THE DYNAMICS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION
Dr. Kamran Moosa
By: Kamran Moosa
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Kamran Moosa is the Chief Executive of PIQC Institute of Quality. He was the first chairman of Quality and Productivity Society of Pakistan (QPSP). He did his MSc in TQM from Sheffield Hallam University (UK), BSc Engineering from Wright State University (USA), Professional Certificate in Factory Management from AOTS Japan and a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt from SQII Singapore. He has 25 years of experience in the field of Quality Management in the industry, academia, consulting and teaching. In 1995, he was selected by the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) Japan as a national expert on Total Quality Management. He is an author of three books i.e., (1) Quality Management Practices, (2) Practical Guide to ISO 9000, (3) Quality Control, and a chapter in APO book titled “Implementing Quality Management in Asian and Pacific Countries”. He is in the panel of book/paper reviewers with the “Quality Progress” of American Society for Quality and the Journal of Institute of Quality Assurance UK. He is a lead tutor for the QMS Lead Auditor courses with IQCS Singapore. He has regularly been participating and presenting papers in the national and regional quality forums working for promoting Quality.
ABSTRACT
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a sub-discipline of management science which deals with the issue of standardization and enhancement of organizational performance. It started gaining importance in Pakistan in the decade of 1990s, particularly after the increased adaptation and popularity of ISO 9000. Although some success stories of firms in implementing TQM are observed and quoted in literature, a large number of firms are also known who could not get benefits from it or could not implement it properly. Such phenomenon is also quoted in many research findings publish in the various another countries.
Most of the commonly available TQM Standards, Models or Tools are in fact a set of requirements of quality assurance and management without much prescription of how to implement them effectively. Most of the studies on TQM are centered on these ‘Requirements’, namely ISO 9001 QMS or National Quality Awards. Few studies examine their implementation frameworks or methodologies, e.g. Mckinsey & apos;s Four Levels, UMIST-TQM Implementation Framework by Dale, Five Stages of Crosby & apos;s Maturity Grid, Ghobedian & apos;s 3 Stags of TQM Implementation, etc. Many studies now confirm that cases where TQM fails, it is most often not because of the insufficient Requirements, and/or Models of TQM or any of its tools, but because these models or frameworks were not effectively Implemented. In fact, a ‘TQM Implementation Model’ is still not a fully developed, explored or researched area; not only in Pakistan but globally. Presently, as in many other developing countries, Pakistani industries and organizations have also made little breakthroughs in achieving high level of maturity in TQM Implementation. The majority of firms have failed to implement TQM very effectively. The implementation of any TQM program, framework or tool(s) is usually not only dependent on such frameworks as ISO 9001 or Quality award models but also on many other factors related to the organizational culture. The primary objective of this paper is to contribute towards a better understanding of the success and failure of TQM Implementation in organizations, within the context of organization culture. The problem of ineffective implementation of TQM is the focus of attention in the present paper. Utilizing empirical data set collected from a survey of companies implementing TQM in various geographically distributed firms, a research was carried out in 2006-2009 to carry out a critical analysis of TQM implementation in Pakistani organizations and, on the basis of these results, propose an effective TQM Implementation Framework. This study explores the factors influencing the success and failure of the TQM programs in organizations. It particularly explores how these programs work within the context of various organizational profiles, dynamics and culture. Various considerations that influence the effectiveness of TQM are labeled as TQM Aspects; while those which are related to its results are labeled as TQM Impacts. Empirical evidence was used from a mix of different types of organizations to test the hypotheses. The study found that TQM Implementation is heavily dependent on various factors related to organizational context and culture. It also identified that the end results and changes expected by organizations from TQM implementation are not only dependent on its own framework but on many other cultural related ‘Intermediate Impacts’. These intermediate impacts are mostly related to organizational dynamics and culture, and are ignored in most firms, resulting in early failure of TQM. Based on the findings of this research and the practical experience of implementing TQM in different organizations, the author also proposes a new framework of TQM Implementation, named as MSAC Cycle, i.e., Mobilization (trial phase), Standardization (short-term phase), Acclimatization (mid-term phase) and Culturization (long-term phase). This study and the proposed TQM Implementation Framework is quite valuable for firms who are presently implementing or desire to implement TQM more effectively and successfully.