Total Quality Management Techniques Essay Example

Total Quality Management (TQM) technique is Kaizen, which is a Japanese term that signifies improvement through small and cost-effective changes involving everyone from managers to workers. This approach highlights continuous improvement as an ongoing process without ceasing. It contrasts with Western practices of discarding everything and starting afresh by being gentle and gradual.

The Toyota Production System is renowned for its implementation of kaizen, which involves line personnel halting production to address abnormalities and suggest improvements. This can initiate a kaizen cycle. The cycle encompasses several steps: standardizing an operation, measuring it (cycle time and inventory), comparing measurements to requirements, innovating to meet requirements and increase productivity, standardizing the improved operation, and repeating this cycle indefinitely. Kaizen is composed of five main elements: teamwork, personal discipline, improved morale, quality circles, and suggestions for improvement. However, some critics argue that cost-cutting measures in kaizen come at the expense of fair labor practices and product quality.Examples of issues related to overwork and cutting costs have been reported in different industries. For instance, at Toyota, there have been accusations of death by overwork, including unpaid quality control meetings held outside regular working hours. Additionally, suppliers have refused orders from Toyota due to consecutive price cuts. Furthermore, a memo from Japanese factory workers four years ago expressed concerns about compromising safety due to aggressive cost-cutting measures. Likewise, the healthcare sector has witnessed strikes by direct-care providers, like nurses, who oppose streamlined procedures that cannot always be standardized and have resulted in staff reductions. Despite the concept of Kaizen, which aims to involve input from all employees, critics argue that front-line workers are not genuinely consulted. It's worth noting that ISO

9000 is a globally recognized and accepted set of rules published by an international standards writing body. These rules ensure that organizations consistently comprehend and fulfill their customers' needs. ISO 9000 is also highly generic in nature.

ISO 9000 is applicable to any organization worldwide that offers any product or service. It is commonly referred to as a quality system or quality management system since it aligns with the goal of meeting customer needs, which is one of the definitions of quality. The standard's objective is succinct: customer satisfaction. The quality management system (QMS) aids in achieving customer satisfaction through the following means:

• Implementation of the system, utilizing it fully, and integrating it into the core of our organization.
• Continuous improvement of the system. The QMS is an ongoing process as customer requirements constantly evolve and become more demanding. Hence, continual improvement is vital for survival.
• Emphasis on prevention of nonconformity. Prevention takes precedence over detection in this context.

Quality management has evolved from the traditional method of "inspecting quality in" to a focus on prevention, which is not only more cost-effective but also more efficient and protective of the customer. Conversely, detection requires an approach that emphasizes processes, forward-thinking, and thorough analysis.

Advantages and Benefits

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deeply rethinking and redesigning existing resources in an organization, going beyond mere improvisation.

The text discusses the concept of reengineering and its importance in supporting an organization's mission and reducing costs. It emphasizes the need for a high-level assessment of the organization's mission, strategic goals, and customer needs to determine if any redefinition is necessary. The text also highlights the significance of questioning assumptions about customers' wants and needs. Once these considerations are made, the organization can proceed with determining how best to achieve its objectives.

Kansei Engineering Procedure

In Japanese publications, Kansei Engineering is categorized into different types and applied in various contexts. Schutte studied these types and developed a comprehensive model that encompasses the contents of Kansei Engineering.

In the context of this text, "domain" refers to the overall concept behind a collection of products, i.e. the general product type. When choosing the domain, it involves determining the intended target audience and user type, market niche and type, and the specific group of the product being discussed. The process of choosing and defining the domain takes into account existing products, concepts, and potential design solutions that are still unknown. These considerations lead to the formulation of a domain description, which serves as the foundation for further evaluation. Schutte has provided detailed explanations of these necessary processes in several publications.

Spanning the semantic space was first discussed by Osgood et al.. They suggested that every artifact can be described within a vector space defined by semantic expressions (words). To achieve this, a large collection of words that describe the domain is gathered from sources such as literature, commercials, manuals, specification lists, and experts. The number of words varies depending

on the product, typically ranging from 100 to 1000 words.

In the next phase, the words are categorized through either manual means (such as using the Affinity diagram technique, as outlined by Bergman and Klefsjo in 1994) or through mathematical methods.

Both factor analysis and cluster analysis can be used to compare Ishihara et al.'s study on Kansei Engineering words in order to select representative words from the Semantic Space. Additionally, the next step is to span the Space of Product Properties, which is similar to the Semantic Space.

The Space of Product Properties is responsible for collecting products that represent the domain, identifying key features, and selecting properties for further evaluation. These products are sourced from various places such as existing products, customer suggestions, technical solutions, and design concepts. Specification lists are used to identify the key features for the products in question. The Pareto-diagram is used to determine the importance of these features and select properties for further evaluation. In the synthesis step, the Semantic Space and the Space of Properties are linked together. Kansei Engineering is the only method in Affective Engineering that can establish and quantify connections between abstract feelings and technical specifications. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was developed to incorporate a personal interface into modern manufacturing and business.QFD, or Quality Function Deployment, is a method that addresses the concern of the growing distance between producers and users in today's industrial society. It connects the needs of the customer with design, development, engineering, manufacturing, and service functions. QFD encompasses understanding customer requirements, applying quality systems thinking, psychology, and knowledge/epistemology, maximizing positive quality that adds value, implementing a comprehensive quality system for customer satisfaction, and

employing a strategy to stay ahead of the game. Essentially, QFD is a comprehensive quality system that systematically links customer needs with various business functions and organizational processes, such as marketing, design, quality, production, manufacturing, and sales. This alignment allows the entire company to work towards achieving a common goal.