Title: Chapter 5 Introduction
Course: Canvas Practice Course > Section: Week 1, 23 March to 26 March

KEY CONCEPTS

The heart of TQM is customer focus. If an organization wants to meet customer needs—both internal and external--effectively it must have equipment, procedures and systems. To swiftly respond to a customer complaint (depending on the type of complaint and product) might entail availability of analytical services, technical personnel who can analyze the problem, and quick and effective means of communication. For multinational companies that do business all over the world, fast and effective communication is a must. The major components of TQM are:

- Continuous improvement
- Management by data and facts
- Employee empowerment and involvement
- Customer focus

Experts also believe that TQM requires a company to review employee qualifications, promote technical skills development, and instill the spirit of teamwork. Acceptable quality levels in industry can be misleading. The only acceptable quality level is zero defects.

Teamwork is critical to TQM. A company is a huge team composed of multitudes of small teams, each with a task to perform that ultimately results in customer satisfaction and profits.