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The company that wants to make the transition to total quality manage­ment must do these things:

1. Recognize that quality can be defined and evaluated only by the external consumer client.

2. Analyze the processes that collectively comprise the products and services of the company.

3. Identify the steps within each process.

4. Scrutinize each step for problems and incrementally improve each step and each process.

5. Enlist the recognition by every employee that he or she is working to serve and satisfy the customer.

6. Identify to all employees their dual roles as a provider of materials or services within a process and as an internal customer with the right to expect the input from other providers to be complete and ready for use.

7...

Total quality management is the monitoring of processes and the peo­ple who perform those processes. It takes the spotlight off the finished product or service as the measurement of quality and instead scrutinizes the many little steps that lead to the finished product or service. While requiring a new definition of quality to recognize that it is client-driven, TQM also requires an expanded concept of who the customers are.

The traditional customer is the one who places the order and pays the bill. Every employee in the company must understand the obliga­tion to satisfy the external customer and exceed his or her expectations. However, TQM recognizes other customers, internal customers, who are the employees of the company and who receive the output of the process that precedes theirs...

Putting the new definition of quality into the management methods of a company requires a departure from some deep-rooted traditions in American business. Now outdated are the beliefs that the company sets the standard of quality and that the time to measure standards is at the end of the process. If a shrub was unsatisfactory at the time of delivery, it was replaced. If a poinsettia had whiteflies when delivered, the grower apologized to the retailer and replaced it. If the patio wasn’t graded cor­rectly and surface water ran toward the house, it was torn out and done again. Heads may have rolled later back at the company. All such action awaited delivery of the product or service before applying standards or measuring client satisfaction...

While it is not easy to gain widespread acceptance of a new definition for a familiar term, the business world is beginning to understand that there is no quality standard for a product or service until the customers’ satisfaction is registered. Giving the customers exactly what they want plus an extra measure of value without additional charge is or should be the goal of every business in America today.

Quality: Meeting the customer’s requirements and exceeding those expectations.

This new definition means that the customer becomes the judge of quality and that the businessperson must find ways of measuring the customer’s satisfaction. The new definition also means that the product or service must provide additional features that surpass the customer’s expectations...

OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to

• explain how quality is defined and measured.

• define total quality management.

• explain the empowerment of employees.

• distinguish between internal and external customers.

• outline the steps in a Total Quality management program.

KEY TERMS

quality total quality management

A NEW CONCERN FOR AN OLD IDEA_________________

The end of World War II left the economy of the world tilted heavily in favor of the United States. Europe and most of Asia were left with only skeletal remains of their prewar industrial capability. American factories were intact and able to convert from the production of war goods to the manufacture of countless products and machines needed by the rest of the world...