Describe about A report on the best method smart pack limited intends to use in implementing total quality management..
With increased competition, companies have to adopt new ways of remaining profitable. Reducing operational costs, increasing customer satisfaction and improving the performance of products in the market are some of the sure ways of remaining competitive in the long term. Recent studies have suggested that all these can be achieved by adopting Total Quality Management (TQM). Different academia has provided different definitions to TQM. According to Dale, TQM is an organisational management approach that encourages the participation of all its members in attaining quality for the long term success of the organisation through customer satisfaction and benefits to all members of the organization and to society. Quality can be defined as the ability of the product to effectively meet the requirements and expectations of the consumer.
With all benefits that different studies have related with adoption of TQM, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have not embraced it as compared to other large organizations. This can be attributed to different factors such as financial constraints, negative attitude towards quality culture and uncommitted management. This report thus aims to present a cost effective framework for the implementation of TQM at Smart Pack Limited.
Benefits of TQM to SMEs
Just like with large companies, in order to remain competitive, SMEs need to urgently adopt TQM (Alaheldin 2009). Some of the benefits Smart Pack Limited should expect from adoption of TQM are,
Product quality and customer satisfaction. TQM will enable Smart Pack to improve the quality of its products due to its insistence on adoption of quality procedures and practices (Hung, et al 2011). This will further enhance product performance and acceptance and lead to customer satisfaction.
Increase in profits due to cost reduction and increased sales. TQM will enable Smart Pack to continually examine processes to remove non- productive and repeated activities thus cutting operational costs (Goh 2000). Quality of the products will also increase leading to an increase in sales.
Compliance with set regulations. Adoption of TQM will enable Smart Pack to easily comply with the set regulations regarding issues such as environmental requirements and health and safety issues since they are all incorporated.
Competitive advantage. With the new technology, foreign and new companies have entered the Australian market increasing competition to levels never seen before. One way to ensure Smart Pack will outdo its competitors is through ensuring customer satisfaction is at the centre of all activities. Nothing does this well than TQM (Ilkay & Aslan 2012).
Leads to beneficial partnerships with other established companies. Many large and established companies are successful as a result of TQM (Valmohammady 2011). They therefore wish to only partner with other organisations that have done the same to ensure their product quality is maintained at all times. Just like with LEGO, TQM will provide more opportunities for Smart Pack to partner with other established companies.
Ensure future survival. Many SMEs in Australia don’t remain in operation for long due to lack of planning for the future. TQM advocates for monitoring and continual improvement (International Organisation for Standardisation 2014). Its implementation will ensure Smart Pack’s survival into the future.
Employee participation. TQM advocates for teamwork and participation. Smart Pack will thus benefit from the employees’ ideas.
Due to the expansive nature of the TQM concept, there are numerous principles and practices advocated for by different professionals. Deming’s approach to TQM stresses the need to continuously work towards the improvement of processes and practices which will lead to improvement in products and services’ quality which are essential in customer satisfaction and company survival. He bases his argument on PDCA strategy. The management takes centre stage in this approach by providing leadership and creating and communicating strategies, policies and objectives necessary for the achievement of the ultimate goal (Deming 1986).
Ishikawas’ approach to TQM advocates for total employee commitment in implementation of TQM. He believed that quality management was not only about the products but also other important factors like after sale services and the quality of the workforce, leadership and the firm involved (Ishikawa 1985). He too stressed the need for education in achieving quality.
Another TQM approach is Feiganbaum’s, who stressed on the adoption of a systems approach to quality by integrating people, machines and information. He stated that the process starts with the identification of consumer needs and goes through different activities like manufacturing, assembling, marketing and transportation until the point where it reaches the consumer and the consumer is satisfied (Feigenbaum 1991). He identified technological and human issues as the two major determinants of quality.
Crosby’s approach identifies knowledge and attention deficiencies as the major causes of mistakes that lead to low quality. He further identifies education and training as the best methods of eliminating education deficiency and personal commitment as the answer to lack of commitment (Crosby 1979). This approach advocates for the use of the zero defects concept in quality management.
Another popular TQM approach is the Juran’s approach popularly known as Juran’s trilogy. In (Juran & Gryna 1993), customer and employee satisfaction, reduced costs and increased revenues are identified as the ultimate goals of TQM. He believed that a lot of quality deficiencies are as a result of failures on the part of management and therefore stressed on the need of commitment by mangers. He also advocated for teamwork as a way of attaining quality because it required all activities of the organisation.
After studying albeit briefly various approaches presented by these scholars together with others not discussed like Shewhart and Taguchi, some of the important principles that Smart Pack ltd will put into consideration when adopting TQM are,
Focus on customer. All the five approaches agree that at the end of the whole process, there is the customer. Quality can only be achieved when there is some level of satisfaction by the customer. Focus should therefore be on the customer and not the company. Needs of the customers will be studied and used as the frame work for deciding product quality.
Continuous improvement. With TQM there is no stopping because need change every day. For Smart Pack to remain in business and be competitive going into the future research and monitoring will need to continuously be done to identify areas that need improvement and activities that need to be stopped as they no longer bring value to the organisation.
Participation and team work. Quality involves all activities of the firm and therefore all employees’ views will be taken. Proper communication channels established to allow for two-way communication between the employees and the management.
Zero defect. Prevention should be used to reduce low quality rather than detecting it at the end. Activities aimed at encouraging and motivating employees to prevent defects will be carried out.
Management commitment. TQM can only succeed if the management is committed to it. The management will need to provide leadership and resources necessary (Zacharia 2011). Further, they will formulate and communicate to employees the organisational policies regarding quality.
Proper implementation of TQM has many benefits as already discussed, yet some SMEs are unable to enjoy such benefits like their larger counterparts (Done et al 2011). Although some challenges are difficult to avoid like SMEs’ inadequate finances, most are purely controllable (Abdullah 2010). Smart Pack Ltd will try to avoid the mistakes that most of these firms’ commit leading to failure. Some of the reasons for failure include,
Lack of management commitment. For TQM to succeed at Smart Pack, the senior management will need to be committed by providing leadership and other necessary resources like finances. They will further be required to develop organisational quality policies and goals and communicate them to employees.
Improper implementation planning. Proper and earlier planning for smooth running of activities will be necessary to ensure activities important activities like training do not collide with other equally important organisational activities.
Resistance to change. Sometimes TQM fail due to the employees’ tendency to reject new ways of doing things. Proper education and training will be provided to ensure the employees understand the benefits of the changes being made.
Lack of genuine organisational quality culture and leadership styles (Idris 2011). Once Smart Pack start implementing TQM, there will be need for a genuine quality culture to be encouraged within the organisation. Actions which prove commitment to quality should be visible. It should not be used only as a PR strategy.
Inadequate training and motivation of the workforce. Unmotivated and uneducated workforce will not embrace the new methods and processes brought by TQM. Employees will need to be trained more on these new ways.
PDCA cycle developed by Shewhart can be used to give a general overview of activities undertaken in the implementation and maintenance of TQM.
Due to the limited resources available in terms of money and man-power, a cost effective framework will be adopted in the implementation process.
The CEO will announce the plan to implement TQM in the organisation and try to explain its benefits to employees. The CEO will also give an overview of what is expected from employees during the implementation process.
The consultant is going to guide the company throughout the implementation process and they directly affect the success of the TQM. Issues like qualification and independence should be considered.
The company will plan how the implementation is going to happen. At this stage, vision statement, mission statement and a quality policy will be set.
It is important in TQM implementation as it shows the management where they are and where they want to be (Nair & Ramachandran 2013). GAP analysis will involve activities like customer and employee surveys. This will be important in knowing their views on the company and its products. Survey questionnaires will be provided with a variety of questions covering different areas like employee motivation. This will take a period of between 2 weeks to 1 month to allow customers time to respond.
TQM trainings will be done by a professional and all employees will participate. This is important in educating them on its importance and their role in the implementation process. Due to the size of Smart Pack limited; the trainings will not take long. Most of the employees will be trained at the same time. Senior management will be trained first followed by middle level managers and then other employees will be trained. This will take approximately 10days.
Documentation and validation of processes and activities is carried out. According to Besterfield et al (2011) documentation covers four major areas,
Documentation process will take approximately 3 days and will be assisted by the expert.
An internal audit on the system will be carried out by the quality committee, guided by the expert and an audit report prepared. The report should contain genuine findings.
The senior management will then meet and go through the audit findings. The recommendations of the report will then be acted upon. If need be the TQM professional will again be sought to assist in implementation of the recommendations.
After TQM has been implemented to completion, an independent external TQM auditor will again be invited to audit the system. Note that the auditor will not be the one who was sought in the implementation process to avoid bias.
Any issues still existing will be solved at this stage. Note that there are other stages that are normally done but due to the size of the firm, this process will be used. It will help reduce cost and time. Implementation does not stop at this point. Regular audits will always be carried out to identify any gaps and corrective measures taken.
Once TQM has been successfully implemented at Smart Pack limited, some positive changes will be observed. Some of these changes are observable while others are measurable and they include,
Conduct survey on customer satisfaction. A survey will be initiated to measure the level of customer satisfaction with the products after the implementation of TQM. The survey should not be conducted immediately after the implementation. Customers should be allowed to feel the difference themselves. Successful implementation should show an increase in the level of satisfaction.
Accreditation to other quality standards. Other standards that deal with quality like the ISO 9001/2008 Quality Management System (QMS) have almost similar implementation method to TQM. Successful implementation of TQM will therefore lead to accreditation to these standards too.
Better communication between the management and the junior employees. Successful implementation of TQM will change the direction of information flow. Communication will not only be about giving instructions from the top to bottom but it will also involve receiving ideas from the bottom to the top.
Documentation of all processes. The ability to trace products back to different stages of production is an indicator of TQM success. So is the existence of observable written processes and procedures of doing different activities and clearly spelt out responsibilities.
Visible quality policies. A quality policy will be formulated and displayed in strategic points within the organisation for the employees to familiarise themselves with it. Some of the places may include company brochures, at the back of staff badges, on a big sign board at the gate, etc.
Employee motivation and participation. An employee survey will be conducted to measure their level of participation and motivation after the implementation of TQM. A questionnaire will be provided to ensure that the survey remains confidential and the identity of the employee is not revealed to allow them give genuine answers. An improvement in level of motivation and participation after implementation will be an indicator of TQM’s success.
Conclusion
Smart pack Ltd needs to adopt this cost effective frame work to fully benefit from TQM without having to spend huge sums of money. Most SMEs have stated inadequate funding as the major reason for not implementing it. Many reports also list only large companies when giving success stories regarding TQM. This has brought out the idea that it is suited for the big firms only. This is far from the truth as quality should be the core of any organisation’s existence regardless of the size. Quality attracts more customers and therefore this is one sure way of remaining competitive even with the increase in competition from foreign firms.
References.
Abdullah, A, 2010, ‘Measuring TQM implementation: a case study of Malaysian SMEs’, Measuring Business Excellence, vol.14, no.3, pp. 3-15.
Alaheldin, I, 2009, ‘Critical success factors for TQM implementation and their impact on performance of SMEs’, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol.58, no.3, pp. 215–237.
Besterfield, H et al 2011, Total Quality Management, Pearson Education, India.
Crosby, B 1979, Quality is free, New American Library, New York.
Douglas, T J. & Judge, W Q, 2001, ‘Total Quality Management implementation and competitive advantage: The role structural control and exploration’, Academy of Management Journal, vol.44, no.1, pp. 158-169.
Feigenbaum, V 1991, Total Quality control engineering and management,McGraw-Hill, New York.
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Goh, L 2000, The implementation of Total Quality Management in small and medium enterprises, Ibberson Centre, Sheffield.
Hung, R Y et al, 2011, ‘Impact of TQM and organizational learning on innovation performance in the high-tech industry’, International Business Review, vol.20, no.2, pp. 213-225.
Idris, F, 2011, ‘Total Quality Management (TQM) and sustainable company performance: Examining the relationship in Malaysia’, International Journal of Business and Society, vol.12, no.1, pp. 31–52.
Ilkay, M S & Aslan, E, 2012, ‘The effect of the ISO 9001 quality management system on the performance of SMEs’, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, vol.29, no.7, pp. 753–778.
International Organisartion for Standardisation 2014, 10 good things for SMEs, ISO Central Secretariat, Geneva.
Ishikawa, K 1985, What is total quality control? The Japanese way, Prentice-Hall, N.J.
Juran, J M 1986, The quality trilogy, Quality Progress no.10. s.l.:s.n.
Nair, S & Ramachandran, A, 2013, ‘Gap analysis for implementing TQM in seafood exporting firms’, International Journal of Management, vol.4, no.4.
Tahir, P R, Mohamad, M R & Hasan, D B, 2011, ‘A short review of factors leading to success of small medium enterprises’, Journal of Contemporary Research on Business, pp. 519-529.
Valmohammady, C, 2011, ‘The impact of TQM implementation on the organizational performance of Iranian manufacturing SMEs’, The TQM Journal, vol.23, no.5, pp. 496–509.
Zacharia, N, 2011, ‘Investigating the role of human resources management practices on performance of SMEs: A conceptual framework’, Journal of Global Management, vol.3, no.1, pp. 74-92.
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