Total

Quality
Managemen
t
The Total Quality Approach asserts to all the organizational processes in Assignment
this hyper competitive market, which is applied to a personal hygiene
product reflecting its communication to its consumers in this 1 MBA –
assignment. (eve)
 Total Quality Management 201
1

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT 1

Student Name:

Mohammad Usman Rafique - 103510

Course:

Total Quality Management –BA 5145

Lecturer:

Dr. Masroor

Program:

MBA – (EVE)

Dated:

May 8, 2011

1
 Total Quality Management 201
1

Preface

Total Quality Management is a philosophy that declares the existence of any firm in this hyper
competitive market, and hence, pursues the declaration that every business is obliged to abide by the
TQM principles to assure its existence in the markets, applying to the satisfaction of the customers. This
report entails all the relevant details explained about the hygiene product in question and its
communication of quality perspectives by the manufacturer to assist in widening the customer base.

M Usman

2
 Total Quality Management 201
1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive summary 4

Introduction 5

Total Quality Management 5

Product 5

Company information 6

Quality Features 7

Comparison 8

Questionnaire 9

Summary 11

Bibliography 12

3
 Total Quality Management 201
1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Total quality management is a management philosophy and business strategy intended to embed
quality improvement practices deeply into the fabric of the organization. It is also a social movement
that has become partly institutionalized in many countries. No single authority speaks for the entire
movement. Rather, TQM is a diverse collection of related ideas primarily contributed by American
quality consultants such as Juran (1988) and Deming (1986), and the Japanese (Ishikawa, 1985; Young,
1992). Major themes in TQM include the following. First, the entire organization becomes focused on
quality, defined as satisfying customer requirements. Improving quality is thought to improve
productivity, decreases costs, and increases speed to market as well.

Total Quality Management, TQM, is a method by which management and employees can become
involved in the continuous improvement of the production of goods and services. It is a combination of
quality and management tools aimed at increasing business and reducing losses due to wasteful
practices.

The report here takes the TQM culture and approach and determines the quantitative features of a
hygiene product in effect and develops the quality features in terms of consumer approaches in terms of
the processes implemented at the manufacturer.

Customer needs are required to be met by the manufacturer to achieve a total quality product to
determine the usage of the product satisfaction in terms of customers. Nivea has developed this
required product ascertaining to all quality approaches required by a deodorant product and hence, is
compared with the deodorants existing in the market.

4
 Total Quality Management 201
1

INTRODUCTION

Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management is a management philosophy pertaining to the continuous process

improvements of the processes, ideas, systems, concepts, developments, operations, etc in short all the
involvements in the production and deliverance of the products or services relevant to the organization
in question. To exceed the customer expectations, the philosophy of total quality suggests that all the
stakeholders, such as suppliers, employees, and customers must be equally involved in the processes to
attain utmost customer satisfaction and retention.

There are different dimensions determined by the Quality counselors for different organizations, such as
conformance to specifications, Performance, Reliability, Features, Durability, as suggested by Wiley, is a
dimension determining the quality of a manufactured product, whereas service oriented organizations
have different controls for quality, such as Consistency, Promptness, Courtesy, etc. All these factors
determine the established criterion for customer’s decisiveness of the product or service. Hence, this
approach in this report has been assigned to a Hygiene Product, to assess its standards of quality in the
customer perception.

The Total Quality approach asserts the recognition of the processes with the customer involvement in
this report suggesting that a product manufacturer must incline all its processes in accordance to the
specifications and requirements of the customers to organize all the productions targeted at the
customer specifications to obtain a total quality product, hence, this report develops a comparison and
recognition of quality features of the product in question.

The product chosen is a deodorant product of a global skin care brand and is assessed of quality features
on the basis of skin care, effectiveness, price and design.

PRODUCT

Deodorant

Deodorants are substances applied to the body to affect body odor caused by bacterial growth and the
smell associated with bacterial breakdown of perspiration in armpits, feet and other areas of the body. A
subgroup of deodorants, antiperspirants, affect odor as well as prevent sweating by affecting sweat
glands. Antiperspirants are typically applied to the underarms, while deodorants may also be used on
feet and other areas in the form of body sprays.

5
 Total Quality Management 201
1

NIVEA

Company Information

Nivea comes from the Latin word niveus/nivea/niveum, meaning snow-white. Nivea is a global skin and
body care brand, owned by the German company Beiersdorf. The company was founded on March 28
1882 by pharmacist Carl Paul Beiersdorf.

Logo

TOTAL QUALITY AND NIVEA FOR MEN

Nivea invisible for black and white deodorant

Image:

Nivea is the first deodorant with 48 hours anti-perspirant protection that leaves no white marks on dark
fabrics and also avoids yellow staining on light-colored clothes.

Nivea launched this initiative to understand the consumer needs to avoid the yellow staining of the
clothes and hence, have captured the audience in terms of providing the best deodorant in terms of
clothes protection. Thereby, the customers, loving black clothes, as well as white clothes, understand
the importance of such product. This kind of an ordeal launched by Nivea reflects the understanding of

6
 Total Quality Management 201
1

the customer base to provide for the customers addressing such issues. Many a customer’s wearing dark
clothes avoid their clothes being stained with white marks left by the skin sebum and sweat. Nivea for
men is referred to a classic deal. Making sure black stays black and white stays white for longer, so a
customer’s favorite clothes look their best. Nivea has overly used the philosophy understood as
customer involvement to produce such a deodorant to ultimately fill the customer requirements, and
recognize Wiley’s conformance to specifications factor for influencing the customer satisfaction.

Quality Features

 Masculine and warm woody scent with fresh citrus notes.

 Without alcohol and colorants.
 Skin tolerance.
 Dermatologically proven.
 Reduced yellow staining on white clothing.
 Protection against white deodorant marks on clothes.
 48 hours anti-perspirant protection with manly fragrance.

Quality assessment features:

Design:

The design of nivea totally reflect the customer need suggested in terms of staining of the consumer
clothing by the use of deodorants in terms of sweating and skin sebum, which forms residue on the
clothes of the consumers by the regular normal usage of deodorants. The design is the pictorial
reflection of the product quality and hence, the black and white approach on the deodorant container
reflects its innovative feature launched in the market. The 48 hours logo, reflect the usage duration of
the deodorant as it is using the silver technology instead of the regular aluminium technology in the
manufacturing of the product.

Skin Friendliness:

Nivea is a 100 years old in the skin care category, and hence have implemented all the possible tests of
dermatology to promote skin friendliness, which is the key requirement of the health associations in
controlling the skin animosity of the product. Nivea considers the consumer approach as its core value
and hence, reflects all the quality assessments of its products in the deodorant.

Effectiveness:

Nivea is the first market entrant in the skin care category launching the first silver technology product in
the market. The products of Nivea are considered as a valuable brand given its effective usage. Nivea for
men, invisible, with its new technology in delivering a stainless clothing feature is also considered as a
wow factor for all those consumers who care about the appearance and smell of their clothes in all

7
 Total Quality Management 201
1

environments. The 48 hours promotion of the product’s quality is totally up to the mark, and hence,
more than 48 hours are provided on the product.

Price:

The price of the product is the most acquainted quality acknowledgement of the deodorant. Regular
deodorants have been backing on the aluminum technology and hence, odors seep in after 5 hours, of
the most recognized deodorants, and hence, the silver technology produced by the product challenges a
48 hour timeline on the effectiveness of the product. Consumers, thereby, instead of multiple usages of
other deodorants, accept the relative increase in the price by a small amount happily, given its one time
use. The product is priced at a mere AED 14 in the UAE market, and hence, has achieved a high volume
of sales in the recent years.

Comparison

The deodorant is being compared with the Sapil’s Disclosure brand, and has relatively marked a
distinction as it is considered a regular deodorant with aluminum technology. The price of Disclosure in
the UAE market is AED 10 and requires multiple applicants in terms of the time line provided. Usually,
the deodorant marks 3 times per day usage, whereas Nivea invisible requires one time going as long as
48 hours.

Disclosure does not improvise on key features such as time line or stainless clothing feature, giving
Nivea a distinction in key consumer buying patterns. Nivea being a recognized brand in the skin care
category also divines on the providence of skin assurance to its consumers, while rallying for the
dermatology features of the product.

The questionnaire developed understands and marks all the relevant features of the satisfaction of
consumers in terms of effectiveness, usage, skin friendliness, price and design of the products. This
questionnaire answers the Nivea’s distinction in developing the first of its kind product, for the
customer’s utmost satisfaction and hence, is considered a distinctive quality brand in the deodorant
markets.

8
 Total Quality Management 201
1

QUESTIONNAIRE

We thank you very much in advance for paying attention to our questionnaire. All in all, we prepared
some questions for answering which you will need approximately 2 minutes.

Name:
Gender:
Age (in years):
Annual Income (AED):
(a) Below 50,000
(b) Between 50,000 and 80,000
(c) Between 80,000 and 150,000
(d) Above 150,000

1. Which deodorant type you use?

Spray [ ]
Roll on [ ]

2. Which brand do you use / prefer the most?

(a) Fa [ ]
(b) Axe-effect [ ]
(c) Set wet [ ]
(d) Nivea [ ]
(e) Disclosure [ ]
(f) Others [ ]

3. How long have you been using deodorant?

(a) Less than 1 year [ ]
(b) Between 1-3 years [ ]
(c) Between 3-5 years[ ]
(d) Above 5 years[ ]

4. How often do you use deodorant?

(a) Sometimes [ ]
(b) Daily [ ]
(c) Several times a day [ ]
(d) Once in a day [ ]

5. Does it serve your needs?

9
 Total Quality Management 201
1

Yes [ ]
No [ ]

6. How much do you spend on deodorant purchase? (In AED)

(a) Less than 100
(b) Less than 200
(c) Above 200

7. Are you satisfied with the price you pay for your deodorant or you desire to purchase something that
gives the same result but at a cheaper/discounted price?
Yes [ ]
No [ ]

8. Would you like to try and experiment with a new deodorant launched in the market?
Yes [ ]
No [ ]

9. Are you satisfied with the advertisement media and sales promotional tools they use for showcasing
the brand or do you think they should improvise it to make it more convincing?
Satisfied [ ]
Needs to Improvise [ ]

10. Please rate the attributes of your brand: (from 0-9, 9 being highest and 0 lowest)
Name
Skin
Design Effectiveness Price
Friendliness
Attributes
Set Wet
Nivea
Fa
Axe
Disclosure
Others

11. If the fragrance of your deodorant long lasting?

Yes [ ]
No [ ]

12. Do you want to stick to same deodorant or you want to switch to another product?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

10
 Total Quality Management 201
1

13. Please present some suggestions (If any):

SUMMARY

TQM is mainly concerned with continuous improvement in all work, from high level strategic planning
and decision-making, to detailed execution of work elements on the shop floor. It stems from the belief
that mistakes can be avoided and defects can be prevented. It leads to continuously improving results,
in all aspects of work, as a result of continuously improving capabilities, people, processes, technology
and machine capabilities. This approach if determined by any organization is assured to be successful in
terms of consumer satisfaction and retention.

This report gives a detailed presentation of such approach by the skin care development organization,
NIVEA in terms of its new launch of deodorant, Nivea for Men, Invisible, Black and White.

THE END

11
 Total Quality Management 201
1

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Powell, (1995). Total Quality Management as Competitive Advantage: A Review and Empirical Study.
Strategic Management Journal, 15-37.

Juran, J.M. Juran on Leadership for Quality: An Executive Handbook (1989)

Deming, W. Edwards, Out of the Crisis (1986)

Feigenbaum, A.V. Total Quality Control (1991)

Ishikawa, Kaoru. What is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way (1985)

Martin, L. (1993). Total Quality Management in the Public Sector, National Productivity Review, 10, 195-
213.

Ishikawa, K, 1985.What is Total Quality Control? The Japanese way. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey,
Prentice- Hall.

http://www.niveaformen.com/products/invisible_for_black_and_white.html

12