Quality Assurance and Total Quality Management

All reputable companies have their own systems of quality assurance for the goods or services that they are offering. Regardless of the business sector or industry, quality assurance is essential in maintaining customer trust to the products being offered. If the quality of products deteriorates, the level of trust will also deteriorate. Consequently, the consumer patronage will inevitably dwindle. No business entity can survive without the trust of its customers.

Quality assurance, however, is just one aspect of a much larger aspect of business operations. More often than not, it is conducted on random basis such as in the case of random batch check for manufactured goods. It is mainly focused on ensuring that products comply with certain company standards and statutory regulations. Quality assurance involves a wide variety of tests and specific calibrations depending on the product. For example, processed food products such as can goods may undergo various laboratory tests to ensure that they are safe for human consumption.

Ensuring the quality of finished products also oftentimes entail stress and impact tests. It is during these tests that products are methodically destroyed to test their durability. These tests are commonly done on appliances and automobiles. Crash tests are standard procedures for testing the safety of new automobile designs. Although computer simulations can be done, real-world tests are still necessary to gather accurate data. Simulations are merely based on these data.

Total quality management (TQM) is a larger concept of ensuring customer satisfaction. Quality assurance is only a part of total quality management. As the name implies, this type of management approach is comprehensive. It is a holistic approach that considers the various factors of business operations. It is not only focused on testing finished products but is also concerned with improving processes, customer relationship, supply efficiency, pricing, and organizational aspects.

The approach of total quality management is not only to comply with quality standards but also to improve the current quality standards. Hence, it is a continuous process of innovations. It is an approach that has a feedback mechanism that gathers the inputs of customers, employees, suppliers, management, regulatory authorities, and other stakeholders.

According to the theoretical and practical researches on most successful companies, the TQM practices of these companies include the following aspects:

1. cross-functional product design 2. process management 3. supplier quality management 4. customer involvement 5. information and feedback 6. committed leadership 7. strategic planning 8. cross-functional training 9. employee involvement

The multi-faceted approach of TQM ensures that the widest and most diverse opinions or inputs can be integrated in designing company strategies and operations. This approach is highly adaptable to the rapidly changing and highly competitive business environment.

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