Research Korner: Total Quality Management

Implementation of Total Quality Management in Industry

TQM               Businesses today are using a set of practices called the Total Quality Management to ensure that the quality of their products will meet the expectations of the costumers.  It is now a globally used program that takes into consideration all quality measures. It involves all employees starting from the lowest up to highest ranking officials.1 The implementation of TQM has been a subject of debate for a lot businessmen whether it really it brings benefits more than costs and there have been many studies conducted that favor the implementation of TQM. These benefits are determined in the several key principles TQM upholds.             The managers are considered to be the most responsible in implementing TQM to ensure its success. The managers are the ones expected to be the role models and leaders in spreading the spirit of quality in their services. As a key principle in TQM, the managers are held the most accountable in whatever the result of their service would be. According to The Institute of Management Services, managers should exhibit the “culture of partnership, learning together, guidance and support for employees.”2             As what is stated above, TQM involves all employees from the lowest to the highest level. The Human Resource department plays a very crucial part in selecting the most competitive employees that will uphold the principle of TQM. Of all the departments of the company, it is probably the HRD that is the most significant in terms of using the philosophy of TQM in their different operations. The HR department is also responsible for training the employees necessary for the operation of TQM.3 Nonetheless, TQM would not prosper without the cooperation of all the departments.             TQM offers competitive advantages compared to those companies who don’t use TQM. It lies on the fact that in TQM, there are prevention costs that includes the design, operation and maintenance. These are well planned procedures to ensure the maximum performance of the system. Other companies who don’t use the TQM system are not assured that their products are of high quality because they haven’t invested in the planning stage. There are standard protocols followed in this prevention cost that test whether the products are properly made. Aside from the prevention cost, there is also the appraisal cost which determines whether the products are within the specification of the industry. Lastly, there is the failure cost divided into two namely: internal and external. This includes the series of actions and procedures to be done if the products made fail to reach the standard quality.4             Implementing and upholding the philosophy of TQM may incur costs, but the there are definitely benefits that exceed the costs. All the costs TQM implementation may entail will pay off. Business experts advocate the use of TQM. Its customer – oriented principle is what makes it successful. In implementing TQM, improvement and growth must be practiced all the time through investing on the employees and the machineries used. It’s all just a small sacrifice for a noble cause of serving the costumers with all the company’s might.             Trainings for the employees must be done from time to time. There must be education and re – education. Proper maintenance of machineries should be watched carefully. Following the standard protocols with all your heart will benefit you. Let your company be synonymous to quality. Those are the steps to success with the help of TQM. Reference: 1Murray, M. 2000. Total Quality Management (TQM) (Online) Available:             http://logistics.about.com/od/qualityinthesupplychain/a/TQM.htm [4 May 2011] 2Edgell, R. 2008. Total Quality Management (TQM) (Online) Available:             http://www.managers-net.com/total_quality_management.html [4 May 2011] 3Bethke, A. 1994. Implementing total quality management: the role of human resource              management. (Online) Available:  http://www.allbusiness.com/management/benchmarking-quality-             improvement/4530221.html [4 May 2011] 4Murray, M. 2000. Total Quality Management (TQM) (Online) Available:             http://logistics.about.com/od/qualityinthesupplychain/a/TQM.htm [4 May 2011]

Implementation of Total Quality Management in Industry

TQM Businesses today are using a set of practices called the Total Quality Management to ensure that the quality of...

Total Quality Management: Healthcare in Queensland, Australia

Total Quality Management: Healthcare in Queensland, Australia Shortage of Doctors and Nurses in Queensland Healthcare Industry               Total Quality Management or TQM was coined by the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command to describe its Japanese-style management approach in terms of quality improvement (2007a). It comprises four process steps, namely, Kaizen, which is to make processes visible; Atarimae Hinshitsu, which is to focus on intangible effects on processes; Kansei, or examining the way the user applies the product; and Miryokuteki Hinshitsu, which broadens management concern beyond the immediate product (2007b). However, in more general terms, TQM is defined as a management approach for an organization, centered on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society (2007b). From this, it can be understood that the aim of TQM is to improve and develop the system and approach of an organization for customer and employee satisfaction. This form of management is crucial for any organization belonging to any industry, for this determines the quality and extent of service that they can offer their customers. However, not all service sectors meet the standards required in providing quality management. Several issues can still be determined, which allows the further improvement of the service industry. Issues include the lack of funds and resources, which allow the service industry to improve and upgrade their facilities and provide the needs of employees and customers, the lack of manpower or talents, the lack of strategies in attracting and retaining customers, and the lack of strategies of sustaining and maintaining employees. In addition, providing benefits and compensation for employees and ensuring a healthy and safe working environment are also issues to be addressed. It has been reported that in today’s successful service organizations, safely and health management concerns go beyond the physical condition of the workplace to a regard for employees’ mental and emotional well-being and a commitment to protecting the surrounding community from pollution and exposure to toxic substances, which now involves the employees at all levels (2002). Equally important, this type of service is vital in the healthcare industry, especially to hospitals and other health related establishment, where patients and health-deficient individuals rely upon their efficiency and expertise. However, due to uncontrollable circumstances, the quality of service in the healthcare industry has been declining, and this presents a myriad of quality issues and challenges in the service sector. A relevant issue that can be addressed is in terms of the service and facilities of public or government hospitals and health clinics, which have focused on the reduction of spending with their facilities and with allocation of public health care dollars (2002). An example of which are acute care hospitals, for they are complex institutions comprised of numerous medical specializations in which physicians have considerable decision-making power (2002). The reduction of allocated resources and government spending results to the lack of facilities and healthcare professionals in terms of the quality of service rendered in government hospitals, thus, lessens also the amount of healthcare services that patients receive from them. In addition, the lack of government spending and resources leads to the constraint of human resources or talent, taxpayer funding, transparency or information-sharing, lack in the establishment of effective projects and infrastructures, citizen involvement, and service delivery (2007). On the other hand, service and quality issues are also being faced by private hospitals and healthcare facilities, which consider a number of factors in order to function and render service effectively. In low and middle-income countries, factors, such as those that add to discrepancies between provider knowledge and practice are being faced. Private hospitals perceive and experience patient and community pressure in order to provide treatments, lack the capacity to enforce regulatory controls, and lack multi-faceted strategies, including the local adaptation and distribution of information (1998). In relation to this is the pressure and challenge of educating patients and communities, so that they will be able to adopt achieve treatment-seeking and treatment-taking behavior, feasible mechanisms for guaranteeing and monitoring service quality, and self-regulation by provider organizations or provider accreditation (1998). With these problems and challenges, the salvation of private hospitals in relation to the development, improvement and evaluation of strategies would depend on the involvement of their stakeholders and policy makers, and practical, inexpensive, effective, sustainable and efficient interventions, to achieve their goals (1998).               Moreover, a specific issue to be addressed in the healthcare industry is the recruitment of healthcare professionals, such as doctors and nurses, in relation to the control of quality management. Quality management is a method or process, which ensures that all activities needed to design, develop and implement a product or service are efficient and effective with regards to a particular system and its performance (2007). With this, it can be understood that this method encompasses all other strategies and techniques implemented in service organizations, which are responsible for attracting and retaining healthcare professionals in a specific healthcare institution. However, despite the existence of this type of management, several problems and issues are still faced by healthcare and service institutions, in relation to the recruitment and retention of its skillful workforce. Primarily, like any other service organizations, hospitals and other health-related establishments must be able to advertise job and position openings to attract skillful healthcare professionals. The issue that must be addressed here is the ability of the healthcare institution to utilize different available advertising channels to be able to catch the attention of healthcare professionals. Today, the use of the World Wide Web in terms of advertising could be utilized, for its use is becoming more and more indispensable (2006). This then, becomes a means for attaining quality management strategies, for an effective use of advertising channels can be a particular strategy in order to develop, design and implement a product or service (2007). Second, it has been reported that quality has been seen as a natural consequence of a sound medical education and good intentions on the part of medical practitioners, which are related to professionalism, trust and clinical autonomy (2000). With this, an issue that can be addressed is the fact that to be able to render efficient and effective service, a healthcare institution must recruit and select skillful and experienced doctors and nurses. This issue becomes relevant to the concept of quality management because the recruitment and selection of right healthcare professionals would become crucial for the effective operation of the whole institution. Considerations that can be considered include the specialization and skills of the healthcare professionals, the academic institution from where they obtained their education, the referrals from their previous work or referrals from reliable sources, and their experiences in the related field. The consideration of such factors can be used to effectively select the rightful employee for the job.             Another issue to be addressed is selecting a healthcare professional, who has the similar beliefs, mission and goals as the ones being implemented in the healthcare institution. Although the primary aim of doctors and nurses is to improve the health conditions of their patients, they must still conform to the standards of the hospital and focus on rendering the highest possible standard of service that they can afford. With this, the role of the Human Resource team would be highlighted for the members of the team will be responsible for making decisions in the selection and recruitment of employees. The issue that must be addressed here is the fact that the HRM team must be able to choose the rightful employees, who could be molded to adopt and implement the mission and vision of the healthcare institution, in line with its intention of rendering effective, efficient, and quality service to patients.             In line with the responsibility of healthcare professionals is their need and requirement for effective and efficient hospital equipments and facilities. However, the intention and responsibility of doctors and nurses will not be attained without effective and efficient hospital facilities that would cater to the needs of their patients. The issue to be addressed here is the ability of the healthcare institution to provide for the needs and requirements of doctors and nurses in terms of facilities and equipments. This aspect can be a particular consideration in the recruitment and selection of doctors and nurses, for they must be able to adapt to the facilities and equipments available to the healthcare institution. In relation to this is the fact that because of the drastic and continuous development and improvement in technology, education, and communication, the use of more sophisticated and advanced pieces of equipments are being implemented in healthcare institutions to enhance the services that hospitals can render. The issue to be addressed here is the crucial selection of skillful healthcare professionals who are willing to learn new strategies and techniques that would help the healthcare institution further improve and develop. Having effective hospital facilities is determinant in implementing quality management, as indicated in the study of  (1999), who emphasized that with effective and advanced facilities, quality management in hospitals in Australia is improved and achieved, in relation to the use of its skillful healthcare professionals. From this discussion, it can be understood that Total Quality Management has a lot to do with the effective and efficient improvement and development of healthcare institutions, along with its crucial role in the recruitment and selection of skillful and rightful healthcare professionals.

Total Quality Management: Healthcare in Queensland, Australia

Total Quality Management: Healthcare in Queensland, Australia Shortage of Doctors and Nurses in Queensland Healthcare Industry ...

Management Perception towards Implementation of Quality Management System

THE TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM         The Total Quality Management System is a prerequisite in any business and organization. To be able comply with company’s goal and objectives, management together with the human resource personnel must promulgate such system, sets of rules and regulation so that they can achieve excellence in most of their undertakings. In compliance with the emerging world of competition and research and development through information, management themselves should be responsible and should act as a role model in serving the total quality management system implementation.       This implementation does not required to go back to theoretical principles of the best management of their times but it requires thorough and immediate response in every organization. This is not to say that the total quality management system is the only way but it is the best way to manage a company. Naturally there is no exact ways on how to manage a company it depends entirely on the situations they are in. Management system may come along the way eventually or it can be plan ahead which is more beneficial. Total Quality Management can be evaluated according to the success of the company if a manager served well to the company; chances are all employees will succeed as well as the company. On the other hand it is very easy to create a risk in people and organization by mismanagement.       Total participation in the work place of management is definitely an advantage to make a total overview of the company and a hands-on experience to do the job. Imagine a manager who only rely on the data rather than participate on the job is weak and undesirable.  Most management does this if they feel that the company has been successful, they may be reluctant to non participation if they see that their employee is handling the job well. We can tell so many companies who have gone through this style of leadership. The result is corruption or worst decline in business.       The management perception toward quality training and development is another important factor in determining the success of their employees. They should be the source of knowledge in most aspect so as to lead people from specific sets of rules. Especially in a very sensitive company that requires zero error in management. Company like medical, chemical, engineering etc. is really sensitive when error in management is committed it may cause lives in other people. Imagine the nuclear outburst in Japan recently after the earthquake that may kill people if non immediate response has been dealt with.       Total communication transfer- this has been neglected in many instances due to many reasons the transfer of information is very important in a day to day operation of the company.  Especially in a manufacturing company where employees who have not transfer such information may lead to low production or bad orders. If the management has not transfer to their people the correct sets of implementing rules chances are people will be reluctant to do the job neglectfully. For instance in a department store a salesman who have just received an order has not report it to the purchaser, the next time the customers would buy to the other stores. Or a person who received a chemical formula who has not focused on engineers instruction, the result was an explosion, literally or a non delivery because of non order. These are just an example that management may perceived to weaken the company.          Favoritism and Nepotism- Management may promote people because it is their relative or they are going to promote employees because it is their favorite. This notion is definitely wrong and not a very systematic management approach to deal with.       Division of labor – Basically management must delegate their people their own sets of instruction and work division as to make the job easier and focused on the part of the laborer. Again if a person has not been assigned in a department where he should belong, works will be tiring or exhausting or simply boring and definitely may result in inefficiency of employee.       The management behavior towards achieving total quality management should be inculcated in their mind and should be totally implemented in the workplace. These simple principles mentioned above are just a few general factors that affect management performance. Non performance makes a company or organization weak and non progressive. An impact or a change of pace in management style or inability in Directing, Controlling, Planning and Organizing will definitely put the company at risk of losing its market potential. Or a newly established company may not expand or totally be bankrupt without such performance of Total Quality Management System.

Management Perception towards Implementation of Quality Management System

THE TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM The Total Quality Management System is a prerequisite in any business and organization. To b...

RYANAIR CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

1.  Strategy of Ryanair Overview of the Company             Ryanair started in year 1985 with only 57 staff members and with one 15 seater turboprop plane from the south of east of Ireland to London-Gatwick which carried 5000 passengers on one route (Harrison, 2002). In 1986, inspired from the story of David and Goliath the company go after the big guys for a slice of the action and end up smashing the Aer Lingus or British Airways high fare cartel on the Dublin-London route. The staff increased from mere 57 to 120 staff members and the plane carried for about 82,000 passengers on two routes. In 1989, the company employed 350 staff and their average maximum passengers increased to 600,000. In 1990-1991, the company has 700,000 passengers. However, despite of the increase of passengers, the company is not so good in managing cost that the company has lose its money. A new management team is brought in to sort it out and re-launch as a “low fares or no frills” airline, closely modelling the Southwest Airlines model in the U.S. And in 1994, Ryanair bought its first Boeing 737 aircraft which carried over 1.5 million passengers. In 1995, Ryanair is the biggest passenger carrier on Dublin-London route, the largest Irish airline on every route being operate and carried 2.25 million passengers in the year (Harrison, 2002). In 1997, the EU air transport deregulation allowed the airline for the first time to open up new routes to Continental Europe with over 3 million passengers on 18 routes carried. Ryanair launched services to Stockholm, Oslo, Paris and Brussels and took time out to float Ryanair plc on Dublin and NASDAQ Stock exchanges. The company was awarded as Airline of the Year in 1999 by the Irish Air Transport Users Committee. In 2000, they announced the launch of 10 new European routes for the summer 2000 after much deliberation and watching others burning money. The company has also jump onto the internet with the launch of their new online booking site and in just 3 months the site is taking over 50,000 bookings a week. By 2001 there are more than 1500 employees working for Ryanair and more than 10 million passengers are carried to 56 cities in 13 European countries. The company has opened Frankfurt-Hahn in 2002 as their second continental European base and announce a long term partnership with Boeing which will see the company acquiring up to 150 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft over an eight year period from 2002-2010. The booking in their web accounts have increased to 94% which has probably has something to do with opening another 26 routes. In year 2003, the company is characterised by rapid expansion and the start the year by announcing that the company has ordered an additional 100 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft to facilitate the rapid European growth plans (Binggeli and Pompeo, 2002). They acquired Buss from KL M in April and re-launched 13 buss routes in May. In February they opened their first base in Italy at Milan-Bergamo and launched their Stockholm Skavsta base in Sweden with six new European routes. In all 60 new routes are added throughout 2003 to bring the company a total of 127 routes. By 2004, the company is named as the most popular airline on the web by Google and they launched their 10th and 11th bases in Rome Ciampino and Barcelona Girona and continue to add more routes to their already extensive network. The company has also passed out British Airways to become the UK’s favourite airline in United Kingdom and throughout Europe (Binggeli and Pompeo, 2002). Critical Success Factors             Although the company had encountered different problems, specifically in line with its cost structures, the company had been able to survive and grow in the marketplace.  Ryanair implement different marketing strategy to make the company survive in the competition and to be able to gain competitive position in the airline market.  It is said that the company was regarded recently as the most punctual airline between Dublin and London. And because of the strategy of the industry, Ryanair is now recognised as the second largest airline in United Kingdom and Europe’s largest low-fares airline having a network of over 57 routes in 11 countries and served by a fleet of 31 Boeing 737-200 and -800 aircraft with over 1,400 staffs and personnel. In order to position itself in the marketplace the company continuously concentrates on driving own its costs to offer the lowest fares possible and remain profitable.  In addition, Ryanair offer minimum standards of service and very low prices for point-to-point, short haul flights.  The goal of Ryanair is to meet the needs of travelling at the lowest price.  The Critical Success Factors (CSFs) are as follows in airline industry: the strategic focus of having the lowest prices, being reliable within the marketplace, comfort and service and frequency.  It is noted that low-cost companies concentrate on this first critical success factor by trying to offer the lowest prices.  Although Ryanair has eliminated extras such as in-flight meals, advanced seat assignment, free drinks and other services, it still prioritises features which remain important to its target market. Such features include frequent departures, advance reservations, baggage handling and consistent on-time services. Cost Reduction Strategy To achieve its goal of having a competitive position in the airline market, Ryanair uses a cost reduction strategy. Such cost reduction strategy relies on five main aspects like fleet commonality, contracting out services, airport charges and route policies, managed staff costs and productivity and managed marketing costs. In terms of fleet commonality, the company used only one kind of plane which limits the cost for staff training, maintenance services and facility of obtaining spares, facility in scheduling aircraft and crew assignment.  With their purchase of aircraft Boeing 737, Ryanair has been able to gain capacity and reduces the average age of fleet which means savings on maintenance costs and avoiding the fit of European Union-conform equipment on old feet. The next factor under the cost reduction strategy of Ryanair is contracting out services.  In this manner, aircraft handling, ticketing, handling and other functions are contracted out by Ryanair to third parties. In addition, in order to limit their expenses engine and heavy maintenance are also contracted out whereas the staff of Ryanair carries out routine maintenance.  Another factor for the cost reduction strategy of the company is in terms of airport charges and route policies. Herein, Ryanair has made judicious choice of dealing with secondary and regional airports, where the traffic is not jammed and fees incomparably lower. Since Ryanair, is a true windfall for such airports, the airline company has a bargaining power which enables it getting favourable access fees. In addition, Ryanair provides only a point-to-point service, thus, it has no cost concerning connecting passengers.  Moreover, the company pays special focus to on-time departures because it means maximising aircraft utilisation. Managing staff costs and productivity is another factor used for reducing the cost for Ryanair. In this manner, the company pays its staff on modest salary but has set up a performance related pay structure which urges employees to maximise the number of sectors flown daily. This way, Ryanair both controls productivity and keeps staff costs down.  Lastly, managing marketing costs is another factor that makes the company reduces it costs. Ryanair advertises mainly on it website with its logo “Ryanair.com, the Low-Fare Airline”. In addition, it is also advertised in national and regional Irish and UK newspaper, on radio and on television. Porter’s Generic Strategy Aside from it cost-reduction strategy, Ryan has also been able to use Porter’s generic strategies to position itself in the marketplace.  Accordingly, a company positions itself by leveraging its strengths. Today, more and more people and organization are striving to be recognized in the business arena.  With this objective, these organizations had been able to competently and effectively adapt to the situation in the market place by using generic strategies that enhanced their competitiveness.  There are five different generic strategies that a business can choose.  These include cost leadership, differentiation, focused cost leadership and integrated cost leadership/differentiation.  Each generic strategy helps the company to establish and exploit a competitive advantage within a particular competitive scope (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson 2003). By applying these strengths, three generic strategies are resulted: cost leadership, differentiation and focus (Johnson & Scholes 1997).  The strategies used by the company include cost leadership, differentiation strategy and focused differentiation. Cost leadership strategy is based upon a business organising and managing its value-adding activities so as to be the lowest cost producer of a product within an industry (Campbell, 2002). Cost advantage may achieve in terms of how product or services is designed or in terms of its quality. Differentiation strategy is based upon persuading customers that a product is superior to that offered by competitors (Campbell, 2002). The value added by the uniqueness of the product or services may allow the company to charge a premium price for it. However, the danger associated with differentiation may include imitation by competitors and changes in customer tastes. Focus-differentiation strategy is aimed at a segment of the market fro a product rather than at the whole market or many markets (Campbell, 2002). The successful way using focus strategy is to tailor a broad of product or service development strengths to a relatively narrow market segment that they know very well. The risk may include imitation and changes in the target segments. In the case of Ryanair, these three generic strategies had been utilised. First, the company offers the lowest cost of fare than its competitors in the airline. On the other hand, Ryanair has also become a focuser because it concentrated on a narrow customer segment which include Irish and UK business people or travellers who could not afro to fly major airlines. The main goal of the company is to provide a no frills service with low fares designed to stimulate demand. At the time, it did not aim to offer the lowest fare on the market.  However, the company expanded to continental Europe and had to focus on critical success factors to survive. Nowadays, it can be said that Ryanair has shifted generic strategies to become more of a cost-leader not only in terms of passenger volumes but being the lowest cost operator in the airline industry.             Ryanair has restyled itself and shifted from a full service conventional airline to the first European low fares, no frills carrier. In 1985, it provided scheduled passenger airline services between Ireland and the UK. By the end of 1990 and despite a growth in passenger volume, the company had experienced some trouble and had to dispose of five chief executives, recording losses of IR£20 million. Ryanair had to fight to survive and the new management team, headed by Michael O’Leary, decides to restyle the company on the model of successful American Southwest Airlines. Indeed, when one considers Porter's original framework, Ryanair's generic strategy used to be unclear: it situated itself somewhere between a cost leader and a focuser, although we can consider it was closer to a focuser. The problem with such niche strategies is that they involve a number of risks, the most obvious being that the niche can get saturated and competitors invade the segment. As long as Ryanair was the only European no frills airline, it did not have to distinctly define its strategic position. It used to try and mix focus and cost leadership and was muzzy about which one it wanted. But as soon as competitors started blooming, it had to decide which strategy it would stick to. This was the very strategy of Michael O'Leary: he decided to ruthlessly pursue cost leadership. This strategy was a success and by 1997, Ryanair was floated on the Dublin Stock Exchange and on NASDAQ. Expansion strategy is another factor that enables Ryanair to position itself in the marketplace. The company has been known to be an airline which launches new routes since its operation begins. In addition, under the expansion strategy, company acquires Buzz in February 26, 2003. Such acquisition enables Ryanair to gain immediate access to11 new French regional airports and makes the company the largest airline operating at London Stansted Airport.  In addition, the company continues to expand by opening two new Continental European bases with low-fare flights from Milan Bergamo and Stockholm. In the year, 2003, the company has been able to launch 73 new routes and carry over 2 million passengers in one month (July). In addition, the company website has been able to make the company position itself in the global market. 2.                  Strategic Options The case study has provided the problems and issues encountered by the Ryanair, in spite of its strategies.  One of the problems is in terms of handling customers or target market. In addition, another problem is assuring quality service. In this manner, the strategic option that can be used by the company for satisfying both internal and external customers and marketing environment is the use of total quality management. The industrial competitions in airline industry worldwide are at brisk, making companies in this field across the globe search for extensive strategic management procedures that would keep them in on the business world.  The tasks of crafting, implementing, and executing company strategies are the heart and soul of managing business enterprise.  A company’s strategy serves as the game plan management and is use to stake out a market position, conduct its operations, attract and please customers, compete successfully, and achieve organizational objectives.  Thus, TQM as a strategy is certainly appropriate for such situation.              Total Quality Management is a philosophy of management that is driven by the constant attainment of customer satisfaction though the continuous improvement of all organizational processes (Robbins, 1998).  It is a management philosophy that seeks to integrate all organizational functions such as marketing, finance, design, engineering, production, customer service, and others to focus on meeting customer needs and organizational objectives (Hashmi, 2000). It is known that every organization’s primary purpose is to stay in business, so that it can promote the stability of the community, generate products and services that are useful to customers, and provide setting for the satisfaction and growth of organization members.  From this perspective, it can be said that TQM strategy for achieving its normative outcomes is rooted in four interlocked assumptions: quality, people, organizations, and the role of the senior management (Wageman, 1995).    Total Quality Management is a planned procedure for satisfying internal and external customers and suppliers by integrating the business environment, continuous improvement, and come through with advancement, growth, and safeguarding the cycles while changing organisational culture. Furthermore, TQM is an array of management system throughout the organisation, geared to ensure that the organisation to continuously attain or surpass customer requirements. TQM places strong focus on process measurement and controls as means of continuous improvement (McNamara, 1999). Moreover, Total Quality Management is infinitely variable and adaptable. Although originally applied to manufacturing operations, and over the years only used in that area, TQM is now being recognised as a standard management instrument, just as applicable in service and public sector organisations like the airlines industries (Hashmi, 2004). The Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy of management is customer-oriented. Hence, the airline operations must be developed in order to steadily deal with the improvement of their operation through the ongoing participation of all employees in problem solving efforts across functional and hierarchical boundaries. TQM incorporates the concepts of service quality, process management, quality assertion, and quality perfection. Consequently, the airline company must be able to control all transformation processes with regards to their operations and services to better satisfy customer needs in the most economical way. In order to apply the TQM to Ryanair especially to be used in its airline operations and services, the management of the airline company must be able to accept the whole concept of the improvement, which means that all the people of the airline company must agree that there is a need for a total transformation especially for the quality of operations and services that the industry will be offered.  Furthermore, the management should be willing to participate to all the improvement, value each and every ones opinion in order to achieve total quality management and provide a total quality operations and services to satisfy their customers. Managers and experts disagree about how to effectively implement Total Quality Management to their organisations.    Eventually, customer satisfaction has always been regarded as the driving force behind quality improvement; others suggest quality management is achieved by internal productivity or cost improvement programs. In other applications, Total Quality Management is regarded as a technique to introduce the context of participative type of management (Schlenker, 1998).  Thus, the management should be more straightforward to provide the potential role of applying the Total Quality Management to their operations and services. In addition, since Total quality management is based on internal or self-control, which is embedded in every element of the work system (technology and people), the employees or the people behind the operation and services being offered to the passengers and customers of the airline must be able to determine the problems beforehand, to anticipate its occurrences. Pushing problem solving and decision-making down in the Ryanair especially to their operations and services may allow people who do the work to both assess and take remedial action in order to deliver an operation or service that meets the needs of their customer.   In applying total quality management to airline operations, they must be able to combine it with the core strategy of the industries; this does not mean that such airline companies must have total changes. It is important that in application of the Total Quality Management to the Ryanair operations and services they must also consider that an appropriate strategy should be used in order to employ a total quality operations and services that would satisfy all clients and customers.

RYANAIR CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

1. Strategy of Ryanair Overview of the Company Ryanair started in year 1985 with only 57 staff members a...

Sample Essay on Total Quality Management

We can help you with your assignment. Just provide your assignment instructions. We write it for you. Only $18 per page. Click to learn more. Is Total Quality Management TQM the way forward? Introductions             Total quality management as a business concept has evolved in meaning to encompass not only the improvement in the quality of processes and systems but to encompass the multi-dimensional aspects of quality-based business operations and product or service delivery to customers. The change was due to the failures experienced by business firms in engaging in total quality management that just focuses on improving production processes without linking this area of change to the culture or values of the business firm. In recognition of the failures experienced by a significant number of business firms applying the limited concept of total quality management, the concept of TQM has been expanded to encompass the different dimensions of business operations to include human resource management, change management, operations management, organisational culture, customer relations, and customer satisfaction. Total quality management has re-emerged to become a promising business philosophy because of its radical and long-term implications to business firms. Its radical nature is due to its direction towards change in the overall culture and value system of the organization, to become customer-centred, with the participation of managers and employees. Change or the management of change is a complex and often long-term process that involves multiple interests and players requiring the need for prioritization or the weighing of interests and risks. As such, the failures of business firms in successfully applying total quality management lies in the inability of firms to recognize the encompassing scope of this business philosophy and effectively utilise tools to achieve the goals or objectives established for the engagement in total quality management. Problems in TQM Implementation             A number of problems in the implementation of total quality management have been recognised to fall under the four general issues. First issue is the lack of limited attention given by business to the various core quality factors available to business firms for application. The quality factors are important in the successful implementation of TQM because these provide both the areas that require focus by the firms together with the tools in dealing with potential issues or assessing the achievement of objectives. This constitutes the most common cited problem as the cause of failures of most firms in realising the benefits promised by TQM. Second issue is the failure to develop a context-based implementation strategy that is fitted to the specific business needs and objectives of the firm. Although there are general elements and tools that guide business firms, firms engaging in TQM should be able to develop an implementation plan unique to its business context instead of merely implementing a generic plan or copying the implementation plans of firms that have successfully engaged in TQM. Third issue is the limited perspective of TQM as a mere add-on programme within a business-as-usual environment. TQM becomes a motivational or training strategy or the application of techniques and tools. In this instance, business firms are likely not to achieve bigger TQM goals. Fourth issue is the setting of very high expectations from the firm’s TQM initiatives that could be due to the oversimplification of the process or limited realisation of the complexities of implementation.  (Thiagarajan & Zairi 1997)             With the understanding of the causes of the failures of business firms in implementing TQM together with the development of best practices on an industry or sector-wide level, more successes could be expected in the future. Total quality management still constitutes a sound business philosophy with long-term benefits to business firms that commit to the TQM implementation process by understanding the elements of TQM and its remedies in order to develop context-based implementation plans based on realistic expectations of outcomes. Elements of TQM as a Business Philosophy             Total quality management involves hard and soft factors, with the hard factors pertaining to the physical or material infrastructures or tools that are in place while soft factors relate to the values, working environment and relationships within the business firm. The hard and soft factors required by total quality implementation need equal consideration for a successful implementation.             Corporate culture constitutes one key soft factor in TQM because this caries the important role of allowing the smooth process of information sharing and harmony building among the members of the organisation (Irani, Beskese & Love 2004). Through corporate culture geared towards customer satisfaction, internal communications and task-completion culture are improved that in turn enhances the products or service delivered to end-consumers. Customer satisfaction in turn, influences long-term revenue generation and market growth. This means the need for a strong corporate culture that develops the value alignment of members of the organisation to the customer-oriented direction of the firm. However, cultures are not that easy to cultivate as seen in the case of Appor Limited that experienced stagnation because of the frustration of employees that demand innovative change but without the support of management (‘Case study: Appor Limited’ 2008).             Development of corporate culture involves difficulties especially when the business firm has not been able to define its business values or experience divergence in beliefs among managers or between managers and employees such as in Appor Limited. These problems hamper or prevent the derivation of a unique firm-wide culture directed towards customer satisfaction. It is in the sense that leadership becomes important. Implementing total quality management involves a change in the belief systems and practices of the business firm and the adoption of alternative values that target customer satisfaction (Irani, Beskese & Love 2004). A strong leader, with a comprehensive understanding of the requirements of total quality management based on its target customers, becomes necessary in settling differences, establishing alternative values, and implementing policies that highlight primary concern for customer satisfaction.             To become an effective leader in implementing culture change as part of TQM implementation, leaders of business firms need to become flexible or resilient to changes to emerging needs and changes in their environment. Flexibility is achieved by focusing on the current processes and strategies of the business firm to encourage continuous learning and improve ways of providing customer satisfaction at a level that also favours the financial and business viability objectives of the business firm (Irani, Beskese & Love 2004).             In implementing TQM, the business firm has to commit to the continuous process of contextual change and learning, with the commitment starting with the firm leaders charged with the implementation of policies intended to develop customer value in product or service delivery among employees.             Customer-supplier alliances comprise another soft factor in total quality management implementation. Since total quality management involves focus on customer satisfaction, business firms applying this practical philosophy should build customer-supplier alliances under supply chain management initiatives. Customer-supplier alliances allow business firms to speedily recognise any changes in demand, by looking at changes in customer demand, which could affect its current operations. (Love & Gunasekaran 1999) Strategic alliances with other business firms, such as in the case of BAE Systems & Waer Systems Limited that highlighted the importance of open communication and information sharing (‘Case study: BAE Systems’ 2008), allow business firms to gain continuous knowledge of developments in customer demand trends to be able to respond and adjust accordingly and in a timely manner. Building alliances with suppliers enabled business firms to understand and gain control over its ability to meet changes in demand. The development of customer and supplier alliances enhances the competitiveness of business firms.             Business firms can engage in two kinds of strategic alliances with customers and suppliers. One is collaborative alliance that involves partnerships with customers and suppliers for purposes of information and competency sharing to improve the manner that business firms meet demand and obtain continuity in its supply chain through a reliable supply partnership. However, this does not always work out as expected since business firms operate in a competitive environment so that business firms have to outdo the value offered by its competitors in order to gain quality-driven business partners. In addition, there could be a difficulty in gaining information especially in a partnership when the exchange involved in collaborative sharing is deemed uneven. Another is cooperative alliance involves the allocation of the necessary resources to derive mutual learning between or among the parties involved in the alliance. This involves the development of trust in order to facilitate mutual sharing of knowledge and skills. However, this is not always easy to do especially in the case of supplier alliances because of the intervention of the varying interests of the business firm and its preferred supply partners. When divergence happens, the partnerships may not become sustainable in the long-run in a competitive business environment. Consistency in the core values delivered to customers would ensure a cooperative partnership with suppliers that allow business firms to create market base of loyal consumers.             Although the building of customer-supplier alliances can involve difficulties resting on the complexity of developing trust, achieving competitive advantage through supplier partnerships and enhancing customer satisfaction can be achieved through the development of learning alliances, which refer to strategic alliances that fosters mutual reflective information sharing and learning with partners in the supply chain. Since this type of alliance is cooperative, this builds mutual trust and stronger commitment. (Love & Gunasekaran 1999) Encouraging an environment of mutual learning contributes mutual benefits to allied business firms, with the sup plying partner able to ensure the firm’s commitment in purchasing its products and the producing firm ensured of the continuity of supply especially with expectations of increases in demand. Business firms involved in learning alliances are able to develop means of providing a consistent standard or quality to consumers in a manner that involves less cost and greater profit.             Development and participation of employees in the implementation of total quality management constitutes another soft factor. Since TQM involves culture change reflected in the conduct of work of employees, who deliver products and services directly to consumers, employees become a necessary participant in the TQM implementation process. This is because employee participation empowers employees. Employee empowerment determines the success of TQM initiatives because employees are the ultimate implementing parties in delivering quality products or services to consumers. By providing employees with the opportunity to be involved in the planning instead of just the implementation of plans, there would be greater degree of initiative exerted in the process of enhancing TQM implementation. Exertion of initiative leads to knowledge on the part of employees about their roles and contributions and the knowledge and skills necessary in exercising good judgment, responsibility and accountability.  (Gatchalian 1997)             However, people participation also involves a number of potential problems. One is the rigidly top-down organisational structure and decision-making of the firm that limits the involvement of employees in the planning process. Business firms that have established a top-down structure have to make infrastructural changes in order to involve employees even in the planning process. Another is the resistance from managers to the policy of increasing employee participation. The resistance could be due to their achievement of a certain degree of comfort in the existing system together with the perception of risks involved in increasing the participation of employees in the planning process. This degree of resistance could hamper or slow down the process of implementing total quality management. Still another problem is the limited knowledge and skills of employees that is unable to support their effective participation in the planning process. This could be due to the long time application of a people management system that discourages employees to engage in the planning process and decision-making or the presence of disincentives to employee participation such as lack of merit or recognition of work as well as rewards for the initiative contributions of employees to the business firm. These problems could affect the successful implementation of TQM by the business firm through the achievement of intended outcomes.             To address these problems, business firms engaged in total quality management have to implement a number of changes. First is the consideration of employees as valuable partners in TQM instead of just mere tools in implementation. This would enhance the development of a greater worth of employees relative to their role in the organisation that could influence employee commitment and loyalty. Second is the implementation of continuous training programs for employees to ensure that the organisation holds the competencies necessary in fulfilling TQM in the long-term. Third is the involvement of employees in the formation of the firm’s mission, vision and objectives that ensures their commitment to the achievement of this direction. Fourth is the development of employee values such as open communications, teamwork, cooperation, and other values contributing to people empowerment. (Gatchalian 1997)             Apart from these soft factors, comprising important elements in the implementation of total quality management, there are also hard factors that also need equal consideration such as systems, techniques and tools (Seetharaman, Sreenivasan & Boon 2006). As necessary elements to the successful implementation of total quality management, the failure to consider hard factors could hamper the achievement of TQM objectives.             One hard factor in total quality management is benchmarking, which involves the utilisation of measures to compare the business firm with its competitors for purposes of determining relative competitive advantage (Delbridge, Lowe & Oliver 1995). Application of benchmarking by business firms engaging in TQM can contribute a number of benefits to the firm such as the derivation of the relative position of the business firm in a particular industry or market, enhancement of the firm’s awareness of important changes in customer needs, encouragement of innovation, development of realistic or context-based goals, and establishment of realistic strategic plans.             However, the actual utilisation of benchmarking can involve problems. First is the determination of measures able to capture the areas that the business firm seeks to derive comparative data. In the case of manufacturing firms, the common measures include productivity, lead time, plant features, and process functions. In the case of services, the measures have to be changed to include other factors such as communication and customer relations. Since there could be a number of measures to be used, business firms may not be able to include all pertinent measures in conducting the comparison. In addition, measures involves quantitative data so that the result of the benchmarking analysis could provide data on the relative position of the business firm and the areas of strengths but the results may not be able to explain causes of strengths and weaknesses that involve qualitative data. As such, benchmarking cannot be used as the sole mode of comparison. Second is the possible issue in the interpretation of results. Business firms could have experience problems in the implementation of benchmarking results that could in turn adversely affect decision-making on competitive strategies. Third is the application of benchmarking based on the perspective of the business firm, which may not necessarily coincide with the overall industry perspective. (Spendolini 1992)  In effect, the business ends up clueless about its objective competitive position. In addressing these problems, Vista Optics Limited outsourced assessment but ensured that the external team works within the specific business context of the firm (‘Case study: Vista’ 2008).             In using benchmarking to support the achievement of total quality management, a number of crucial steps have to be made. One important step is for the business firm to determine clear objectives for the benchmarking even before the commencement of the comparison process. These objectives are then translated into the measures used in the comparative analysis. Another important step is the determination of a well-bounded process that involves a clearly articulated focus in order to minimise any undue adjustments. Another step is the derivation of understanding of the benchmarking process by the people involved in the process. Another step is the inclusion of qualitative data collection to substantiate qualitative data. A last step is ensuring the development of competencies such as focus on detail and consistency in analysis and the utilisation of external verification processes. (Delbridge, Lowe & Oliver 1995)             Management systems and quality tools have been developed to support the implementation of total quality management by business firms. Overall, total quality management is a management system in itself but because of the encompassing scope of TQM, this overlaps with the two other management systems of organisation management system and human resource management. These two management systems should be aligned with TQM in order to achieve success in implementation.             However, in the integration of these three systems, two approaches emerged. One is the traditional approach that considers total quality management as a superimposition on the other previously existing systems. This means that TQM becomes a mere addition imposed upon the two management systems without efforts for actual integration. This is due to the competition for resources that occurs as the business firm allocates funds for TQM that affects the resources available in the two systems. As such, competition and resistance to TQM emerges from the two systems resulting to the perspective of TQM as a superimposition that have to be tolerated. Integration does not occur because of the aversion or reservations to total quality management. The use of this approach has been accorded with the failures of TQM implementation. (Ho 1999)             Another, less common approach, is integrated management, which intends to merge in a balanced manner cultural initiatives for continuous learning and quality improvement with organisation management and human resource management. This can be achieved in the form of the two systems committing to quality initiatives or participating in quality management teams. The important thing is that the three systems are aligned, blended and integrated in a manner that allows the achievement of the objectives of these management systems towards the fulfilment of the long-term goals of the business. This management approach accounts for the successes in TQM implementation. To implement this management approach, the business firm needs to change its perspective of TQM from a mere superimposition to an encompassing management process that involves integration with the other management systems. (Ho 1999)             Since total quality management seeks to continuously enhance quality, quality tools have been developed to allow business firms to assess current relative levels of quality for purposes of decisions on the direction of quality strategies. There are traditional quality tools derived from statistical analysis including histograms, Pareto and scatter diagrams, cause and effect diagrams. There are also quality planning tools such as force field analysis and matrix diagrams. In addition, Six Sigma has also been applied as a quality tool. To determine industry and international quality standards from which to benchmark the quality level of the business firm, quality standards have been issue by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) to support the quality initiatives of organisations. (Evans 2004)             However, the application of measures could involve difficulties such as in the collection of data that have to be based on objectives measures to ensure that results reflect the objective situation of the firm and not represent the results that the firm wants to achieve. In addition, results of measures have to be analysed and interpreted within the business context of the firm.    Remedies from TQM             There are issues arising in the actualisation of the hard and soft factors of total quality management that requires business firms to exercise greater commitment and diligence in considering the encompassing elements of TQM together with the selection of the appropriate management systems and tools. Nevertheless, total quality management remains an important and timely business philosophy and management system that can contribute a number of solutions to the operational, organisational and competitive challenges faced by business firms. However, it should be kept in mind that total quality management is a long-term process that requires culture change, systems integration, resources allocation, and organisational commitment to succeed. By changing business perspectives and values, the success rate of total quality management implementation should increase.             One solution offered by total quality management involves focus on quality and quality measures (George & Weimerskirch 1998). Business firms operate in a competitive business environment, which means that every business firm has to meet the challenges posed by their rivals and ensure that they successfully address these challenges to survive or to maintain a top industry position. Business firms have to decide what competitive strategies to implement depending upon their understanding of the problem and their objectives. Firms also need to tap into their strengths and deal with their weaknesses in order to optimise outcomes. Business organisations also need to consider the specific needs of the target market to be able to provide products and services that match demand.             There are a number of ways of achieving competitive advantage including cost leadership by offering products and services at a price lower than the competitors. This works effectively when the business firm is able to offer products and services of the same quality as competitors but at a lower price. Another way of achieving competitive advantage is by offering products and services of a higher quality and at a higher price than competitors. This constitutes one way of implementing differentiation. This works for products and services that derive value to customers from the extent of quality. Competitive advantage can also be achieved through the delivery of products on time through an efficient logistics system together with an excellent customer service through human resource management initiatives involving training and skills developments with a customer orientation. (Porter 1998) Business firms can employ any or a combination of these strategies to achieve competitive advantage depending upon their specific needs and objectives.             Quality becomes an important solution to the objectives of business firms in achieving competitive advantage since all the strategies targeting the fulfilment of competitive advantage involve quality considerations (Omachonu & Ross 2004). In cost leadership, even if the core strategy is the achievement of the lowest price among competitors, this works well in instances when the business firm is able to sell at a lower price product or service of a similar quality as the competitors. This means that the strategy would likely not work when the quality of products and services offered at a lower price are also of a lower quality, especially for commodities that draw customer value from a minimum quality standard. In differentiation, the core strategic value is the derivation of unique value to customers. This necessarily involves quality whether the unique value pertains to the delivery of unique customer service to consumers or consistent on-time delivery of products and services. This means that total quality management that targets the continuous focus on quality improvement greatly contributes to the achievement of a firm’s competitive advantage.             Another solution offered by total quality management is targeting revenue expansion or cost reduction (Omachonu & Ross 2004). Financial outcomes of quality improvement initiatives involve increases in revenue and reduction in cost. Improving quality of products and services through enhancements in the quality of processes and systems involved in the manufacturing of products and delivery of services. This works effectively when the business firm carries a market perspective that considers the needs and demands of the target market and seeks to meet these customer requirements. By doing this, customers are likely to exhibit satisfaction with their experiences of the products and services. At the minimum, this could result to repeat purchases of satisfied customers and at the most, this could lead to the increase in market base through customer referrals. When this happens, the business firm expects to increase its revenue from the greater frequency of actual purchases.             By focusing on the continuous improvement of operating processes and systems, errors are minimised. When mistakes are experienced by the firm minimally or even eliminated totally, the cost involved in correcting errors and the resulting delays are addressed. In addition, the conscious quality direction of managers and employees also ensures that the products or service delivered to end consumers are of the quality intended by the firm. The development of this value also supports the minimisation of errors and delays that allows the firm to save on costs. (Omachonu & Ross 2004)             The experiences of business firms have shown that focusing on quality improvements are able to usher revenue generation or cost savings to business firms. However, the achievement of both revenue generation and cost savings is not always easy because of the need to balance or reconcile competing factors involved in increasing revenue and decreasing cost. This difficulty arises because of the need to balance exploitation with exploration objectives. Exploitation objectives are aligned with cost reduction because this focuses on improvements in existing systems or market while exploration objectives fall under revenue generation because this centres on the retention of the market base together with the expansion of the market. There could a pulling effect between exploitation and exploration because exploration involves the utilisation of resources and increase in cost while exploitation shifts focus away from expansion. A consideration of business firms focusing on revenue generation and expansion have experienced greater success more than firms that focused on cost reduction or attempts to balance revenue generation and cost reduction. (Rust, Moorman & Dickson 2002)             As such, business firms need to determine the primary financial target of their quality improvement initiative. However, regardless of the financial objectives of business firms, it is clear that total quality management has strong effects on the reduction of costs or expansion of revenue that supports the overall goal of firms to achieve long-term viability.             Another solution provided by total quality management is the consideration of the importance of customer service and customer demand timing. Total quality management establishes processes and policies intended to guide managers and employees in meeting customer expectations in a consistent manner. This means that the focus is more on the provision of products and services that are driven by quality instead of price in order to enable the firm to develop loyalty among its customers to support the generation of profit in the long-term. Linkages between employees and customers become important in order to continuously derive data on changing demand. Customer information is derived by the firm through the interactions of its employees directly with customers in delivering service and providing after-sales services. (Evans 2004)             Since customer service and demand timing constitute important considerations of total quality management, business firms implementing TQM focus on the continuous improvement of its products and services, eliminate defects, prevent mistakes, and place due importance on the role of front line employees. By focusing on these aspects, business firms should be able to develop strong relationships with consumers for purposes of deriving information on customer demands and feedback to deliver products and services that meet these demands and communicating the value offerings to customers as a competitive strategy. Business firms that are implementing total quality management also focus on the quality of exchanges between the firm and consumers to determine factors such as the extent of responsiveness of customers to products and services improvements, reliability of the product or service delivery performance of the firm, and the assurances provided by front line employees to consumers regarding factors product or service quality as well as firm competencies. (Evans 2004)             In addition, business firms implementing total quality management assign personnel to hold customer support functions and decrease staff positions. When this happens, the firm saves on management cost. Lesser management levels also enable business firms to achieve flexibility, which is necessary in addressing changing consumer demands and emerging market opportunities. (George & Weimerskirch 1998) Hydrapower Dynamics Limited implemented the bubble system that involved the creation of bubble teams that increases or decreases depending on the need as part of its customer support strategy. This allows the firm to always have a team in charge of customer issues but flexible to only include necessary parties and prevent the accrual of undue costs (‘Case study: Hydrapower’ 2008) Through the process of total quality management, business firms are not only able to enhance the value to customers of products or service to ensure customer satisfaction but also allows the business firm to establish direct linkages with customers for the sharing of information needed in strategy building and decision-making. All of these contribute to the achievement of the competitive and viability objectives of the firm.             Another solution provided by total quality management constitutes improvements in the process of problem solving and team building. Problem solving comprises the techniques used in the identification of the causes of problems based on the collected facts. Implementing total quality management involves problem solving competencies and the utilisation of tools such as rational and creative thinking, risk analysis, cause and effect relations, and trend analysis. Problem solving competency is important because this is necessary in business decision-making. (Finlow-Bates, Visser & Finlow-Bates 2000)              Since total quality management is encompassing, this involves the integration of efforts of different individuals requiring team building efforts. Problem solving in the context of team work offers a number of benefits. First is the resolution of complicated problems emerging in instances when the information involved is too complicated for the handling of only a single person in the organisation. Second is the resolution of special or common cause problems by considering the different perspectives of various individuals to have an encompassing understanding of the problem. Third is the lack of need for each individual member of the decision-making team in learning about the technical aspects of the study since each member of the decision-making team can provide technical insight to the other team members. Fourth is the promotion of standards since the members of the deciding team eventually reach a common perspective that ensures consistency and effectiveness. Fifth is the design of problems with indeterminable root causes in order to discover the underlying causes and suggest corrective solutions. (Finlow-Bates, Visser & Finlow-Bates 2000) Hydrapower Dynamics Limited was able to achieve these benefits through its bubble team involved of flexible members moving in or out of the team depending on the nature of the problem and technical expertise needs (‘Case study: Hydrapower’ 2008)             By developing team building competencies in decision-making, total quality management is able to develop the team-based decision-making skills of managers and employees to allow the firm to gain the knowledge and skills needed in developing effective strategies intended to support continuous quality improvement that in turn enable business firms to achieve long-term viability objectives and competitive goals. Conclusion             TQM remains to be an important and timely business philosophy because it promises the achievement of long-term change in the values and culture of the business firm to support long-term strategies that support the achievement of a favourable competitive position by the business firm translating into viability. However, the implementation of TQM based on the experiences of business firms does not always result to success. In fact, the rate of failures in implementing TQM is greater than the rate of success. TQM could involve a number of problems such as the inability to achieve the desired change or the utilisation of resources without experiencing the expected outcomes. The problems experienced by business firms in implementing total quality management emanate from the limited understanding of this business philosophy in terms of its elements and solutions that limit the effective implementation of continuous quality improvement. The application of elements of total quality management could also include problems such as the identification of the appropriate quality measures but these are addressed by understanding TQM as an encompassing process that covers the entire firm and alls systems and processes applied so that quality measures encompass hard and soft factors. In addition, most firms fail to realise that TQM involves a long-term commitment from the firm because it leads to significant results in the long run. By considering these characteristics of TQM, implementation could lead to more successes. 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