The eight elements of TQM

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term TQM it stands for Total Quality Management, which is a management approach that started in the 1950's and has actually continued to grow in popularity since the early 1980's. Something else that you need to know about TQM is that it is actually a description of the culture, attitude and the organization of a company that is trying to bring its customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. Basically this program requires the company to have quality in all aspects of the business, not just in one or two areas, in fact because of this the processes are actually be done right the first time and defects and waste are actually erased from the operations. But one thing that you need to know about total quality management is that in order to be successfully implemented your company must concentrate on the eight key elements of TQM.

Here are the eight key elements of TQM.

Number one:
Ethics is actually the discipline concerned with good and bad in any situation. In TQM ethics is actually a two sided subject because you have both your individual ethics and the company's ethics that play a large role in your manufacturing company. The organizational ethics are actually used to establish a business code of ethics that tells employees how they are supposed to perform their work, basically what is allowed or not allowed in the work place, but the individual ethics playa role to because they tell the employees what is personally right or wrong. In some cases you need to keep watch because the two types of ethics might clash.

Number two:
Integrity is actually what implies the honesty, morals, values, fairness and adherence to the facts and sincerity. It is this element that customers actually have come to expect but it is actually what customer deserves. But one thing that you need to know is that the opposite of this is duplicity and TQM will not work in that type of environment.

Number three:
Trust is the by product of both integrity and ethics and without trust your company cannot implement TQM because the framework for TQM cannot be built without these key elements. One thing about trust that you need to know is that it requires full participation of all your employees, so without everybody being trust worthy you will not be able to implement TQM at your place of business.

Number four:
Training is also very important in TQM, but it is also important in general. The reason for this is that in order to be the best employees that they can be your employees are going to need to be trained to do their jobs correctly, not to mention they are going to need to be trained in other areas as well so that TQM can be implemented successfully.

Number five:
Teamwork is an essential part of TQM because in order to be successful in any kind of business you are going to need teamwork. The reason for this is that through the use of teams your company will be able to solve problems faster and you will also get better solutions to the problems that need to be solved because everybody is working together to make everything work.

Number six:
Leadership is probably the most important element of TQM because of the fact that it appears everywhere in any kind of organization and without successful leadership or the fact that the leadership is endorsing the implementation of TQM the results would not be accomplished. Basically what this means is that employees need leaders to follow and without having an effective leader who leads his employees rather than manages their employees you will not have an organization that works together as a team.

Number seven:
Communication is a very important element because it is what binds everything together. If your company is not communicating with each department than things are not getting done or problems are not getting solved. In order for a business to run smoothly you must have good communication from the top down and from the bottom up, which means people need to feel that they are being listened to and taken seriously not just bossed around because a lot of times it is the ordinary employees who can solve a big manufacturing problem because they are the ones actually doing things.

Number eight:
The last element for TQM is recognition. Basically what this means is that people are recognized for what they have done and what they have achieved. Basically you are giving positive reinforcement by providing feedback to the people who are actually making things work. This also helps to improve your employee moral because everybody likes to be told that they are doing a good job and that what they are doing is appreciated.