A look at TQM change cycles

Total quality management or TQM is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that aims to provide, and continue to provide, its customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company's operations. TQM is based on quality management from the customer's point of view. In addition TQM can also be applied to any type of organization making it a widely used philosophy that is adaptable to many different areas. A look at the TQM change cycles will reveal what is required for changes to take place in your organization.

When adopting a TQM philosophy for your organization you will need to make sure that you are willing to dedicate the time needed to see the end results of TQM. The TQM cycle changes are cycles that your business will go through during the time you are adapting to the new philosophy for your organization.

You can divide the processes for TQM into four sequential cycles or categories. These cycles will include the planning cycle, the doing cycle, the checking cycle and finally the acting cycle. This is also known as a PDCA cycle.

In the planning cycle as it pertains to TQM the organization will begin to plan for how to incorporate the changes that the management wants changed. You and other managers from the company will define the problem or problems to be addressed, collect the relevant date and decide what the root cause of the problem is.

The next part of the change cycle for TQM is the doing phase. This is the part of the cycle where you and others will develop and implement a solution as it pertains to the problems that you would like addressed from the planning cycle. You and others from the management team will meet and decide upon how best to implement the changes and how to measure the effectiveness of the planned changes for the given problem.

After you have gone through the planning and the doing cycle you will then start on the checking phase of the cycle. This is the part of the cycle where there is a lot of data collection. It may also take a long time to get to this part of the change cycle since you do need to have data to check on the progress. You will need to have both before and after data for a good comparison of how well your changes are going.

The last phase of the cycle is the acting phase. This is the phase where the results are documented. The data is reviewed and others in the organization or company will need to be informed of the changes. The acting stage of the cycle is where many of the changes will begin to take place. This may also take some time before you get to this stage in the cycle. This change cycle also needs to have a recommendation for any other problems that have come up to be addressed in the next cycle.

The planning, doing, checking, and acting phases of the cycle need to be repeated consistently for the TQM process to be successful. The cycle can be on going for the life of the company. To fit with the philosophies of TQM it should continue constantly in order to gain perfection in your company or organization.

Taking a look at the TQM change cycles will allow you to analyze the philosophy somewhat better and to see if it is the right fit for you and your organization. It takes time for the cycles to be completed and the cycles are ongoing in order to gain the most benefits for your company.