Total Quality Management In Mechanical Projects: A Literature Review

Benefits of Total Quality Management in Mechanical Projects

Discuss about the Total Quality Management in Mechanical Engineering Projects.

This report aims at delivering the research on the total quality management in the mechanical projects through collecting information from twelve scholarly papers. Project and management are completely different approach from each other and it is important concern to drive the management effectively for the accomplishment and successful delivery of the project with high quality. Quality is always a concern for the projects despite of the sector of the project and thus, management of the quality should be driven in an effective and efficient manner that can ensure the delivery of the project that can meet the demands and requirements of the stakeholders.

Kerzner and Kerzner (2017) defined the total quality management as a set of practices techniques, tools, critical factors, and components those could be executed for measuring and enhancing the quality of the project. The purpose behind the total quality management is the identification of the factors those should be considered by the project manager in manner to implement them sequentially and deliver the project successfully through implementing total quality management. Basu (2017) explained that how managers can implement the TQM within the project and highlights the beneficial aspects of the TQM during the growth and development of the project. The new market is full of competitions and in this competitive market; it is the most crucial aspect to deliver the project of high quality through delivery of the management activities in sequence wise. According to Lock (2017), there are four major components for the successful delivery of the total quality management those can be listed as: TQM for policy management, TQM for small group activities or from the bottom of the project, cross-functional and functional TQM, and TQM for the cooperating enterprises.

Che and Luo (2014) stated that for any mechanical engineering project, quality management has been always a crucial aspect for the delivery of the high standard project considering the delivery of every objective of the project. It is helpful in keeping the project on track and gain the tangible and intangible benefit of the project without hindering the constraints of the project. According to Erickson (2015), quality management is a successful approach towards delivering the constraints of the project in an efficient and effective manner and accomplishes the objectives, goals, and scope of the project as per the expectations. Traditional approaches have been made on evaluating the quality of the project after the completion of the project however; new practices states the consideration of the project aspects quality should be delivered since from the execution phases starts (Devaux 2015). The project management approaches have introduced various effective techniques those could be applied for enhancing the quality of the projects. Better management and leadership qualities are necessary for the successful implementation of the quality management in manner to add innovative and creative approaches for solving the problems those might affect the project quality and assume all the aspects before the project is completed.

Tools and Techniques for Total Quality Management in Mechanical Projects

The primary phase of the TQM is to implement the planning or pathways for setting the timetable and developing the activities with schedule. This phase includes setup of the activities and jobs necessary for the development of education and training on certain aspects of the project in addition with the policies of the organization. Thereafter, the second phase emphasizes on the selection of the initial quality checking diagnosis, presentations, projects and the feedback. Krogstie, Ebro, and Howard (2015) stated that one of the crucial aspect for the successful delivery of the quality management is the feedback as it ensures and measures the satisfaction level of the stakeholders and deliver the actions based on the determined value. Next phase is the diffusion of the cross-functional and functional quality checking considering the aspects related to the production, design, and marketing (Biffl et al. 2015). This phase can be stated as the crucial objective for the successful deployment as the TQM emphasizes on the cooperation between companies and it has been one of the tough work for the project manager. Yim et al. (2015) claimed that the companies and enterprises follow different strategies and styles on how to deliver the quality management and ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the project delivery.

Various tools and techniques are available for executing the quality management within the project and manage the constraints and output of the project. Fossum et al. (2018) expresses the more efficient tools such as Cause and Effect Diagram, Scatter Diagram, Control Chart, Check Sheet, Histogram, and stratification such as run chart or flow chart. These tools are capable and effective for considering and estimating the effects of the decision being taken in manner to enhance the quality and ensuring successful delivery of the project with high quality. Cause and effect diagram can be suggested as the effective tool for considering the different aspects and responses on the identified applications or changes.

Jadhav, Mantha and Rane (2014) explained that for the gathering of the relevant information about the enhancement of the total quality management, it can be identified as the sequential approaches those could be executed for the improvement in the quality differing as per the type of services and products. The overall goal of the total quality management is to produce the output of the project with zero defects through developing a vitreous cycle contributing in the continuous development of the quality of the project. The project should be capable of accepting the changes in the execution phase and ensuring that proper and effective practices are being delivered for harnessing efficient and effective output of high standard and quality (Jimenez et al. 2015). These techniques allow the manager to record and analyze all the section of the project that is related to the quality of the project and thus, executing the best practice that is capable of enhancing the quality of the project.

Conclusion

Many benefits can be gained through effective deployment of the total quality management within mechanical engineering projects ensuring the delivery of the project within the expectations. Chroneer and Backlund (2015) stated the primary advantages of the total quality management are cost reduction, customer satisfaction, defect reduction, morale and many more. TQM can be applied in these projects for accomplishing the possible benefits and delivering the best output. Whyyte, Stasis and Lindkvist (2016) stated, “When applied consistently over time, TQM can reduce costs throughout an organization, especially in the areas of scrap, rework, field service, and warranty cost reduction.” “The ongoing and proven success of TQM, and in particular the participation of employees in that success can lead to a noticeable improvement in employee morale, which in turn reduces employee turnover, and therefore reduces the cost of hiring and training new employees (Krogstie, Ebro and Howard 2015).”

Practices and activities involved in this section of the project will need proper and effective leadership and management style in manner to effectively apply the creative thinking that can be used to harness high quality output from the project. According to Erikson (2015), training and education is the major crucial aspect for the successful deployment of the quality management. Fossum et al. (2018) claimed that innovation and lack of creativity is a competitive challenge among the leaders and the managers handling the project and proposed it as the crucial aspect for the delivery of the total quality management within mechanical engineering projects. Better approaches and contribution from the leaders and managers are needed for the management of the decentralized quality workforce and securing the security of the employees and staffs at the work place (Yim et al. 2018). Setting up a committee specialized in identifying and measuring the quality of the project can be recommended as the best approach towards delivering an effective quality management.

Conclusion

Based on the above literature review it can be concluded that the total quality management can be an effective solution towards delivering and handover the project at high standards and maintain its quality throughout the project lifecycle. Total quality management is a set of practices those can be helpful in executing the activities and processes those can alternatively reflect on the output of the project. Mechanical engineering projects are of very high concern as that of the selected organization James Martin and Co. it is crucial factor to deliver the project of high standards and better quality.  Mechanical engineering projects are mainly for the local community and thus, considering the economy development, it is very crucial aspect to manage and maintain the quality of the project. The above literature review was effective research on identifying the benefits of the total quality management in mechanical projects. Regular audit and keeping the project change acceptable can be recommended for the mechanical project in manner to assure that the total quality management has been imposed effectively and efficiently.

References

Basu, R., 2017. Managing Quality in Projects. Routledge.

Biffl, S., Maetzler, E., Wimmer, M., Lueder, A. and Schmidt, N., 2015, July. Linking and versioning support for AutomationML: A model-driven engineering perspective. In Industrial Informatics (INDIN), 2015 IEEE 13th International Conference on (pp. 499-506). IEEE.

Chen, L. and Luo, H., 2014. A BIM-based construction quality management model and its applications. Automation in construction, 46, pp.64-73.

Chronéer, D. and Backlund, F., 2015. A Holistic View on Learning in Project?Based Organizations. Project Management Journal, 46(3), pp.61-74.

Devaux, S.A., 2015. Total project control: a practitioner’s guide to managing projects as investments. CRC Press.

Eriksson, P.E., 2015. Partnering in engineering projects: Four dimensions of supply chain integration. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 21(1), pp.38-50.

Fossum, K.R., Danielsen, B.E., Aarseth, W. and Johnsen, S.O., 2018. A project management issue of new technology developments: A case study on lack of human factors’ attention in human–robot interaction. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part O: Journal of Risk and Reliability, 232(2), pp.164-173.

Jiménez, M., Romero, L., Domínguez, M. and del Mar Espinosa, M., 2015. 5S methodology implementation in the laboratories of an industrial engineering university school. Safety science, 78, pp.163-172.

Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Krogstie, L., Ebro, M. and Howard, T.J., 2015. How to implement and apply robust design: insights from industrial practice. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 26(11-12), pp.1387-1405.

Lock, D., 2017. Project management. Routledge.

Jadhav, J., S. Mantha, S. and B. Rane, S., 2014. Exploring barriers in lean implementation. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, 5(2), pp.122-148.

Stark, J., 2015. Product lifecycle management. In Product Lifecycle Management (Volume 1) (pp. 1-29). Springer, Cham.

Whyte, J., Stasis, A. and Lindkvist, C., 2016. Managing change in the delivery of complex projects: Configuration management, asset information and ‘big data’. International Journal of Project Management, 34(2), pp.339-351.

Yim, R., Castaneda, J., Doolen, T., Tumer, I. and Malak, R., 2015. A study of the impact of project classification on project risk indicators. International Journal of Project Management, 33(4), pp.863-876.