Custom «TQM Programs» Essay Paper Sample

Qn1 Summarize the article highlighting the issues explained

The article explains the following four issues. Legislation laws set up by the government increase the demands to the company. The safety and health laws limit now require pollution free business operation. Waste disposal is restricted to the levels of toxicity. This then insists that the business employees should not pour toxics down the drain. Companies are used to delivering faulty products and services but due to today's competitive market, they will loose customers. Their success makes them become complacent. Companies that enjoy the monopoly of suppliers have an illusion of perfection. Popular companies that have fallen from the market is an epitome of the latter. Rigidity to change or the lack of power to do so also causes failure in companies. This often stems from the comfort that their systems have been working well. Another major issue is inefficiency in the operations of the business. Errors add to the cost of operation and reduce customer satisfaction.

As an average, cost of doing things wrong in the average company stretches up to 25 percent of the turnover. This then means that most of the staff spends time making rectifications and correcting their mistakes. The result is a 20 percent failure rate that translates to wastage of time and resources. A kettle that spills contents out of its sprout and a printer with an incomprehensible manual is all examples of the quality issues in the organization. In this, internal errors also exist like project time and budget overruns, obstructive departmental members. Customer satisfaction has intensely dropped because of poor production. Poor production has lead to the production of poor quality goods. This has in turn led to discontentment in customers. Competition from other companies leads to the offering of better and newer products which leads to intensified competition.

Qn.2 Describe the four challenges and four essentials in details, described in the article

The achievement of the four essentials i.e. reduction of defects and errors, improvement of productivity, customer satisfaction and innovation depends on the commitment of the workforce.  Methods for achieving quality face challenges. Companies used objective management for control but the lack of employee motivation led to lower returns than anticipated. Incentive payments meant to increase productivity in turn lead to poorly made products. Companies later introduced ISO 9000, a management system that also failed because employees ignored them and worked in the same standard. The most recent approaches are bench marking, sourcing for partnership and reengineering the business process. These are limited in that they solve single business problem areas. These challenges finally saw the rise of TQM. TQM insists on customer concentration through quality improvement. It has four essentials.

First, concentrating on customers and analyzing the attitudinal responses of internal and external customers. Secondly, eliminating errors and continually improving the quality of services provided. This involves examining old methods, educating and communicating the implementation of new management tools to the staff. In addition, Measurement of defined metrics of the business allows management to make qualitative decisions based on concrete facts rather than assumptions. This helps in the optimization of the business operations and implementation of standards. Finally, joint administration by incorporating top management and staff. This is through the empowerment of staff and building of teams. Teamwork motivates employees and provides balanced solutions by the proper positioning of responsibility. This in turn boosts the quality of work presented, and thus ensures realization of higher profit margins.

Qn.3 Explain how TQM works and Benefits of TQM Programs

TQM focuses on all customer centered approaches and the continuous improvement of all business functions. Its implementation takes into accounts all levels of operation from management to the internal employees. TQM constantly takes the employees through constant education to improve their performance and towards the empowerment of customer related service delivery. TQM accounts the application of lifetime warranties to products and the operations of servicing, free repairs and replacement of products. Generally, the administration of proper social interactions and management into the business function serves as a core aspect in TQM.  

Benefits of TQM programs.

Implementation of TQM programs increases the quality of products and services. Due to increased functional and operational optimization, the quality of products increases translating into better customer satisfaction. This also reduces the number of subsequent complains. Some of the benefits are transitive. The motivation of staff leads to an increase in productivity. This translates to fewer defects in the production process and reduces the costs of correcting the same. The resolution of problems also becomes faster because of increased productivity of the staff. The benefits of TQM program ms also stretches don to the staff. The education and constant training of staff increase the skills set of staff. In addition, measurement of company objectives leads to more recognition of the staff as an effort to motivate the employee. Conclusively, the introduction of TQM into a business system increases the profit margins of a business.