ISO 9000 AND TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)

ISO 9000 AND TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)

ISO 9000: Is a series of standards, developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), that define, establish, and maintain an effective quality assurance system for manufacturing and service industries. The standards are available through national standards bodies. ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals of quality management systems, including the eight management principles upon which the family of standards is based. ISO 9001 deals with the requirements that organizations wishing to meet the standard must fulfill.

Third-party certification bodies provide independent confirmation that organizations meet the requirements of ISO 9001. Over a million organizations worldwide are independently certified, making ISO 9001 one of the most widely used management tools in the world today. Despite widespread use, the ISO certification process has been criticized as being wasteful and not being useful for all organizations.

The ISO 9000 family addresses various aspects of quality management and contains some of ISO’s best known standards. The standards provide guidance and tools for companies and organizations who want to ensure that their products and services consistently meet customer’s requirements, and that quality is consistently improved.

There are many standards in the ISO 9000 family, including:

ISO 9000:2005 - covers the basic concepts and language

ISO 9001:2008 - sets out the requirements of a quality management system

ISO 9004:2009 - focuses on how to make a quality management system more efficient and effective

ISO 19011:2011 - sets out guidance on internal and external audits of quality management systems.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM): Is a system of management based on the principle that every staff member must be committed to maintaining high standards of work in every aspect of a company's operations.

Total Quality Management (TQM) refers to management methods used to enhance quality and productivity in business organizations. TQM is a comprehensive management approach that works horizontally across an organization, involving all departments and employees and extending backward and forward to include both suppliers and clients/customers.

The basic elements of TQM, as expounded by the American Society for Quality Control, are:

1) Policy, planning, and administration;

2) Product design and design change control;

3) Control of purchased material;

4) Production quality control;

5) User contact and field performance

6) Corrective action; and

7) Employee selection, training, and motivation.

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