TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

MBAE Project

Content detail:

1. Introduction of TQM
2. Aspects of TQM
3. What is Quality?
4. Practical Experience (whose related to any organization)
5. Principles of TQM
6. Four C’s of TQM
7. TQMEX Model
8. Factors effecting the commitment of employees
9. Customer focus and TQM
10. Operationalization of the concept Quality Management
11. History of Quality Management (Quality Guru)
12. Quality Improvement Process—Tools & Techniques
13. TQM Improvement
14. ISO (all parameters) and TQM
15. Quality services and TQM
16. Technology, innovation and TQM
17. Conclusion
18. Recommendations
Total Quality Management is an approach to the art of management that originated in Japanese
industry in the 1950's and has become steadily more popular in the West since the early 1980's.

Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that aims to
provide, and continue to provide, its customers with products and services that satisfy their needs.
The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company's operations, with things being done
right first time, and defects and waste eradicated from operations.

TQM is the way of managing for the future, and is far wider in its application than just assuring product
or service quality – it is a way of managing people and business processes to ensure complete customer
satisfaction at every stage, internally and externally. TQM, combined with effective leadership, results
in an organization doing the right things right, first time.

Some useful messages from results of TQM implementations:

 If you want to be a first-rate company, don't focus on the second- rate companies

who can't handle TQM, look at the world-class companies that have adopted it.

 The most effective way to spend TQM introduction funds is by training top

management, people involved in new product development, and people involved

with customers.
  Customer-driven quality,

 Top management leadership and commitment,

 Continuous improvement,

 Fast response,

 Actions based on facts,

 Employee participation, and

 A TQM culture.

The core of TQM is the customer-supplier interfaces, both externally and internally, and at
each interface lie a number of processes. This core must be surrounded by commitment to
quality, communication of the quality message, and recognition of the need to change the
culture of the organization to create total quality. These are the foundations of TQM, and they
are supported by the key management functions of people, processes and systems in the
organization.

 Customer-driven quality:

TQM has a customer-first orientation. The customer, not internal activities and
constraints, comes first. Customer satisfaction is seen as the company's highest priority.
The company believes it will only be successful if customers are satisfied.
  TQM leadership from top management:

TQM is a way of life for a company. It has to be introduced and led by top management. This is a key
point. Attempts to implement TQM often fail because top management doesn't lead and get committed
- instead it delegates and pays lip service.

Continuous improvement of all operations and activities is at the heart of TQM. Once it is recognized
that customer satisfaction can only be obtained by providing a high-quality product, continuous
improvement of the quality of the product is seen as the only way to maintain a high level of customer
satisfaction. As well as recognizing the link between product quality and customer satisfaction, TQM
also recognizes that product quality is the result of process quality.

 Fast response:

To achieve customer satisfaction, the company has to respond rapidly to customer needs. This implies
short product and service introduction cycles. These can be achieved with customer-driven and process-
oriented product development because the resulting simplicity and efficiency greatly reduce the time
involved. Simplicity is gained through concurrent product and process development.

 Actions based on facts:

The statistical analysis of engineering and manufacturing facts is an important part of TQM. Facts and
analysis provide the basis for planning, review and performance tracking, improvement of operations,
and comparison of performance with competitors. The TQM approach is based on the use of objective
data, and provides a rational rather than an emotional basis for decision making.
  Employee participation:

A successful TQM environment requires a committed and well- trained work force that participates
fully in quality improvement activities. Such participation is reinforced by reward and recognition
systems which emphasize the achievement of quality objectives.

 A TQM culture:

It's not easy to introduce TQM. An open, cooperative culture has to be created by management.
Employees have to be made to feel that they are responsible for customer satisfaction. They are not going
to feel this if they are excluded from the development of visions, strategies, and plans.

 Product development in a TQM environment:

Product development in a TQM environment is very different to product development in a non-TQM

environment. Without a TQM approach, product development is usually carried on in a conflictual
atmosphere where each department acts independently. Short-term results drive behavior so scrap,
changes, work-around, waste, and rework are normal practice.

 Awards for Quality achievement

The Deming Prize has been awarded annually since 1951 by the Japanese Union of Scientists and
Engineers in recognition of outstanding achievement in quality strategy, management and
execution. Since 1988 a similar award (the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award) has been
awarded in the US.
A frequently used definition of quality is “Delighting the customer by fully meeting their needs
and expectations”. These may include performance, appearance, availability, delivery, reliability,
maintainability, cost effectiveness and price. It is, therefore, imperative that the organization
knows what these needs and expectations are. In addition, having identified them, the
organization must understand them, and measure its own ability to meet them.

After the discussion of TQM in detail now we will discuss about TQM in a particular
manufacturing plant. Here we will discuss that due to production which problems can be decrease
the quality of product. We will discuss that how we can be maintain the quality.
Every production procedure is differing than another. Every product is shifted from one to next
department where quality is the main thing to produce a product.

Now we will discuss about the particular product which is produced in manufacturing plant that
is ICE CREAM, it is called also frozen desert. Ice cream is food product which demand much
care about quality. In ice cream production quality is the main thing every point of production
depend upon quality. Without quality we cannot spread our product in the market. Quality is main
cause to increase the business. Due to ice cream production we need much consistency of quality.
Quality increase the taste of ice cream.

Now we will discuss about a firm of ice cream manufacturing. The firm name is VEER
ENTERPRISES and the brand name is Season’s ice cream.
 Firm Name: - Veer Enterprises

 Brand Name: - Season’s Ice cream

 Place: - Ludhiana
 Prop.: - Hardee Singh

PRINCIPLES OF TQM

 Delight the customer

 Management by fact

 People based management

 Continuous improvement

 Strong leadership

 Quality system measure& record

 Team work, Team accountable, correct problem

 People oriented technology, speed.

 FOUR C’S OF TQM

 Commitment

 Competence
 Communication
 Continuous improvement

Management plays a very special role when it comes to the TQM Model. It is the job of the manager to
ensure that all the components of this model are put into place. Management remains a consistent part
of the business and/or quality management program. The following will detail the components, and
examples of the ways that managers can fulfill their role using this model in order to ensure business and
or quality assurance success.

TQMEX MODEL

The role of top management in implementation of total quality is crucial and its input on people far-
reaching. TQM, therefore, should be understood as management of the system through systems thinking,
which means understanding all the elements in the company and putting them to work together towards
the common goal. The TQMEX Model advocates an integrated approach in order to support the
transition to systems management which is an ongoing process of continuous improvement that begins
when the company commits itself to managing by quality. The Model illuminates the elements that form
a base to the understanding of TQM philosophy and implementation of the process company-wide.
  Process thinking:

Process thinking, also known as "the process", is a philosophy that emphasizes preparation and hard
work over consideration of outcomes or results, and is particularly popular in professional sports.

 Customer Satisfaction:

Customer satisfaction (often abbreviated as CSAT, more correctly CSat) is a term frequently used in
marketing. It is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer
expectation.

 Total Employee Commitment:

Commitment, on the other hand, denotes an employee's enthusiasm for the company he or she works for.
In short: Engaged employees are engaged in their work, but not committed to the organization.
Committed employees are committed to the organization, but not engaged in their work.

 Strategic Thinking:

Strategic thinking is a process that defines the manner in which people think about, assess, view, and
create the future for themselves and others. Strategic thinking is an extremely effective and valuable tool.
  Integrated System:

System integration is defined in engineering as the process of bringing together the component sub-
systems into one system (an aggregation of subsystems cooperating so that the system is able to deliver
the overarching functionality) and ensuring that the subsystems function together as a system, and in
information.

 Decisions Based on Facts:

In recent years, much has been written about evidence-based — or fact-based — decision making. The
core idea is that decisions supported by hard facts and sound analysis are likely to be better than decisions
made on the basis of instinct, folklore or informal anecdotal evidence.

 Continuous Improvement:

A continual improvement process, also often called a continuous improvement process (abbreviated as
CIP or CI), is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek
"incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once.

 Effective Communications:

Effective Communication is defined as the ability to convey information to another effectively and
efficiently. Business managers with good verbal, nonverbal and written communication skills help
facilitate the sharing of information between people within a company for its commercial benefit.
 F A C T O R A F F E C T E D THE C O M M I T M E N T OF THE EMPLOYEES

 General worker attitude toward the company.

 General worker attitude toward the supervisor. Lever

of satisfaction toward job standard.

 The lever of consideration the supervisor shows to his subordination. The

workload & work pressure level.

 The treatment of individual by the management The lever

of worker’s satisfaction with the salaries

 The level of worker pride in the company and its activity

Worker reaction to the formal communication network in the organization.

Intrinsic job satisfaction level of the worker.
Worker attitude toward the fellow worker.
 Customer Focus and TQM

In order to bring the meaning of customer focus and related terms closer home, this first chapter

will look at definition of terms that will be referred to time and again throughout the paper.

Customer focus is just one aspect of Top Quality Management and refers to paying keen attention

to improving customer satisfaction which is aimed at customer retention, increasing customer

loyalty, while at the same time increasing profits in the business, company or organization. It is

about incorporating the customer’s opinion into creation of a service or product and getting

employees to look at the process of service or product creation through the eyes of the customer.

Customer satisfaction does not come easy and calls for application of customer relations

management.

Customer relations management is a term that is used in referring to a strategy that combines

technological approaches and business strategies in trying to understand who a customer is, what

they do and what their needs are, in order to create products and services designed to meet the

specific needs of clients. Customer relations management in relation to customer focus serves to

bring out the best in customer value and behavior which in turn influences their loyalty to and

satisfaction from the business

CRM is a strategy which, when well implemented, goes a long way in managing the

interactions between a company and its customers, both existing and potential. CRM in relation

to improving customer focus in universities plays a crucial role in understanding the customer

in this case the student, and what their needs are, and tailoring the services (teaching services)
to suit the needs of the client. The overall goals of CRM is to find, attract, nurture and retain

customers at the same time reducing the costs of customer service without compromising the

quality of services offered. However, implementation of CRM in a university setting cannot be

successful unless the employees are fully convinced about the necessity of the organization’s

alignment towards its customers. Employees have to do away with the mentality that their

customers come and go and hence it does not matter much the quality of services they receive

from the organization. If need be, there needs to be training for the employees in regard to how

to deal with customers

Operationalization of the concept Quality Management

Strategy Deployment or Hushing Kanuri was identified as a key to operational success. Yet, while
there exists a plethora of concepts to translate a company’s corporate strategy into manufacturing
strategy in form of competitive priorities, the actual definition of operational measures and targets
has received little attention. Further, the few existing approaches lack in specificity and coherence
especially on the operations or production level which often hinders their use in practice. In
response, this study gives a first outline of a structured and systematic approach to
operationalizing goals for production systems. Translating corporate strategy into manufacturing
strategy has been a main focus of operations management for many decades. Skinner’s (1969)
findings about manufacturing as the missing link in corporate strategy were a milestone in this
context. Skinner stated that if a company does not recognize this link, it might end up with a
production system that is not competitive. In addition, he remarked that “the set of cause-and-
effect factors which determine the linkage between strategy and production operations” is elusive.
Starting from there, different approaches to defining manufacturing strategies have been
developed. Voss (1995) gives an overview of three main fronts in research and teaching: (i)
competing through manufacturing, (ii) strategic choices in manufacturing and (iii) best practice.
First, competing through manufacturing, as defined by Hill (1993)
  A paper “Hoyer: What is Quality?” is available in LMS. It describes how quality has

been defined by each of the quality gurus

 The content of this paper shows that there is no universally agreed upon definition of

quality

Quality Progress Staff. 2010. Guru Guide. Quality Progress, November 2010, P 14-21.

(Available on LMS)

Gurus (in alphabetic order)

 Philip B. Crossby

 W. Edwards Deming

 Armand V. Feigenbaum

 Kaoru Ishikawa

 Joseph M. Juran

 Walter A. Shewhart
 Quality Improvement Process Tools & Techniques

Over the years, numerous tools, techniques, and systems have been designed to aid improvement. They
are intended to give businesses a framework so that they don’t have to create their own from scratch.
This allows them to learn from the best practices of others and leverage what’s been proven to work.
However, knowing the difference between processes and terminology can be confusing. With so many
options to choose from, how do you know which one is right for your specific business needs? Here’s
an overview of the six most popular and effective continuous improvement tools available.

The PDCA cycle (short for plan, do, check, act) provides you with a systematic approach to testing
different ideas and hypotheses. It can help you to implement continuous improvement throughout your
organization using a structured framework. If you want to improve business processes, efficiency, or
productivity, then the PDCA cycle can help.

The framework gives front line teams a four-step guide for executing incremental improvement
practices. It enables them to avoid making the same mistakes repeatedly and is commonly used in lean
manufacturing. PDCA stands for:
  Plan – define your strategic goals and how you’ll achieve them.
 Do – implement the plan and make any changes required to ensure it works.
 Check – evaluate the results and identify opportunities for improvement.
 Act – make adjustments based on what’s found in the previous step.

Some companies follow a slightly modified PDSA cycle, where the S stands for ‘study’ instead of check.
It’s very similar to PDCA but involves passively observing instead of proactively checking. The simple
format means that PDCA is one of the most easily adopted continuous improvement tools. Everyone in
a company can understand and follow the four steps as they’re relatable in a wide variety of job roles,
from human resources to R&D. It facilitates continuous process improvement and empowers employees
to test ideas on a small scale. Over time, this creates a culture of creativity and innovation which is
difficult for your competitors to replicate.

One of the key benefits of PDCA is that it’s easy to understand and remember. The acronym can quickly
become a mantra that is repeated and utilized by everyone in the business. Some companies display the
process on posters around their buildings while others print it on to mouse mats and coffee mugs. This
gives employees a visual reminder and encourages them to adopt it as a consistent part of their work
routine. The 4-step process doesn’t require weeks of training to understand either – it can be summarized
clearly in a matter of minutes. Managers can then follow-up with staff as they implement it and help
them to learn on the go. This approach to coaching means there isn’t a large barrier to implementation
in terms of training. Companies can hit the ground running and then tweak it as they go along.

TQM Improvement

Continuous and consistent quality improvement is a must pre-requisite for all the Quality Management
Systems. Quality improvement is a recurring process and should be repeated at regular intervals. It is an
ongoing process, not a one-time effort and lasts with the life of an enterprise. Different examples across
industries have proved that any negligence on product quality and process improvements end up in
serious catastrophic results for the company and its products.
The International Standard for Quality Management (ISO 9001:2008) has identified the following
management principles which help organizations to improve their performance:

 Customer Centric:

Customer’s satisfaction is of utmost importance for the overall growth of an organization. All
the members of an organization should know about the requirements of the external as well as
the internal customers and also resolve ways to meet those requirements.
 Involvement of employees in decision making:

This brings a sense loyalty among the employees towards the organization and they become
more responsible.

 Leadership Qualities:

 An organization needs to inculcate leadership qualities among its people so that they establish
unity of purpose.

 Process Approach:

 This approach helps in attaining the desired result when activities and available resources are
managed efficiently.

 System Approach to Management:

This approach implies identifying, understanding and managing all systems which are
interrelated as a process. Quality control involves checking transformed and transforming
resources in all stages of production process.

 Continual Improvement:

It is one of the most important quality improvement functions and helps in gaining insights
about the overall performance, leveraging clear and concise Process Performance Measures
(PPMs).
  Factual Approach to Decision Making:

Decisions made on data basis and analyses are always effective and efficient.

 Win- Win Situation for both organization and its suppliers:

Both organizations and its suppliers are inter-dependent on each other. Therefore, a mutually
beneficial relationship is a must for their growth.

ISO (all parameters) and TQM

International organization of standards (ISO), a global federation of 130 national standards bodies, seeks
to promote standardization and the development of related activities worldwide in order to facilitate the
international exchange of goods and services, and cooperation in the sphere of intellectual, scientific,
technological and economic activities. The ISO 9000 standard series is now widely accepted as a
minimum standard for a quality system for companies (Marquardt, 1992) The possession of a
certification
to ISO 9000 has become a decisive competitiveness factor in the international market. Business
relationships are increasingly influenced by the possession of an ISO 9000 certificate which proves to
have an important advertising effect. Additionally, the consequent application of a ISO 9000 system can
have a significant cost reduction effect which results in performance improvement (Berry, 1991).
The number of companies with ISO 9000 certification has increased exponentially in the last ten years.
However, the issue of what benefits the certified companies are able to derive from the certification is a
general concern. As a quality assurance management model, ISO 9000 only prescribes the minimum
requirements of certification. The company does not have to aim for excellence.
The objective of the paper is to make a critical review in order to
• identify the reasons for organizations to seek ISO 9000 certification
• identify the benefits of ISO 9000 certification
• identify the problems in the implementation of ISO9000
• to examine the factors for implementing TQM from ISO9000

Reasons for ISO 9000 certification and the benefits:

Researchers have been concerned with the investigation of the principal reasons which lead companies
to enter the certification process and the difficulties experienced and the benefits emerging from the
certification.

Dale and Dun calf studied the quality assurance practices of 110 UK manufacturing companies,
comparing the results of large and small business (Dale and Dun calf, 1984). Taylor examined
organizational differences in ISO 9000 implementation practices of 682 enterprises in Ireland focusing
on the impact of management commitment (Taylor, 1995). Carlson and Carlson examined the
experiences of implementing ISO 9000 in Swedish industry mainly from an organizational perspective
as a change process. (Carlson and Carlson, 1996). ISO 9000 is said to provide certain benefits for
organizations that can be divided into internal and external benefits. Internal benefits are related to the
internal functioning of the organizations (Singles et. al., 2000). These are, for example, increase in
productivity, improvement in efficiency, reduction in cost and waste, better management control, clearly-
defined organizational task structure and responsibilities, support in quality management and increase in
personnel motivation.

External benefits are benefits for the organization in relation to its environment. Examples of external
benefits are: competitive advantage, increase in sales and market share, possibility of entering new
markets, keeping customer relations, finding new customers, increased customer satisfaction, and
increase in company reliability and reputation.

Reasons for certification are usually classified into two main groups: market-related reasons and reasons
related to the improvement of internal procedures (Lipomata et al, 1999).. Market related reasons were
the most important factor for seeking certification for 16 out of 20 small and medium-sized companies
interviewed by Rayner and Porter (Rayner and Porter, 1991). Also in a survey concerning the Swedish
industry, the most important motivation for firms for pursuing certification was to use it as a step towards
TQM”. Tsiaris and Gotzamani reported that companies’ quality policy and internal organizational
improvement were the main motivating factors for the 84 Greek enterprises investigated, while the
improvement of competitiveness was a less important factor (Tsiaris and Gotzamani, 1996).

The most important motivation for Swedish firms for pursuing certification was to “use it as a step
towards achieving TQM” (Carlson and Carlson, 1996). Lee (1998) states the reasons for ISO 9000
certification as: the customer demanded the firm to become certified to ISO 9000, the firm considered
that it had to be ISO9000 certified in order to stay in business, the firm wanted to use ISO 9000 to
improve the management system. The benefits of globally accepted uniform standards are recognized
by businesses and governments throughout the world. The major benefits experienced by manufacturers
implementing ISO 9000include increased productivity, quality improvement, efficiency, customer
satisfaction, and eventually the competitive edge that can lead to a greater market share (Elute, 1996).
Terziovski et al. (1997) concluded that where ISO 9000 certification is implemented effectively, it may
act as a foundation on which to build a quality organization.

ISO 9000 and TQM

Oakland and Mortiboys (1991) debate regarding ISO 9000’s place in the quality improvement process
and its position with regard to TQM, when they proposed that a quality assurance system was one of the
three major components of TQM. Ho (1994) on the other hand, saw ISO 9000 more as a vehicle to help
implement TQM. Binney (1992) disagreed, stating that ISO 9000 was not the way to begin a TQM
program. Why was this debate causing such interest among academics and quality practitioners? The
main reason was that in order to compete in world markets organizations had to go beyond ISO 9000
and implement TQM. ISO 9000 was not TQM. Therefore, that standard was considered by many to be
stepping-stone towards TQM A problem came up was that for many companies achieving ISO 9000 was
considered as having quality, which is definitely not the case. Sun’s (1999) international survey of 600
companies from 20 countries found that implementing ISO 9000 alone did not contribute much to quality
improvement, while a combination of ISO 9000 and TQM contributed the most. Gotzamani and
Tsiotras[2001] had pointed out ISO 9000 as the first step to TQM for which there are no clear
requirements and directions. On the other hand, companies focus mainly on quick and simple
certification with no real commitment to quality. Over the years, some companies have made the
transition from ISO9000, some did not make any attempt and many others tried and failed. A survey of
ISO 9000 certified organizations by Taylor (1995) found that 32 percent had also implemented TQM
but 24 percent regarded ISO 9000 as the end of their quality journey.

From a research study by Magda and Curry (2003), they have recognized that the emphasis on quality
has led organizations to adopt TQM. Moreover, organizations and customers have demanded external
recognition of quality, which has in turn provided the impetus for the International Organization for
Standards (ISO) development of the ISO series. ISO 9000 represents a trend in quality management,
which cannot be ignored in today’s business environment. In fact, those companies wishing to remain
competitive and improve their quality systems are recommended the use of ISO 9000 as a foundation
for a much broader system of TQM. This is based on the fact that ISO 9000 is an important part of TQM,
and the implementation of both approaches together will lead to organizational success and competitive
advantage. It is clear that both approaches tend to complement each other. ISO 9000 can be implemented
first to create stability and consistency in the organization’s work, then the implementation of TQM can
enhance employee motivation and operational efficiency, and achieve overall organizational success and
performance.

Companies applying TQM together with the ISO9000 standards did not share positive results (Martinez-
Loreto and Martinez-Costa, 2004). This fact leads to the consideration that, despite the beliefs about
ISO9000 as a good first step in the way of implementing TQM, once implemented, some of the ISO9000
principles are contradictory with TQM philosophy. The study concludes that when ISO9000and TQM
are applied simultaneously, the resultant benefits to the company are not better than those experienced
if either system were applied in isolation. Heras et. Al (2002), in another study concluded that, although
the performance of certified companies was superior to that of non-certified ones, the authors found no
evidence of improved performance after registration in the 400 firms studied. These findings lead them
to believe that the superior performance of the certified firms is due to firms with superior performance
having a greater propensity to pursue ISO 9000 registration. This evidence cast doubt on the inference
drawn in some of the literature that suggests ISO900 accreditation leads to business performance
improvement. The evidence indicates that the direction of causality is that firms with superior
performance are more likely to have certification, not that certified firms are more likely to have superior
performance.

The development of a strong quality culture should precede ISO certification. Yet results also show that
ISO certification can promote this culture. Motivation for seeking certification would determine which
comes first; the quality culture or ISO9000 certification. ISO9000 certification can deliver significant
business benefits if it is implemented as part of a continuous improvement strategy (Terziovski and
Power, 2007). ISO9000 standards are partially related to the implementation of TQM and the
improvement of business performance. The recommendation is that ISO9000 should be incorporated
with the philosophy and methods of TQM (Sun, 2000).

Case Study

In order to explore the effectiveness of ISO 9000 in implementing TQM, personal interviews were
conducted with a few companies certified to ISO 9000. Six of the companies are mentioned here. For
their confidentiality, these firms are identified as Company A, Company B, Company C, Company D,
Company E and Company F. A summary of the background of the companies is given below.
Company A is a specialist for stainless steel and aluminum fabrication and respected worldwide for its
pioneering work in the design, development and manufacture of Recompression Chambers.

Established in 1973, Company A has built a reputation based on superior design, quality and customer
service. They have to date manufactured over 140 Recompression Chamber Systems distributed world-
wide and also excel in their ongoing maintenance of recompression chamber systems and logistic
support. Outside the marine sphere projects include stainless steel and aluminum pressure vessels,
precision welding, stainless steel wine tanks, stainless steel crusher grabs, antennae and RF Systems, a
wide range of rail locomotive components, architectural items such as building facades and handrails.
Company B specializes in material handling and lifting equipment. With their cutting edge technology
from around the world, they can provide a well-engineered and cost effective solution. For more than 20
years, Company B has designed, manufactured, supplied and serviced s wide range of material handling,
lifting and customized engineering equipment. This company has three major divisions, they are namely:
General Sales, Service and Major Projects. They design and manufacture material handling equipment
in compliance with ISO 9001. Company C is an ISO 9001 accredited company that specializes in the
design, manufacture and importation of large/multi-screen video display, audio, audio-visual, lighting
control and AV control systems.

Company D produces specialty chemicals for paper, water treatment in mining and other chemical
products. The purpose of the program is to save money, improve product and improve service. The
manufacturing plant has achieved certification to ISO9001. There are set objectives for TQM and
monthly meetings are held with customer satisfaction committee. Executives from various departments
are involved in this committee. Company E produces pattern glass for shower screens, office partitioning
etc. There are 40 sites throughout Australia. 90% of the raw material is recycled glass. The plant is
accredited to ISO9002.Quality is defined by customer requirement. The purpose of quality management
is to use long term continuous improvement. ISO9002 does not guarantee business success or product
excellence. It is recognized as a part of the whole package. The top management commitment is
identified by the CEO making presentations to various plants around the country about visions and
missions. Company F produces aluminum and magnesium based chemicals for water treatment and for
use in pharmaceutical industry. It has been actively involved in TQM for about five years. It is accredited
to ISO 9002 that involves external and internal audit. It is continuously pushing for improvement. The
company first went in for TQM and then went for ISO9000 three years later. The long term plan is to
keep up the continuous improvement, improve the process and reduce waste. The CEO is the one who
is giving push to the whole process.

The following observations were made after the interview and discussion with the companies.

• There are more and more companies in Australia seeking for the certification to ISO 9000 in order
to survive.

• Conformance to the requirements only should improve the ability of the company to manage its
activities.

• In order to get the maximum benefits of the certification, further steps must be taken. TQM is one
of the most useful steps found.

• More training and explanation were required to implement the ISO together with TQM. It takes
time to implement ISO 9000 with TQM. It involves a change of management attitude over many
months.
• The success of a quality system is directly related to the consistency and intensity of top
management commitment.

• Commitment to quality must be earned and it will only happen when the workforce witnesses
management setting the example,

• Employees should be rewarded on accomplishments rather than seniority, longevity or a subjective

standard.

• To ensure continued business success, every company should have processes in place to constantly
monitor and update its knowledge of its customer wants, needs and level of satisfaction.

• ISO 9000 could be a useful stepping stone for TQM. It does create a path with requirements,
processes, procedures and communication with potential of continuous improvement.

• ISO 9000 only provides short-term advantage while TQM has a longer-term effect on quality
Management

• ISO 9000 is the launching pad and is an essential feature for a majority of firms implementing
TQM.

• ISO certification is not the end; it is only the start of the company’s quality journey.

Quality services and TQM

The concept of service quality has emerged from TQM philosophy and now it is treated as an essential
criterion for effective TQM implementation. The literature review suggested that service quality can be
categorized into number of ways such as customer service quality; online service quality; banking
service product quality; and automated service quality (explained in next section) with the common
aim to achieve customer satisfaction, improved financial performance, and competitiveness. Moreover,
the figure also depicts that service quality is a multidimensional construct rather than having unit-
dimensional meaning.

Also, literature review further shows that measuring service quality is not an easy task and lot of
problems are there in measuring it. Most forms of measurement of service quality focuses on customer
satisfaction. For instant, Cronin and Taylor, argue that measuring service quality using a performance-
minus-expectations (SERVQUAL) basis is inappropriate and suggests that performance only
(SERVPERF) measurement is a better method. However, Parasuraman et al. (PZB model) contend that
the SERVQUAL scale using the expectations/performance gaps method is a much richer approach to
measuring service quality and augment their earlier assertion that service quality is a multidimensional
rather a unidimensional construct.

Brown et al. highlights the challenges in conceptualizing and particularly measuring SERVQUAL using
expectations and perceptions difference scores and proposed an alternative non-difference score
approach as a more efficient way to measure service quality.

Nevertheless, banks reported that TQM leads to improvement of service quality, bearing in mind the
difficulty in adequately measuring the service quality and effect of TQM in service sector, they regularly
conducted a customer satisfaction survey to evaluate their performance against past performance and
benchmark themselves against their main competitors. In this way they continuously improve their
service quality, involve and motivate their employees and empower them in decision making, thus
leading to perfect implementation of TQM program in their organization.

Technology, Innovation and TQM

Innovation plays a very important role in providing unique products and services, creating more value
for organizations and defining barriers to entry for new competitors. For this reason, innovation has
sparked the interest of many researchers to identify its push factors, and one of the issues that has been
considered is whether the practices of Total Quality Management (TQM) may emerge as one of the
requirements to the definition of innovation strategies. In literature can be found opposite ideas, and
that’s why there is no consensus about whether innovation creates conditions for the implementation of
TQM practices or, otherwise, is TQM that helps to create an environment and a culture of innovation
support.
In the current context of global and highly competitive markets, the evaluation of the corporation’s
performance has become an element of great importance in the development of the organization’s
strategies. Performance evaluation can be defined as the process to quantify the efficiency and
effectiveness of production systems. Thus, innovation strategies can have positive effects on business
performance, however, a company cannot benefit from the advantages of innovation if there isn’t an
organizational structure defined to be able to follow those strategies.

Innovation can reflect a significant impact on the organization's performance by enabling a better
position in the market, which, in turn, will promote a competitive advantage and superior performance.
Thus, it was intended in this research to analyze the relationship between innovation and TQM. This
relationship has been the subject of study by several authors, including Prajogo and Sohal (2001),
Prajogo and Sohal (2004), Martínez-Costa and Martinez-Lorente (2008), Din and Cheema (2013), as
well as the analysis of the effects of innovation on organizational performance.

This paper is organized as follows: in section 2 is developed the theoretical framework with a brief
review of the literature and the relevance of the research topic. Section 3 describes the empirical research
with the sample characterization, research hypotheses, conceptual model and the methodology used in
data processing. Finally, in Section 4, are referred the main conclusions and contributions of the research.