Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organizational processes. TQM has been widely used in manufacturing, education, government, and service industries, as well as NASA space and science programs.
Total Quality provides an umbrella under which everyone in the organization can strive and create customer satisfaction.
TQ is a people focused management system that aims at continual increase in customer satisfaction at continually lower real costs.
TQM is composed of three paradigms:
Total: Organization wide
Quality: With its usual Definitions, with all its complexities
Management: The system of managing with steps like Plan, Organize, Control, Lead, Staff, etc.
As defined by the International Organization for Standards (ISO):
"TQM is a management approach for an organization, centered on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society."
In Japan, TQM comprises four process steps, namely:
Kaizen – Focuses on Continuous Process Improvement, to make processes visible, repeatable and measurable.
Atarimae Hinshitsu – The idea that things will work as they are supposed to (e.g. a pen will write.).
Kansei – Examining the way the user applies the product leads to improvement in the product itself.
Miryokuteki Hinshitsu – The idea that things should have an aesthetic quality which is different from "atarimae hinshitsu" (e.g. a pen will write in a way that is pleasing to the writer.)
TQM requires that the company maintain this quality standard in all aspects of its business. This requires ensuring that things are done right the first time and that defects and waste are eliminated from operations.
