OPM500 CASE.Total Quality Management and Six Sigma- British Airways

Implementation of quality management
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Total Quality Management and Six Sigma- British Airways
Introduction
Quality management is a critical aspect in business because it helps organizations to maintain an excellent level of their outputs. Total quality management is a program that ensures companies consistently improve their performance. Performance is improved by ensuring that the goods and services produced meet the expectations of their customers. Total quality management enhances organizations to meet the needs of their customers as well as improved quality of their products. Quality products gain a significant market share compared to products that do not meet the required standards. For this reason, this paper will examine a case study on the execution of a TQM program. The paper will also explain how six sigma products would improve performance for British Airways.
British Airways is a popular airline company in Britain. The airline company flies to all continents carrying both cargo and passengers. The company has also partnered with other airlines globally such as American airlines, to network to more than five hundred destinations. British airways have been ranked as the major operator of Boeing (Madar, 2015). Despite a lot of competition from other airlines in the company has maintained its position through the provision of quality services to their customers.
Quality is the primary differentiator of brands in the market. Therefore, British airline is committed in ensuring their customers are satisfied with the type of airlines services they offer. Some external pressures affect passengers' experience when using British airways. Some of these pressures include fuel prices, regulations, and competition. The company must, therefore, address such pressures carefully to avoid the impact they may exert on their performance.
The challenges that the airline needs to address and focus on to ensure the best quality of services are offered to their customers include IT failure, strikes of their employees and cancellation of flights. Such problems may result in the loss of a significant number of customers. However, the implementation of TQM has ensured most of the internal errors are acted upon. Ways of dealing with errors have been introduced that led to improved services to customers (Karami, 2017)
British Airways implemented Total Quality Management in1988 after a technical team held a workshop on how the organization would enhance performance. At this time TQM was a long-term program that was expected to bear fruits after several years. The program was a success because of the support it received from all levels (Karami, 2017). The program was characterized by full participation from all stakeholders in planning and management measures. Customer focus was also a primary goal of the program. After two years the program had started to exhibit some positive changes.
The executive management team in British airway decided that the TQM program would be designed in a way that would improve customer satisfaction, teamwork among all employees and profitability. These decisions are guidelines that are offered by the program and when implemented they lead to the success of an organization.
Before the implementation of the TQM program the company had to focus on some critical issues that would otherwise alter the process of implementation. First, the British airways management team decided to conduct a survey to determine the position of the company's technical team and the feedback system. The second step was to ensure the implementation of the program would receive full support at all management levels. If a program is not supported by all employees it may encounter difficulties and thus fail to yield the expected results
The company provided training of all employees on the principles of total quality management to facilitate its implementation (Madar, 2015). The training prepared the employees to be ready to adopt new management styles. The employees were prepared in advance on the changes in policies that would be introduced during the implementation process. TQM program implementation establishes new practices and procedures that lead to changes in the organizational culture. It is therefore important to train all the stakeholders on the significance of the changes that will be brought by such a program to ensure the smooth running of the company. TQM is an all-inclusive program and requires support from all employees to yield the required results (Tennant, 2017).
After considering the above issues the process of implementing a quality management program began. The...