Total Quality Management Paper.

Essay by halfdidA-, May 2008

download word file, 3 pages 1.0

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management strategy to implant awareness of quality in all organizational processes. TQM aims to do things right the first time, rather than the need to find and fix problems after they emerge at a later time. Another part of TQM is identifying your specific goals and finding the various ways to achieve those goals (Library of Congress, 2007). TQM is mainly concerned with continuous improvement in all work from high level strategic planning and decision -making, to detailed execution of work on the shop floor.

The impact of globalization on quality began after World War II. During that time, most of Europe's and Asia's manufacturing capabilities were in ruins. The manufacturing sector in the United States was less impacted by the war, and was able to focus on what civilians demanded at the time. The manufacturers could sell whatever they produced and made a high profit because of little competition abroad (Burrill and Ledolter, 1999).

In the 1960's the focus of manufacturing shifted from the production floor to the total process. Manufacturers in the United States began to catch on to this process thanks in part to Joseph Juran and W. Edwards Deming. Juran and Deming had different philosophies and worked for competing companies, but both strove for total process focus and acknowledgement of management as the leader of quality efforts.

When one compares and contrast traditional management styles with quality-focused management styles, one will see that industrial production managers organize the resources and services necessary to produce millions of goods each year. Although managerial duties vary from plant to plant, many of the major responsibilities are nearly the same for all industrial production managers. The production manager's major responsibilities include production, scheduling, staffing, procuring, and maintaining equipment.

Production techniques have progressed from...