First, “quality” is defined in the business world as the “unrestricted attendance to every customer’s needs.”
To achieve this degree of satisfaction, it is essential that companies adopt management models geared to continuous improvement of its processes, such as the Business Process Management methodology, also known as BPM.
Total quality control is a natural result of the direct and continuous improvement practices at the operational levels of organizations. In fact, quite often managers use systems such as the Kaizen methodology and the FiveS quality program to insert solid foundations that allow the implementation of total quality control permanently in their business.
See also: What is quality control? Read about it here.
Total Quality Control: How did it get its name?
The term “total quality control” was first used by Armand Feigenbaum in the year 1956. Feigenbaum was an engineer and an expert in quality, he worked as the global head of production at General Electric and was the founder of General Systems.
It was he who proposed the idea that true quality could only result from a joint effort in which everyone involved with the production process of a particular good or service were involved.
When analyzing the issue of working together, the understanding of what total quality control becomes easier. It has this name because its goals are broad and comprehensive, not limited only to the company’s borders, but striving for excellence and satisfaction from all those involved with the business, whether partners, suppliers, distributors, stakeholders and other companies that eventually are provided with outsourced services.
All this is aimed at what was mentioned earlier in this article, which is the continuous improvement of all processes and overall customer satisfaction.
Check out: The relevance of Quality Processes here.
The Evolution of Total Quality Control
Total Quality Control is a multidisciplinary method of administration that makes use of various programs, techniques and tools seeking total quality control in the production processes of companies and the satisfaction of agents, directly and indirectly, involved with these processes. But it was not always so.
Previously, the concept of quality was focused only on the technical specifications of products and services that a company handled. I.e. the scope was aimed only at the final result, in which it sought the absence of defects, but without worrying too much about the process chain itself.
Over the years with changes in the market, companies have become more concerned with areas such as productivity, effectiveness, efficiency and cost reduction.
These needs have meant that statistical controls were created that allowed the expansion of the concept of quality for micro and macro environmental conditions as well, in which goods and services are built, not just for the final result. In other words, Total Quality Control seeks an optimal balance between production and delivery.
Currently, the main proven results of the implementation of total quality control in companies are:
- Knowledge, understanding and total control of production processes
- Maximum efficient use of financial and human resources
- Effectiveness in achieving the organization’s and its partner’s objectives
- Assuring the ‘going concern’ of the business
- Structuring to enable the implementation of Corporate Governance
To delve further into the subject, also read: The 3 Tools for the Improvement of Quality and Processes, check it out here: https://www.heflo.com/blog/quality-improvement/quality-process-improvement/