Total Quality Management - Describe a business that adheres to superior quality: Dominoe's Pizza.

Essay by mxsbltj October 2005

download word file, 3 pages 5.0

Total quality management is a process company's use to ensure superior quality by focusing on customer satisfaction, employee empowerment, and strive to keep a competitive advantage by implementing statistical tools and encouraging management to use these tools.

The traditional quality management system was seen different from Total Quality Management as we see it today. Company's felt that quality could not be described accurately except for time and cost. So the emphasis was put on the product or service where the owner, president or CEO would make decisions on how the product or service should be and pass the processing plan down to the different levels of management whom would then pass the plan down to the operating employees. The operating employees' where then informed how top management wanted the process to work and then proceed accordingly. Quality standards were considered to be absolute. The company decided what the customer wanted and visional to whom and what quality the customer wanted.

Top Quality Management takes into consideration the employee's opinion since the

employee's work more closely with the customer and understand the customers needs more so than top management. Not only is the product or service measured but also the customer's needs. Management's role in TQM is to be available to the employees. "Empowerment" was the new buzz word and employees were encouraged to take command of the situation since they were in direct contact with the customer. Customer service representatives listen to the customers directly. They hear their concerns, listen to suggestion and complaints and assure the customer our concern is with their needs and well as a quality service or product.

Through past experience I have seen how "Quality" has changed. In the past the concern was the product or service. For example if the service or product was...