improvement
TQM is not a short-term activity that will finish when a set target has been achieved. It is not a program or a project. It is a management process that recognizes that however we may improve, our competitors will continue to improve and our customers will expect more and more from us. Here, continuous improvement is an incremental change and not a major breakthrough, which shall be the aim of all who wish to undertake the total quality management journey.
CORE CONCEPTS
Each of the core concepts can be used to drive the process of continuous improvement and to develop a framework for quality improvement over many years.
Customer Satisfaction
In this activity, the companies have to give equal importance to the internal customers as well as external customers. A better way for companies to use their customers to learn what is important to them and then manage their performance against customer's expectations. Many forward-looking companies in the world have started the process of conducting surveys known as "Energy Meter" which reflects the satisfaction, morale, and motivation level of the employees and develops the concept of "Employeeship" with the core emphasis on customer satisfaction principles. Further, on the external customer front, surveys are conducted among the customers to identify their satisfaction, expectations, and in case of falling short, to identify the causes for low customer satisfaction. Accordingly, a satisfaction index is compiled, and monitoring is done to improve customer satisfaction.
Internal Customers are real
It states that it is necessary to achieve successful internal working relations to satisfy the needs of the external customer. Whether we supply products/services, the people we supply internally are as real as our external customers. Therefore, they also require speed, efficiency, and accuracy. We can use the idea of the internal customer as a focus for improvement.
All work is a process
Another possible focus for improvement is that of business processes. A process is a combination of methods, materials, manpower, and machines that taken together produce a product or service. All processes contain inherent variability, and one approach to quality improvement is progressively to reduce variation. This can be done first by removing variation due to special causes and secondly, by driving down the common cause of variation, thus bringing the process under control and improving the capability.
Measurement
To improve, we must first measure how we are doing at present. By measuring our present situation, we can focus on both internal customer satisfaction and external customer requirements.
Teamwork
Teamwork can provide a real opportunity for people to work together to achieve quality improvement. People who work on their own or in a small group often have a picture of their organization and the work that it does, which is very compartmentalized. They are quite unfamiliar with the work that is done even by people who work quite near to them; as a result, they are unaware of the consequence of poor quality in the work they themselves do. Bringing people together in teams, with the common goal of quality improvement, aids communication between people, departments, and functional activities. Teamwork slowly breaks down the communication barriers and acts as a platform for change. Teamwork also enables a group of people to work as a task force, CFT, Committee, etc., looking at cross-functional problems, solving problems, identifying and adopting new ways of doing things. In this connection, the quality circles and QIT facilitate team building in organizations.
People make Quality
Most of the quality problems within an organization are not normally within the control of the individual employee. The system often comes in the way of employees who are trying to do a good job. In such a situation, motivation alone cannot work. Therefore, the managers are required to ensure that everything necessary is in place to allow people to make quality. This, in turn, begins to create the environment where people are willing to take responsibility for the quality of their work. Releasing the talents of everyone within the organization in this way can create a culture for quality improvement.
Continuous Improvement cycle
The continuous cycle of establishing customers' requirements, meeting these requirements, measuring success, and keeping improving can be used both externally and internally to fuel the engine of continuous improvement.
Prevention
This concept is central to TQM and provides a positive approach to achieving continuous improvement. Prevention means seeking to ensure that failures will not occur. The continuous process of removing the problems and failures out of the system will create a culture of continuous improvement.
Methods of TQM
Total quality management can be implemented by
From India, Mumbai
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20Contributed by B. K. Das, Dy. Manager (Personnel), NTPC, Corporate Centre, New Delhi
THE NEED for TQM
"The customer is the king" is truer today than ever before. As the quality of life improves, demand for better quality services and products also increases. Customers all over the world now demand that they be assured and satisfied that the product or services for which they are paying will meet their specifications and expectations and will perform as anticipated.
In this changed environment of the economy and the industry driven by the customers, the business is open to competition worldwide. With the transformation of the entire world into a boundaryless global village, echoing the new mantra of "World class Product/Services", the factors that contribute to competitiveness - quality, competitive pricing, and timely delivery - play a primordial role.
This emphasis on quality in product and services is forcing the industries to adopt internationally recognized and proven quality management systems in their operations to stay in the business. This reminds us of the prediction of J.M. Juran, the quality Guru of the world, who said that business in the 21st century shall be decided by "Quality" and industries ignoring this fact shall be wiped out. Internationally, there have been several authoritative studies to compute the cost of non-compliance, and they point out that while manufacturing industries that do not adhere to the TQM precepts may lose around 25% on this account alone, the loss by way of cost in the service sector could be as high as 40-50%.
GENESIS
TQM is widely believed to have originated in post-World War Japan. Many Japanese companies were very conscious of their image as producers of shoddy products. The Japanese invited two American statisticians W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Juran to teach them basic principles of quality control. The Japanese were very receptive to the ideas of Deming and Juran. They eagerly adopted these ideas and developed them over a period of 20-30 years. By the late '70s and early '80s, Japanese companies had become a major competitive force to reckon with worldwide. US companies lost the market share to their Japanese counterparts. American and other western companies launched vigorous quality improvement campaigns ushering in a quality revolution across the world. Today, 1 out of 3 American companies has adopted TQM in their industries. In Japan and some South Asian countries, TQM has been adopted as a mission. In India, TQM started in the true sense of the term in the early '90s and is yet to take any deep root in the Indian organizations excepting some companies such as L&T, Kirloskar Group, Sunderam group of companies, Telco, and a few other Automobile Companies. Janak Mehta, the prominent advocate of TQM in India, has said that in India more than manufacturing, it is the service sector which took its time to recognize the importance of TQM.
TQM: A CONCEPTUAL LOOK
TQM is defined as a "Management approach of an organization, centered on quality, based on participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction and benefits to all members of the organization and to society."
TQM is an overall organizational strategy that is formulated at the top management level and then is diffused throughout the entire organization. Everyone in the organization, from the CEO to the lowest-paid workers, is involved in the TQM process.
The total part of TQM encompasses not only the external end-user and purchaser of the product/services but also internal customers such as co-workers or other departments. In TQM, all work is seen as a "Process" and TQM is a continuous process of improvement for individuals, groups of people, and the whole organization. It involves a set of four principles and eight concepts. The four guiding principles are:
1. Delight the customer
2. Management by fact
3. People-based Management
4. Continuous improvement
The process of TQM can best be explained by the following chain:-
Supplier Employees Customer
as as as
Partner Assets Guides
Each of the principles can be used to drive the improvement process. However, to achieve this, each principle is expressed with the help of two core concepts to make the principle workable. The principles and core concepts are depicted below:
Principles & Core Concepts of TQM
Principles Core Concepts
Delight the Customers Customer Satisfaction
Internal customers are real
Management by Fact All work is a process
Measurement
People-based Management Teamwork
People make quality
Continuous Improvement Continuous improvement cycle
Prevention
Delight the customer
This focuses on the external customer and asks "what would delight them." "Delight" means being the best at what really matters most to the customers and this can change over time. Being in touch with these changes and always satisfying the customer are an integral part of TQM.
Management by Fact
Knowing the current quality standards of the product or service in the customer's hands is the first stage of being able to improve. We can only mean improvement if we know the base we are starting from.
People-based Management
If people understand what to do, how to do it, and obtain feedback on their performance, they can be encouraged to take responsibility for the quality of their work. The more people feel involved, the greater will be their commitment to customer satisfaction. Systems, standards, and technology themselves will not provide quality. The role of people is extremely important in the continuous improvement of quality within an organization.
Continuous Improvement
TQM is not a short-term activity that will finish when a set target has been achieved. It is not a program or a project. It is a management process that recognizes that however we may improve, our competitors will continue to improve and our customers will expect more and more from us. Here, continuous improvement is an incremental change and not a major breakthrough, which shall be the aim of all who wish to undertake the total quality management journey.
CORE CONCEPTS
Each of the core concepts can be used to drive the process of continuous improvement and to develop a framework for quality improvement over many years.
Customer Satisfaction
In this activity, the companies have to give equal importance to the internal customers as well as external customers. A better way for companies to use their customers to learn what is important to them and then manage their performance against customer's expectations. Many forward-looking companies in the world have started the process of conducting surveys known as "Energy Meter" which reflects the satisfaction, morale, and motivation level of the employees and develops the concept of "Employeeship" with the core emphasis on customer satisfaction principles. Further, on the external customer front, surveys are conducted among the customers to identify their satisfaction, expectations, and in case of falling short, to identify the causes for low customer satisfaction. Accordingly, a satisfaction index is compiled, and monitoring is done to improve customer satisfaction.
Internal Customers are real
It states that it is necessary to achieve successful internal working relations to satisfy the needs of the external customer. Whether we supply products/services, the people we supply internally are as real as our external customers. Therefore, they also require speed, efficiency, and accuracy. We can use the idea of the internal customer as a focus for improvement.
All work is a process
Another possible focus for improvement is that of business processes. A process is a combination of methods, materials, manpower, and machines that taken together produce a product or service. All processes contain inherent variability, and one approach to quality improvement is progressively to reduce variation. This can be done first by removing variation due to special causes and secondly, by driving down the common cause of variation, thus bringing the process under control and improving the capability.
Measurement
To improve, we must first measure how we are doing at present. By measuring our present situation, we can focus on both internal customer satisfaction and external customer requirements.
Teamwork
Teamwork can provide a real opportunity for people to work together to achieve quality improvement. People who work on their own or in a small group often have a picture of their organization and the work that it does, which is very compartmentalized. They are quite unfamiliar with the work that is done even by people who work quite near to them; as a result, they are unaware of the consequence of poor quality in the work they themselves do. Bringing people together in teams, with the common goal of quality improvement, aids communication between people, departments, and functional activities. Teamwork slowly breaks down the communication barriers and acts as a platform for change. Teamwork also enables a group of people to work as a task force, CFT, Committee, etc., looking at cross-functional problems, solving problems, identifying and adopting new ways of doing things. In this connection, the quality circles and QIT facilitate team building in organizations.
People make Quality
Most of the quality problems within an organization are not normally within the control of the individual employee. The system often comes in the way of employees who are trying to do a good job. In such a situation, motivation alone cannot work. Therefore, the managers are required to ensure that everything necessary is in place to allow people to make quality. This, in turn, begins to create the environment where people are willing to take responsibility for the quality of their work. Releasing the talents of everyone within the organization in this way can create a culture for quality improvement.
Continuous Improvement cycle
The continuous cycle of establishing customers' requirements, meeting these requirements, measuring success, and keeping improving can be used both externally and internally to fuel the engine of continuous improvement.
Prevention
This concept is central to TQM and provides a positive approach to achieving continuous improvement. Prevention means seeking to ensure that failures will not occur. The continuous process of removing the problems and failures out of the system will create a culture of continuous improvement.
Methods of TQM
Total quality management can be implemented by
From India, Mumbai
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Dear Sir,
I am Prathap, a student of M.S.W. (HRM) at Loyola College. My research topic is "A STUDY ON THE HR INTERVENTIONS ON TQM." I find it very difficult to prepare the questionnaire. Can you kindly help me in this regard, sir? I would be very thankful to you.
Thank you.
From India, Madras
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I am Prathap, a student of M.S.W. (HRM) at Loyola College. My research topic is "A STUDY ON THE HR INTERVENTIONS ON TQM." I find it very difficult to prepare the questionnaire. Can you kindly help me in this regard, sir? I would be very thankful to you.
Thank you.
From India, Madras
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