• Quality is the primary goal of the organization

• Quality must be defined by the customer

• Customer satisfaction drives the organization

• Variation is the natural enemy of quality

• Change is continuous and is accomplished through teamwork

• Top management must be committed to improving quality

• Contractors must be included in any TQM effort

Comparison of Traditional Management with TQM

Traditional American Management Principles

Total Quality Management (TQM) Principles

The organization has multiple competing goals.   Financial concerns drive the organization.   Management and professionals determine what quality is.   The focus is on the status quo--"if it ain't broke don't fix it."   Change is abrupt and is accomplished by champions battling the bureaucracy.   Employees and departments compete with one another    Decisions are based on "gut feelings." It is better to do something than to do nothing.   Employee training is considered a luxury and a cost.     Organizational communication is primarily top-down.     Contractors are encouraged to compete with each other on the basis of price.

Quality is the primary organizational goal.   Customer satisfaction drives the organization.   Customers determine what quality is.  The focus is on continuous improvement--"Yes it working but how can we make it work better."   Change is continuos and is accomplished by teamwork.     Employees and departments cooperate with one another.   Decisions are based on data and analysis. It is better to do nothing than to do the wrong thin.   Employee training is considered essential and an investment.   Organizational communication is top-down, bottom-up, and sideways.   Long-term relationships are developed with contractors who deliver quality products and services

• Customer Information Gap. The gap between the customer's expectations and management's perceptions of those expectations.

• Standards Gap. The gap between management's perceptions of customer expectations and the organization's service quality specifications.

• Service Performance Gap. The gap between quality specifications and actual service delivery.

• Communications Gap. The gap between actual service delivery and external communications about service.

• Service Quality Gap. The gap between customers' normative expectations for the service and their perceptions of the service performance.

• Services produce intangible outputs

• Services produce non-standard outputs

• Services are produced and consumer at the same time

• Services involve a personal relationship

• Customers are part of the service delivery process

• Standards of quality will vary with individual consumers

• The consumer often doesn't pay for the service (unique to many human services

Accessibility: Can the customer obtain the services they need when they need them?

Appropriateness: Is the service provided the one needed by the customer?

Timeliness: Is the service provided when it is needed?

Effectiveness: Is the service provided without error?

Efficacy: Does the service have the potential to meet the customer's need?

Efficiency: Does the service produce the desired effect with the minimum amount of effort, expense, waste?

Continuity of service: Are the services coordinated among providers and across organizations and time?

Safety of the environment: Is the service delivery environment free from danger or hazard?

Customer perspectives: Are customers involved in making decisions that directly effect them?

• Customer satisfaction surveys

• Citizen or community surveys

• Suggestion boxes

• Focus groups

• Consumer Panels

• Tracking specific customer complaints

• Test marketing and demonstration projects

• Cause and Effect Diagrams (Fishbone)

• Flow Chart

• Pareto Chart (Bar Chart)

• Histogram

• Run Chart

• Control Chart

• Scatter Diagram

• Brainstorming

Cause and Effect Diagram Showing Causes of High No-Show Rate

Pareto Chart Showing Reasons for Non-Mutual Termination

Histogram Showing Number of Clients on Wait List

Control Chart for Minutes in Waiting Room

Scatter Diagram Showing Relationship
Between Workload and Error Rate

1.  The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible.

2.  All members are encouraged to participate.

3.  One idea at a time is presented.

4.  All ideas are recorded.

5.  No criticism or evaluation of ideas is permitted.

• Work within existing frameword (first-order change).
• Continuous incremental improvement.
• Cross functional work groups comprised of specialists.
• All levels of the organization are involved in change (improvement).
• Analysis can be low-tech and simple.

• Fundamentally alters existing forameworks (second order change).
• Dramatic improvements in quality through radically re-designing critical processes.
• Work performed by generalists (case workers).
• Change is performed by consultants and specialists.
• High-tech information management is central to re-engineering.

• Importance of processes

• Attention to consumer (of process)

• Importance of work group and teamwork

• Greater decision-making where the work is done

• Minimize supervision for quality control

• System level thinking

Return to overheads index

Return to syllabus