Handbook of Total Quality Management

Citation

Lu, M.H. (2001), "Handbook of Total Quality Management", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 104-107. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqrm.2001.18.1.104.2

In managing today’s business within a domestic and/or international environment, total quality management is a must consideration for companies’ well‐being. There are many books being published on the subject of total quality management, few of them have such a scope and in‐depth view as is provided by the Handbook of Total Quality Management (or the handbook). It is a well‐organized handbook discussing a wide variety of contemporary topics regarding quality management issues facing the businesses in the USA and the world as well. It discusses total quality management with implications in different aspects of managing today’s business units in the increasing globalized and competitive marketplaces. It covers an impressive amount of information and knowledge regarding total quality management.

The Handbook of Total Quality Management provides a clear overview of the early total quality movement since the Second World War. From the first two chapters, readers will see a clear path of how total quality management started and its theoretical foundations. While some of the major Japanese corporations were once at the forefront of the total quality movement (some of them still are), the USA has provided the early pioneers, such as Deming (the 14 points for management), Juran (cost of quality) and Crosby (total quality management). During the 1980s, the US corporate world has caught up with the trend and leading the way in quality management movement around the world.

The handbook has touched on a variety of topics regarding total quality management in relation to production management issues, such as, strategic total quality management, quality management for small and medium‐sized companies, total quality management and productivity and information systems, and total quality management in supply chain management. As we are entering the twenty‐first century, businesses face a more global and competitive business environment around the world. As the special issue of Business Week (21‐28 August, 2000, pp. 87‐8) states that the businesses will have to focus on external environments, provide mass customization, bottom‐up strategic management and no compromises will be made in terms of quality. In this type of business environment, strategic total quality management becomes a must issue for businesses, large or small, to survive.

The handbook has further broadened the traditional approach of focusing on the production part of business management to include such topics as human resource management and total quality management, accounting and capital budgeting for quality, the Internet and total quality management, and total quality management and the service industries. The handbook touches on many interesting and timely topics that companies should consider for their corporate well‐beings. Stable and well‐educated employees do contribute to the overall quality of companies’ performances. Higher quality levels can be achieved with companies helping their employees through their learning curves and providing them with constant training and retraining programs. Chapters 4 and 5 provide valuable information and knowledge in managing companies’ human resources.

In addition to the conceptual foundation, the handbook has discussed a number of tools that have been used in the total quality management, benchmarking, quality function deployment, probability and statistics, statistical quality control, etc. These are the proven techniques or methods companies have used in managing their business operations around the world, and they will continue to be the main tools in total quality managing in the twenty‐first century. As the knowledge of probability and statistics prevails in managing day‐to‐day businesses, the use of such techniques of benchmarking and quality function deployment has greatly enhanced management of corporations to access their markets and competitive environments. Benchmarking is a valuable tool used to compare one company to the best companies in the same industry or market, while the quality function deployment identifies target customers’ needs and wants and provides strategic guidelines for company’s top management.

Other valuable aspects of the handbook are that it also covers the development of total quality management in less developed and developing countries (China, India, Poland, Singapore, etc.) from around the world, in addition to the current total quality management movement that occurs mostly in the developed world. Economic reforms have brought many new concepts to the less developed world. Countries like China, India and Poland have increasingly realized that in order to succeed in today’s global market, product/service quality is very vital to their national interests. Therefore, these countries have started adopting total quality management during the 1980s. With developed and developing countries already deep in their learning curve of the total quality management movement, the less developed countries have a much shorter learning curve before they catch up with the rest of the world by establishing quality control standards in accordance with the international quality standards.

In conclusion, the Handbook of Total Quality Management proves itself as a valuable source of knowledge and information regarding different aspects of total quality management around the world and, at the same time, it gives readers a clear picture of total quality movement around the world. The handbook provides a solid knowledge of total quality management as well as the methods or technique to achieve companies’ strategic objectives of satisfying their respective target customers. It is a resourceful handbook not only for top management who strive to achieve high quality of products and services, but also for middle line managers whose primary duties may not necessarily be in production management. It is everyone’s responsibility to serve a company’s target market and meet its needs fully.