Book Review: TQM - The Quality Makers by Robert Heller

This can hardly form a particularly useful book review since "TQM - The Quality Makers" now resides in the 'out of print' category, but dedicated hunters of quality books can find 2nd hand copies. So the question becomes - should you bother?

[amazon.com][amazon.co.uk]

Useful points that I pulled out.

First from the foreword by John King:

1. Certification is not TQM. Certification here refers to ISO 9000 which shows a company which can define, and keep to, their processes. But TQM demands vision, customer satisfaction and continuous improvement.

From the Introduction by Robert Heller:

1. Quality leads to ... dependability, which leads to... speed, and finally to... cost and efficiency
2. Analyse and simplify all processes (including management) before trying to achieve significant changes
3. Have quick-fix, fast payoff projects going all the time
4. Commit fully to a small number of long-term improvement projects that offer very big benefits
5. Include quality programmes aimed at improving dependability, speed and cost-effectiveness
6. concentrate improvement projects where the pay-offs are biggest
7. Have high targets, but reasonable expectations
8. Trust, train and educate all the time

Expose Inefficiencies by:

1. "end to end" examination of business processes e.g. value stream mapping
2. asking the customer
3. external comparisons

"TQM is founded on dialogue, not dictation"

Total Quality...is an extremely demanding culture. It is forgiving of error, but only to the extent that the error is followed by diagnosis and correction. It forces people to recognise their faults

Paraphrasing an Ashbridge/EIU study:

1. Leadership: make quality the number one, non-negotiable priority
2. Empower employess to experiment and make mistakes and find their own ways of improving quality
3. Build quality into the responsibilities of all managers (surely this should extend to all staff?)
4. NOT making quality the job of a specific department
5. provide training on a "just-in-time" basis, developing skills and knowledge as needed

TQM companies:

1. go back to basics,
2. look for the processes that add value,
3. simplify the processes that add value,
4. quicken responses to customers and the market
5. document gains
6. further refine practices to improve speed to market
7. delight customers
8. build up team abilities (training)
9. send authority down the line
10. benchmark against the best standards in the world (sometimes in different industries) and set out to beat them

Case Study of Alenia

[Alenia website]

1. Move from inspection to quality assurance.
2. Eliminate waste and zero added value activities.
3. Quality work does only what is needed

And then, the book became a blur of self promotional interviews by companies which I haven't checked to see if they have all benefited from their focus on TQM. I would guess that a few have lost their sheen, and certainly the UK Post Office (covered by a chapter in this book) does not still exhibit the same quality promotional image that this book presents for it.