This question has two parts; be sure to answer both. First, define total quality management and explain its four components. Next, imagine you work as a manager for a company that builds and sells expensive, upscale men's watches. Explain how you would implement a TQM approach at your company.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Total quality management (TQM) is a comprehensive approach, led by top management and supported throughout the organization, dedicated to continuous quality improvement, training, and customer satisfaction.

These are the four components of TQM, with an example of how a manager of a men's watch company might implement each.

1. Make continuous improvement a priority. TQM companies are never satisfied; they make small, incremental improvements an everyday priority. The watch manufacturer may brag that its watches lose no more than one second per year. As part of a commitment to continuous improvement, management may seek to have the next generation of watches lose no more than one second every two years.

2. Get every employee involved. TQM companies build teamwork, trust, and mutual respect by making sure that every employee is involved in the continuous improvement process. One simple way to implement this philosophy at the watch company is to have a suggestion box where anyone—from the custodian to the CEO—can make suggestions for how to make the watches even better.

3. Listen to and learn from customers and employees. TQM companies solicit feedback within the organization and from customers. Because the watches are sold at upscale locations, it is easy to keep track of customers and to contact them occasionally, asking them to provide testimonials or provide suggestions for how a great product can be made even better. For example, one satisfied customer might say, "I love my watch, but I wish I didn't have to take it off when I water my garden." That suggestion might lead the company to make its next generation of watches waterproof.

4. Use accurate standards to identify and eliminate problems. TQM companies look to their competition for ideas on how to improve their own products (a process called benchmarking). The watch company might implement a standard saying that it will not market any watch that loses more than a second a year, and it will conduct ongoing quality tests to ensure that its watches are meeting its standards (which are the criteria that the public expects from the company).