Total Quality Management (TQM)

Quality of medical equipment ensures that the health care services meet the set standards of practice. Engineering Tooling Company is a manufacturer and supplier of medical equipment is subjected to maintain the highest possible quality of equipment. This requires development and implementation of quality improvement strategy within the company manufacturing process. Quality in health care system works following medical standards, ethical practices, and integrity. This attributes integrated together forms the basis of a good quality improvement strategy that Civil Engineering Tooling Company can develop and implement. A good quality improvement strategy has three major elements and these include Total Quality Management (TQM), Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) (Praxiom Research Group Limited 2017). Total quality management can be described as the managerial approach to the delivery of quality products. Quality assurance refers the strategy to maintain the desired level of quality in service or product through paying attention various stages of manufacturing. Finally, quality control, on the other hand, is the process of ensuring the quality is maintained or improved without manufacturing errors. Some of the recommendations that therefore by advanced include: quality goal as part of the strategic objective, development of quality standards of products, development and implement modern automated quality control system and use quality tools in evaluating the quality management and improvement strategy. The aim of this report is to introduce quality improvement strategy baring exploring quality elements such as Total Quality Management, Quality Assurance, and Quality Control.

Total quality management can be described as the management approach of ensuring customer satisfaction through delivery of quality products and services. Development, introduction, and implementation of the total quality management follow some principles. Principles of quality management strategy include consumer focus, process centered, employee involvement, integrated system, fact-based decision making, quality improvement, and communication.

The consumer is the central stakeholder in every business and customer focus quality management is the main objective of total quality management. Under the customer focus quality management, the company will need to conduct a number of initiatives. Firstly, training of employees of the company on the value of customers in the company quality management system is the core of the quality management. Secondly, having a customer in the mind, the company can integrate quality of the medical equipment into the designing process to achieve a product that can suit the end user. At the end of manufacturing of medical equipment, the company needs to understand that the medical industry will determine the worth of products. This implies that the main determinant of the quality of engineering products is the end customer (Papp s2014, p. 372).

Principles of TQM

Quality management works under the principle of total employee involvement since the success of total quality management strategy lies on the employees of the company. The quality of the product is a responsibility of all employee weather from the management or employees of the lowest rank. In addition, the company needs to realize the leadership with the capability to bring all employees for the purpose of implementing quality management. Employee’s commitment, integrity, and high empowerment have an upper-hand in the high performance during manufacturing of equipment. For instance, the involvement of all employees will ensure that all employee are geared towards the realization of company’ objectives, mission, and vision (Craig & Glascoff 2014, pp.50-62).

Another fundamental focus of TQM is the manufacturing and other processes within the ETC. the company use various inputs to manufacture equipment and other medical engineering tools. Moreover, the ETC has clear defined process of manufacturing products and manufacturing process has various checks to ensure there are minimal errors or variations. Measuring the performance and monitoring of this process ensures that the quality of products is assured. Quality management, therefore, needs to focus on the process and process monitoring to ensure the quality of equipment is high as per the vision of the company. Process-centered total quality management has the scope of cross-checking every step of production up to the output stage (Chen 2012, pp. 187–212).

The integrated system as an aspect of TQM articulates various functions within the organization manufacturing process for better quality. For integration of micro-processes with larger business processes such as manufacturing process requires a clear understanding of the strategic plan of the ETC. this integration needs to include quality policies and quality culture as this will be the vehicle leading to attainment of TQM. Business improvement elements are therefore connected through this integration with nearly all players such as customers, stakeholders and employees being knitted together. The overall output of this system is the delivery of quality equipment or tools to customers (Cokins 2009).

The quality of products of the ETC lies on the strategic and systematic achievement of company’s strategic plan. The company vision, mission, and objectives form the driving force that gives the direction for reaching quality manufacturing. Total quality management, therefore, articulates this strategic view of the company into ensuring the quality of equipment manufactured. Strategic planning and strategic management integrate quality management system into the strategic plan hence quality monitoring. The systematic approach, on the other hand, has a role that leads to the achievement of this quality strategic plan in a progressive manner (Bergman 2008, pp 86–93).

Quality Assurance

The manufacturing process needs continuous improvement and this is consistent with the dynamic manufacturing environment. This incorporates new findings in manufacturing research in order to be competitive. Continuous improvement of the company’s manufacturing has the potential of ensuring that the quality of the products is high and meets the requirement of the hospitals. Continuous improvement also considers new standards of practice that are developed either in engineering or medical sector of the country.  Therefore, TQM framework functions through continuous manufacturing process improvement. The view of various stakeholders in the medical and health sector are the recipe for improving production as their opinion speaks for itself (Madden 2014, p. 99).

Fact-based on data is the basis for performance evaluation or decision-making process. Data on the performance of various departments within the organization forms a major element of quality evaluation. TQM requires that ETC continuously collects data on performance and customer feedback to make a decision on the quality of products manufactured. This data are analyzed and results used for making an accurate decision. In addition, the company uses accurate data to forecast the quality of the products as a basis for ensuring the quality of products is guaranteed. The end of TQM is the evaluation of the quality management system as this ensures that the company is on the path of quality control. According to Prause, Bibus, Dietrich and Jobi (2016, pp744–761), TQM views the accurate evaluation of the quality system as critical to the success of the quality management strategy.

Company communication determines the quality of products that are produced by this company. Changes within the organization especially management changes as occurred in ETC, effective communication ensures that the company remains or maintains focus on its goals. The organizational communication that forms the basis of organizational culture plays an important role in maintaining the quality of products. As an organization, ETC’s TQM can define communication format, principles and core values that are required in communication. The communication method used within the organization make the core values of the organization aligned towards quality process (Rose 2014, p. 224).

The final quality management element is the quality improvement that ensures that strategies are put in place for quality improvement. The ultimate goal of the quality management system to continuous improves the quality of products. In addition, the TQM need to factor within the strategy various ways to improve the quality of equipment delivered to customers. Some of the ways that the company can improve quality of its products are through implementing evaluation results. Data from derived from consumers and sales can be used to improve the quality of products. Therefore, using this data ensures that TQM works to improve quality of products (Hoyle 2007, p. 200).

Quality Improvement Recommendations

Quality assurance refers to the maintenance of the best-desired level of quality in service or product through paying attention various stages of manufacturing. From the perspective of the ETC being a manufacturer, quality assurance framework composes of various activities aim to make the quality of equipment guaranteed.

The quality assurance involves the determination of the company technical requirement for the input and output. Within the QA framework, the ETC needs to develop the standards that are required for the input and standards on the outputs. This implies that the company focusing on the standard of quality ensures that the quality of the products is maintained at the highest level possible. In addition, the company coming up with the quality standards in terms of the technical requirement will ensure that all technical specification of machines is conformed to the standards (Gerrish 2015, pp 48–66).

Certification of the suppliers and their rating in terms of quality is another important quality assurance framework that can help the company reach its quality goal. Under the input quality scope, the supplier credibility plays an important role and this can be achieved through the certified supplier. In addition, certification of the supplier based on their rating and quality standards ensures that there are minimal defects on inputs used to produce equipment. Suppliers certification as a quality assurance aspect lay down the process of certifying suppliers and the rating standards (Phillips 2008).

The inputs are the basic foundation of quality products and focusing on inputs will make the quality of equipment high. Inputs need to comply with quality standards of the company and this lays the ground for any quality comparisons. The company needs to certifies the inputs based on the quality standards (Bergman 2008, pp 86–93).

Proper documentation of the inputs and outputs in terms of receipts, storage records, and issue documents are some of the quality assurance elements. As a quality measure, the organization needs to focus on proper documentation of every aspect that is used in the manufacturing process (Majcen & Taylor 2010).

The technical compliance with the quality standards is another area that needs an audit to ensure that the equipment has complied with quality standards of the company (Shirouzu 2017).

The reliability of the products as the audit may reveal is important quality assurance element that can assist the company to achieve its quality goals.

The company needs to conduct an audit determines the maintenance of the quality at the product’s level and this ensures that these standards are maintained (Majcen & Taylor 2010).

Quality Control

The audit on the performance of the company’s manufacture system in compliance with the set standards is critical for continuous quality management (Nielsen 2014, pp 431–458).

Quality control refers to the process of ensuring the quality is maintained or improved without manufacturing errors. The quality control framework requires that the ETC has an environment with a spirit of perfection. The quality control system is based on various elements that ensure that this quality objective is achieved. These elements define the quality standard for the company (Phillips 2008).

Proper management of the employees has helped in controlling the quality of their performance within the organization. Employee performance and management is an aspect of quality control that ensures that workers deliver service as expected. This implies that to control the quality of the products ETC manufactures, the performance of employees, their job management, and integrity criteria need to uphold. This can also work with set standards for managing employees within the organization such as identification records (Warzecha 2017).

The competency as an aspect of quality control ensures that errors within the manufacturing process are reduced or eliminated. Some key pillars of competency include knowledge, skills, and qualifications. Many errors that result in the production of substandard product originate from employees working within the manufacturing process. This is due to lack of specialized training or lack of qualification in manufacturing. The basis of quality control for ETC will focus on employing qualified staffs, training employees on specific skills to build a knowledge-based workforce. The overall result will be better workforce capable of delivering high-quality products. In addition, the competency control systems start at the recruitment to ensure that at every level of the organization quality result and minimal errors are reduced (Mettler & Rohner 2009, pp. 699–708).

Organizational elements are used to control the quality of products that are manufactured. Some of these include organizational culture, core values, integrity, ethics, teamwork, and motivation. An organizational culture that is based on values especially those that are directed at delivery of quality products will help ETC to improve quality of equipment. For instance, motivated employee delivers products with minimal defects as their morale to work is boosted. In order to control the quality of ETC equipment, the company needs to design and develop these products with uttermost care, integrity and following the ethical codes. Moreover, teamwork has been observed as quality control principle that is grounded on working for a common goal (Malakooti 2013).

Continuous Improvement

Inspection and installation of quality inspectors is another basic aspect of quality control within the manufacturing process. As a company committed to the production of quality equipment and meet health requirements, the organization needs to inspect its manufacturing process. Equipment manufacturing process is complex with many sub-processes, for continuous quality products there is a need for installation of inspectors that can also utilize modern automated technologies to monitor the process (Rausch, Sheta & Ayesh 2013). Inspection can be done at the input level, process level and at the product’s level. Firstly, a good quality control system has an inspection done on inputs and raw materials to ensure the raw materials are of high quality. Secondly, the process is also fitted with quality inspectors that evaluate and monitor defects or errors within the system. Lastly, inspection of equipment also ensures that their quality is guaranteed before delivery to hospitals (Bettina 2017).

Conclusion

In conclusion, quality improvement strategy is important for continuous customer satisfaction. The quality improvement strategy involves three key quality aspects and these include Total Quality Management (TQM), Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC). These three quality improvement strategy works to deliver customer expected quality and beyond. There are different elements of these quality management aspects that ensure development and application quality system in manufacturing.  In light of this quality management strategy, some recommendations are also advanced that when implemented will improve the company’s performance and quality of equipment manufactured.  

In order to introduce the quality management strategy, there some recommendations that can, therefore, be implemented within the organization. Firstly, the organization needs to coin quality goal as part of the strategic objective. The organization has its strategic plan that it needs to add the quality objective to ensure that other objectives are also achieved in line with quality. To set these goals the organization can restructure its strategies with the quality culture included in the management. For instance, the goal of giving quality number one priority for the organization serves to improve the quality of the equipment (Hoyle 2007, p. 200).

Secondly, the organization needs to set quality standards for various management aspects products. These quality standards may include management performance that must be met as a quality output. For instance, the organization can set certain volume of the output that the company must reach a goal for a specific period of time. This goal is set bearing in mind the quality system within the process of manufacturing and this will ensure the organization achieves both quality and volume. When evaluating the performance of the organization the preset quality standards become the point of reference. Every product developed with the organization is evaluated based on the set standards. This will ensure that quality is maintained with the possibility of improving quality (Zairi 2009).

Fact-Based Decision Making

Thirdly, the company needs to develop and implement modern automated quality control system. Many companies have used an automated computer system to monitor the manufacturing process. The system that can be named as ETC Manufacture System has the capability of detecting errors or defects at a particular stage of products to prevent any further deviation from the normal quality (Nederpelt 2012). In addition, the automated system is also used to collect or store data on the manufacturing process leading to proper evaluation or performance determination. The automated system is normally used by the companies implementing those systems to forecast quality of final product. Studies show that automated system can monitor the quality of the products design, production and finishing with all stages already modelled in the system using virtual software (Littlefield & Roberts 2012).

The company needs to use quality tools to evaluate the quality management and improvement strategy. There are seven quality tools that can indicate the quality management level of the organization. These include a cause-and-effect diagram that analyses the causes and the effects of various defects or errors (Rosing, Kemp, Hove & Ross 2014, pp. 123–172). The overall aim of this tool is to analyze reasons for the imperfections in products design. Secondly, check sheet refers to quality data forms that give the data a particular stage of production. The form is used to collect data at different stages of manufacturing as means of detecting any error or defects and its shows researcher, data type, production stage, time of the data collection and reasons for data collection. Thirdly, control chart that gives the process-behavior chart and is used for statistic process control. The histogram is another tool and gives the representation of the distribution of manufacturing numerical data. The histogram is used to estimate the probability distribution of continuous variables of production (Weske 2012, pp. 1–24).

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