ELEMENTS OF TQM

Key Elements
TQM has been coined to describe a philosophy that makes quality the driving force behind
leadership, design, planning, and improvement initiatives
. For this, TQM requires the help of those eight key elements. These elements can be divided
into four groups according to their function.
The groups are:
• Foundationn, it includes: Ethics, Integrity and Trust.
• Building Bricks, it includes: Training, Teamwork and Leadership.
• Binding Mortar, it includes: Communication.
• Roof, it includes: Recognition.

Foundation
TQM is built on a foundation of ethics, integrity and trust. It fosters openness, fairness and
sincerity and allows involvement by everyone. This is the key to unlocking the ultimate
potential of TQM. These three elements move together; however,

ceach element offers something different to the TQM concept.

• Ethics
Ethics is the discipline concerned with good and bad in any situation. It is a two-faceted subject
represented by organizational and individual ethics. Organizational ethics establish a business
code of ethics that outlines guidelines that all employees are to adhere to in the performance of
their work. Individual ethics include personal rights or wrongs.
• Integrity
Integrity implies honesty, morals, values, fairness, and adherence to the facts and sincerity. The
characteristic is what customers (internal or external) expect and deserve to receive. People see
the opposite of integrity as duplicity. TQM will not work in an atmosphere of duplicity.
• Trust
Trust is a by-product of integrity and ethical conduct. Without trust, the framework of TQM
cannot be built. Trust fosters full participation of all members. It allows empowerment that
encourages pride ownership and it encourages commitment. It allows decision making at
appropriate levels in the organization, fosters individual risk-taking for continuous
improvement and helps to ensure that measurements focus on improvement of process and are
not used to contend people. Trust is essential to ensure customer satisfaction. So, trust builds
the cooperative environment essential for TQM.
Bricks
Basing on the strong foundation of trust, ethics and integrity, bricks are placed to reach the roof
of recognition. It includes:
• Training
Training is very important for employees to be highly productive. Supervisors are solely
responsible for implementing TQM within their departments, and teaching their employees the
philosophies of TQM. Training that employees require are interpersonal skills, the ability to
function within teams, problem solving, decision making, job management performance
analysis and improvement, business economics and technical skills. During the creation and
formation of TQM, employees are trained so that they can become effective employees for the
company.
• Teamwork
To become successful in business, teamwork is also a key element of TQM. With the use of
teams, the business will receive quicker and better solutions to problems. Teams also provide
more permanent improvements in processes and operations. In teams, people feel more
comfortable bringing up problems that may occur, and can get help from other workers to find
a solution and put into place. There are mainly three types of teams that TQM organizations
adopt:
✓ Quality improvement teams or excellence teams (QITs)
These are temporary teams with the purpose of dealing with specific problems that often recur.
These teams are set up for period of three to twelve months.
✓ Problem solving teams (PSTs)
These are temporary teams to solve certain problems and also to identify and overcome causes
of problems. They generally last from one week to three months.
✓ Natural work teams (NWTs)
These teams consist of small groups of skilled workers who share tasks and responsibilities.
These teams use concepts such as employee involvement teams, self-managing teams and
quality circles. These teams generally work for one to two hours a week.
 • Leadership
It is possibly the most important element in TQM. It appears everywhere in organization.
Leadership in TQM requires the manager to provide an inspiring vision, make strategic
directions that are understood by all and to ensure that values guide subordinates. For TQM to
be successful in the business, the supervisor must be committed in leading his employees. A
supervisor must understand TQM, believe in it and then demonstrate their belief and
commitment through their daily practices of TQM. The supervisor makes sure that strategies,
philosophies, values and goals are transmitted down through out the organization to provide
focus, clarity and direction. A key point is that TQM has to be introduced and led by top
management. Commitment and personal involvement are required from top management in
creating and deploying clear quality values and goals consistent with the objectives of the
company and in creating and deploying well defined systems, methods and performance
measures for achieving those goals.
Binding Mortar
• Communication
It binds everything together. Starting from foundation to roof of the TQM house, everything
is bound by strong mortar of communication. It acts as a vital link between all elements of
TQM. Communication means a common understanding of ideas between the sender and the
receiver. The success of TQM demands communication with and among all the organization
members, suppliers and customers. Supervisors must keep open airways where employees
can send and receive information about the TQM process. Communication coupled with the
sharing of correct information is vital. For communication to be credible the message must be
clear and receiver must interpret in the way the sender intended.
There are different ways of communication such as:
✓ Downward communication
This is the dominant form of communication in an organization. Presentations and
discussions basically do it. By this the supervisors are able to make the employees clear about
TQM.
✓ Upward communication
By this the lower level of employees are able to provide suggestions to upper management of
the affects of TQM. As employees provide insight and constructive criticism, supervisors
must listen effectively to correct the situation that comes about through the use of TQM. This
forms a level of trust between supervisors and employees. This is also similar to empowering
communication, where supervisors keep open ears and listen to others.
✓ Sideways communication or horizontal
This type of communication is important because it breaks down barriers between
departments. It also allows dealing with customers and suppliers in a more professional
manner.

Roof
• Recognition
Recognition is the last and final element in the entire system. It should be provided for both
suggestions and achievements for teams as well as individuals. Employees strive to receive
recognition for themselves and their teams. Detecting and recognizing contributors is the
most important job of a supervisor. As people are recognized, there can be huge changes in
self-esteem, productivity, quality and the amount of effort exhorted to the task at hand.
Recognition comes in its best form when it is immediately following an action that an
employee has performed. Recognition comes in different ways, places and time such as,
✓ Ways: It can be by way of personal letter from top management. Also, by award
banquets, plaques, trophies etc.
✓ Places: Good performers can be recognized in front of departments, on
performance boards and also in front of top management.
✓ Time: Recognition can be given at any time like in staff meeting, annual award
banquets, etc.
We can conclude that these eight elements are key in ensuring the success of TQM in an
organization and that the supervisor is a huge part in developing these elements in the work
place. Without these elements, the business entities cannot be successful TQM implementers.
It is very clear from the above discussion that TQM without involving integrity, ethics and trust
would be a great remiss, in fact it would be incomplete. Training is the key by which the
organization creates a TQM environment. Leadership and teamwork go hand in hand. Lack of
communication between departments, supervisors and employees create a burden on the whole
TQM process. Last but not the least, recognition should be given to people who contributed to
the overall completed task. Hence, lead by example, train employees to provide a quality
product, create an environment where there is no fear to share knowledge, and give credit where
credit is due is the motto of a successful TQM organization.
Benefits of Total Quality Management
✓ Cost Reduction and Increased Profitability
TQM helps in reducing total quality costs. It is based on the principle of preventing defective
products/services rather than being at the expense of quality failure cost. So basically, it aims
to manufacture zero-defect products/services. Consequently, this brings in cost reduction and
thus increased profitability. Companies such as Toyota Motors and Motorola have bought into
manufacturing cost reductions by implementing TQM techniques.
✓ Facilitates productivity
Cost reduction is a means of increased productivity. Productivity implies maximum output
with optimum utilization of resources. Thus, superior resources, infrastructure, high-end
technology, and competent employees enhance productivity.
✓ Reduces Redundant Activities
TQM applies a systematic approach by assigning quality improvement teams to reduce
unessential tasks and waste of resources, thus, bringing in efficiency. This also saves time and
duplication of tasks.
✓ Promotes Innovation Process
TQM enables organizations to research any undergoing challenges/ problems to come up
with solutions for the same. Thus, organizations escalate their research and bring in
innovative marketing decisions. The implemented innovative approach to the core and
peripheral services attracts customers.
✓ Market-Specific Products/Services
Since the main focus of TQM is on customer satisfaction, it provides a pathway to understand
the needs and demands of the consumer market. Therefore, it enables the organization to
deliver products/services specific to the market.
✓ Holistic Approach to Management
Many organizations struggle with a non-engaging and non-participative attitude of the
employees. TQM enables changes in the employees’ behavioural patterns by facilitating good
work culture, and teamwork, promoting self-development and employee engagement, and
thus extracting better performance.
✓ Promotes Continual Improvement
The basic fundamental of TQM is continually improving for long-term success. Therefore,
TQM practices are designed to enhance the quality standards of a product/service constantly.
This results in a continuous revival of processes.
✓ Facilitates Competitive Edge
The increasing competition challenges the organization to meet the ever-increasing consumer
market demands. TQM practices help understand the market trends and competition to
develop effective strategies to overcome the same.
✓ Promotes Goodwill
As TQM focuses on consistently delivering good quality products/services, the consumers
hold a favourable reputation for the organization. The internal stakeholders (employees and
investors) get lucrative incentives and good returns, respectively, while external stakeholders
(customers) get superior quality goods. This results in a good brand image and goodwill in
the long run.
✓ Facilitates Effective Communication and Employee Morale
Often, improper and ineffective communication hinders an organization’s proper functioning
and development. This results in improper understanding, low productivity, inferior quality,
and wasted time and effort, thus contributing to low morale. Whereas TQM facilitates
effective communication and interaction among members of different departments and
hierarchies of management. This boosts employee morale and teamwork.
✓ Facilitates Customer Satisfaction
Since TQM is all about delivering a superior quality of products/services to the customers in
the long run, customer complaints are quite less. Therefore, it signifies less use of resources
and increased customer satisfaction. Thus, the market share also increases as the existing
customers act as ambassadors to attract new customers