What is Total Quality Management? Definition of Total Quality Management, Total Quality Management Meaning and Concept

Total quality management is known as a business management strategy that consists of the study and assessment of the concept of quality in each of the phases of a production process. The purpose is the constant improvement of the goods and services offered and the achievement of greater customer satisfaction.

Another way of understanding this concept is as mechanisms for studying and monitoring the processes and human work of a firm. It is also called through its English translation: Total Quality Management (TQM).

The denomination of total is understandable from the perspective that the quality required and evaluated in the strategy includes both the different levels and elements of a company and the human group that works in it. In other words, the search for quality prevails in each of the different organizational processes.

This concept was born in the 50s by the hand of the industrial sector of Japan, although it enjoyed its expansion and greater recognition from 1983 in the West thanks to a study published in the Harvard Business Review.

Taking into account the basic idea with which this concept was created, all the members and elements of a company must be concentrated and focused on stimulating and guaranteeing continuous quality improvement.

Although this strategy has been originated with a view to business operation, many organizations of different types have applied its points to improve their processes.

Achievements of a total quality management system

A good total quality management system will achieve:

• Higher levels of consumer / customer satisfaction.
• Increase in productivity and profit margins.
• Greater cohesion and coordination of the different processes and departments of a company.
• Optimization of the use of resources and reduction of costs for the company, that is, efficiency.

Consequences of total quality management

Companies that implement this strategy should not limit themselves solely to achieving positive financial results.

The fact of creating an economic benefit is not a unitary goal, since there are other points to take into account when talking about quality. Meeting the needs of potential customers through the provision of certain goods and services goes hand in hand with building a corporate image of corporate social responsibility, a certain corporate culture and specific training of employees for such end.

In this sense, the application of this strategy implies constant adaptation. This, with respect to changes in the sector in which the firm participates, and taking into account the economic, social, economic or technological context.