Running Head: QUALITY MANAGEMENT HOME WORK

Quality Management Homework

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Contents

Introduction ……      …………………………………………………………………………….3

Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………….3

      Fundamentals of total quality management……………………………………………….3

      How the concepts actually improve the quality of the organization…… ………………4

Body of the Report     ……………………………………………………………………………5

Fundamental concepts apply and benefit an organization………………………………5

How Brown Shoe Can Use This Model……………………………………………………5

Barriers when implementing total quality management…………………………………..6

      How to overcome the barriers……………………………………………………………..7

Conclusion……………………………………     ………………………………………………8

 

Quality Management Homework

Introduction

Quality control management is a tool used by the management to improve the overall performance of the organization. These are the strategies taken by a company to improve both the product and the services of the employee. Total quality control can be done to any organization and the only difference is that the companies always have different total quality control management policies. It can also be the same in some organizations if they follow certain standards like the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO 9000) series but it can never be exact.

Executive Summary

Fundamental concepts of total quality management

Fundamental concepts of total quality management are those concepts that help the management in implementing the total quality management of the organization. There can never be two organizations, which have the same concepts however; there are a number of models, which organizations can use. They include the Deming prize model, the Malcolm Baldrige criteria for performance and excellence, the European foundation for quality management and the ISO quality management standards. However, there is a simple model, which can be used. They include the following concepts:

• Understanding the consumer needs: This is where the management tries to understand of what the customers want in the product produced.
• Planning of the day-to-day activities in relation to the information collected: After collecting the information on the customer needs, then a plan needs to be created to achieve these needs.
• Constantly improve the planning process of the organization: Customer needs change very often therefore the implementation for the planning process needs to be reviewed regularly to improve customer satisfaction.
• Finally, there is total participation: This means that the management and the employees come together and work as a team.

How the concepts actually improve the quality of the organization

When these concepts are applied in the organization, they definitely improve the total quality management of both the services of the employee and the product itself. They improve the total quality management in the following ways. First, the organization needs to get information about the product and what the customer needs from the product. After this, the management will formulate a plan on how the product is going to be produced. In this plan, the management should have policies like employee training, that is, individual improvement of the employee.

After all this has been done, the management should constantly keep on reviewing the total quality management strategies to improve the customer satisfaction and this should be done by motivating the employees. This can be done by employee appraisal and employee involvement in business decisions. In addition, improving the quality of the product may be done by changing the policies about the suppliers. Instead of having many suppliers, the organization should shift to one supplier to keep consistency quality production as opposed to when there are many suppliers; therefore, the organization should not be price-oriented.

 

 

 

Body of the Report

Fundamental concepts apply and benefit an organization.

Brown Shoe Company is based in New York, but it has many retail shops all over the United States. It deals with the manufacturing of shoes for women, men and children. All over the years, it has undergone different total quality management strategies to improve the quality of its products and the efficiency of its employees. For the company to improve further on its total quality management, Brown Shoe Company can try using the simple model of total quality management concepts.

 How Brown Shoe Can Use This Model.

Since Brown is a very large company, first they should do an extensive research on what there customers need in the different retail stores they have in the US. This should range widely from comfort ability to fashion. Different age groups have different types of fashion and what one age group calls comfort, is a discomfort to another. It also should be noted that this fashions change very often therefore they have to keep up with research after every now and then. This helps them to know what there customers need and what type of shoes they need in order to produce the shoes that will satisfy there customers.

After this research, the Brown Shoe Company management will be required to sit down and plan no how they are going to produce these shoes. This planning process involves how they are going to make the shoes. This means that they have to implement the old processes that they were using before and change to the new process, which will suit the new design. After this has been done, the management needs to come together with the employee towards the production of these shoes. They should work as a team where the management should be the team leader. The shoes are now produced as the final product.

However, after the shoe has been produced, the management should go back to the customers and ask them whether they have been satisfied. After getting a report, they should start implementing it by involving the employees and asking them of what they think of the shoes and what services should be offered in order to increase the customer satisfaction. This will usually motivate the employees thus leading to employee’s efficiency. Additionally, they can improve the employee’s efficiency by offering training to them. This training will boost the skills of the employee thus leading to efficiency.

Finally, they can try to cut unnecessary costs by, one reducing the number of suppliers. This reduces the costs and at the same time, it helps in the maintenance of the quality of the shoes. When a single supplier is being used, he usually tends to sell goods to Brown Shoe Company at lower prices due to their loyalty and the company can give or acquire information from the supplier on how to improve the quality its products. This will generally increase both the quality of the shoes and the efficiency of its employees.

Barriers of implementing total quality management

The first barrier that is usually in many companies is in the initial stage. Many organizations do not know where to start therefore they end up not even starting at all to implement the total quality management models. In the case of Brown Shoe Company, it can be a barrier. Since the company is very big, the management might have difficulties in determining where to start. The management might also find difficulties in identifying the problems that might need to be implemented. Therefore, it becomes difficult for them to start implementing the total quality management.

Poor planning is also another hindrance to many organizations. Since the total quality management of organizations differs from one organization to another, it means that there are no definite strategies of planning the process. When an organization has poorly planned its processes, it becomes difficult for it to implement or even start the total quality management. If incase the management of Brown Shoe Company plans there processes poorly, it would have been very unlikely to implement the total quality management strategy for them.

Many organizations take total quality management as the improvement of the product only. This leads to the negligence of the employee. They do not communicate or even involve the employees in the process. This leads to the demotivation of the employees hence reducing the general efficiency of the employees. In addition to this, many organizations fear that if there is employee involvement, the employees start to get power, which might lead to strikes. This fear leads to poor implementation of the strategies.

There is also the fear of change. Many employees fear change because they think that they might be fired or be replaced by the management. This leads to a lot of rebellion by the employees towards any changes that the management might be trying to implement. If the employees of the Brown Shoe Company start to grow fear in them because of the implementation, it might be very difficult for the management to implement anything. This will lead to insufficiency of the employees leading to poor production of the product.

How to overcome the barriers

First, the companies need to identify the problems that might require implementation and have a clear understanding of where they are required to start. This will help them to kick off with the initial stage of the process. Secondly, the organization must have a good plan of how they are going to implement these concepts. This means that they should have a good documentation of the information they have received from customers and well laid strategies of how they should go about with the implementation. This will ensure that the implementation process run smoothly without any problems.

The management of the organizations should have a good communication network with its employees. They should reduce any amount of fear in them and involve the employees in any decision making process of the organization. Therefore, the problem of concentrating with product improvement is reduced and the organization solves the problem of improving the employees’ efficiency at work. Additionally the management can offer training to its employment to motivate them hence reducing the fear of both the management and the employee thus increasing the employee efficiency.

Conclusion

            Total quality management has been proven by many organizations to be very effective. They are said to have added advantages to the organization using them. The total quality management of different organizations varies with another; therefore, it means that no organization can have the same total quality management with any other organization. However, before deciding on whether to implement, company’s management should be educated on the different concepts of total quality management.