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Ford Motor Company discovered the importance of quality control the hard way
when introducing a new model that had transmissions made in both the United
States and Japan; they soon discovered their American buyers wanted the model
only with the Japanese-built transmission. As both transmissions were made to
identical specifications, Ford engineers could not understand the customer
preference for Japanese transmission and finally decided to examine one of each.
They discovered that although the American transmission parts were all within
specified tolerances, the Japanese parts were much closer to the nominal values
- if a part was supposed to be 12 +/- 1/8 the Japanese parts were produced to
12 +/- 1/16. The Japanese attention to precise manufacturing produced a
better transmission and made for a happy customer.
Process arrows
important.
problem.
A run chart can be used to track the values of a variable over time.
This can aid in identifying trends or other patterns that may be
occurring.
The strategic plan needs to ensure quality is considered a core component. Its a
critical part of achieving an organizations vision, mission, and goals.
Continual improvement:Continual improvement drives an organization to be both analytical and creative
in finding ways to become more competitive and more effective at meeting
stakeholder requirements and expectations.
Fact-based decision making:Profit & loss is not the only way to judge how a company is performing; data on
performance is also necessary. TQM requires that an organization continually
collect and analyze data in order to improve decision-making accuracy, and
make forecasts based on previous data.
Communications:During times of organizational change, as well as part of day-to-day operation,
effective communications plays a large part in maintaining morale and in
motivating employees at all levels.
These elements are considered so essential to TQM that many organizations
define them, in some format, as a set of core values and principles on which the
organization is to operate.
IMPLEMENTING TQM
Although different authorities on total quality management emphasize different
techniques and use different terminology, all share three common ideas: quality,
teamwork and process improvement. Although many books have been written to
guide U.S. companies through TQM, one of the major writers was Joseph
Jablonski. In Implementing TQM, he identified three characteristics:
(1) Participative management;
(2) Continuous process improvement; and
(3) Utilization of teams.
U.S. companies have long relied upon company organization by functions. TQM
emphasizes a decentralized structure to encourage leadership and creativity. The
purpose of this change in structure is to change the behaviour of the employees.
This is a major change for most U.S. companies. However, successful companies
have more functional integration and fewer layers of hierarchy.