TQM and ISO






Team Reflection TQM and ISO

Team Reflection TQM and ISO

TQM and ISO
Total Quality Management or TQM is a business strategy or system driven by customers, profit orientated, and people-centered (Richards, 2012). TQM is defined by its continual improvement, which is focused on the development of the processes and quality of the product. Quality is defined by the degree of excellence (Padhy, 2013). TQM pushes for excellence in customer satisfaction, profitability, and production processes. One the most influential founders of quality management, Edward Denning said, ultimately, a manager’s job is to hone the entire system so that the system makes leaps of continual improvement and innovation,” (Padhy,2013). In TQM a company’s innovation is driven by the push to improve the products quality. A TQM system reduces cycle time and the time that products take to be produced decrease as the processes in refined through innovation. One of the key elements is to assess the product not just once but through each stage of the process in order to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of each phase. A recent example lies in Toyotas new TQM driven plant model in which suppliers are on the same site as the vehicle production plant. When a part of a supplier comes on the vehicle assembly line and fails to meet quality standards, the product is easily transported back to the supplier and areas of opportunity are discussed in person and addressed quickly.
ISO standards such as 9000 and 14000 are quality management and assurance standards developed by a specialized agency, International Organization for Standardization (Jacobs & Chase, 2011). The standards are recognized in 160 countries and as such are employed internationally as a reference for global companies with quality management requirements. ISO standardsphilosophy centralizes on the concept that best practices can be applied at every stage of the business, and that defects are prevented through...