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If you’re ready to improve your business’ performance, it’s hard not to recommend TQM. However, if you’re unfamiliar with this business methodology, the following will help.

What Is TQM?

Let’s cover the basics quickly. TQM stands for total quality management. This structured approach offers a comprehensive method for organizational management that focuses on improving the quality of services and products produced. It does this by providing ongoing improvements based on feedback.
Requirements of TQM may be separately defined for your specific organization. They may also be based on established standards. One example of this would be the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 9000 series.

However, TQM can work for any type of business and has been applied across almost every industry. Although its roots are in the manufacturing sector, the basic tenets of TQM make sense anywhere, similar to how Six Sigma has been widely adapted.

The Four Sequential Categories of TQM: Total quality management can be divided into four categories in a sequence.
These are:
• Plan
• Do
• Check
• Act

If you’ve ever heard someone use the acronym PDCA, they’re talking about this sequential list.
During the Planning phase of TQM, workers get specific about the problem that is being addressed. They also collect relevant data and try to find the root cause of the issue at hand.

Next, comes the Doing phase. This is when the team develops a solution and implements it. They also need to come up with a way of gauging whether or not their attempt was successful or to what degree it succeeded.

Then there’s the Checking phase. As the name suggests, the results of the attempt need to be confirmed as either successful or not. This is generally done with before-and-after comparisons of data.

Finally, we have the Acting phase. The main action being taken is simply recording what happened. After documenting the results, they then inform the appropriate parties about them and make recommendations about how to best use this information.

Stop by and contact us at 6Sigma.us and find out how we can positively help you plan and change the culture and operations of your organization. We offer Green Belt and Black Belt training programs, as well as a Master Black Belt program.