Total Quality Management and Its Importance

Quality is the standard or measure of excellence on a product or service which is used to manage the future outcome of what has been produced by a company either through more clients or profits. Quality is the new revolution that has been drastically the topic of every consumer which was started out in China in the early eighteenth century up to now. However, on the other hand, total quality management is the process that is used to manage quality and ensure that the goods and services produced are off high quality. The management practice focuses on the best quality at the lowest price and achieving customer requirements and initializing satisfaction as well (Dale & Plunkett, 2017).

Importance of Quality

1. Customer satisfaction - quality is used to check is the requirement that the customer wants for certain products and attempts to come with a way of producing it in order to offer customer satisfaction.
2. Lower cost - the priority aim and objective of quality is to produce the best products at a lower price in order to favor all parties of the consumer from all classes of the economy.
3. Profit - the end goal of all companies is initializing profit from their work hence aims at giving and producing the best quality for their products to increase the level of demand and maximize the interest rate through the increase in productivity.
4. Enhance competitiveness - the best way to create customer satisfaction and increase in the level of sales and expand the business is by ensuring stiff competition between the available companies producing the same products.

The Disadvantage of Low Quality

1. Loss in consumer confidence - it is always important to create consumer confidence in products because they help in the rising and expanding of business however when the quality is low the consumer is likely to be reluctant in purchasing the products and slowly the consumer will influence others who buy the same products.
2. Loss in business - it is very likely that poor quality can make a company lead to collapse when the consumer flee from their products and opt to another option (Mazzeo et al. 2018).
3. Poor performance - if the quality is bad the level of performance decreases because it also affects the employees and decreases their confidence while working. There was a similar scenario that occurred with the Toyota Company when the employees were focused on producing more vehicles and forgot to focus on quality and as a result of this it leads to the death of many consumers due to faulty cars.
4. Less profit, high price - when there is poor quality the consumers will flee away and opt for other options and thus leading to decrease in profits and more losses which in return will end up increasing prices of products because the consumers will go for other companies with high quality and because there will be little companies the monotony will lead to high prices for the products (Hurley et al. 2019).

Importance of TQM

1. Improved communication - management is a policy that is meant to bring people together and talking the same level. Customers will have confidence in the products produced and open up to the companies and communicate what they feel should be improved (Stanciu, Condrea & Zamfir, 2016).
2. Improved teamwork - quality is a collaboration of workers and the only way it can be established is if the employees are working together.
3. Build customer loyalty - consistency of quality on a certain product is to increase the level of loyalty because it makes them confidence in the products and makes them want to keep coming for more and more.
4. Employee’s skills - quality creates a room where the employees are allowed to show and bring their expertise to the table.
5. Innovation - through quality companies are able to focus on innovation and innovation of their products through strategic planning and teamwork collaboration.

Processes in Quality Management

This is achieved by first choosing one customer from within the company or even an employee. The chosen candidate should then focus on the technique that has been suggesting then the next step is figuring out the necessary process for implementation and focus on creating a strategic output which is then followed by learning what are the customer expectations and how this expectation can be satisfied (Tennant, 2017).

The Framework of Quality

• Performance

This a category that serves a great portion for strategic management as it influences the level of speed that the product can process, the comfort zone of the product and how easy or complex a particular product can be handled in the hands of a consumer.

• Reliability

How reliable is the product and does the product have a long warranty or a short one. The reliability of products creates consumer confidence and makes them loyal because they can trust the product and they are satisfied with it.

• Durability

This is the level that a particular product can last while still in good shape. The more durable the product runs the more demand is increased and high profits are counted.

• Serviceability

Consumers always go for products that can be done service and that won’t complicate when doing the service during the time of breakdown on the product. A good product should have ease recovery during service and have high speed when conducting it. Most customers end up complaining and choosing another alternative from their previous products because the level of being handled is quite complex.

Customer satisfaction

The concept of customer satisfaction is considered when the customer gets goods and services per the expectations he/she requested for.

Ways of Identifying Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a very important factor when it comes to growth of business and increase in sales and production. Below are ways of identifying customer satisfaction:

• Market research

This is an achieved through conducting survey and doing analysis which involves a lot of methods including questioners and inviting participants for questions among others. Market research is important because it helps in gathering of information and knowing the strengths of the company and weakness and how to solve them. The interview is mostly done when the customer enter the business in order to collect expectations and when the customer decides to leave in order to know where to improve.

• Customer feedback system

This is a form of system where customers are allowed to report comments and likes. This platform brings the customer and organization closer because the organization collects the information from customers directly. Some of the strategies that most organization uses include public address of the company, suggestion box method and lastly the use of email.

• Customer visit

This is where the organization decides to make time and visit customers personally through organizing business meetings with the clients and ideas, suggestions and perceptions are raised and incase of anything the customers are allowed to enquire where they feel there is a need through making a comment after an expert from the organization highlights the operation of the organization in relation to production of goods and services.

• Mystery shopper

This is a method that is mostly employed by the organization when the need of customer feedback is very urgent to the organization. In this method the mystery shopper is the manager of the organization who acts as a customer and goes to the market in order to collect all the information need by the organization.

Customer Satisfaction Model

This is a model or a technique used to ensure that there is great customer satisfaction to the fullest. Kano is the method used for the model which is divided into three categories namely the customer expectation quality, customer desire on quality and lastly customer excitement quality. Madzík (2018). Highlights on increasing accuracy of the Kano model – a case study.

A good example that highlights for both of them is a family buying a new car. There are things that the family expects during the period of buying a new car. When a new car is bought the family expects that when the driver hits breaks the car should come to a sudden stop. The customers expect certain desire when buying and near a car like for instance a customize car with more features like tinted screens on side or comfortable leather seats. On the other hand there is also an excited customers who are satisfied with first time impressions during buying cars. A good scenario is that the company will expect a free drive on the car that they suggests someone who gives them a ride while explaining how the car works and operate and how to go about certain manual when dealing with the family especially the kids like highlighting the safety measures. Lim et al. (2019). Talked about Customer Satisfaction and Its Impact on the Costs of Selling

Summary

Quality increases production level of a company and maintains customer confidence. Total quality management is very important as it is the new globalization in the market and is necessary for promoting teamwork. Quality is responsible for efficiency and effectiveness in the performance of a company. Quality management is necessary for assisting in planning a strategy and gathering the necessary information in order to outdo the competitors. It is important to make sure that the customers are satisfied based on their expectations, desires for the goods and products and lastly by offering exciting quality to them at a free cost in order to make them feel more comfortable before accepting the service or product. Customers expect that the products they purchase to be durable and long lasting with ease of used. They also expected the products not to have so many procedures during maintenance when conducting service on them. It is always good to conduct survey research before presenting purchase of goods and services to the customers.

Reference

1. Dale, B. G., & Plunkett, J. J. (2017). Quality Costing. Routledge.
2. Tennant, G. (2017). Six Sigma: SPC and TQM in Manufacturing and Services. Routledge.
3. Stanciu, A. C., Condrea, E., & Zamfir, C. (2016). The Importance of Communication in Quality Management. Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, 16(2), 393-396.
4. Hurley, P. J., Mayhew, B. W., Obermire, K., & Tegeler, A. C. (2019). The Impact of Managers’ Risk Aversion and Loss Aversion on Audit Quality Demand. Available at SSRN 3425666.
5. Mazzeo, M. J., Seim, K., & Varela, M. (2018). The Welfare Consequences of Mergers with Endogenous Product Choice. The Journal of Industrial Economics, 66(4), 980-1016.
6. Madzík, P. (2018). Increasing Accuracy of the Kano model – a Case Study. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 29(3-4), 387-409.
7. Lim, L. G., Tuli, K. R., & Grewal, R. (2019). Customer Satisfaction and Its Impact on the Costs of Selling. Rajdeep, Customer Satisfaction and Its Impact on the Costs of Selling (February 8, 2019).