TQM (Total Quality Management) is the management of total quality. It is call TOTAL because tries to achieve the Quality in satisfying the needs of the shareholders, the Quality of products and services to satisfy or exceed the consumer’s needs and the Quality of not only the professional but also the personal life of the members of the organization.

Nevertheless, TQM (Total Quality Management) is Quality oriented and normally runs separately from the normal management process. Total Quality Management (TQM) frequently is separated in a specific section and is responsibility of a Quality Team considered as simple advisers or staff department. In practice, no TQM leadership is spread throughout the organizations, and CEOS (Chief Executive Officers) very frequently tend to reschedule the Total Quality Management priorities or TQM credos to more urgent or politically convenient demands. We understand that this is far from the original philosophy of TQM and it is urgent to revitalize the fundamentals of the TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT and fight against its malpractices. Moreover, there is a process of interaction between Globalization and Quality that have to be studied thoroughly.

This is why many companies are having difficulties in implementing TQM. Surveys conducted by us have revealed that only 20 to 25% % of companies that have undertaken Total Quality Management systems (pay attention, systems, not TQM philosophies) have achieved tangible improvements in productivity, competitiveness or financial results. Consequently many people are sceptical about Total Quality Management.
¿What is the difference between TQM and GTQM?
If TQM is Quality oriented, GTQM (Global Total Quality Management) is management oriented. This means that Quality is so important that is taken from granted in any process of the management. Every member of the organization is a GTQM expert or, if you prefer, a TQM expert. The most important one, the big boss. His main compromise has to be a life commitment with the GTQM. His main competence, a leadership in Quality, in Total Quality Management.

In a monastery all the monks are religious driven and every decision they take (or at least they should take) are inspired in their principles. The do not need a “Religion Department”. But they have had a previous period of training and awakening in a Seminar. In the same way, all the members of an organization should be Global TQM oriented and the Seminar of the new “organizational monks” could be a Global Total Quality Management Traning and Coaching Department.

Global management is not only global trade.

Antonio Flores. 2008, March. Copywriter 1673/2008.

Business management manuals often liken the concept of quality to a “devastating weapon” which should be used as a “powerful and effective” part of company strategy.

This is an undeniable fact. Competitive strategy is always based on one of these two parameters: price and/or differentiation.

When the products being sold are homogeneous, the customers will usually go for the cheapest one, and when they are differentiated, the price issue, accordingly, becomes less crucial. Any company which pins its success on the price factor alone, doing everything to keep its costs down – to the detriment of the quality of its ingredients and the care taken in their preparation – will soon be caught in a downward spiral with disastrous results. It is common for restaurants with financial problems to drastically slash their costs by serving smaller portions and using less-than-fresh or second-rate ingredients. This almost always goes hand in hand with a decline in the quality of service, since, as soon as the staff realises that “the ship is sinking”, they begin to project their dissatisfaction onto the customers. The customers, in turn, are never long in detecting the atmosphere of hopelessness – although by the time the restaurant finally closes its doors, they will have already taken their custom elsewhere. Inversely, there are cases of restaurants in trouble which take the opposite course, striving to upgrade the quality of their food and service. Theoretically this is the wisest course, but it can easily backfire if not handled properly.

It is basically counter-productive to primarily think of quality in economic terms. We would be definitely starting out on the wrong foot if we were to let ourselves be guided by profits, let alone short-term ones. The road to quality must begin with a vision, a high level of motivation, the wish to achieve the satisfaction of a job well done, with one’s sights set on the future and the long term, and with a firm determination to reach the highest possible levels of professionalism. Economic success will come on its own, and when it is finally achieved, we will realize that it was not really what counted most

It is often – erroneously – argued that quality has the effect of increasing costs, which in turn lead to higher prices and the consequent loss of competitiveness. This is precisely why the latest quality management techniques (TQM or Total Quality Management) which are designed to act as an instrument of competitive strategy, are ultimately aimed at reaching their objectives while, at the same time, increasing profits. What really matters is not the cost – which, rather than increase, should in fact decrease – but the difference, in our favour, between the overheads and the revenues.

In many languages there at least two different meanings of Quality (In English, three). The first one is the set of attributes or features of a product that allows to classify it in a certain level (a first quality jam, a second quality jam). See standards for jam from rsc.org:

 The second meaning of Quality (in English) is property of something (“the addictive quality of tobacco”).

The third meaning of Quality is the one we point to and means excellence. So, referring to it,

What is quality?

There are a lot of definitions, but the most universal one, the only possible right definition of Quality is: “Meet or exceed the customers’ expectations”.

No matter the price of the product, the level, the category, something has quality if customers say that they found in it what they expected or more… A cheap restaurant can have excellence and a very top class one may not have it.

What the definition of TQM should be:

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a global management approach that aims for success in achieving a properly built Mission and a set of objectives, aiming at a Vision for the future in a context of a solid code of values, principles and social responsibility. The two main general strategies must be a dual focus on customers and members satisfaction. The most important weapons are the absolute general commitment in continuous improving and the efficient use of the knowledge management.

If TQM were this we did not need GTQM. But TQM has lost its original meaning in many corporations.

Antonio Flores Copyright 23234/08

Features of TQM definition:

a) It is a management approach, not something parallel
b) It is oriented to a Mission, that commits to the long term
c) It aims to achieve objectives
d) There must be a code of values and an ethic system.
e) The priority is to satisfy customers and members of the organization
f) The general commitment is taken for granted
g) Knowledge management has to be fostered and rewarded.

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The question itself denotes a lack of understanding of TQM. It is like somebody would have asked about the impact of cars sales in TQM. It is completely the opposite. TQM has played in its origins a decisive role in Globalization. Globalisation is a direct consequence of TQM.

In 1954, John Foster Dulles, then the US Secretary of State, despised Japan as a commercial threat to USA. “The Japanese don’t make anything the people in the US would want.” Twenty five years later, in 1979, when Japanese car were starting to be built in america, Business Week mocked: “With [more than] 50 foreign cars on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big slice of the US market.”

Later it came “If Japan can… Why can’t we?” broadcasted by NBC in 1980. And Deming.

Anyway, as TQM always does, it has to adapt its processes to the needs of the organization (environment) in every moment and circumstance. Globalization is not an exception.

Deming Part 1 (Uploaded by Murphicus):

Deming Part 2:

Deming Part 3:

Toronto House Cleaning Services / Maid Service / Home Cleaners

TQM (Total Quality Management) is the management of total quality. It is call TOTAL because tries to achieve the Quality in satisfying the needs of the shareholders, the Quality of products and services to satisfy or exceed the consumer’s needs and the Quality of not only the professional but also the personal life of the members of the organization.

Nevertheless, TQM (Total Quality Management) is Quality oriented and normally runs separately from the normal management process. Total Quality Management (TQM) frequently is separated in a specific section and is responsibility of a Quality Team considered as simple advisers or staff department. In practice, no TQM leadership is spread throughout the organizations, and CEOS (Chief Executive Officers) very frequently tend to reschedule the Total Quality Management priorities or TQM credos to more urgent or politically convenient demands. We understand that this is far from the original philosophy of TQM and it is urgent to revitalize the fundamentals of the TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT and fight against its malpractices. Moreover, there is a process of interaction between Globalization and Quality that have to be studied thoroughly.

This is why many companies are having difficulties in implementing TQM. Surveys conducted by us have revealed that only 20 to 25% % of companies that have undertaken Total Quality Management systems (pay attention, systems, not TQM philosophies) have achieved tangible improvements in productivity, competitiveness or financial results. Consequently many people are sceptical about Total Quality Management.

¿What is the difference between TQM and GTQM?

If TQM is Quality oriented, GTQM (Global Total Quality Management) is management oriented. This means that Quality is so important that is taken from granted in any process of the management. Every member of the organization is a GTQM expert or, if you prefer, a TQM expert. The most important one, the big boss. His main compromise has to be a life commitment with the GTQM. His main competence, a leadership in Quality, in Total Quality Management.

In a monastery all the monks are religious driven and every decision they take (or at least they should take) are inspired in their principles. The do not need a “Religion Department”. But they have had a previous period of training and awakening in a Seminar. In the same way, all the members of an organization should be Global TQM oriented and the Seminar of the new “organizational monks” could be a Global Total Quality Management Traning and Coaching Department.

Global management is not only global trade.

Antonio Flores. 2008, March. Copywriter 1673/2008.

What is TQM Quality?

Some people search for TQM Quality thinking TQM is a level of Quality. Total Quality Management is a philosophy of management, or al least should be.

Read more at:

Tqm-definition