TQM manufacturing techniques pros and cons

Total Quality Management or TQM is a structured approach to organizational management that seeks for quality improvement of products and services through continuous refining from customer feedback. Total Quality Management originated in the manufacturing business but has since been adapted to meet the needs in education, hotel management, and government.

Total Quality Management is divided into four different categories:
1. Plan- people define what the problem is that needs addressing, collect data, and figure out what the root cause of the problem is.
2. Do- in this phase individuals develop and implement a solution to the problem. They then decide how to measure it and gauge the effectiveness of it.
3. Check - Individuals confirm the results through more data comparisons
4. Act- results are documented and others are informed about the changes that will be made. This is also the phase that makes the recommendations for the problems to be addressed in the next cycle.

Total Quality Management seems, in all its form that it would improve any business as it requires an effort by everyone to make things work, but there are some different pros and cons to using total quality management techniques in the manufacturing business, and may or may not be right for yours.

Pros of Total Quality Management in manufacturing
 The main focus of total quality management is continual improvement. It requires the effort of everyone so when policies are put into place, everyone needs to make an effort
 By creating products from the stand point of a consumer, this can only help those developing the product to see what works and what does not. They can then begin fixing and making the corrections as needed.
 Things usually get done right the first time.
 The focus of total quality management is to save the company money in the long run by eliminated possible errors.

Cons of Total Quality Management in manufacturing
 Sometimes with placing all your energies to making things work better, the ones that already are working may get ingnored.
 There is limited creativity in total quality management for developers as they are limited to making and fixing according to what consumers think.
 There is a lot of pressure placed on employees to get things right the first time and not much room for trial and error.
 Perhaps one of the biggest problems with Total quality management and perhaps why so many companies do not want to use the system is because it is not very cost effective in the short run. The idea, and actual implementation may prevent a large recall, but in the mean time there are up front costs associated with it.
 In order to really implement Total quality management the company usually has to stop production in order to make the necessary changes. This creates a problem with sales and deliveries to customers naturally.
 Highly trained professionals are usually needed to come into the factory to test and re-test products which can be very expensive.
 Unless every member of the organization gets involved with the process, then nothing gets done until that happens.

Total Quality management is becoming much more utilized today in the manufacturing business. More so than it ever has been. It can provide great advantages over the competition if it is right for your company. If it isn't right, it can cause you much headache and disadvantage with the competition.

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