A ROADMAP FOR IMPLEMENTING TOTAL QUALITY

MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

ABSTRACT
This paper describes a seven point framework for effective total quality
management (TQM) implementation in medium enterprises (MEs). This framework
shows that top management commitment and involvement is indispensable in the
formulation and implementation of various quality adoption steps. The significant steps
of the framework include development of mission and vision statement, formulating
implementation plan, ensuring employee involvement, establishing education and
training programs and starting implementation phase. At the last, continuous
improvement is required to maintain the implementation effort for excellence orientation.
The primary objective of this study was to prescribe a roadmap for TQM practicing MEs
to adopt excellent quality practices in a simplified way. The author also tried to highlight
the theoretical background while emphasizing the importance of steps of quality
improvement practices. The idea behind taking MEs for adopting TQM practices is that
the characteristics of MEs are most suited for it. However, TQM is a modern quality
management practice which can be applied successfully to any type of enterprises,
irrespective of their affiliation.
Key words: Total quality management, continuous improvement, mission statement,
involvement, customer satisfaction.

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2325838

1.0

INTRODUCTION
The implementation of total quality management (TQM) is a participative

management approach. It involves a decision to change the mindset of people from

existing quality improvement practices to enhanced quality awareness, education,
training, involvement, communication, skill up-gradation and problem solving attitude. It
focuses on laying foundation of quality improvement with emphasis on zero defect
programs, quality control circles, motivation programs, developing mission statements,
establishing objectives and practicing quality tools and techniques. It demand an
unprecedented top management commitment for initiating quality improvement activities
as top management play a significant role in emphasizing commitment of employees,
customers and suppliers. It aims for continuous improvements of organisational
efficiency through remarkable reduction in rework time and process variance (Kumar et
al, 2002). It seeks to aim quality in everything, every time and at all levels (Sornam,
2003) by orienting excellence and embedding self-control in each work unit for total
customer satisfaction. In long term, it may lead to disappearance of the need of
inspection, because quality builds in the design itself (Sarvan, 1997).
TQM consists of three words, where, Total signifies made up of the whole;
Quality shows the degree of excellence, a product or service provide and
Management is the act or manner of handling, controlling, directing etc (Dale et al,
1999). It creates a completely win-win relationship in all areas. Although, it is applicable
in every type and function of organisation, but, medium enterprises (MEs) show the
unique characteristics of flexibility, flat type organisation structure, innovation capability
and customer orientation which make them free from complexities of big enterprises and

2
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2325838

drawback of small scale enterprises. However, in India, the implementation of TQM in

medium enterprises is still in infancy stage. For this fallback, the significant reasons may
include of:
a) Lack of availability of power and other infrastructure facilities required for
smooth running of MEs.
b) Lack of technical know how, lack of training facilities, poor industrial
relations, undeveloped production and distribution channels and inadequacy
of management.
c) Incapable team management with deficient in knowledge, lack of resources,
and a lack of time for developing competitive strategies (Leung and Lo,
2000).
d) Cynical management behaviour when they are unable to benefit from self
regulation and management tools, in the process of tackling quality problems
(Sammalisto, 2001).
e) Unable to market their products strategically because of various lacks i.e. lack
of marketing strategy, lack of strong technical and domain expertise, lack of
strong client reference and competitive price pressure from big and
multinational corporations (Mittal, 2003).
f) Inability to identify technological needs because of poor financial situation,
lower R&D participation, poor adoptability to changing trade needs and
isolation from technological hubs (Kharbanda, 2001).
g) Failures associated with benchmarking, employee involvement, addressing
cultural issues and maintaining consistence in their quality journey.

2.0

ROADMAP

FOR

IMPLEMENTING

TOTAL

QUALITY

MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

For effective TQM implementation, the under mentioned seven step roadmap can
help MEs to comprehend quality improvement activities into their organisation structure.
This may also provide structural guidelines for MEs, who are aspired to adopt TQM as an
instrument of quality improvement. It can also facilitate practitioners to assess the needed
skills and resources for adopting quality practices. It also highlights about the training
requirements, methodology and importance of waste elimination programs. The MEs, in
particular, may get more benefits with their very nature of flexibility, innovativeness,
conducive organisation structure and customer orientation. This roadmap is also
important because it signifies the simple steps, which every medium enterprise can
follow easily.
Figure 1: A Roadmap of TQM Implementation in MEs
1. Top management commitment

2. Development of mission, vision and quality

plan
3. Development of implementation plan

4. Ask for total involvement by all

5. Establish education and training program

6. Start implementation phase

7. Maintain the implementation effort with

continuous improvement

3.0 TOP MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT

The importance of top management commitment in TQM implementation,
particularly at the start of implementation phase, is exceptional. It is possibly the most
important principle which appears everywhere in the organisation and requires providing
an inspiring vision and making strategic directions that can be understood by all. It
propagates that the commitment has to start at the top in setting business strategies
based on using product quality as a weapon to capture the global market share and
rewarding employees for achieving excellence in product quality (Bhatt, 2002). The
commitment provides flexibility and focuses and comes in all shapes and sizes (Robbins,
2003). It can be assured by learning of quality practices (even from employees, if needed)
from ones successful and unsuccessful experiences as well as from modern management
methods of benchmarked organisations. This learning attitude can lead to an enhanced
decision making ability of managers. The commitment also is assured by strongly
encouraging employee participation in quality improvement activities by way of
suggestion acceptance, taking employee action responsibilities and by being open in
listening to the voice of employees. The training can also help in establishing
commitment by ensuring alignment of TQM practices with organisational goals, helping
removing roadblocks and placing resources for effective implementation of TQM in the
organisation.
Top management commitment is also essential for effective TQM implementation
because:

a)

It improves performance by influencing other TQM practices (Kaynak,

2003) i.e. employee empowerment, participation, supplier quality
management and customer satisfaction.

b)

It has a direct effect on infrastructure development, sophistication, process

management, efficiency and stakeholder participation (Ahire and
Ravichandran, 2001).

c)

It is essential for an organisations integrative functions (Chin and Choi,

2003) as it helps to promote a culture of commitment by devoting at least
one third of their time on quality (Dale et al, 1999).

d)

All management strategies are influenced by their views on quality

(Yeung et al, 2003).

e)

High

top

management

commitment

positively affects

employee

commitment and provides higher quality products (Kaynak, 2003).

f)

Lack of top management commitment has emerged as a reason for the

failure of TQM in some organisations (Kayanak, 2003) and possibly the
most frequently mentioned problem (Wiele and Brown, 1997).

However, for effective TQM implementation, the following commitment

practices are important:
i)

Top management must practice the philosophy of management by

wandering around (MBWA) and should visit the customers, departments,
plants and suppliers; talk to the people and there by pushing the problem
solving and decision making to the lowest appropriate level by delegating
authority and responsibility (Dale et al, 1999).

ii)

As a transformation leader, top management should understand the

collective aspiration of their followers and are able to create institutions,
which can empower employees to satisfy those needs (Bennis and Bert,
1985).

iii)

The behaviour of top management should be organisation oriented which

can create a clarity and unity of purpose within the organisation and an
environment in which the organisation and its people can excel (Kanda et
al, 2002).

iv)

They should understand the strategies, philosophies, values and goals and
transmit it to the down throughout the organisation.

v)

Since leaders are champions of change, they should accept managed risk;
with open communication throughout the entire organisation, manage by
walking around and set vision based upon companys goals and visions
(Dale et al, 1999).

vi)

They should know their teams skills so that they can use these skills into
strengths (Robbins, 2003).

vii)

They should take employees as their partners in meeting the ultimate goal
of delighting the customers (Gatchalion, 1997), and should provide the
optimal conditions for workers to do their job in best possible manner.

viii)

They should inspire the employees, both individually and collectively to

make their best efforts by their ability, personality, education and
experience (Mohanty and Lakhe, 2002).

ix)

They should serve as role models, lead by example, set directions and
create a customer orientation, clear and visible quality values and high
expectations to ensure that customer requirements are understood and met
throughout the company.

x)

Management should clearly communicate with operational staff that the

ultimate objective of TQM is quality improvement for better customer
satisfaction and business process streamlining. The decisions should be
based on quantitative facts otherwise; it may lead to rumours, which can
be counterproductive (Aritomo, 2003).

xi)

Top management is to outline the quality goals, quality policies and

quality plans so that employees get reminded constantly that the customer,
not the product is the top priority (Eng and Yusof, 2003).

xii)

The top management should possess certain leadership traits i.e. passion,
populism and disciplined responsibility (Feigenbaum and Feigenbaum,
2003).

xiii)

They should pursue long term business success instead of short-term

benefits by focusing on product quality rather than yields. They should
believe that improvement takes time and with the continuation of TQM
practices, implementation can be improved.

xiv)

They should trust employees and believe that they can do better as well as
encourage employees to list the firms shortcomings and report their own
working problems.

xv)

They should have self knowledge, because if they do not know about
themselves and what drives them to do what they does, they may have the
likelihood of misinterpreting and misusing the data by which their
capabilities may get compromised. The lack of self-knowledge is the most
common source of leadership failures (Bennis, 2004).

xvi)

They must always be certain that they are assuring the full spectrum of
data and opinion (Bennis, 2004).

xvii)

Since they are the most influential people with their behaviour,
personality, commitment, perseverance and customer focus, they should
bear the responsibility for influencing the organisation with the values,
goals, vision and culture that is key to the success and survival of the
organisation.

xviii) They should sincerely embrace TQM principles with strength and
commitment and understand the actions that are required to be successful.
xix)

They should be committed towards establishing a firm with quality as a

primary goal with spreading quality consciousness throughout the
organisation.

In MEs, top management commitment is a pre-requisite for developing,

implementing and delegating strategies and action plans. Top management must proclaim
the company vision and ensure the excitement and motivation of staff for achieving it.
Their visible conviction and demonstration in the form of co-operation, praise,
encouragement, team development and creation of condition for excellence can go a long
way in creating the commitments toward TQM. However, the management in medium

enterprises are busy and often preoccupied by their day-to-day activities. They find it
hard to spare themselves for appraisal, improvement and planning for activities.
Nevertheless, to excel and position in a global market place, they need to be committed
towards TQM practices.

4.0 DEVELOPMENT OF MISSION, VISION AND QUALITY

POLICY STATEMENTS
Mission statement is the nature of the organisations commitment to provide a
sense of purpose, direction and priorities for developing and maintaining the quality plan.
It represents the organisations vision, to where it wants to be in a particular time.
Generally, it is a clear statement of purpose for employees, customers and suppliers for
long-term interest and survival of the organisation. It tied to the organisations operations
through projects, actions, rewards and recognition. It is usually viewed as a declaration of
corporate philosophy where objective is to influence thoughts and deeds of employees. A
mission statement is usually one paragraph or less in length statement, is easy to
understand. It answers the questions like, who we are? Who are the customers; what
we do; and how we do it (Dale et al, 1999). However, it should be broad enough to
invite the organisational involvement in interpreting, refining and making it operational
(Panda and Gupta, 2003).
For effective mission development, the involvement of all stakeholders,
transformational leaders, top management support, effective communication and
congruity of organisational and individual values are required (Panda and Gupta, 2003).

10

The top management plays an important role in the development of mission statement by
articulating, rationalising and finding a mechanism to engage the whole organisation.
A vision is a desired goal or outcome to achieve. According to Mazur (1998),
vision is how the organisation sees itself or wishes to be seen at some time in the future
i.e. by 510 years. He is also of the view that vision statement should contain a direction
or indicator of improvement along with a measurable target value of how much
improvement the company wants to achieve in terms of its current performance level and
its envisioned performance level and a time limit by when the improvement should be
realised. The quality vision is a statement regarding what an organisation will become
and how good the organisation intends to be in the future and it creates a common focus
for the business organisation (Dalela and Saurabh, 1999). It also focuses on meeting the
needs of the customers, provide for total community involvement, and developing
systems to measure the benefit, manage change to support systems and striving for
continuous improvement to make the product better (Shukla, 2002).
The vision is like lighthouse pointing the way and showing the hazards. It must
be powerful enough to ignite the combined imagination of employees and provide a
rallying point to create positive stretch. However, it must always be slightly beyond reach
but not a dream of impossible nature. It is to be translated into meaningful functions,
activities, tasks and subtasks. The target has to be assigned in consultation with the
employees for their translation into inputs and outputs in quantitative terms so that the
realism involved in the vision is appreciated (Ramaswamy, 2000).
In Indian companies, the vision building exercise is either consultant centric or
begins and ends with the top management and there is hardly any percolation, sharing

11

and exchange of reactions and contribution of employees across the organisation. (Singh
and Bhandarkar, 2002). In case of MEs, managers are entrepreneurs who like challenging
vision for their companies with everyones support for positive development.
Quality policy can be defined as formally expressed quality intention and
direction of an organisation by top management. It is documented outcome of the process
of strategic quality planning and services to provide internal consistency between the
goals and the process of a firm by aligning each member, division and element of the
organisation towards the long-term objectives of the firm (Arora, 1998). It is an
organisations statement of its commitment to quality. It guide to everyone, which
articulates the principles of TQM that management has identified as being most
appropriate and describes the quality objective of the TQM system. It describes who is to
take TQM leadership and how products and services can be provided to customers. The
CEO writes it with involvement, in form of feedback, and approval by the quality
council. It is the main documented reference point for planning and putting TQM into
practice. It is formally expressed overall intention and direction of top management to
quality. It involves simple, brief, clear and believable statement which is available to
everyone to benchmark their action in conformance with standards and values. However,
a quality policy need to be defined, documented, understood, implemented and
maintained (Mohanty and Lakhe, 2002). It should be evolved with the participation and
consensus of concerned and should take into account the enterprise background and
culture, technology and market trends as well as managements long term goals. A
written policy serves as a reference to remove vagueness and ambiguity and covers some
or all aspects of customer satisfaction.

12

Formulation and implementation of TQM policy and programmes requires an

establishment of harmony and congruence among the various business policies with a
focus on TQM for achieving significant results (Sundararaju, 1997). The advantages
attached with quality policy are predictability to outsiders, guide to managerial action,
initiating quality thinking and establishes legitimacy. It can be communicated in an
authoritative manner with permissible auditable practices. The disadvantages attached
with this are structural in nature where they require detailed meetings for refinements of
drafts, before and after implementation. Many a time, it plays a restrictive role to the
innovation process with narrowed range of action.

5.0 DEVELOPMENT OF IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Quality improvement plans are activities of establishing objectives, requirements
and application of quality system elements. These plans should be made in such a way
that it can be implemented in practice with focus on eliminating the major problem areas.
As an evolutionary process, it can be effectively implemented with systematic
improvement plans. As a systematic approach, it should include time dimension, such as
time for preparation, the actual start of the implementation, observation and checking,
investigation and analysis of results. It should also include the department, responsible
for implementation that should be informed about the time availability for
implementation. The premise that every firm has some weak areas and possibilities of
improvement is the idea behind quality improvement. The firm should find the
possibilities that can digest and provide real nourishment. In this process, the
improvement plan should pay sufficient attention towards consolidating the strong areas

13

for its better improvement. Generally, improvement plan takes 2-3 years to bear fruit and
starts with a single quality plan and goes through implementing suggestion system,
developing recognition and reward system, rotating job positions for cross training of
employees, starting a newsletter and other steps towards its ultimate objective of
stakeholder satisfaction, both now and in the future.

6.0 TOTAL INVOLVEMENT BY ALL

Total involvement means giving employees or their team the ownership of a
particular quality goal. Since, people at all level are the essence of an organisation as a
driving force for improvement; their full involvement enables organisation benefit. The
purpose of total involvement is to motivate employees in quality related activities using a
variety of management techniques (e.g. teams, task force approaches, suggestions, quality
control circles, collaborative decision making etc.), where everyone in the organisation
works towards the goal of customer satisfaction (Isakson and Spencer, 2000). It is crucial
in achieving and sustaining a high level of quality (Bhatt, 2002). It is a process for
empowering members of an organisation to make decision and to solve problems
appropriate to their level in the organisation. It is an approach to improving quality and
productivity which is a means to better meet the organisational goals of quality and
productivity at all levels of an organisation (Dale et al, 1999). It can be achieved by
making every employee part of the organisation (Eng and Yusof, 2003). It needs to
facilitate TQM implementation because TQM needs both the commitment and creative
ideas of employees.

14

In a TQM organisation, focusing on employees involvement is crucial because

employees create good working conditions in the process of producing and delivering of
quality outputs. The proper training, tools, information and empowerment required for
quality excellence help their involvement and true utilisation. It felt necessary for
changing the organisation culture, fostering individual development, training,
establishing awards, incentives and encouraging teamwork. Here, training can be attained
through classroom, on the job, coaching in problem solving, job rotation and pay for
demonstrated knowledge and skills.

7.0

ESTABLISHMENT

OF

EDUCATION

AND

TRAINING

PROGRAMS
The training and development is an effective participative methodology of
providing necessary skills and knowledge to make the things happen as desired. Training
is critical component of work force management because it is impossible to improve any
operation without a well-trained work force (Kaynak, 2003). Training and development is
very important for employees to be highly productive and requires interpersonal skills,
ability to function within teams, problem solving, decision-making, job management and
performance analysis and improvement. It transforms employees into problem solvers
(Kaynak, 2003), which is necessary for improving processes and must be continuous for
the implementation efforts to sustain. It also helps building an environment of cooperation, competitiveness, teamwork, and innovative ways of doing things where every
employee learn to shoulder more of responsibility for effective improvement. In a TQM
organisation, training of the deployment of TQM systems creates an excitement about the

15

quality process among all stakeholders, employees and staff. Training also helps
employees to think creatively. But, Lock (1996) is of the view that training should be
provided only when there is clearly defined needs to be satisfied. These needs may be as
follows:
i)

The need to improve the general quality of products and services;

ii)

The need to improve a specific aspect of quality; and

iii)

The need to learn to use a quality control or quality improvement system.

In MEs, training and development programs can be initiated by:

i)

Training the manpower with the use of basic quality management tools,
which may include cause and effect analysis, flow charts, process flow
diagrams, pareto charts, run (trend) charts, histograms, scatter diagrams
and control charts.

ii)

Initiating a training plan drawn up in line with the firms strategies,

objectives, available resources, current employee skills and their job
requirements.

iii)

Making training relevant, flexible and affordable.

iv)

Gearing the training to specific, clearly defined objectives, which must be

prepared as close as possible to the time it is required.

v)

Reinforcing training to ensure the desired results.

vi)

Appointing a trainer who can help learning with the help of OHP,
flipcharts, workbooks and exercises through training sessions.

16

vii)

Appointing facilitator who can carefully observe the group activities and
ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate and take part in the
discussions.

viii)

The trainer and facilitator, both can also act as mentor, innovator and
coach in this process of ensuring learning practices in the organisation.

8.0

START IMPLEMENTATION PHASE

Implementation phase is related to realisation of tangible and intangible dreams

that results by quality improvement. It also signifies that key principles of TQM such as
customer satisfaction, employee empowerment and continuous improvement are well
accepted and deployed within the firm.
In MEs, the TQM implementation involves the following steps:
a)

Selection of appropriate quality tools, techniques and initiatives for

continuous improvement.

b)

Creating processes in which individuals or groups will do it right the first

time and do the right things right.

c)

Planning the implementation process carefully so that it can be customised

according to the type of firm, industry condition, and maturity of firm and
general readiness by all for the change acceptance (Dooley and Flor,
1998).

d)

Maintain a consistent commitment to quality by continuously rejecting the

status quo.

17

e)

The implementation initiative should start with existing resources

immediately and try to sustain momentum with a focussed vision.

f)

A thorough and systematic analysis of customer expectations.

g)

A purpose driven and management led TQM initiative because employees

perform according to believes and need of their managers.

h)

Address and defend the intended quality initiative of implementing

organisation and promoting it throughout the organisation.

i)

A common goal for both management and employees because conflict in

goals lead to generation of human errors.

j)

Diffusing TQM success stories based on small case experimentation of

competitors or other organisations by management. It will demonstrate
that managers are knowledgeable with latest approaches and capable of
leading the organisation.

k)

An appropriate reward and incentive scheme to mobilise TQM principles.

l)

Retaining big picture vision for making difference to customers

(Richard, 2003).

9.0 MAINTAINING THE IMPLEMENTATION EFFORT WITH

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Continuous improvement means all systems and processes in the organisation are
subject to constant evaluation and improvement. It can be defined as a commitment to
continuous examination of technical and administrative processes in search of better
results (Ojha, 2000). It is a commitment in an organisation, a system of process, which

18

are commonly examined in an organisation in search of better methods and based on

flexibility to make the changes where ones or others innovations play an important role.
It has a significant impact on the development of strategy as well as its implementation
(Chapman and Hyland, 2000). It is the road of prosperity and people must develop
improvement consciousness and identify the opportunities for improvement on a
permanent and continuous basis. The continuous improvement should commence with
identifying to improve the ways of doing things and start when an objective achieved,
where, every system, programme or project has a precision for an improvement cycle.
Improvement made is required to keep pace and stay in business. Here improvement can
be defined as results, which can only be claimed after beneficial change in an
organisational performance. It is continuously striving for improvement, from small to
incremental and to breakthroughs (Wang and Miller, 2000). In an organisation, it is
commitment, a system of process, which commonly examined in the company in search
of better methods (Sammalisto, 2001). It is a proven technique, based on the premise that
each employee is capable of making small improvement and significant progress is
possible by addition of small contribution by a large number of employees in an
organisation. It has a significant impact on the development of strategy as well as its
implementation (Chapman and Hyland, 2000). It is based on flexibility to make the
changes where ones or others innovations play an important role. TQM organisations
emphasize on continuous improvement for achievement of customer satisfaction because
basic thrust of TQM philosophy is improvement after improvement (Sundararaju, 1997).
However, it is not focussed upon other impulses than coming from the customer.

19

In an organisation, the continuous improvement practices help to change the

attitude where the defence of status quo and resistance to innovation cannot be treated as
normal management behaviour. Instead, it leads to congratulating people on their
identifying problems instead of fear of reprisals for reporting problems. However, in
many cases, the behaviour puts hindrances in the way of continuous improvement
because it takes more time to change. In this case, the required effort may need to be
doubled. To ensure continuous improvement of processes and products, specific tools are
available to provide objective ways of measuring and controlling variation in the
production process. The first tool is SPC (Statistical Process Control), which is an
effective way to improve quality on continuous basis. The second tool is benchmarking
which seeks out best practices and products from within the firm or among competitors
so that processes and products can be improved by learning from the experts. The third is
the collection and use of quality data, which includes sharing of both financial and nonfinancial information with all employees and providing necessary feedback to achieve
continuous improvement in quality throughout the firm (Barker and Cagwin, 2000). The
continuous improvement practice is of three types i.e. gradual, incremental and
breakthroughs. The gradual improvement is a continuous never-ending change process.
Incremental improvement described as continual improvement. Here, both, gradual and
incremental can be described as Kaizen practices whereas, breakthroughs can be
described as a giant leap, which tend to arise out of chance discoveries.
In a business excellence model, continuous improvement practices focus on
enablers i.e. leadership, process, resources, organisation structure, and people processes
which helps better business results i.e. productivity, cost, time to market, delivering

20

responsiveness, profit maximization and customer and employee satisfaction. It requires a

disciplined approach based on trust, with everyone in the organisation striving to improve
the system (Eng and Yusof, 2003).
In MEs, TQM implementation efforts are maintained through continuous
improvement where defence of status quo and resistance to innovation are not treated as
normal human management behaviour. Instead of that, every effort of continuous
improvement leads to congratulating people on their identifying problem in place of a
reprisal for reporting it. In an organization, the idea of improvement come from the
people, who are directly or indirectly involved.
The maintenance of continuous improvement effort in TQM implementation is a
critical part of roadmap, which demands continuous education, training and development,
mentorship and an orientation for quality improvement from all personnel of the
enterprise. It also required that all personnel should integrate their acquired skills with
their current job and continue to do on a continuous basis.

SUMMARY
The aforementioned roadmap prescribes a seven-step model for effective TQM
implementation in MEs. As a first step, top management commitment can be ensured by
practicing management by wandering around (MBWA), being transparent, empowering
employees, developing development strategies, undertaking managed risk, evolving
teamwork practices, serving as role models, evolving quality goals and practicing
sincerely TQM principles as an ultimate objective of customer satisfaction. The mission,
vision and quality policy statements constitute as second important step of this roadmap

21

for directing and effecting implementation of quality plan of the organization. In this,
mission statements asks for the involvement, commitment and support across hierarchies.
Vision statement is a management and consultant centric exercise for assimilating and
encouraging complete workforce towards realizing the organizational goals. However,
quality policy shows an intention and direction of the commitment of the organization for
a consistent movement towards organizational goals. As third important step,
development of TQM implementation plan is the physical establishment of objectives,
specifying requirements and applying it in a time bound manner. TQM implementation,
generally, targets weak areas of the organization and takes about 2-3 years in fructifying
the results. Employee involvement is also a prerequisite in this prescribed roadmap which
advocates distribution of ownership of quality goal amongst employees because it
motivates employees towards quality related activities in the form of team formation,
providing suggestions, forming quality circles and taking part in decision making as the
ultimate objective of customer satisfaction. It not only results into organizational
development but also to individual development. In roadmap, training and development
holds an important position for providing necessary skills and knowledge to undertake
desired benchmarking practices for overall excellence oriented management practices. It
requires interpersonal skills, functional ability, decision-making, job management and
performance analysis on the part of trainers and facilitators with their mentor, innovator
and coaching role. The implementation phase characterized to realize the tangible and
intangible dreams which, MEs can workout with appropriate quality tools, creating
favorable processes, customize plans according to their need, maintain commitment,
initiate with existed resources, analyze customer expectations and spread it through the

22

organization. However, implementation plan can be implemented by adopting common

corporate goal to avoid conflict by allowing appropriate reward and incentive schemes
and above all retaining a big picture vision. Since the TQM implementation is a journey
and not a destination, it requires a continued effort for maintaining improvement after
improvement. However, other six steps also help retaining continued effort towards
maintaining continuity of TQM implementation practices.

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