Dr.

Mustafa Hyder
 Garvin, Harvey and Green (1993) have
suggested five discrete and interrelated
definitions of quality.
 1. exceptional
 2. perfection or consistency
 3. fitness for purpose
 4. value for money
 5. transformative.
 TQM is characterized by five principles:
 1. management’s commitment (leadership);
 2. focus on the customer and the employee;
 3. focus on facts;
 4. continuous improvements (KAIZEN);
 5. everybody’s participation.
The TQM pyramid (Dahlgaard et al., 1997)
 The firm’s QUALITY GOALS signal to
employees that the firm’s principal task is to
satisfy its external customers and that this
can only be achieved if the firm is able to
exceed customers’ expectations
 The firm’s QUALITY POLICIES, on the other
hand, describe in more detail how employees
are to achieve that goal. The firm’s quality
policies must also conform to the four sides
of the TQM pyramid.
 Quality goals and quality policies must be
followed by meaningful ACTION PLANS.
 In the run-up to the action plan, management
must answer the following questions:
 1. Where are we now? (the present situation).
2. Where do we want to be? (vision).
 3. How do we get there? (action plans).
 Experience from firms which have understood
and realized the TQM vision shows that firms
ought to concentrate on short-term plans
(one-year plans) and long-term plans, the
latter often being three-year plans which are
revised annually in connection with an annual
QUALITY AUDIT
 The annual QUALITY AUDIT gives top management
the opportunity to put a number of important
questions to departmental managers. Apart from the
usual questions about quality problems and defects,
they should include the following four questions:
 1. How have ‘customers’ been identified (both
internal and external customers)?
 2. How have customers’ requirements and
expectations been identified?
 3. How have managers and employees tried to satisfy
customers?
 4. What do customers think of our products and
services and how has this information been collected?
 Bench-marking can be defined as a
continuous process, the purpose of which is
to measure services, products and
procedures against the toughest competitors
or leading procedures in a given market, the
idea being to procure the information
necessary for a firm to become the best of
the best.
 For example, benchmarks could be used to
compare processes in one retail store with
those in another store in the same chain.
External benchmarking, sometimes described
as competitive benchmarking, compares
business performance against other
companies.
 The basic philosophy behind benchmarking
can be traced back to the Chinese
philosopher Sun Tzu (500 BC) and the
Japanese art of warfare and can be
summarized in the following points:
 Know your own strengths and weaknesses;
 Know your competitors (opponents) and the
best in the field;
 Learn from the best;
 Achieve leadership.
 It is important to realize that benchmarking is
not just a question of comparing yourself
with your competitors. Basically, there are
four main types of benchmarking that can be
used:
 internal benchmarking,
 competitor-based benchmarking,
 functional benchmarking
 generic benchmarking.
 Internal benchmarking means comparing
yourself with departments and divisions in
the same organization. This is normally the
simplest form of benchmarking because data
will always be available for the comparison.
 The most difficult form of benchmarking will
normally be competitor-based benchmarking,
where the firm compares itself with its direct
competitors. In this case, data can be difficult
to come by and must often be acquired by
indirect means
 Functional benchmarking is based on the
functions which the firm concerned is
especially noted for, the idea being that the
firm compares itself with the leading firm in
these functions
 Generic benchmarking includes procedures
which are common on all types of companies,
such as order-taking, the payment of wages,
word processing and the like.
 Benchmarking is not a perfect process but
done properly and consistently it can be the
start of improving your business and creating
a more optimal learning environment. Avoid
using it as a means to judge your competition
at the expense of creating customer value or
solving someone else's problems.
 1. Expected quality, or must-be quality.
 2. Proportional quality.
 3. Value-added quality (‘exciting/charming
quality’).
 4. Indifferent quality.
 5. Reverse quality.