Before
the concepts and ideas of TQM were formalized, much work had taken
place over the centuries to reach this stage. This sTection charts the
evolution, from inspection through to the present day concepts of
total quality.
From
inspection to total quality
During
the early days of manufacturing, an operative’s work was inspected
and a decision made whether to accept or reject it. As businesses
became larger, so too did this role and full time inspection jobs
were created. Accompanying the creation of inspection functions,
other problems arose:
•
More technical problems occurred, requiring specialized skills, often
not possessed by production workers
•
The inspectors lacked training
•
Inspectors were ordered to accept defective goods, to increase output
•
Skilled workers were promoted into other roles, leaving less skilled
workers to perform the operational jobs, such as manufacturing.
These
changes led to the birth of the separate inspection department with a
“chief inspector”, reporting to either the person in charge of
manufacturing or the works manager. With the creation of this new
department, there came new services and issues, e.g., standards,
training, recording of data and the accuracy of measuring equipment.
It became clear that the responsibilities of the “chief inspector”
were more than just product acceptance, and a need to address defect
prevention emerged. Hence the quality control department evolved, in
charge of which was a “quality control manager”, with
responsibility for the inspection services and quality control
engineering.
In
the 1920’s statistical theory began to be applied effectively to
quality control, and in 1924 Shewhart made the first sketch of a
modern control chart. His work was later developed by Deming and the
early work of Shewhart, Deming, Dodge and Romig constitutes much of
what today comprises the theory of statistical process control (SPC).
However, there was little use of these techniques in manufacturing
companies until the late 1940’s.
At
that time, Japan’s industrial system was virtually destroyed, and
it had a reputation for cheap imitation products and an illiterate
workforce. The Japanese recognized these problems and set about
solving them with the help of some notable quality gurus – Juran,
Deming and Feigenbaum.
In
the early 1950’s, quality management practices developed rapidly in
Japanese plants, and become a major theme in Japanese management
philosophy, such that, by 1960, quality control and management had
become a national preoccupation. By the late 1960’s/early 1970’s
Japan’s imports into the USA and Europe increased significantly,
due to its cheaper, higher quality products, compared to the Western
counterparts.
In
1969 the first international conference on quality control, sponsored
by Japan, America and Europe, was held in Tokyo. In a paper given by
Feigenbaum, the term “total quality” was used for the first time,
and referred to wider issues such as planning, organization and
management responsibility. Ishikawa gave a paper explaining how
“total quality control” in Japan was different, it meaning
“company wide quality control”, and describing how all employees,
from top management to the workers, must study and participate in
quality control. Company wide quality management was common in
Japanese companies by the late 1970’s.
The
quality revolution in the West was slow to follow, and did not begin
until the early 1980’s, when companies introduced their own quality
programmes and initiatives to
counter the Japanese success. Total quality management (TQM) became
the centre of these drives in most cases. In a Department of Trade &
Industry publication in 1982 it was stated that Britain’s world
trade share was declining and this was having a dramatic effect on
the standard of living in the country. There was intense global
competition and any country’s economic performance and reputation
for quality was made up of the reputations and performances of its
individual companies and products/services.
The
British Standard (BS) 5750 for quality systems had been published in
1979 and in 1983 the National
Quality
Campaign was launched, using BS5750 as its main theme. The aim was to
bring to the attention of industry the importance of quality for
competitiveness and survival in the world market place. Since then
the International Standardization Organization (ISO) 9000 has become
the internationally recognized standard for quality management
systems. It comprises a number of standards that specify the
requirements for the documentation, implementation and maintenance of
a quality system.
TQM
is now part of a much wider concept that addresses overall
organizational performance and recognizes the importance of
processes. There is also extensive research evidence that
demonstrates the benefits from the approach. As we move into the 21st
century, TQM has developed in many countries into holistic
frameworks, aimed at helping organizations achieve excellent
performance, particularly in customer and business results. In
Europe, a widely adopted framework is the so-called “Business
Excellence” or “Excellence” Model, promoted by the European
Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), and in the UK by the
British Quality Foundation (BQF).”
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