Quality Management and Productivity: Strategic Plan Development Paper

Essay by rickr747A-, May 2006

download word file, 4 pages 5.0

The purpose of this paper is to analyze role of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the strategic plan of Riordan Manufacturing. Summarize the Riordan Manufacturing Mission, Vision and the importance of TQM as a strategic level objective. Also, identify the impact and complexity that globalization has on the TQM strategies at Riordan Manufacturing.

Riordan Manufacturing views TQM as a collection of processes. We maintain that our organizations must strive to continuously improve these processes by incorporating the knowledge and experiences of workers. The simple objective of Riordan Manufacturing's TQM implementations is "Do the right things, right the first time, every time". TQM is infinitely variable and adaptable.

Riordan Manufacturing's TQM is processes are focused on continuous improvement in all areas of work, from high level strategic planning and decision-making, to detailed execution of work elements on the shop floor. It stems from the belief that mistakes can be avoided and defects can be prevented.

It leads to continuously improving results, in all aspects of work, as a result of continuously improving capabilities, people, processes, technology and machine capabilities.

Continuous improvement must deal not only with improving results, but more importantly with improving capabilities to produce better results in the future. Riordan Manufacturing's five major areas of focus for capability improvement are demand generation, supply generation, technology, operations and people capability.

At Riordan Manufacturing's a central principle of TQM is that mistakes may be made by people, but most of them are caused, or at least permitted, by faulty systems and processes. This means that the root cause of such mistakes can be identified and eliminated, and repetition can be prevented by changing the process. There are three major (isixsigma.com) mechanisms of prevention:

1. Preventing mistakes (defects) from occurring (Mistake - proofing or Poka-Yoke).

2. Where mistakes can't be absolutely prevented,