Author: Mr D Wilson
Source of document: Internet
Date: 17/05/95
If we use the words Total Quality Management(TQM) to refer to a specific package of quality measures rather than using them in their wider sense, then the name to which they are sometimes attributed is that of Deming. Deming has laid down a 14-point plan for the achievement of TQM.
Point 1: Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of the product and service so as to become competitive, stay in business and provide jobs.
One management concern must be to deal with running the business on a day-to-day basis and the other must be to look after the future of the business. The latter requires constancy of purpose and dedication to improvement. Top management must spend time to innovate, put resources into research and education, constantly improve the design of the product and service, and put resources into maintenance of equipment, furniture and fixtures.
In this point Deming is thus condemning 'short-termism'.
Point 2: Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. We no longer need live with commonly accepted levels of delay, mistake, defective material and defective workmanship.
Deming's new philosophy is simple. The levels of error that could be tolerated yesterday cannot be tolerated today. Deming stresses that only management is in the position to do something about the vast majority of errors and it is management's task to remove the obstacles that prevent the worker from doing the job correctly.
Point 3: Cease dependence on mass inspection; require, instead, statistical evidence that quality is built in.
The problem with mass inspection is that it is an attempt to control the product rather than the process, and in any case, mass inspection is frequently subject to high levels of inaccuracy. In short, it is too late, ineffective and costly.
Point 4: Improve the quality of incoming materials. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of a price alone. Instead, depend on meaningful measures of quality, along with price.
Many of the problems of poor quality and low productivity are due to the poor quality of incoming materials and the low quality of tools and machines.
Point 5: Find the problems; constantly improve the system of production and service. There should be continual reduction of waste and continual improvement of quality in every activity so as to yield a continual rise in productivity and a decrease in costs.
Point 6: Institute modern methods of training and education for all. Modern methods of on-the-job training use control charts to determine whether a worker has been properly trained and is able to perform the job correctly. Statistical methods must be used to discover when training is complete.
Point 7: Institute modern methods of supervision. The emphasis of production supervisors must be to help people to do a better job. Improvement of quality will automatically improve productivity. Management must prepare to take immediate action on response from supervisors concerning problems such as inherited defects, lack of maintenance of machines, poor tools or fuzzy operational definitions.
It is part of a supervisor's job to coach the people that are being supervised.
Point 8: Fear is a barrier to improvement so drive out fear by encouraging effective two-way communication and other mechanisms that will enable 'everybody to be part of change, and to belong to it'. Fear can often be found at all levels in an organisation: fear of change, fear of the fact that it may be necessary to learn a better way of working and fear that their positions might be usurped frequently affect middle and higher management, whilst on the shop-floor, workers can also fear the effects of change on their jobs. The results of fear can be seen in inspection: operators may record incorrectly the results of inspecting their own work for fear of exceeding the quota of allowable defects and inspectors may falsify results to avoid the wrath of their colleagues.
Point 9: 'Break down barriers between departments and staff areas. People in different areas such as research, design, sales, administration and production must work in teams to tackle problems that may be encountered with products or service'.
Barriers result in sub optimisation as each area tries to do what is best for itself rather than co-operating in order to achieve what is good for the organisation as a whole. Deming points out that one clear symptom of sub optimisation is proliferation of paperwork. Quoting studies that show that 14 per cent of freight charges are spent on paperwork.
Point 10: 'Eliminate the use of slogans, posters and exhortations for the work force, demanding zero defects and new levels of productivity without providing methods. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships; the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system, and thus lie beyond the power of the work force'.
Although Deming is portrayed by some authors as being against the use of all posters, he does spell out a type of poster that he feels would be useful.
Posters that explain to everyone on the job what the management is doing month by month to (for example) purchase better quality of incoming materials from fewer suppliers, better maintenance, or to provide better training, or statistical aids and better supervision to improve quality and productivity, not by working harder but by working smarter, would be a totally different story, they would boost morale. People would then understand that the management is taking some responsibility for hang-ups and defects. and is trying to remove obstacles?
Point 11: 'Eliminate work standards that prescribe numerical quotas for the work force and numerical goals for people in management. Substitute aids and helpful leadership; use statistical methods for continual improvement of quality and productivity'.
Joiner and Scholtes cite examples that support Deming's argument against such schemes as management by objectives (MBO) and management by results (MBR):
An electronics firm typically ships 30% of its production on the last day of the month. Why? In order to meet the monthly shipment quota. How? By expediting parts from around the country, by moving partially completed instruments ahead of their place in line and, occasionally, by letting quality standards slip.
Another firm sometimes ships incomplete instruments. A service representative then flies around the country installing the missing parts. The shipment quota for the month is met again. Profits, at least on paper, hold firm.
A chemical plant reports it cannot efficiently run at the mandated inventory levels, so it keeps inventories higher until June 30 and December 31 when inventories are measured. For those days, it depletes the inventories to an acceptable level, perhaps losing two days production as a consequence.
Many managers annually negotiate safe goals and manage to exceed them, just barely. Some managers include on their list of negotiable goals [figures] which were already secretly accomplished prior to the negotiations.
Production which exceeds the standards is stored so it can be pulled out and used another day.
Joiner and Scholtes also cite the following entertaining example, which we suspect might be apocryphal:
It is interesting to note that Management by Control is widely used in the Soviet Union. Typical is this story. Several years ago there was a surplus of large nails and a shortage of small ones. Why? Managers were held accountable for the tons of nails produced. Later the control was changed to the number of nails produced. This led to a shortage of large nails, since the smaller nails gave higher counts.
Neave cites an example taken from Deming of what should be done instead of using the types of control based on arbitrary targets which Deming claims do not work:
Christine had a job with an airline, answering the telephone to give information and to make reservations. She had just been told to increase her number of calls to 25 per hour... Deming [suggested] what could be done to improve matters. Christine could classify the type of call (information, reservation, our airline, other airlines, etc.). The times for the various types of calls could be automatically recorded. The processes involved in these various strata could be examined to see if they were stable or not; if not, special causes could be identified and appropriate actions taken. Once the processes were stabilised, data could be analysed to better understand common causes of variation, and then maybe systems (computer information systems, documented information, etc.) could be improved so that Christine could deal with her calls more efficiently and thus satisfy more customers per hour. This approach would be far more effective, and it would not demoralise her or her fellow-workers. This is not now shooting for arbitrary goals, but is shooting instead for continual improvement.
Point 12: Remove the barriers that rob hourly workers, and people in management, of their right to pride of workmanship. This implies, abolition of the annual merit rating (appraisal of performance) and of management by objective. Again, the responsibility of managers, supervisors, foremen must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
Deming claims that the system of reward used in many organisations is one of the main constraints that prevent them from developing a 'win-win' culture.
Point 13: 'Institute a vigorous programme of education, and encourage self-improvement for everyone. What an organisation needs is not just good people; it needs people that are improving with education. Advances in competitive position will have their roots in knowledge'.
Point 14: Top management's permanent commitment to ever-improving quality and productivity must be clearly defined and a management structure created that will continuously take action to follow the preceding 13 points.
Deming stresses that the emphasis must be on action by top management, not just support.