Generate a Comparative Analysis of Total Quality Management Scholars

Comparative Analysis of Total Quality Management Scholars
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Comparative Analysis of Total Quality Management Scholars
Introduction
In the recent past, global competition in businesses has made the point of quality a significant concern. Global competition arises when goods from foreign market compete for similar clients at the local level. Online marketing platforms have magnified the challenges of meeting customer's tastes and preferences, especially as it becomes evident that quality products that provide clients with a range of choices are currently filling every market. To curb these competition challenges, businesses have started evaluating their internal operations with a strict focus on quality. The main focus has been on the improvement of quality from the point of service delivery as well as the products that are released to the market. A slight mistake in service delivery may make a client discard a product and opt for a similar product from the competitor. Quality management is, therefore, mandatory for any business that wants to remain relevant in this competitive age.
The process of achieving high quality from services and products point of view has become a changing and continuous process for most businesses. In their process of meeting the quality standards or improving their achieved quality standards, businesses have to choose among the total quality management principles put forth by Edward Deming, Joseph Juran, Vilfredo Pareto, and Philip Crosby. The choice of the principles of each of these scholars depends on the area of the business that one wants to improve. The main concern while choosing the principle of each scholar is to make sure that total quality is achieved. Gregori, Cardinali, and Lori (2015) define total quality management (henceforth TQM) as the process of directing all the production processes and services towards meeting or exceeding the expectations of the existing and potential client in the market. This white paper takes a comparative analysis of the principles of four scholars: Edward Deming, Joseph Juran, Vilfredo Pareto, and Philip Crosby, with the goal of explaining the application of their principles and how they can be utilized for maximum quality achievement.
Edward Deming
Edward Deming is considered the father of TQM, even though he does not directly use the term in his books (Magar & Shinde, 2014). Deming’s philosophy of the application of TQM is that summed in what scholars have referred to as the Deming cycle. The Deming cycle has four logical repetitive steps of continuous learning and improvement, with the understanding that continuous application of these steps can help the business develop a competitive culture. The four steps are the plan, do, check, and act (PDCA). In the continuous application of the Deming cycle, the purpose and definition of quality hold. Quality should always seek to fit the acceptance of the client and conform to the production requirements in the market (Khanan, Siddiqui, & Talib, 2013). Total quality management should be applied in every area of the business in maximizing customer satisfaction, employee motivation, and overcoming the competitors in the market.
The Deming cycle applies to all industries, but mainly fits the hospitality and manufacturing industries that deal with the production of physical goods. The principles of PDCA operate on fourteen repetitive steps that intend to suit and exceed the expectations of the potential and current client (Abdullahi & Tari, 2012). The first step is the creation of constancy of purpose with the aim of staying in business. The business then applies the new philosophy of the Deming cycle and leaves room for continuous improvement and willingness to learn. To avoid over-inspection, the company builds quality from the start and maintains the standards throughout all the production steps. The leadership team forms an essential part of the success of the Deming philosophy as it provides training opportunities, drives out fear, and motivates employees towards achieving the goal of the business. For the success of this philosophy, management and workforce should work together in making the desired change. Management should strive to break all barriers in the production processes by creating an interactive environment for the thriving of the PDCA cycle.
In spite of its promises for success in quality management, the Deming cycle suffers some limitations. According to Reed and Card (2016), the Deming cycle leaves little room for flight in case emergencies to arise or when things go wrong. This weakens its successful implementation as it assumes perfect conditions in the work environment, ignoring that resistance could arise any time and change everything. For successful quality management and transformation, management should start by realizing potential barriers to change and prepare them both emotionally and psychologically to participate in the change process. The first question that the employees will ask is “Why change?” Management should respond to this question early enough before employees creates speculations and rumors that may paralyze the change process. In the Deming cycle, this could be done at the planning point of change.
Another weakness is that it places all responsibilities I the hands of planners and ignores the responsibilities of implementers (the workers). Workers are the ones that understand the stressed area of concern in the business. They are the ones in the direct conduct with the production equipment and the client in the market. They hear complaints, respond to client concerns, and understand what the organization is not doing. Planners, on the other hand, focus on theory of results, failing to understand how the results came about. A company seeking to apply Deming’s philosophy should consider transformative leadership style. In transformative leadership, interactive management is used to motivate employees and channel the resources towards the common goal.
Joseph Juran
Juran’s philosophy of TQM emphasizes that all production processes seek to win the acceptance of the potential client through the trilogy approach. Trilogy is a three-step process that emphasizes application of quality improvement is terms if quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement (Wiengarten, Fynes, & Charvez, 2013). Juran emphasized that the system is responsible for developing and meeting the quality standards that conform to the client’s expectations.
The central principle of Juran’s TQM is summed in the "fitness for use" concerning design, conformance, availability, and safety. Unlike Deming cycle, the trilogy principle focuses on the top-down process of TQM. Management is responsible for planning, control, and improvement of the quality standards. Juran developed the ten steps of maintaining total quality management. The steps are top-down with the employees as the implementers and the management as the creators of the opportunities for quality improvement. The top management identifies opportunities, plans, sets goals, provides training and necessary resources to reach the goals, carries out projects, report the progress, give recognition, communicates the results, and maintains the momentum of the results (Khanan, Siddiqui, & Talib, 2013). Juran’s principle can attain long-term success if implemented in the engineering industries where quality is to be maintained.
In the production process, Juran also developed the Pareto analysis chart which as build on the work of Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist (Malik, Barnejee, & Ahmad, 2018). The Pareto chart uses the Pareto Principle of 80/20. In the production process, this principle states that eighty percent of the output comes from the twenty percent of the inputs. In the total quality management, the twenty percent includes a few clients while the eighty percent are the majority of the clients and that the input of the few should not be ignored. During the implementation of the Pareto principle, the target is the clients, and management has to do...