Total quality Management (TQM)

14+ Principles of Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM: "Doing the Right Thing, Right the First Time, All the Time; Always striving for Improvement & always satisfying the Customer." [DOD 1989]

1. ADD VALUE TO THE PROCESS: Every action by every employee should add value to the process or product in every way all the time. Enhance your work by your actions.

2. DELIVER QUALITY ON TIME ALL THE TIME. Develop a pattern of delivering perfect products & services on time. Rate your sources by their ability to do this.

3. BASE BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS ON MUTUAL TRUST and confidence: Providers and Suppliers build trust and confidence through quality and deliverability. Customers build it by quick payment and clear lines of communication. Reliability, Forthrightness, and Honesty are the Basis of forming Business Relations.

4. TRAIN INDIVIDUALS AND TEAMS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS:Teach Problem -Solving Tools / Techniques & Teaming as the means to solve quality, safety, productivity, and deliverability problems.

5. EMPOWER EMPLOYEES TO BE RESPONSIBLE for Quality, Safety, Productivity and Deliverability. Empowering means giving workers responsibility for their actions affecting their work. Share governance.

6. DEED 'OWNERSHIP' OF PROCESS TO EMPLOYEES who have proven their capability. Reward and reinforce empowerment with Incentives, Job Security and Equity Sharing. Make employees owners of the process, not attendants.

7. IMPLEMENT THE NEW TECHNOLOGY: Use modern information resources, INTERNET, databases, telecommunications, applications software, and project scheduling as tools to improve productivity. Use Statistical Process Control (SPC) to eliminate errors and defects and continually improve the system.

8. COLLECT, MEASURE AND EVALUATE DATA before Making Decisions. "It never hurts to turn the light on." (J. DeSimone). Make Decisions based on evidence. "If you can't measure it, you can't evaluate it."

9. APPLY THE '80/20' PRINCIPLE: Use this Problem-Solving Tool to put problems into 'Trivial Many' and 'Vital Few' Categories. Record the causes and frequencies of problems on a Tally Sheet. Develop this into a Pareto Chart which plots the frequencies (most- to least-important) of the problems. 20% of the causes create at least 80% of the problems. Importance of resolving vital problems first.

10. DEVELOP 'WIN-WIN' SCENARIOS: Create solutions that will benefit all parties. Cooperation that develops synergism is the best solution.

11. DEVELOP A MASTER PLAN: Good Design Precedes Good Craftsmanship. A well-designed plan tracks and benchmarks an action through to its completion. "Quality begins at the Design Level." (Marty Madigan)

12. PLAN FOR ALL CONTINGENCIES: Prepare for all solutions by developing alternatives. If necessary, flowchart plans dealing with all possible alternatives. Apply 'If-Then-Else' type of logic to problems.

13. MAKE ZERO DEFECTS AND ACCIDENTS YOUR GOAL: Use the tools of TQM, SPC, and Problem-Solving to achieve these goals by detecting and eliminating the causes.

14. QUALIFY YOUR SOURCES AND SUPPLIERS: Use Quality and Deliverability as the basis for selecting the source of your materials and services.

15. DELIVERABILITY: The Right Product at the Right Place at the Right Time. In world-class Just-in-Time (JIT) delivery systems, source parts are used without delay and inspection in the process.

16. MEET THE NEEDS OF YOUR CUSTOMERS: Customers are anyone affected by your work: co-workers, team members, management, & especially the end-users. They are the rationale for your work. The justification for your work is to deliver products or services that meet or exceed their requirements.

17. IMPROVE CONTINUOUSLY AND ALWAYS: Institute continuous improvement & life-long education, principles based on the 14 Points by W. Edwards Deming. Optimize your curve. They constitute an ever expanding continuum. Add to this list.