TQM class project at AUL University - with Dr. Eddy Labban

1. Dr. Eddy Labban

3.  Implementing TQM is challenging, keeping up
with its momentum is an on going process.
 In implementing TQM, we often look for
benchmarks. One of them is the Malcolm
Baldrige Award Criteria.

4.  It usually takes 3 to 5 years for an
organization (company, subsidiary, division,
or factory) to achieve a high level of total
quality management (TQM) in winning the
Deming Prize in Japan or the Baldrige Award
in U.S. TQM implementation involves four
phases:
 1.Preparation
 2.Introduction
 3.Diffusion
 4.Solidifying

5.  Based on studies of companies that have won
the Deming Prize and the Baldrige Award,
systematic approach that should be
employed in the introduction of TQM, and a
time table for accomplishing TQM goals in a
step-wise fashion.

6.  Conceptually, total quality management
consists of various components:
 1) TQM from the top Hoshin or policy
management,
 2) TQM from the bottom - small group
activities,
 3) functional and cross-functional TQM, and
 4) TQM for cooperating companies.
 The phase-in implementation plan follows
this conceptual framework and develops an
implementation time table

7.  In the preparatory phase, activities center
around education and training, policy setting and
organization.
 The second phase involves the selection Of
projects, presentations, initial QC diagnosis, and
feedback.
 The third phase, diffusion, takes on functional
and cross-functional QC, including marketing,
design, and production. TQM for cooperating
companies becomes critical in this phase.
 In the last phase, the company solidifies the
implementation and makes TQM a way of
corporate life.

8.  A prototype phase-in timetable of 3 years is
developed by specifying month-to-month
activities. Barriers, pitfalls, and problems
encountered in actual cases are discussed
with the view of counteracting these
obstacles. Special emphasis will be on TQM in
small businesses. The most important key to
success - Hoshin Management -- will be
contrasted with Management By Objectives
(MBO) to illustrate the differences in
management styles under TQM. Moreover,
American style TQM will be compared with
Japanese style TQC.

9. A preliminary step in TQM implementation is to
assess the organization’s current reality.
Relevant preconditions have to do with the
organization’s history, its current needs,
precipitating events leading to TQM, and the
existing employee quality of working life. If
the current reality does not include
important preconditions, TQM
implementation should be delayed until the
organization is in a state in which TQM is
likely to succeed.

10.  If an organization has a track record of effective
responsiveness to the environment, and if it has
been able to successfully change the way it
operates when needed, TQM will be easier to
implement.
 If an organization has been historically reactive
and has no skill at improving its operating
systems, there will be both employee skepticism
and a lack of skilled change agents.
 If this condition prevails, a comprehensive
program of management and leadership
development may be instituted. A management
audit is a good assessment tool to identify
current levels of organizational functioning and
areas in need of change.

11.  An organization should be basically healthy
before beginning TQM. If it has significant
problems such as a very unstable funding
base, weak administrative systems, lack of
managerial skill, or poor employee morale,
TQM would not be appropriate.5

12.  However, a certain level of stress is probably
desirable to initiate TQM.
 People need to feel a need for a change.
 Kanter (1983) addresses this phenomenon by
describing building blocks which are present in
effective organizational change.
 These forces include:
 1. Departures from tradition
 2. A crisis or galvanizing event
 3. Strategic decisions
 4. Individual “prime movers”
 5. Action vehicles

13.  Departures from tradition are activities,
usually at lower levels of the organization,
which occur when entrepreneurs move
outside the normal ways of operating to
solve a problem.

14.  A crisis, if it is not too disabling, can also
help create a sense of urgency which can
mobilize people to act. In the case of TQM,
this may be a funding cut or threat, or
demands from consumers or other
stakeholders for improved quality of service.

15.  After a crisis, a leader may intervene
strategically by articulating a new vision of
the future to help the organization deal with
it. A plan to implement TQM may be such a
strategic decision.

16.  Such a leader may then become a prime
mover, who takes charge in championing the
new idea and showing others how it will help
them get where they want to go.

17.  Finally, action vehicles are needed and
mechanisms or structures to enable the
change to occur and become
institutionalized.