Quality Management

(noun)

Process of ensuring that an organization or product is consistent. It can be considered to have four main components: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance, and quality improvement. Quality management is focused not only on product/service quality, but also the means to achieve it.

Related Terms

Examples of Quality Management in the following topics:

  • Total Quality Management

  • Introduction

    • understand three of the most important operations management practices: Total Quality Management, Supply Chain Management, and Just-in-Time/Lean Operations

  • Philosophies

    • Quality management adopts a number of management principles that can be used to guide organizations towards improved performance.
    • In the 1950s and 1960s, Japanese goods were synonymous with cheapness and low quality but over time, their quality initiatives began to be successful, with Japan achieving very high levels of quality in products from the 1970s onward.
    • Quality management adopts a number of management principles that can be used by top management to guide their organizations towards improved performance.
    • System approach to management: An organization's effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its quality objectives are contributed by identifying, understanding, and managing all interrelated processes as a system.
    • These eight principles form the basis for the quality management system standard ISO 9001:2008.

  • TQM

    • Total quality management (TQM) is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes.
    • Total Quality Management (TQM) is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes .
    • TQM capitalizes on the involvement of management, the workforce, suppliers, and even customers in order to meet or exceed customer expectations.
    • The basic principles for the Total Quality Management philosophy of doing business are to satisfy the customer, satisfy the supplier, and continuously improve the business processes.
    • Quality Methods: There are also many quality methods, such as just-in-time production, variability reduction, and poka-yoke, that can improve processes and reduce waste.

  • Quality Inspections and Standards

    • The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) created the Quality Management System (QMS) standards in 1987.
    • This standard provides a measurement framework for improved quality management, similar to and based upon the measurement framework for process assessment.
    • ISO has a number of standards that support quality management.
    • It is an important part of organization's quality management system and is a key element in the ISO quality system standard, ISO 9001.
    • The processes and tasks that a quality audit involves can be managed using a wide variety of software and self-assessment tools.

  • Quality Control

    • Elements such as controls, job management, defined and well-managed processes, performance and integrity criteria, and identification of records
    • An emphasis on quality control heightened during World War II.
    • Responsibility for overall quality lies with top management.
    • Top management must establish strategies, institute programs for quality, and motivate managers and workers.
    • Most of the time, managers aim to improve or maintain the quality of an organization as a whole; this is referred to as Total Quality Management (TQM).

  • Quality costs

    • Total Quality Management (TQM) is the organization-wide management of quality that includes facilities, equipment, labor, suppliers, customers, policies, and procedures.
    • TQM promotes the view that quality improvement never ends, quality provides a strategic advantage to the organization, and zero defects is the quality goal that will minimize total quality costs.
    • In other words, total quality costs are minimized when managers strive to reach zero defects in the organization.
    • Documenting quality is a necessary prevention cost because it helps the organization track quality performance, identify quality problems, collect data, and specify procedures that contribute to the pursuit of zero defects.
    • Quality audits are checks of quality procedures to ensure that employees and suppliers are following proper quality practices.

  • TQM’s seven basic elements

    • Successful practice of Total Quality Management involves both technical and people aspects that cover the entire organization and extend to relationships with suppliers and customers.
    • Seven basic elements capture the essence of the TQM philosophy: customer focus, continuous improvement, employee empowerment, quality tools, product design, process management, and supplier quality.
    • Quality tools: Discussion of the details of quality tools extends beyond the scope of this chapter, but there are seven basic quality tools that are used by front-line workers and managers in monitoring quality performance and gathering data for quality improvement activities.
    • Process management: "Quality at the Source" is an important concept in TQM.
    • It means that managers and employees should be focused on the detailed activities in a process where good or bad quality is created.

  • Quality decisions

    • The decision relating to quality is not "how much" quality to have.
    • If asked whether they support high quality in their organization, virtually all managers will respond enthusiastically that they fully support high quality!
    • For example, while all managers may say they support quality, how many will support the capital expenditure to purchase new equipment that can meet tighter tolerance requirements more consistently?
    • How many managers will send teams of quality engineers to supplier facilities to assist suppliers with their quality programs?
    • How much attention and resources does management give to employee skill development and training in the use of quality tools and in the philosophy of defect prevention?

  • Management Levels: A Hierarchical View

    • Examples of top-level managers include a company's board of directors, president, vice-president and CEO; examples of middle-level managers include general managers, branch managers, and department managers; examples of low-level managers include supervisors, section leads, and foremen.
    • General managers, branch managers, and department managers are all examples of middle-level managers.
    • Middle-level managers devote more time to organizational and directional functions than top-level managers.
    • Also referred to as first-level managers, low-level managers are role models for employees.
    • These managers provide: