Quality management planning strategy

Running head: quality strategy Quality Management Planning Strategy This context isa memorandum proposing the implementation of TQM in a multinational memory chip manufacturer that operations in different countries. Specific tools and techniques for improving quality and productivity of processes have been identified. These tools and techniques include benchmarking, Six Sigma, Lean methods, standardization, Quality Circles and effective performance management. Through these practices, the company proposes to improve customer satisfaction, profits for the company as well as employee motivation.
Considering the company’s market potential and growing global demand, improving efficiency and quality in products and services is identified as the prime need. This means the current processes need to be improvised to continually achieve better and higher outcomes. For this, the company will be adopting an overall Total Quality Management (TQM) approach, which will focus on overall improvement of the company, its processes, products and services with the help of knowledge and experience of all employees. This approach is highly flexible and can adopt various practices (Ghuman & Ashwathappa, 2010).
Implementation of TQM across the organization is done through various tools and techniques in congruence with the nature of the work. The manufacturing units will use Six Sigma and Lean methodology by which the quality and efficiency of product manufacturing will be judged and continuously improved to achieve Six Sigma level of accuracy. Six-Sigma will be based on data and statistics of products and their quality. Moreover, lean methods will help in eliminating wastage and in reducing manufacturing costs. To maintain healthy and safe work environment, effective and well-defined processes for disposal and storage, and safety methods will be followed at all locations (Organization-wide approaches, n. d).
The standardized processes for manufacturing across all locations will be retained; however, to reduce the manufacturing lead time, raw materials will be acquired on a Just-in-time (JIT) basis (Ghuman & Ashwathappa, 2010). However, considering the fluctuating demand and rapidly changing market environment, the product process will follow the pull process, which adapts production to customers’ demand. Benchmarked targets will then be applied for individual production units on an hourly, daily and monthly basis till the project is completed.
Quality Circles will be formed at every location with small group of employees who will assess the quality of all functions and products. This group will identify the causes of low quality, erroneous products, and issues in other functions (Ghuman & Ashwathappa, 2010). Moreover, this group will be responsible for addressing the identified issues within specific span of time. High-performing employees will be chosen for Quality Circles.
Standardized performance management practices through performance appraisals, reward and recognition programs and feedback mechanisms will be implemented across all locations to improve overall performance and foster healthy competition among employees, between functions, departments and locations. High-performing employees, teams and locations will be rewarded. Training programs, knowledge transfer activities, and effective feedback systems will be implemented for improvement of low-performing entities. The Balanced Score Card (BSC) system will be adopted to assess performance of different functions and locations against four core areas, finance, customer, processes and learning and development. This tool will help in continuous assessment of different departments against benchmarked targets (Organization-wide Approaches, n. d).
To conclude, the TQM program will be implemented across all locations to improve product and service quality; to improve business profits by reducing wastage, erroneous activities and products, and optimize production as per demand; and by implementing standardized processes and procedures for production, performance and quality. These practices will empower employees through greater involvement, better exposure and opportunities for learning and improving. All the tools and techniques will help in continuous assessment and improvement through continuous learning and greater employee involvement.
References
Ghuman, K and Ashwathappa, K. (2010). Management: Concepts, Practice & Cases. New
Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill. Retrieved November 5, 2011 from,
shttp://books. google. co. in/books? id= QfxemvtRxo4C&dq= TQM,+six+sigma+balanced+score+card+Lean+Just+in+time&source= gbs_navlinks_s
Organization-wide Approaches. (n. d.) ASQ Global Voice of Quality. Retrieved November 5,
2011 from http://asq. org/learn-about-quality/benchmarking/overview/overview. html