In one line: An organization-wide commitment to quality, in which every function and every person continuously improves processes to meet customer needs. Quality becomes a way of managing, not a department.
Core idea
Total Quality Management grew out of the postwar quality movement led by Deming, Juran and others, and spread through Western industry in the 1980s and 1990s as companies tried to match Japanese competitors. “Total” is the key word: quality is not the job of an inspection department but of everyone, from design to suppliers to service. TQM is less a single method than an umbrella for the principles and tools that later movements, such as Lean and Six Sigma, made more specific.
How it works
Common TQM principles:
- Customer focus: quality is defined by the customer (see House of Quality).
- Total employee involvement: everyone participates in improvement, supported by training and empowerment.
- Process-centered thinking: work is a set of processes that can be mapped, measured and improved.
- Integrated system: functions are linked toward shared quality goals.
- Continuous improvement: the PDCA Cycle is applied everywhere.
- Fact-based decisions: data and statistical thinking replace opinion (see Statistics in Engineering).
- Communication and leadership commitment: quality goals are visible and leaders model them.
Typical TQM tools include the “seven basic quality tools”:
- check sheets
- histograms
- Pareto charts
- cause-and-effect (fishbone) diagrams
- scatter diagrams
- control charts
- flowcharts
In practice
Many engineering companies have lived through several waves of quality programs: TQM, then Lean, then Six Sigma, then “operational excellence.” Each wave carried the same core ideas under a new name. A useful question for any organization is which of its current practices came from that lineage, and whether they are still practiced with understanding or have hardened into box-checking. The test of a real quality culture is what happens when someone finds a defect late: is it welcomed as learning, or hidden?
Questions to ask yourself
- Which quality program does my company subscribe to, and how is it actually practiced on my team?
- Who “owns” quality where I work: a department, or everyone?
- Which of the seven basic tools would most help a problem I have right now?
Connections
- Roots: Deming’s Quality Philosophy. Engine: PDCA Cycle.
- Descendants: Lean, Six Sigma. Customer link: House of Quality.
- Capabilities exercised: Vision, Realizing the Vision, Connecting Across Disciplines.
Sources
- Course module on TQM, Lean and value.
- Deming’s management philosophy, which TQM grew from [1]