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:

  • Introduction

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

  • Total Quality Management (TQM)

    • Total quality management (TQM) is the continuous management of quality in all aspects of an organization.
    • Quality management is the study of improving the quality of a company's products and services.
    • Total quality management (TQM) promotes the importance of improving quality on a continuous basis.
    • Managing quality begins with delivering precisely what the customer wants.
    • Employ the total quality management (TQM) perspective to identify how to improve quality and efficiency on a continuous basis

  • 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.

  • Total Quality Management Techniques

    • Total Quality Management (TQM) is an integrative management philosophy for continuous improvement of the quality of an organization's products and processes in order to meet or exceed customer expectations.
    • There are several TMQ strategies used to improve business management systems.
    • Six Sigma drew inspiration from the quality improvement methodologies of preceding decades, including quality control, TQM, and Zero Defects.
    • It focuses on improving the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects while minimizing the variability in manufacturing and business processes Like TQM, the Six Sigma philosophy asserts that achieving sustained quality improvement requires commitment from the entire organization, particularly top-level management.
    • The Six Sigma management philosophy drew inspiration from the quality improvement methodologies of preceding decades, including TQM.

  • 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.

  • TQM

    • Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management philosophy based on the continuous improvement of the quality of business products and processes.
    • It is concentrated on quality and based on participation of all its stakeholders.
    • TQM includes management, workforce, suppliers, and customers to improve the quality of the product or service.
    • Quality: TQM requires a high degree of excellence of the quality of products or services provided by an business organization.
    • Management: The steps of TQM include planning, organizing, controlling, leading, staffing, and provisioning.

  • Quality

    • Consumers place a value on quality; therefore high quality products may be able to win share and/or command a price premium.
    • Product qualities can be divided into two main categories:
    • During the 1960s, the U.S. military, aerospace, and nuclear industries developed the original versions of the Quality Management System Standards (eventually merged to ISO 9001).
    • Quality Management – directing an organization so that it improves its performance through analysis and innovation.
    • Managing quality is fundamental to any activity, particularly in the design and manufacturing of consumer and industrial goods.

  • 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).

  • The Quality Control Cycle

    • Quality control and quality assurance have different purposes.
    • Quality control emphasizes product testing to discover defects and report them to management, which decides how to respond (by delaying the product release date, for example).
    • Submit the result to management.
    • If the percentage of defective products is too high, management should take corrective action to improve quality.
    • Elements, like controls, job management, defined and well-managed processes, performance and integrity criteria, and identification of records.

  • Quality Control and Assurance

    • Quality assurance and quality control are intended to ensure that products are created with the fewest number of defects possible.
    • Quality assurance and quality control are two methods of planning and implementing structured methods in a work process to ensure that products are created with the highest possible quality and with the smallest number of defects and problems.
    • QA includes managing the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products, components, services related to production, management processes, production processes, and inspection processes.
    • Quality control (QC) is the process of testing finished products to uncover defects and reporting the results to management, which makes the decision to allow or deny product release.
    • Discuss quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) as integral components of an effective organizational management structure