This document provides an overview of Total Quality Management (TQM) and some of its key concepts. It discusses that TQM is a management philosophy focused on continuously improving processes and exceeding customer expectations. The document outlines some of the basic concepts of TQM including top management commitment, customer satisfaction, employee involvement, continuous process improvement, and performance measures. It also discusses tools used in TQM like quality improvement teams, benchmarking, and statistical process control.

2. CHAPTER-1
Total Quality Management
Everyone has had experiences of poor quality when dealing with business organizations.
These experiences might involve an airline that has lost a passenger’s luggage, a dry
cleaner that has left clothes wrinkled or stained, poor course offerings and scheduling at
your college, a purchased product that is damaged or broken, or a pizza delivery service
that is often late or delivers the wrong order. The experience of poor quality is
exacerbated when employees of the company either are not empowered to correct quality
inadequacies or do not seem willing to do so. We have all encountered service employees
who do not seem to care. The consequences of such an attitude are lost customers and
opportunities for competitors to take advantage of the market need. Successful companies
understand the powerful impact customer-defined quality can have on business. For this
reason many competitive firms continually increase their quality standards. For example,
both the Ford Motor Company and the Honda Motor Company have recently announced
that they are making customer satisfaction their number one priority. The slow economy
of 2003 impacted sales in the auto industry. Both firms believe that the way to rebound is
through improvements in quality, and each has outlined specific changes to their
operations. Ford is focusing on tightening already strict standards in their production
process and implementing a quality program called Six-Sigma. Honda, on the other hand,
is focused on improving customer-driven product design. Although both firms have been
leaders in implementing high quality standards, they believe that customer satisfaction is
still what matters most. Total quality management, now a well known idea, is a
philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and
processes. The idea is that the quality of products and processes is the responsibility of
everyone who is involved with the development and/or use of the products or services.
TQM involves management, workforce, suppliers, and even customers, in order to meet
or exceed customer expectations. The common TQM practices are cross-functional
product design, process management, supplier quality management, customer
involvement, information and feedback, committed leadership, strategic planning, cross-
functional training, and employee involvement. Six Sigma is a business management
strategy which seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and
removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business
processes. A six sigma process is one in which 99.99966% of the products manufactured
are statistically expected to be free of defects. TQM’s focus is general improvement by
approaching the problem collaboratively and culturally whereas Six Sigma utilizes the
efforts of many departments, generally with a statistical approach. It makes use of
measuring and analyzing data to determine how defects and differences could be
minimized to the level where there are 3.4 defects per million cycles/products. Six Sigma
can easily be integrated into quality management efforts. Integrating Six Sigma into the
TQM program facilitates process improvement through detailed data analysis. Using the
Six Sigma metrics, internal project comparisons facilitate resource allocation while

3. external project comparisons allow for benchmarking. Thus, the application of Six Sigma
makes TQM efforts more successful. In today’s highly competitive environment,
organizations tend to integrate TQM and six sigma to gain maximum benefits. This
volume is an effort to gain insights into new developments in the fields of quality
management and six sigma and comprises of articles authored by renowned professionals
and academics working in the field. Both beginners’ and veterans in the field can learn
useful techniques and ideas from this volume.
Total quality management (TQM) refers to management methods used to enhance quality
and productivity in organizations, particularly businesses. TQM is a comprehensive
system approach that works horizontally across an organization, involving all departments
and employees and extending backward and forward to include both suppliers and
clients/customers.
TQM is only one of many acronyms used to label management systems that focus on
quality. Other acronyms that have been used to describe similar quality management
philosophies and programs include CQI (continuous quality improvement), SQC
(statistical quality control), QFD (quality function deployment), QIDW (quality in daily
work), and TQC (total quality control). Despite the ambiguity of the popularized term
"TQM," that acronym is less important than the substance of the management ideology
that underlies it. TQM provides a framework for implementing effective quality and
productivity initiatives that can increase the profitability and competitiveness of
organizations.
The way of managing organization to achieve excellence.
• Total – everything
• Quality –degree of excellence
• Management– art, act or wayof organizing,controlling,
planning,directingto achieve certaingoals.
TQM may be defined as a continuous quest for excellence by creating the right skills
and attitudes in people to make prevention of defects possible and satisfy
customers/users totally at all times.Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach
to improving the effectivenessand flexibility ofbusiness as a whole. It is essentially a
way of organizing and involving the whole organization; every department, every
activity, every single person at every level.
1.1 Basic Concepts of TQM?
 A committed and involved management to provide long-term top-to
bottom organizational support.
 An unwavering focuses on the customer, both internally and externally.
 Effective involvement and utilization of the entire work force.
 Continuous improvement of the business and production process.
 Treating suppliers as partners.

4.  Establish performance measures for the processes.
1.2 Objectives of TQM
 To develop a conceptual understanding of the basic principles and
methodsassociatedwith TQM;
 To develop an understanding of how these principles and methods have
been putintoeffect in a variety of organizations;
 To develop an understanding of the relationship between TQM principles
and thetheories and models studied in traditional management;
 To do the right things, right the first time, every time.
TQM is an enhancement to the traditional way of doing business. It is the art of
managing the whole to achieve excellence. It is defined both a philosophy and a
set of guiding principles that represent the foundation of a continuously improving
organization. It is the application of quantitative methods and human resources to
improve all the processes within an organization and exceed customer needs now
and in the future. It integrates fundamental management techniques, existing
improvement efforts, and technical tools under a disciplined approach.
Total quality management is management philosophy embracing all activities through
which the needs and expectations of the CUSTOMER and COMMUNITY, and the
objectives of the organization are satisfied in the most efficient and cost effective manner
by maximizing the potential of ALL employees in a continuing drive for improvement.” It
is the optimization and integration of all the functions and processes of a business in order
to provide for excited customers through a process of continuous improvement. The
1990's is the decade of Globalization. In order for companies to be competitive in this
environment they have seen the imperative need for Quality. However through the
decades leading to the 90's there have been many "gurus" who have explicitly underlined
the need for Total Quality Management Systems in companies, but due to many factors
these ideas have either gone unheeded, or been buzz word for a short time. It is possible
that Total Quality Management (TQM), is once again a buzz word and a marketing tool,
but nevertheless it is a tool that is being extensively used in the 90's to help companies
gain and maintain a competitive edge over their rivals. A Disciplined Approach for
Management and Employees to Manage Quality A Methodology for Problem Solving and
Continuous Process Improvement Apply to All Employees in Everything is done
Everyone has a Customer - Both Internal and External Quality Defined is Conformance to
Customer Requirements Objectives of TQM: Process improvement Defect prevention
Priority of effort Developing cause-effect relationships Measuring system capacity
Developing improvement checklist and check forms Helping teams make better decisions
Developing operational definitions Separating trivial from significant needs Observing
behavior changes over a period of time TQM revolves around: Commitment by Senior
Management and all employees Effective strategy, vision, mission and goals Customer/
Supplier relationships Communication Tools and techniques for improvement Team work
Systems to facilitate improvement and most of all TRUST 5 The quality system should

5. apply to and interact with all activities of the organization. It begins with the identification
of requirements and ends with their satisfaction, at every transaction interface. The quality
system must be a practical working document. Look for a document that is well fingered
in use. A useful guide in the operation of any process is: 1. No process without data
collection 2. No data collection without analysis 3. No analysis without decisions 4. No
decisions without actions (which can include doing nothing) This discipline is built into
any good quality system primarily through the audit and review systems. The overriding
requirement is that the systems must reflect the established practices of the organisation,
improved where necessary to bring them into line with current and future requirements. In
implementing a quality system the established national standards such as the BS7850
series can serve as a useful guide and framework. A systematic, functional, quality model
like TQM should be genuinely explored and exploited. Continuous improvements are
probably the most powerful concept to guide management through the achievements of
TQM Continuous improvements are based on systematic, incremental and habitual
improvements of processes rather than on breakthroughs and innovative advances. The
process concentrates on elimination of waste and non-value-added activities through
collective and continuous involvement of all employees. This systematic approach to
quality management requires the following components: Planning the processes and
inputs Providing inputs Operating the processes Evaluating the outputs Examining the
performances of the processes Modifying the processes and their inputs. TQM Tools
Quality Improvement Teams These are small groups of employees who work on solving
specific problems related to quality and productivity, often with stated targets for
improvement. Quality improvement teams are proving to be highly successful at tracking
down the causes of poor quality as well as taking remedial action. Benchmarking This is
the process of identifying the best practices and approaches by comparing productivity in
specific areas within ones' own company to other organisations both within and outside
the industry. 6 Statistical process control This is a statistical technique that uses periodic
random samples taken during actual production to determine whether acceptable quality
levels are being met or whether production should be stopped in order to take remedial
action. Because most processes produce some variation, statistical process control uses
statistical tests to determine when variations fall outside a narrow range around the
acceptable quality level. The emphasis when using SPC is on defect prevention rather
than trying to inspect the quality into the product. COMMITMENT In order for the Eye
on the Future Model to be a success, each member in an organisation must be committed
to the change process. It cannot be viewed as the new flavour of the month, but should
rather be regarded as an exciting life changing process. Too often peoples' enthusiasm
wanes when they realise that the change process in an organisation is not likely to occur
overnight People need to pledge their support to objectively analysing their job functions
and procedures, and seeking new innovative ways to improve them. If necessary
inspirational speakers should be employed to enthuse staff to a new attitude of
commitment. Once again, people are led by example. If it appears that management is not
committed to the change process, this is the attitude the people will develop. However, if
commitment is perceived to be the attitude of management, then the people are most
likely to follow. TRAINING Training must be a part of the organisations succession

6. planning. In today's business environment any training which is less than visionary will
not help the organisation meet its' future goals and objectives. Training objectives must be
supportive of the company's vision and mission. In order to identify training, the
employees must be involved. System deficiencies including non-conformance reports,
customer complaints and job performance appraisals will highlight the most urgent areas
for development. Training programmes must be devised and implemented to help bridge
the gap identified previously. The results of the training must be evaluated to ensure that
effective improvement has been achieved and that employees are competent to use the
skills acquired. Management must promote the need for continuous training, as it will
facilitate the following: 1. Employees will be more confident and motivated in their work
2. Reduce staff turnover 3. Reduce errors 4. Improve productivity 5. Improve the
organisation competitiveness. Training must help each individual in the organisation to
maintain a growing knowledge of their business environment. It must be implemented to
each individual, from the directors to the cleaners.
A well developed and implemented QA system should:
(i) Improve your product and service quality
(ii) Give your customers confidence that their needs will be met.
(iii) Standardise your business by giving it a consistent approach to its operations
(iv) Improve work processes, efficiencies, morale and reduce waste
1.3 TQM Seven Basic Concepts
1.Leadership
2. CustomerSatisfaction
3. Employee Involvement
4. ContinuousProcessImprovement
5. SupplierPartnership
6. Performance Measures
7.Top management commitment
1.4 .Total Quality ManagementCharacteristics of Successful Leadermust possesses:
Top managementmustrealize importance of quality
Qualityisresponsibilityof everybody,butultimateresponsibilityisCEO
InvolvementandcommitmenttoCQI
Qualityexcellence becomespartof businessstrategy
Lead inthe implementationprocess
Give attentiontoexternal andinternal customers
Empower,notcontrol subordinates.Provide resources,training,andworkenvironment
to helpthemdotheirjobs
Emphasize improvementratherthanmaintenance
Emphasize prevention
Encourage collaborationratherthancompetition
Train andcoach, not directand supervise
Learn fromproblems –opportunityforimprovement
Continuallytrytoimprove communications

7. Continuallydemonstratecommitmenttoquality
Choose suppliersonthe basisof quality,notprice
Establishorganisational systemsthatsupportsqualityefforts
1.5.how to bring CustomerSatisfaction
Customerisalwaysright – in Japancustomeris“King”
• Customerexpectationsconstantlychanging–10 yearsago acceptable,now notany
more!
• Delightingcustomers(KanoModel)
• Satisfactionisafunctionof total experience withorganization
• Needtocontinuallyexaminethe qualitysystemsandpracticestobe responsiveto
ever– changingneeds,requirementsandexpectations –RetainandWinnew customers
1.6.Employee Involvement
• People –mostimportantresource/asset
• Qualitycomesfrompeople
• Deming– 15% operatorerrors,85% managementsystem
• Projectteams – Quality Control Circles(QCC),QIT
• Educationand training – life long,continuousbothknowledge andskills
• Suggestionschemes;Kaizen,5Steams
• Motivational programmes,incentive schemes
• Conducive workculture,rightattitude,commitment
1.7. ContinuousProcessImprovement
• Viewall workasprocess – productionandbusiness
• Process – purchasing,design,invoicing,etc.
• Inputs – PROCESS– outputs
• Processimprovement –increasedcustomersatisfaction
• Improvement–5 ways;Reduce resources,Reduce errors,Meetexpectationsof
downstreamcustomers,Make processsafer,make processmore satisfyingtothe person
doing
1.8 SupplierPartnership
• 40% prod.Costcomesfrom purchasedmaterials,thereforesupplierQuality
Managementimportant
• Substantial portionqualityproblemsfromsuppliers
• Needpartnershiptoachieve qualityimprovement –long-termpurchase contract
• SupplierManagementactivities•Define product/programrequirements;1.Evaluate
potential andselectthe bestsuppliers2.Conductjointqualityplanningandexecution3.
Require statistical evidence of quality4.Certifysuppliers,e.g.ISO900, Ford Q1 5.
DevelopandapplySupplierQualityRatings ƒ Defects/Percentnon-conformingƒ Price and
Qualitycosts ƒ DeliveryandService
1.9. Performance Measures
• Managingby fact rather thangut feelings
• Effective managementrequiresmeasuring
• Use a baseline,toidentifypotential projects,toassesresultsfromimprovement

8. • E.g.Productionmeasures –defectspermillion,inventoryturns,on-timedelivery
• Service –billingerrors,sales,activitytimes
• CustomerSatisfaction
• Methodsformeasuring
• Costof poor quality ƒ Internal failureƒ External failure ƒ Preventioncosts ƒ Appraisal
costs
1.10 Pillars of TQM?
1. Problem solving discipline
2. Interpersonal skills
3. Teamwork and
4. Quality improvement process
1.11 Tangible and intangible benefits of TQM.
_ Improved product quality
_ Improved productivity
_ Reduced quality costs
_ Increased market and customers
_ Increased profitability
_ Reduced employee grie vances Intangible Benefits Improved employee
participation
_ Improved teamwork
_ Improved working relationships
_ Improved customer satisfaction
_ Improved communication
_ Enhancement of job interest
_ Enhanced problem-solving capacity
_ Better company image
1.12 Quality
Quality = Performance x Expectations
Quality is defined as being 'the degree of excellence, relative nature or kind or
character; class or grade ofthing determined by this; general excellence'. Quality is
the ability of your product to be able to satisfy your users. Quality is a concept that
should be applied to an organisation as a whole. Quality should be applied to every
process, which the organisation carries out, from getting the raw materials from suppliers,
through every stage of the production cycle or service provisionOver the years a large
amount of organisations have tried surviving in the market place merely on price, but they
have found that this was not enough. Take the example of the UK in the 1970's , the UK
once had a thriving manufacturing industry, in which the products may have been
reasonably priced but the quality was found to be somewhat lacking. During the late
1970's came the far eastern imports such as cars, televisions, radios, videos, etc. These
products were not only comparatively cheaper but they also had a much higher quality

9. standard, the result was a shift away from home grown products to foreign imports. The
economic effects can be seen in the ever increasing UK trade deficit with the rest of the
world, and it's declining manufacturing base.TQM is the integration of all functions
and processes within an organization in order to achieve continuous improvement of
the quality of goods and services. The goal is customer satisfaction. Total Quality
Management is a system of management based on the principle that every member of staff
must be committed to maintaining high standards of work in every aspect of a company's
operations.
There are so many definitions for Quality.
Based on judgments by an individual or organization
Fitness for purpose.
Corresponds to a rating
Based on acceptable performance.
Meeting goals.
Meeting requirements .
The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree
of excellence of something.
A distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something.
Quality is defined as the predictable degree of uniformity and dependability, atlow cost
suited to the market.(Deming).
Quality is defined as fitness for use (Juran).
Quality is defined as conformance to requirements (Crosby).
Quality is totality of the characteristics of entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated
and implied needs(ISO).
1.13 Five Approaches of Defining Quality
Harvard professor David Garvin, in his book Managing Quality summarized five
principal approaches to define quality.
Transcendent
Product based
User based
Manufacturing based
Value based
TQM may be defined as a continuous quest for excellence by creating the right skills
and attitudes in people to make prevention of defects possible and satisfy
customers/users totally at all times.Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach
to improving the effectivenessand flexibility ofbusiness as a whole. It is essentially a

10. way of organizing and involving the whole organization; every department, every
activity, every single person at every level.
Quality assurance (QA) is a broad concept that focuses on the entire quality system
including suppliers and ultimate consumers of the product or service. It includes all
activitiesdesignedtoproduce productsandservicesof appropriate quality.According to
ASQ,QA includesall those plannedorsystematicactionsnecessaryto provide adequate
confidence that a product or service will satisfy given needs. Quality Assurance is the
process that demonstrates your product is able to satisfy your users. When good
Quality Assurance is implemented there should be improvement in usability and
performance and lessening rates of defects . When good Quality Assurance is
implemented there should be improvement in usability and performance and
lessening rates of defects
Quality control (QC) has a narrower focus than quality assurance. Quality control
focusesonthe processof producingthe productor service withthe intentof eliminating
problems that might result in defects.QC includes the operational techniques and the
activitieswhichsustainaquality of product or service that will satisfy given needs; also
the use of such techniques and activities. Quality management is the totality of
functions involved in the determination and achievement of quality (includes quality
assurance and quality control). When good Quality Assurance is implemented there
should be improvement in usability and performance and lessening rates of defects
.
1.14 What is Quality Control?
Quality Control (QC) is the implementation of regular testing procedures against
your definitions of quality and more specifically the refinement of these
procedures
• Formal use of testing
• Acting on the results of your tests
• Requires planning, structured tests,good documentation
• Relates to output - Quality Circle
• Standards - ISO 9000 & BS5750 however there is currently no such
standard for Web sites
1.15 quality system can help in:
 identify problem areas and rectify them quickly

11.  track customer feedback
 improve performance of staff
 with continual improvement
 develop or provide better quality products and services
 force you to communicate more with your staff and customers
 increase sales and profits
 grow your business
 define an appropriate supplier
 protect your business
 standardize processes and procedures
 gain recognition from external bodies
 with obtaining government projects (usually certification is needed here though,
but not always)
 define roles and responsibilities of management and employees- reduce overhead
costs
 and heaps more benefits
1.16 How to bring quality in a organization :
There is no single path to achieving total quality within an organization. There are no
hard and fast rules to follow to become a world class company.
Leadership Commitment
Training
Empowerment and Involvement
Measurement
Recognition and Awards
Communication
Employee Survey
To bring the quality to follow A four-level Model.

12. Level 1. Inspection
Level 2. Quality Control
Level 3. Quality Assurance
Level 4. Total Quality Management
Inspection measure the characteristics of a product and compare them with its
specifications. Quality Control inspection performed by the workers themselves with a
feedback loop to the production line. Quality Assurance set of (implemented) predefined
and systematic activities necessary to give confidence in theprocess quality. Total Quality
Management management centered on quality and based on the participation of
everybody which aims at thecustomer satisfaction and at the improvement of the
company's personnel, of the company and of the society.
To bring the quality first of all any organization should focus on the customer and their
need. organization should understand
1. Who are my customers ?
2. What are their needs ?
3. What is my product or service ?
4. What are my customers' measures or expectations?
5. What is my process for meeting their needs ?
6. Does my product or service meet these needs ?
7. What actions are needed to improve my process ?
1.17 THE EVOLUTION OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
The historical evolutionof Total QualityManagementhastakenplace infourstages.The
can be categorizedasfollows:
1 Qualityinspection
2 Qualitycontrol
3 Qualityassurance
4
Total QualityManagement
The concept of quality has existed for many years, though its meaning has changed and
evolved over time. In the early twentieth century, quality management meant inspecting
products to ensure that they met specifications. In the 1940s, during World War II, quality
became more statistical in nature. Statistical sampling techniques were used to evaluate
quality, and quality control charts were used to monitor the production process. In the
1960s, with the help of so-called “quality gurus,” the concept took on a broader meaning.
Quality began to be viewed as something that encompassed the entire organization, not
only the production process. Since all functions were responsible for product quality and

13. all shared the costs of poor quality, quality was seen as a concept that affected the entire
organization. The meaning of quality for businesses changed dramatically in the late
1970s. Before then quality was still viewed as something that needed to be inspected and
corrected. However, in the 1970s and 1980s many U.S. industries lost market share to
foreign competition. In the auto industry, manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda
became major players. In the consumer goods market, companies such as Toshiba and
Sony led the way. These foreign competitors were producing lower-priced products with
considerably higher quality. To survive, companies had to make major changes in their
quality programs.Many hired consultants and instituted quality training programs for their
employees. A new concept of quality was emerging. One result is that quality began to
have a strategic meaning. Today, successful companies understand that quality provides a
competitive advantage. They put the customer first and define quality as meeting or
exceeding customer expectations. Since the 1970s, competition based on quality has
grown in importance and has generated tremendous interest, concern, and enthusiasm.
Companies in every line of business are focusing on improving quality in order to be
more competitive. In many industries quality excellence has become a standard for doing
business. Companies that do not meet this standard simply will not survive. As you will
see later in the chapter, the importance of quality is demonstrated by national quality
awards and quality certifications that are coveted by businesses. The term used for today’s
new concept of quality is total quality management or TQM. Figure 5-3 presents a
timeline of the old and new concepts of quality. You can see that the old concept is
reactive, designed to correct quality problems after they occur. The new concept is
proactive, designed to build quality into the product and process de- sign. Next, we look
at the individuals who have shaped our understanding of quality. Quality has been
evidentinhumanactivitiesfor as long as we can remember. However the first stage on
this development can be seen in the 1910s when the Ford Motor Company’s ‘T’ Model
car rolledoff the productionline.The companystartedtoemployteamsof inspectors to
compare or test the product with the project standard. This was applied at all stages
covering the production process and delivery, etc. The purpose of the inspection was
that the poor quality product found by the inspectors would be separated from the
acceptable quality product and then would be scrapped, reworked or sold as lower
quality. With further industrial advancement came the second stage of TQM
developmentandqualitywascontrolledthroughsupervisedskills,written specification,
measurement and standardization. During the Second World War, manufacturing
systemsbecame complexandthe qualitybegantobe verifiedbyinspectionsrather than
the workers themselves. Statistical quality control by inspection –the post production
effort to separate the good product from the bad product- was then developed. The
developmentof control chartsand acceptingsamplingmethodsbyShewhartandDodge-
Roming during the period 1924-1931 helped this era to prosper further from the
previousinspectionera.Atthis stage Shewhart introduced the idea that quality control
can helpto distinguishandseparate two types of process variation; firstly the variation
resulting from random causes and secondly the variation resulting from assignable or
special causes.He alsosuggestedthat a process can be made to function predictably by

14. separating the variation due to special causes. Further, he designed a control chart for
monitoring such process control and lower evidence of non-conformance. The third
stage of thisdevelopment,i.e.qualityassurance containsall the previousstagesin order
to provide sufficientconfidence that a product or service will satisfy customers’ needs.
Other activities such as comprehensive quality manuals, use of cost of quality,
development of process control and auditing of quality systems are also developed in
order to progress from quality control to the quality assurance era of Total Quality
Management. At this stage there was also an emphasis of change from detection
activities towards prevention of bad quality. The fourth level, i.e. Total Quality
Management involves the understanding and implementation of quality management
principlesandconceptsineveryaspectof businessactivities.Total Quality Management
demandsthatthe principlesof qualitymanagementmustbe appliedateverylevel,every
stage and in every department of the organization. The idea of Total Quality
Management philosophy must also be enriched by the application of sophisticated
quality management techniques. The process of quality management would also be
beyong the inner organization in order to develop close collaboration with suppliers.
Various characteristics of the different stages in the development of Total Quality
Management can be seen in Table 3.1. Here QI, QC, QA and TQMare abbreviations of
Quality Inspection, Quality Control, Quality Assurance and Total Quality Management.
The development of total quality management from 1950 onwards can be credited to
the works of various American experts. Among them, Dr Edward Deming, Dr Joseph
Juran and Philip Crosby have contributed significantly towards the continuous
development of the subject.
Stage CharacteristicsQI(1910) Salvage SortingCorrective ActionIdentifysourcesof non-
conformance QC (1924) Quality manual Performance data Self-inspection Product
testing Quality planning Use of statistics Paperwork control QA (1950) Third-party
approvalsSystemsauditsQualityplanningQualitymanualsQuality costs Process control
Failure mode and effect analysis Non-production operation TQM(1980) Focused vision
Continuous improvements Internal customer Performance measure Prevention
Company-wide application Interdepartmental barriers.
1- Constancy of purpose; create constancy of purpose for continual improvement of
productand service.2- The newphilosophy:adoptthe new philosophy.We are in a new
economic age, created in Japan.
3- Cease dependenceoninspection:eliminate the need for mass inspection as a way to
achieve quality. 4- End ‘lowest tender’ contracts end the practice of awarding business
solely on the basis of price tag.
5- Improve every process: improve constantly and forever every process for planning,
production and service.

15. 6- Institute training on the job: institute modern methods of training on the job. 7-
Institute leadership: adopt and institute leadership aimed at helping people and
machines to do a better job. 8- Drive out fear: encourage effective two-way
communicationandothermeanstodrive outfearthroughoutthe organization. 9- Break
downbarriers:breakdown barriers between department and staff areas. 10- Eliminate
exhortations: eliminate the use of slogans, posters and exhortations. 11- Eliminate
targets:eliminate workstandardsthatprescribe numerical quotasforthe workforce and
numerical goals for people in management. 12- Permit pride of workmanship: remove
the barriersthat rob hourlyworkers,andpeople inmanagement,of the right to pride of
workmanship. 13- Encourage education: institute a vigorous program of education and
encourage selimprovement for everyone. 14- Top management commitment: clearly
define top management’s permanent commitment to ever-improving quality and
productivity.
At the same time Dr. Joseph Juran (1980) through his teaching was stressing the
customer’s point of view of products’ fitness for use or purpose. According to him a
product could easily meet all the specifications and still may not be fit for use or
purpose. Juran advocated 1’ steps for quality improvements as follows: 1- Build
awarenessof the needandopportunityforimprovement.2- Setgoals for improvement.
3- Organize to reach the goals (establish a quality council, identify problems, select
projects,appointteams,designate facilitators).4- Provide training. 5- Carry out projects
to solve problems 6- Report progress. 7- Gaive recognition 8- Communicate results. 9-
Keepscore.10- Maintainmomentumbymakingannual improvementpartof the regular
systems and processes of the company
1.18 Quality Gurus
 Walter A. Shewhart –Contributed to understanding of process variability.–
Developed concept of statistical control charts.
 W. Edwards Deming –Stressed management’s responsibility for quality.–
Developed “14 Points” to guide companies in quality improvement.
 Joseph M. Juran –Defined quality as “fitness for use.”–Developed concept of
cost of quality.
 Armand V. Feigenbaum –Introduced concept of total quality control.
 Philip B. Crosby –Coined phrase “quality is free.”–Introduced concept of zero
defects.
 Kaoru Ishikawa –Developed cause-and-effect diagrams.–Identified concept of
“internal customer.”
 Genichi Taguchi –Focused on product design quality.–Developed Taguchi loss
function.

16. To fully understand the TQM movement, we need to look at the philosophies of notable
individuals who have shaped the evolution of TQM. Their philosophies and teachings
have contributed to our knowledge and understanding of quality today. Their individual
contributions are summarized in Table 5-2.
TIME: 1900s 1940s
1960s
1980s and Beyond
FOCUS: Inspection Statistical sampling
Organizationalquality focus
Customer driven quality
Old Concept of Quality:Inspect for quality after production. New Concept of
Quality:
Build quality into the
process.
Identify and correct
causes of
quality problems
Walter A. Shewhart Walter A. Shewhart was a statistician at Bell Labs during the
1920s and 1930s. Shewhart studied randomness and recognized that variability existed in
all manufacturing processes. He developed quality control charts that are used to identify
whether the variability in the process is random or due to an assignable cause, such as
poor workers or miscalibrated machinery. He stressed that eliminating variability
improves quality. His work created the foundation for today’s statistical process control,
and he is often referred to as the “grandfather of quality control.”
W. Edwards Deming W. Edwards Deming is often referred to as the “father of quality
control.” He was a statistics professor at New York University in the 1940s. After World
War II he assisted many Japanese companies in improving quality. The Japanese regarded
him so highly that in 1951 they established the Deming Prize, an annual award given to
firms that demonstrate outstanding quality. It was almost 30 years later that American
businesses began adopting Deming’s philosophy. A number of elements of Deming’s
philosophy depart from traditional notions of quality. The first is the role management
should play in a company’s quality. According to Deming (1982), organization problems
lie within the management process and statistical methods can be used to trace the
source of the problem. In order to help the managers to improve the quality of their
organizations he has offered the following 14 management points.
1. Create constancyof purpose towardsimprovementof productandservice withaimto
be competitive,stayinbusinessandprovidejobs.
2. Adopta newphilosophy –neweconomicage,learnresponsibilitiesandtake on
leadershipforfuture change.
3. Cease dependence oninspectiontoachieve quality.Eliminate the needforinspection
on a mass basisbybuildingqualityintoproductinthe firstpalace.
4. End the practice of awardingbusinessonthe basisof price,instead,minimize total
costs.

17. 5. Improve constantlyandforeverthe systemof productionandservice,toimprove
qualityandproductivity,thusdecreasingcosts.
6. Institute trainingonthe job
7. Institute leadership,supervisiontohelpdoa betterjob.
8. Drive outfear,everyone canworkeffectivelyforcompany.
9. Breakdownbarriersbetweendepartments.Workasteamsto foresee production
problems.
10. Eliminate slogans,exhortations,andtargetsforworkforce.
11. Eliminate numerical quotasonthe workforce.
12. Remove barriersthatrobpeople pride of workmanship.
13. Institute avigorousprogramof educationandself-improvement.
14. Puteverybodytoworkto accomplishthe transformation.
improvement effort. Historically, poor quality was blamed on workers—on their lack of
productivity, laziness, or carelessness. However, Deming pointed out that only 15 percent
of quality problems are actually due to worker error. The remaining 85 percent are caused
by processes and systems, including poor management. Deming said that it is up to
management to correct system problems and create an environment that promotes quality
and enables workers to achieve their full potential. He believed that managers should
drive out any fear employees have of identifying quality problems, and that numerical
quotas should be eliminated. Proper methods should be taught, and detecting and
eliminating poor quality should be everyone’s responsibility. Deming outlined his
philosophy on quality in his famous “14 Points.” These points are principles that help
guide companies in achieving quality improvement. The principles are founded on the
idea that upper management must develop a commitment to quality and provide a system
to support this commitment that involves all employees and suppliers. Deming stressed
that quality improvements cannot happen without organizational change that comes from
upper management.
Joseph M.Juran After W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Joseph Juran is considered tohave had
the greatest impact on quality management. Juran originally worked inthe quality program
at Western Electric. He became better known in 1951, after thepublication of his book
Quality Control Handbook. In 1954 he went to Japan towork with manufacturers and
teach classes on quality. Though his philosophy issimilar toDeming’s, there are some
differences. Whereas Deming stressed the need for an organizational “transformation,”
Juran believes that implementing quality initiatives should not require such a dramatic
change and that quality management should be embedded in the organization. One of
Juran’s significant contributions is his focus on the definition of quality and the cost of
quality. Juran is credited with defining quality as fitness for use rather than simply
conformance to specifications. As we have learned in this chapter, defining quality as
fitness for use takes into account customer intentions for use of the product, instead of
only focusing on technical specifications. Juran is also credited with developing the
concept of cost of quality, which allows us to measure quality in dollar terms rather than
on the basis of subjective evaluations. Juran is well known for originating the idea of the
quality trilogy: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement. The first part
of the trilogy, quality planning, is necessary so that companies identify their customers,

18. product requirements, and overriding business goals. Processes should be set up to ensure
that the quality standards can be met. The second part of the trilogy, quality control,
stresses the regular use of statistical control methods to ensure that quality standards are
met and to identify variations from the standards. The third part of the quality trilogy is
quality improvement. According to Juran, quality improvements should be continuous as
well as breakthrough. Together with Deming, Juran stressed that to implement continuous
improvement workers need to have training in proper methods on a regular basis. The
three components of the Juran Trilogy are
i. Planning
ii. Control
iii. Improvement
Accordingto hima product couldeasilymeetall the specificationsandstill maynotbe fit
for use or purpose. Juran advocated 1’ steps for quality improvements as follows:
1 Build awareness of the need and opportunity for improvement.
2 Set goals for improvement.
3 Organize to reach the goals (establish a quality council, identify problems, select
projects, appoint teams, designate facilitators).
4 Provide training.
5 Carry out projects to solve problems
6 Report progress.
7 Gaive recognition
8 Communicate results.
9 Keep score.
10 Maintain
Armand V. Feigenbaum Another quality leader is Armand V. Feigenbaum, who
introduced the concept of total quality control. In his 1961 book Total Quality Control, he
outlined his quality principles in 40 steps. Feigenbaum took a total system approach to
quality. He promoted the idea of a work environment where quality devel opments are
integrated throughout the entire organization, where management and employees have a
total commitment to improve quality, and people learn from each other’s successes. This
philosophy was adapted by the Japanese and termed “company-wide quality control.”
Phillip B. Crosby Philip B. Crosby is another recognized guru in the area of TQM. He
worked in the area of quality for many years, first at Martin Marietta and then, inthe
1970s, as the vice president for quality at ITT. He developed the phrase “Do it right the
first time” and the notion of zero defects, arguing that no amount of defects should be
considered acceptable. He scorned the idea that a small number of defects is a normal part
of the operating process because systems and workers are imperfect. Instead, he stressed
the idea of prevention. To promote his concepts, Crosby wrote a book titled Quality Is
Free, which was published in 1979. He became famous for coining the phrase “quality is
free” and for pointing out the many costs of quality, which include not only the costs of
wasted labor, equipment time, scrap, rework, and lost sales, but also organizational costs
that are hard to quantify. Crosby stressed that efforts to improve quality more than pay for
themselves because these costs are prevented. Therefore, quality is free. Like Deming and

19. Juran, Crosby stressed the role of management in the quality improvement effort and the
use of statistical control tools in measuring and monitoring quality.
Kaoru Ishikawa Kaoru Ishikawa is best known for the development of quality tools
called cause-and-effect diagrams, also called fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams. These
diagrams are used for quality problem solving, and we will look at them in detail later in
the chapter. He was the first quality guru to emphasize the importance of the “internal
customer,” the next person in the production process. He was also one of the first to stress
the importance of total company quality control, rather than just focusing on products and
services. Dr. Ishikawa believed that everyone in the company needed to be united with a
shared vision and a common goal. He stressed that quality initiatives should be pursued at
every level of the organization and that all employees should be involved. Dr. Ishikawa
was a proponent of implementation of quality circles, which are small teams of employees
that volunteer to solve quality problems. Genichi
Taguchi Dr. Genichi Taguchi is a Japanese quality expert known for his work in the area
of product design. He estimates that as much as 80 percent of all defective items are
caused by poor product design. Taguchi stresses that companies should focus their quality
efforts on the design stage, as it is much cheaper and easierto make changes during the
product design stage than later during the production process. Taguchi is known for
applying a concept called design of experiment to product design. This method is an
engineering approach that is based on developing robust design, a design that results in
products that can perform over a wide range of conditions. Taguchi’s philosophy is based
on the idea that it is easier to design a product that can perform over a wide range of
environmental conditions than it is to control the environmental conditions. Taguchi has
also had a large impact on today’s view of the costs of quality. He pointed out that the
traditional view of costs of conformance to specifications is incorrect, and proposed a
different way to look at these costs. Let’s briefly look at Dr. Taguchi’s view of quality
costs. Recall that conformance to specification specifies a target value for the product
with specified tolerances, say 5.00 _ 0.20. According to the traditional view of
conformance to specifications, losses in terms of cost occur if the product dimensions fall
outside of the specified limits. This is shown in Figure 5-4. However, Dr. Taguchi noted
that from the customer’s view there is little difference whether a product falls just outside
or just inside the control limits. He pointed out that there is a much greater difference in
the quality of the product between making the target and being near the control limit. He
also stated that the smaller the variation around the target, the better the quality. Based on
this he proposed the following: as conformance values move away from the target, loss
increases as a quadratic function. This is called the
Taguchi loss function and is shown in Figure 5-5. According to the function, smaller
differences from the target result in smaller costs: the larger the differences, the larger the
cost. The Taguchi loss function has had a significant impact in changing the view of
quality cost. What characterizes TQM is the focus on identifying root causes of quality
problems and correcting them at the source, as opposed to inspecting the product after it

20. has been made. Not only does TQM encompass the entire organization, but it stresses that
quality is customer driven. TQM attempts to embed quality in every aspect of the
organization. It is concerned with technical aspects of quality as well as the involvement
of people in quality, such as customers, company employees, and suppliers.
1.19 TQM AWARDS
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA)
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was established in 1987, when Congress
passed the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act. The award is named after
the former Secretary of Commerce,Malcolm Baldrige, and is intended to reward and stimulate
quality initiatives. It is designed to recognize companies that establish and demonstrate high
quality standards. The award is given to no more than two companies in each of three
categories: manufacturing, service, and small business. Past winners include Motorola
Corporation, Xerox, FedEx, 3M, IBM, and the Ritz-Carlton. To compete for the Baldrige
Award, companies must submit a lengthy application, which is followed by an initial
screening. Companies that pass this screening move to the next step, in which they undergo a
rigorous evaluation process conducted by certified Baldrige examiners. The examiners
conduct site visits and examine numerous company documents. They base their evaluation on
seven categories, which are shown in Figure 5-11. Let’s look at each category in more detail.
The first category is leadership. Examiners consider commitment by top management, their
effort to create an organizational climate devoted to quality, and their active involvement in
promoting quality. They also consider the firm’s orientation toward meeting customer needs
and desires, as well as those of the community and society as a whole. The second category is
strategic planning. The examiners look for a strategic plan that has high quality goals and
specific methods for implementation. The next category, customer and market focus,
addresses how the company collects market and customer information. Successful companies
should use a variety of tools toward this end, such as market surveys and focus groups. The
company then needs to demonstrate how it acts on this information. The fourth category is
information and analysis. Examiners evaluate how the company obtains data and how it acts
on the information. The company needs to demonstrate how the information is shared within
the company as well as with other parties, such as suppliers and customers. The fifth and sixth
categories deal with management of human resources and management of processes,
respectively. These two categories together address the issues of people and process. Human
resource focus addresses issues of employee involvement. This entails continuous
improvement programs, employee training, and functioning of teams. Employee involvement
is considered a critical element of quality. Similarly, process management involves
documentation of processes, use of tools for quality improvement such as statistical process
control, and the degree of process integration within the organization. The last Baldrige
category receives the highest points and deals with business results. Numerous measures of
performance are considered, from percentage of defective items to financial and marketing
measures. Companies need to demonstrate progressive improvement in these measures over
time, not only a one-time improvement. The Baldrige criteria have evolved from simple award
criteria to a general framework for quality evaluation. Many companies use these criteria to

21. evaluate their own performance and set quality targets even if they are not planning to
formally compete for the award.
The Deming Prize
The Deming Prize is a Japanese award given to companies to recognize their efforts in quality
improvement. The award is named after W. Edwards Deming, who visited Japan after World
War II upon the request of Japanese industrial leaders and engineers. While there, he gave a
series of lectures on quality. The Japanese considered him such an important quality guru that
they named the quality award after him. The award has been given by the Union of Japanese
Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) since 1951. Competition for the Deming Prize was opened to
foreign companies in 1984. In 1989 Florida Power & Light was the first U.S. company to
receive the award.
ISO 9000 Standards
Increases in international trade during the 1980s created a need for the development of
universal standards of quality. Universal standards were seen as necessary in order for
companies to be able to objectively document their quality practices around the world. Then in
1987 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published its first set of
standards for quality management called ISO 9000. The International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) is an international organization whose purpose is to establish agreement
on international quality standards. It currently has members from 91 countries, including the
United States. To develop and promote international quality standards, ISO 9000 has been
created. ISO 9000 consists of a set of standards and a certification process for companies. By
receiving ISO 9000 certification, companies demonstrate that they have met the standards
specified by the ISO. The standards are applicable to all types of companies and have gained
global acceptance. In many industries ISO certification has become a requirement for doing
business. Also, ISO 9000 standards have been adopted by the European Community as a
standard for companies doing business in Europe. In December 2000 the first major changes
to ISO 9000 were made, introducing the following three new standards:
• ISO 9000:2000–Quality Management Systems–Fundamentals and Standards: Provides the
terminology and definitions used in the standards. It is the starting point for understanding the
system of standards.
• ISO 9001:2000–Quality Management Systems–Requirements: This is the standard used for
the certification of a firm’s quality management system. It is used to demonstrate the
conformity of quality management systems to meet customer requirements.
• ISO 9004:2000–Quality Management Systems–Guidelines for Performance: Provides
guidelines for establishing a quality management system. It focuses not only on meeting
customer requirements but also on improving performance. These three standards are the most
widely used and apply to the majority of companies. However, ten more published standards
and guidelines exist as part of the ISO 9000 family of standards. To receive ISO certification,
a company must provide extensive documentation of its quality processes. This includes
methods used to monitor quality, methods and frequency of worker training, job descriptions,
inspection programs, and statistical process-control tools used. High-quality documentation of

22. all processes is critical. The company is then audited by an ISO 9000 registrar who visits the
facility to make sure the company has a well-documented quality management system and that
the process meets the standards. If the registrar finds that all is in order, certification is
received. Once a company is certified, it is registered in an ISO directory that lists certified
companies. The entire process can take 18 to 24 months and can cost anywhere from $10,000
to $30,000. Companies have to be recertified by ISO every three years. One of the short
comings of ISO certification is that it focuses only on the process used and conformance to
specifications. In contrast to the Baldrige criteria, ISO certification does not address questions
about the product itself and whether it meets customer and market requirements. Today there
are over 40,000 companies that are ISO certified. In fact, certification has become a
requirement for conducting business in many industries.
ISO 14000 Standards
The need for standardization of quality created an impetus for the development of other
standards. In 1996 the International Standards Organization introduced standards for
evaluating a company’s environmental responsibility. These standards, termed ISO 14000,
focus on three major areas:
• Management systems standards measure systems development and integration of
environmental responsibility into the overall business.
• Operations standards include the measurement of consumption of natural resources and
energy.
• Environmental systems standards measure emissions, effluents, and other waste systems.
With greater interest in green manufacturing and more awareness of environmental concerns,
ISO 14000 may become an important set of standards for promoting environmental
responsibility.
1.20 WHY TQM EFFORTS FAIL
In this chapter we have discussed the meaning of TQM and the great benefits that can be
attained through its implementation. Yet there are still many companies that attempt a variety
of quality improvement efforts and find that they have not achieved any or most of the
expected outcomes. The most important factor in the success or failure of TQM efforts is the
genuineness of the organization’s commitment. Often companies look at TQM as another
business change that must be implemented due to market pressure without really changing the
values of their organization. Recall that TQM is a complete philosophy that has to be
embraced with true belief, not mere lip service. Looking at TQM as a short-term financial
investment is a sure recipe for failure. Another mistake is the view that the responsibility for
quality and elimination ofwaste lies with employees other than top management. It is a “let the
workers do it” mentality. A third common mistake is over- or under- reliance on statistical
processcontrol (SPC) methods. SPC is not a substitute for continuous improvement,
teamwork, and a change in the organization’s belief system. However, SPC is a necessary tool
for identifying quality problems. Some common causes for TQM failure are
• Lack of a genuine quality culture

23. • Lack of top management support and commitment
Over- and under-reliance on statistical process control (SPC) methods Companies that have
attained the benefits of TQM have created a quality culture. These companies have developed
processes for identifying customer-defined quality. In addition, they have a systematic method
for listening to their customers, collecting and analyzing data pertaining to customer problems,
and making changes based on customer feedback. You can see that in these companies there is
a systematic process for prioritizing the customer needs that encompass the entire
organization.
As we have seen, total quality management has impacts on every aspect of the organization.
Every person and
every function is responsible for quality and is affected by poor quality. For example, recall
that Motorola
implemented its six-sigma concept not only in the production process but also in the
accounting, finance,and administrative areas. Similarly, ISO 9000 standards do not apply only
to the production process; they apply equally to all departments of the company. A company
cannot achieve high quality if its accounting is inaccurate or the marketing department is not
working closely with customers. TQM requires the close cooperation of different functions in
order to be successful. In this section we look at the involvement of these other functions in
TQM.
1.21 TQM in industrial use
Marketing plays a critical role in the TQM process by providing key inputs that make TQM
a success. Recall that the goal of TQM is to satisfy customer needs by producing the exact
product that customers want. Marketing’s role is to understand the changing needs and wants
of customers by working closely with them. This requires a solid identification of target
markets and an understanding of whom the product is intended for. Sometimes apparently
small differences in product features can result in large differences in customer appeal.
Marketing needs to accurately pass customer information along to operations, and operations
needs to include marketing in any planned product changes.
Finance is another major participant in the TQM process because of the great cost
consequences of poor
quality. General definitions of quality need to be translated into specific dollar terms. This
serves as a baseline for monitoring the financial impact of quality efforts and can be a great
motivator. Recall the four costs of
quality discussed earlier. The first two costs, prevention and appraisal, are preventive costs;
they are intended to prevent internal and external failure costs. Not investing enough in
preventive costs can result in failure
costs, which can hurt the company. On the other hand, investing too much in preventive costs
may not yield added benefits. Financial analysis of these costs is critical. You can see that
finance plays a large role in evaluating and monitoring the financial impact of managing the
quality process. This includes costs related to preventingand eliminating defects, training
employees, reviewing new products, and all other quality efforts.
Accounting is important in the TQM process becauseof the need for exact costing. TQM
efforts cannotbe accurately monitored and their financial contribution assessed if the company
does not have accurate costing methods.

24. Engineering efforts are critical in TQM because of the need to properly translate customer
requirements
into specific engineering terms. Recall the process we followed in developing quality function
deployment (QFD). It was not easy to translate a customer requirement such as “a good
looking backpack” into specific terms such as materials, weight, color grade, size, and number
of zippers. We depend on engineering to use general customer requirements in developing
technical specifications, identifying specific parts and materials needed, and identifying
equipment that should be used.
Purchasing is another important part of the TQM process. Whereas marketing is busy
identifying what the customers want and engineering is busy translating that information into
technical specifications, purchasing is responsible for acquiring the materials needed to make
the product. Purchasing must locate sources of supply, ensure that the parts and materials
needed are of sufficiently high quality, and negotiate a purchase price that meets the
company’s budget as identified by finance.
Human resources is critical to the effort to hire employees with the skills necessary to work
in a TQM environment. That environment includes a high degree of teamwork, cooperation,
dedication, and customer commitment. Human resources is also faced with challenges relating
to reward and incentive systems. Rewards and incentives are different in TQM from those
found in traditional environments that focus on rewarding individuals rather than teams.
Information systems (IS) is highly important in TQM because of the increased need for
information
accessible to teams throughout the organization. IS should work closely with a company’s
TQM development program in order to understand exactly the type of information system best
suited for the firm, including the form of the data, the summary statistics available, and the
frequency of updating. Implementing total quality management requires broad and sweeping
changes throughout a company. It also affects all other decisions within operations
management. The decision to implement total quality management concepts throughout the
company is strategic in nature. It sets the direction for the firm and the level of commitment.
For example, some companies may choose to directly compete on quality, whereas others may
just want to be as good as the competition. It is operations strategy that then dictates how all
other areas of operations management will support this commitment. The decision to
implement TQM affects areas such as product design, which needs to incorporate customer-
defined quality. Processes are then redesigned in order to produce products with higher quality
standards. Job design is affected, as workers need to be trained in quality tools and become
responsible for rooting out quality problems. Also, supply chain management is affected as
our commitment to quality translates into partnering with suppliers. As you can see, virtually
every aspect of the operations function must change to support the commitment toward total
quality management.
Quality Function Deployment
‘Quality Function Deployment’ meaning within the context of QFD.
• Quality - Meeting Customer Requirements
• Function - What Must Be Done - Focusing the
attention

25. • Deployment - Who Will Do It.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a structured approach to defining
customer needs or requirements and translating them into specific plans to
produce products to meet those needs
"Time was when a man could order a pair of shoes directly from the cobbler. By
measuring the foot himself and personally handling all aspects of manufacturing,
the cobbler could assure the customer would be satisfied," .QFD was developed in
Japan in the late 1960s by Professors Shigeru Mizuno and Yoji Akao. At the
time, statistical quality control, which was introduced after World War II, had
taken roots in the Japanese manufacturing industry. QFD is an approach to
continual improvement that brings customers into the design of processes. It
translates what the customer wants into what the organization produces.
Developed in Japan in the mid 1960s
Introduced in USA in the late 1980s
Toyota was able to reduce 60% of cost to bring a new car model to market
Toyota decreased 1/3 of its development time
Used in cross functional teams
Companies feel it increased customer satisfaction
Should be employed at the beginning of every project (original or redesign)
Customer requirements should be translated into measurable design targets
It can be applied to the entire problem or any subproblem
First worry about what needs to be designed then how
It takes time to complete
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a management tool that provides a visual
connective process to help teams focus on the needs of the customers throughout
the total development cycle of a product or process. It provides the means for
translating customer needs into appropriate technical requirements for each stage
of a product/process-development life-cycle. It helps to develop more customer-
oriented, higher-quality products. While the structure provided by QFD can be

26. significantly beneficial, it is not a simple tool to use. This article outlines how
techniques such as fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, and the Taguchi method
can be combined with QFD to resolve some of its drawbacks, and proposes a
synergy between QFD and the three methods and techniques reviewed.
Why use QFD?
Once a team has identified the customers' wants, QFD is used for two fundamental
reasons:
To improve the communication of customer wants throughout the organization.
To improve the completeness of specifications and to make them traceable
directly to customer wants and needs.
QFD means
QFD links the needs of the customer (end user) with design, development,
engineering, manufacturing, and service functions.
QFD empowers organizations to exceed normal expectations and provide a level
of unanticipated excitement that generates value.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematic process for motivating a
business to focus on its customers.
It is used by cross-functional teams
to identify and resolve issues involve in providing products, processes, services
and strategies which will more than satisfy their customers.
What is QFD?
 Understanding Customer Requirements
 Quality Systems Thinking + Psychology + Knowledge
 Maximizing Positive Quality That Adds Value
 Comprehensive Quality System for Customer Satisfaction
 Strategy to Stay Ahead of The Game

27. A QFD team identified the following customer groups
 Users who are mainly concerned with functionality.
 Management who is mainly concerned with financial and strategic
issues.
 Distribution and Purchasing Agents who are concerned with purchase
transaction and availability issues.
 Internal workers who are concerned with how the product will affect
the quality of their work life.
What should we use to prioritize Requirements?
Importance to the Customer
Our Current Product
Competitor One
Competitor Two
Our Future Product
Improvement Factor
Overall Importance
Percent Importance
How does QFD differ from other quality initiatives?
QFD is quite different in that it seeks out both "spoken" and "unspoken" customer
requirements and maximizes "positive" quality (such as ease of use, fun, luxury)
that creates value.
What are the characteristics of QFD as a quality system?
QFD is a quality system that implements elements of Systems Thinking and
Psychology of customer needs, what, and how end users become interested.
QFD is a quality method of good Knowledge.
QFD is a quality system for strategic competitiveness.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is the only comprehensive quality
system that satisfy the customer throughout the development and business

28. process -- end to end.
What are the tools of QFD?
7 Management and Planning Tools
Which industry and business are using QFD?
QFD has been applied in virtually every industry and business, from aerospace,
manufacturing, software, communication, IT, chemical and pharmaceutical,
transportation, defense, government, R&D, food to service industry
What are "expected quality" and "exciting quality?"
"Expected" quality or requirements are essentially basic functions or features
that customers normally expect of a product or service.
"Exciting" quality or requirements are sort of "out of ordinary" functions or
features of a product or service that cause "wow" reactions in customers.
What is the House of Quality? Why it isn't a QFD?
The House of Quality is an assembly of several deployment hierarchies and tables,
including the Demanded Quality Hierarchy, Quality Characteristics Hierarchy, the
relationships matrix, the Quality Planning Table, and Design Planning Table. It is
a table that connects dots between the Voice of the Customer and the Voice of the
Engine
BENEFITS OF QFD
Improves Customer Satisfaction
Reduces Development Time
Improves Team Work
Reduces Cost
Quick New Product Release
Documentation
Critical Quality Features

29. Right Technology
Customer Driven
Reduces Implementation Time
Promotes Teamwork
Provides Documentation
Creates Focus On Customer Requirements
Uses Competitive Information Effectively
Prioritizes Resources
Identifies Items That Can Be Acted On
Structures Resident Experience/Information
Decreases Midstream Design Change
Limits Post Introduction Problems
Avoids Future Development Redundancies
Identifies Future Application Opportunities
Surfaces Missing Assumptions
Based On Consensus
Creates Communication At Interfaces
Identifies Actions At Interfaces
Creates Global View-Out Of Details
Documents Rationale For Design
Is Easy To Assimilate
Adds Structure To The Information
Adapts To Changes (Living Document)
Provides Framework For Sensitivity Analysis
QFD: An 8-step Process
1 Product planning - voice of the custome
2 Prioritise and weight the voices of the customer
3 Competitive evaluation (Benchmarking)
4 Design process - what capabilities do we have?
5 Design - how do our capabilities match the customers’ needs?

30. 6 Design - what trade-offs do we make in design?
7 Process planning - key processes identified from the planning matrix
8 Process control - output from step

QFD yields the following benefits to organizations that are interested in continual
improvement:
Customer focus
Time efficiency
Teamwork orientation
Documentation orientation
Customer information falls into two broad categories: input and feedback.
Feedback is given after the fact; input is given before the fact (early in the product
development cycle). Both types of information can be further classified according
to the following categories:
 Solicited
 Unsolicited
 Quantitative
 Qualitative
 Structured
 Random.
The "voice of the customer" is the term to describe these stated and
unstated customer needs or requirements. The voice of the customer is
captured in a variety of ways: direct discussion or interviews, surveys,
focus groups, customer specifications, observation, warranty data, field

31. reports, etc. This understanding of the customer needs is then summarized
in a product planning matrix or "house of quality". These matrices are used
to translate higher level "what's" or needs into lower level "how's" -
product requirements or technical characteristics to satisfy these needs.
While the Quality Function Deployment matrices are a good
communication tool at each step in the process, the matrices are the means
and not the end. The real value is in the process of communicating and
decision-making with QFD. QFD is oriented toward involving a team of
people representing the various functional departments that have
involvement in product development: Marketing, Design Engineering,
Quality Assurance, Manufacturing/ Manufacturing Engineering, Test
Engineering, Finance, Product Support, etc.
QFD is Customer Driven
 Creates Focus On Customer Requirements
 Uses Competitive Information Effectively
 Prioritizes Resources
 Identifies Items That Can Be Acted On
 Structures Resident Experience/Information
Why….?
 Product should be designed to reflect customers’ desires and tastes.
 House of Quality is a kind of a conceptual map that provides the means
for interfunctional planning and communications
 To understand what customers mean by quality and how to achieve it
from an engineering perspective.
 HQ is a tool to focus the product development process
Customer Focused Development with QFD
 Quality must be designed into the product, not inspected into it.

32.  Quality can be defined as meeting customer needs and providing superior
value.
 This focus on satisfying the customer's needs places an emphasis on
techniques such as Quality Function Deployment to help understand those
needs and plan a product to provide superior value
Capturing the “Voice of the Customer” with QFD
 Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a structured approach to defining
customer needs or requirements and translating them into specific plans to
produce products to meet those needs.
 The "voice of the customer" is the term to describe these stated and
unstated customer needs or requirements.
 The voice of the customer is captured in a variety of ways: direct
discussion or interviews, surveys, focus groups, customer specifications,
observation, warranty data, field reports, etc.
 This understanding of the customer needs is then summarized in a product
planning matrix or "house of quality".
 These matrices are used to translate higher level "what's" or needs into
lower level "how's" - product requirements or technical characteristics to
satisfy these needs.
 While the Quality Function Deployment matrices are a good
communication tool at each step in the process, the matrices are the means

33. and not the end. The real value is in the process of communicating and
decision-making with QFD.
 QFD is oriented toward involving a team of people representing the
various functional departments that have involvement in product
development: Marketing, Design Engineering, Quality Assurance,
Manufacturing/ Manufacturing Engineering, Test Engineering, Finance,
Product Support, etc.
 It is important to remember that there is no one monolithic voice of the
customer.
 Customer voices are diverse. In consumer markets, there are a variety of
different needs.
 Even within one buying unit, there are multiple customer voices (e.g.,
children versus parents).
 There are even multiple customer voices within a single organization: the
voice of the procuring organization, the voice of the user, and the voice of
the supporting or maintenance organization.
 Quality Function Deployment requires that the basic customer needs are
identified.
 Frequently, customers will try to express their needs in terms of "how" the
need can be satisfied and not in terms of "what" the need is.
 This limits consideration of development alternatives. Development and
marketing personnel should ask "why" until they truly understand what the
root need is.
 Breakdown general requirements into more specific requirements by
probing what is needed

34.  Once customer needs are identified, preparation of the product planning
matrix or "house of quality" can begin.
 Customer needs or requirements are stated on the left side of the matrix
 These are organized by category based on the affinity diagrams
Step 1 - Address Unspoken Needs
Address the unspoken needs (assumed and excitement capabilities).
If the number of needs or requirements exceeds twenty to thirty items,
decompose the matrix into smaller modules or subsystems to reduce
the number of requirements in a matrix.
For each need or requirement, state the customer priorities using a 1 to
5 rating. Use ranking techniques and paired comparisons to develop
priorities
Step 2a - Assess Prior Generation Products
 Evaluate prior generation products against competitive products. Use
surveys, customer meetings or focus groups/clinics to obtain feedback.

35.  Include competitor's customers to get a balanced perspective. Identify price
points and market segments for products under evaluation. Identify
warranty, service, reliability, and customer complaint problems to identify
areas of improvement.
 Based on this, develop a product strategy.

36. Step 2b - Develop Product Strategy
 Consider the current strengths and weaknesses relative to the competition?
 How do these strengths and weaknesses compare to the customer
priorities?

37.  Where does the gap need to be closed and how can this be done - copying
the competition or using a new approach or technology?
 Identify opportunities for breakthrough's to exceed competitor's
capabilities, areas for improvement to equal competitors capabilities, and
areas where no improvement will be made.
 This strategy is important to focus development efforts where they will
have the greatest payoff.
 Step 3 - Establish Requirements
 Establish product requirements or technical characteristics to respond to
customer requirements and organize into related categories.
 Characteristics should be meaningful, measurable, and global.
 Characteristics should be stated in a way to avoid implying a particular
technical solution so as not to constrain designers
 Step 4 - Assess Requirements
 Develop relationships between customer requirements and product
requirements or technical characteristics.
 Use symbols for strong, medium and weak relationships.
 Be sparing with the strong relationship symbol.
 Have all customer needs or requirement been addressed?
 Are there product requirements or technical characteristics stated that don't
relate to customer needs?
 Step 5 - Look at what’s been done before.
 Develop a technical evaluation of prior generation products and
competitive products.
 Get access to competitive products to perform product or technical
benchmarking.
 Perform this evaluation based on the defined product requirements or
technical characteristics.
 Obtain other relevant data such as warranty or service repair occurrences
and costs and consider this data in the technical evaluation.

38.  Step 6 - Preliminary Target Values
Develop preliminary target values for product requirements or technical
characteristics.
Step 7 – Interactions
Determine potential positive and negative interactions between product
requirements or technical characteristics using symbols for strong or medium,
positive or negative relationships.
Too many positive interactions suggest potential redundancy in "the critical few"
product requirements or technical characteristics.
Focus on negative interactions - consider product concepts or technology to
overcome these potential tradeoff's or consider the tradeoff's in establishing target
values.
Step 8 - Importance Ratings
Calculate importance ratings. Assign a weighting factor to relationship symbols
(9-3-1, 4-2-1, or 5-3-1).
Multiply the customer importance rating by the weighting factor in each box of
the matrix and add the resulting products in each column.
Develop a difficulty rating (1 to 5 point scale, five being very difficult and risky)
for each
Step 9 - Difficulty Ratings
Develop a difficulty rating (1 to 5 point scale,five being very difficult and risky) for
each product requirement or technical characteristic.
Consider technology maturity, personnel technical qualifications, business risk,
manufacturing capability, supplier/subcontractor capability, cost,and schedule.
Avoid too many difficult/high risk items as this will likely delay development and
exceed budgets.
Assess whether the difficult items can be accomplished within the project budget and
schedule.
Step 10 - Analyze the Matrix
Analyze the matrix and finalize the product development strategy and product plans.
Determine required actions and areas of focus.
Finalize target values. Are target values properly set to reflect appropriate tradeoff's?
Do target values need to be adjusted considering the difficulty rating?
Are they realistic with respect to the price points, available technology, and the difficulty
rating?
Are they reasonable with respect to the importance ratings?
Determine items for further QFD deployment.
To maintain focus on "the critical few", less significant items may be ignored with the

39. subsequent QFD matrices.
Maintain the product planning matrix as customer requirements or conditions change.
Features of QFD
The basis of QFD is customer requirements. The customer's requirements dictate
various business functions like production, manufacturing marketing and sales.
The essence of QFD is first to break down the product into parameters that will be
viewed by potential customers as most beneficial, influencing them to purchase.
Attention is paid to the quality cues, that is, those features of the product that
communicate its overall level of quality. These quality cues are incorporated as
very precise engineering standards that provide measurements for implementing
and monitoring the manufacturing process
Benefits of QFD
The major advantage of the QFD process is that it encourages proactive product
development instead of reactive product development (Figure 1). Proactive
product development results in fewer and earlier design changes, decreased
development time, fewer start-up problems, lower start-up costs, fewer field
problems, and a more satisfied customer. A less obvious, though equally
important, benefit of QFD is that it facilitates organizational knowledge transfer
and establishes a proprietary knowledge base. The matrices that are generated
during a QFD project make the logic flow obvious and act to preserve technical
and customer knowledge. This affords others in the organization the opportunity
to easily access and use the accumulated knowledge.
The Purpose of QFD The purpose of QFD is three fold. Firstly, it allows us to get
higher quality products to market faster and at a lower cost. Secondly, we will
achieve customer driven product design and, finally, it will provide a tracking
system for future design or process improvements. The results we can expect by
carrying out the QFD studies are many:
Better understanding of customer needs

40. Improved organisation on development projects
Improved introduction to production
Fewer design changes late in development
Fewer manufacturing start-up problems
Reputation for being serious about quality
Increased business
Documented product definition based on customer requirements
Competitive analysis: Other products in the marketplace are examined, and the
company product is rated against the competition.
Reduced development time: The likelihood of design changes is reduced as the QFD
process focusses on improvements to be made to satisfy key customer
requirements. Careful attention to customer requirements reduces the risk that
changes will be required late in the project life cycle. Time is not spent
developing insignificant functions and features.
Reduced development costs: The identification of required changes occurs early in
the project life cycle. Minimizing changes following production reduces warranty
costs and product support costs.
Documentation: A knowledge base is built as the QFD process is implemented. A
historical record of the decision-making process is developed.
Disadvantages of Quality Function Deployment
Quality Function Deployment is a tool that ensures that the customer’s needs or
requirements are incorporated in the process of producing products that meet those
needs. QFD further ensures that quality is a core focus in the production and
distribution of a product. Although the QFD management tool minimizes costs of
manufacturing and is good at improving design, it has several disadvantages.
Limitations in Global Implementation:
QFD is a management tool developed by two Japanese professors, Yoji Akao and
Shigeru Mizuno in 1965. It sought to improve the quality of the products before
the process of manufacturing begun, aiding in fast decision-making with regard to
the final product. This method became popular in the West in the 1980s. As with

41. other Japanese management techniques, there are bound to be some problems
when QFD is applied elsewhere.
Emphasis on Quality at Expense of Optimal Design:
QFD can be your tool of choice if you are working to determine what you need to
accomplish to satisfy and delight your clients. A major disadvantage is that it
solely focuses on quality and related engineering metrics while ignoring other vital
factors such as cost, product life cycle, strategy and the company's strength in
technology. Failure to address these other factors can potentially lead to trade-offs,
yielding a product that is not optimally designed.
Overreliance on Market Surveys:
Against the backdrop of a successful QFD, market surveys are crucial in garnering
the perceptions of customers about services or goods. A lot rides on the
effectiveness of the survey process. If the questions do not gather the right
information, the wants, needs and wow factors that lead to customer satisfaction
will be missed. Varied or intangible statistical results can be detrimental in the
eventual product design, since they are not representative. You have to prepare for
the eventuality of inaccurate survey results if your company practices QFD.
Dynamic Customer Needs:
Another disadvantage with QFD is the assumption that customer needs can be
captured, documented and remain stable over the duration of the whole process.
Customer needs change quickly and unexpectedly. The QFD tool, therefore, can
complicate matters further for your firm, since adapting to dynamic market needs
can be complex, confusing and costly.
Areas of application
QFD is applied in a wide variety of services, consumer products, military
needs,[2] and emerging technology products. The technique is also included in the
new ISO 9000:2000 standard which focuses on customer satisfaction.

42. While many books and articles on "how to do QFD are available, there is a
relative paucity of example matrices available. QFD matrices become highly
proprietary due to the high density of product or service information found therein.
QFD Summary
Product plan is developed based on initial market research or requirements
definition.
If necessary, feasibility studies or research and development are undertaken to
determine the feasibility of the product concept.
Product requirements or technical characteristics are defined through the
matrix.
A business justification is prepared and approved, and product design then
commences.
Guidelines for Successful QFD
Keep the amount of information in each matrix at a manageable level.
An individual matrix should not address more than twenty or thirty items on
each dimension of the matrix.
If doing QFD on a larger, more complex product decompose its customers
needs into hierarchical levels.
Quality circle
Perhaps the most widely discussed and undertaken intervention of employee
involvement is the quality circle (QC). Quality Circles were started in Japan in

43. 1962 ( Kaoru Ishikawa has been credited for creating Quality Circles) as another
method of improving quality. Prof. Ishikawa, who believed in tapping the creative
potential of workers, innovated the Quality Circle movement to give Japanese
industry that extra edge in creativity and enabled firms to make high quality
products at low costs.
A QC is a voluntary group of employees who perform similar duties and meet at
periodic intervals, often with management, to discuss work-related issues and to
offer suggestions and ideas for improvements, as in production methods or
quality control.
Ross define a quality circle as
"a small group of employees doing similar or related work who meet regularly
to identify, analyze, and solve product-quality and production problems and to
improve general operations.
Concept
A quality circle is a group composed of regular employees who meet together to
discuss workplace improvement, and make presentations to management with
their ideas. Quality Circle is a small group of 6 to 12 employees doing similar
work who voluntarily meet together on a regular basis to identify improvements in
their respective work areas using proven techniques for analyzing and solving
work related problems coming in the way of achieving and sustaining excellence
leading to mutual upliftment of employees as well as the organization.
It is "a way of capturing the creative and innovative power that lies within the
work force".
Quality Circles is a people – building philosophy, providing self-motivation and
happiness in improving environment without any compulsion or monetary
benefits. It represents a philosophy of managing people specially those at the grass
root level as well as a clearly defined mechanism and methodology for translating

44. this philosophy into practice and a required structure to make it a way of life.It is
bound to succeed where people are respected and are involved in decisions,
concerning their work life, and in environments where peoples’ capabilities are
looked upon as assets to solve work-area problems. Quality Circle is a problem
solving technique. A quality circle is a participatory management technique that
enlists the help of employees in solving problems related to their own
jobs.Circles are formed of employees working together in an operation who meet
at intervals to discuss problems of quality and to devise solutions for
improvements.
The main features of QC can be listed as follows:
1. Voluntary Groups:
QC is a voluntary group of employees generally coming from the same work area.
There is no pressure from anywhere on employees to join QC.
2. Small Size:
The size of the QC is generally small consisting of six to eight members.
3. Regular Meeting:
QC meetings are held once a week for about an hour on regular basis. The
members meet during working hours usually at the end of the working day in
consultation with the manager. The time of the meetings is usually fixed in
advance in consultation with the manager and members.
4. Independent Agenda:
Each QC has its own agenda with its own terms of reference. Accordingly, each
QC discusses its own problems and takes corrective actions.
5. Quality Focused:
As per the very nature and intent of QC, it focuses exclusively on quality issues.
This is because the ultimate purpose of QC is improvement in quality of product
and working life.

45. The concept of QC is primarily based upon recognition of the value of the worker
as a human being, as someone who willingly activises on his job, his wisdom,
intelligence, experience, attitude & feelings. It is based upon the HRM considered
as one of the key factors in the improvement of product quality & productivity.
QC concept has 3 major attributes:
a. Quality Circle is a form of participation management.
b. Quality Circle is a human resource development technique.
c. Quality Circle is a problem solving technique
Objectives
The objectives of Quality Circles are multi-faced:
 To improve quality, productivity & profitability
 To secure employee involvement, motivation & development

46.  To improve management-employee relations
 To improve communications at all levels
 To develop team spirit among the employees
 To provide better working environment of employees.
 Change in Attitude From "I don’t care" to "I do care" Continuous
improvement in quality of work life through humanisation of work.
 Self Development Bring out ‘Hidden Potential’ of people People get to
learn additional skills.
 Developmentof TeamSpirit Individual Vs Team – "I could not do but we
did it" Eliminate inter departmental conflicts.
 Improved Organizational Culture Positive working environment. Total
involvementof people atall levels.Higher motivational level.Participate
Management process.
Promote job involvement
Create problem solving capability
Improve communication
Promote leadership qualities
Promote personal development
Develop a greater awareness for cleanliness
Develop greater awareness for safety
Improve morale through closer identity of employee objectives
Reduce errors.
Enhance quality
Inspire more effective team work
Build an attitude of problem prevention
Promote cost reduction
Develop harmonious manager, supervisor and worker relationship
Improve productivity
Reduce downtime of machines and equipment
Increase employee motivation
The benefits are that QCs:
 Promote individual self-development
 Promote teamwork and fellowship
 Improve overall company performance and corporate image
 Increase Productivity, Improve Quality, Boost Employee Morale.
Disadvantages/problems with QC
Inadequate Training

47. Unsure of Purpose
Not truly Voluntary
Lack of Management Interest
Quality Circles are not really empowered to make decisions.
Quality Circles are not limited to manufacturing firms only.
They are applicable for variety of organisations where there is scope for
group based solution of work related problems.
The structure of a Quality Circle consists of the following elements
i. A steering committee: This is at the top of the structure. It is headed by a senior
executive and includes representatives from the top management personnel and
human resources development people. It establishes policy, plans and directs the
program and meets usually once in a month.
ii. Co-coordinator: He may be a Personnel or Administrative officer who co-
ordinates and supervises the work of the facilitators and administers the
programme.
iii. Facilitator: He may be a senior supervisory officer. He coordinates the works
of several quality circles through the Circle leaders.
iv. Circle leader: Leaders may be from lowest level workers or Supervisors. A
Circle leader organizes and conducts Circle activities.
v. Circle members : They may be staff workers. Without circle members the
programme cannot exist. They are the lifeblood of quality circles. They should
attend all meetings as far as possible, offer suggestions and ideas, participate
actively in group process, take training seriously with a receptive attitude. The
roles of Steering Committee, Co-0rdinator, Facilitator, Circle leader and Circle
members are well defined.
Launching Quality Circles
The launching of Quality Circles involves the following steps:
 Expose middle level executives to the concept.
 Explain the concept to the employees and invite them to volunteer

48. as members of Quality Circles.
 Nominate senior officers as facilitators.
 Form a steering committee.
 Arrange training of co-coordinators, facilitators in basics of Quality
Circle approach, implementation, techniques and operation. Later
facilitator may provide training to Circle leaders and Circle
members.
 A meeting should be fixed preferably one hour a week for the
Quality Circle to meet.
 Formally inaugurate the Quality Circle.
 Arrange the necessary facilities for the Quality Circle meeting and
its operation
Quality Circle Process
 List out problems
 Discussion over the list of problems
 Selected problem will be analyzed
 Arrive at solution
 Present it to management for action
 Management studies the recommendations
 Implementation
 QC members are recognised & rewarded.

49. The following are suggested steps in forming a Quality Circle:
 inform staff of the Kaizen activities
 explain the concept and the advantages of Kaizen activities
 divide the staff into small groups - Quality Circles
 discuss & analyse problems identified in each area by QCs
 recommend possible solutions by QCs
 prepare implementation plans
 write a proposal in implementing plans
 all QCs to meet twice a year to present progress of Kaizen activities
 reward QC with the best effort in achieving their objectives
The Quality Circle philosophy calls for a progressive attitude on the part of the
management and their willingness to make adjustments, if necessary, in their style
and culture
The operation of Quality Circle involves the following sequential steps:

50. 1. Identification of a problem: The members of the Circle are supposed to identify
the problems that are to be solved.
2. Selection of the problem: The members then decide the preferences and select
the problem of apex priority.
3. Analysis of the problem: The selected problem is then classified and analyzed
by basic problem solving techniques like brain storming and Pareto analysis etc.
4. Generating alternative solutions: Identifying various causes helps to generate
various alternative solutions.
5. Select the most appropriate solution: The most appropriate and suitable solution
is selected after considering various solutions related to cost, possibility of
implementation etc.
6. Preparation of action plan: The members prepare plan of action to the
implemented solution like area of implementation, date and time etc.
7. Approval of the Management: The chosen solution and the plan of action must
be put forward before the management for their approval.
8. Implementation:
9.Rise organization morale
10.Inspire more effective team work
11.Promote job involvement
12. Create problem solving capability by members of QCs themselves
13.Promote personal and leadership
14.development Improve communication within the organization
15.Promote cost reduction Increase employees motivation
Appropriate training for different sections of employees needs to be imparted.
Without a proper understanding of the real concept of Quality Circles, both the
workers and management might look at this philosophy with suspicion. Each