The Benefits of a Good Total Quality Management System

What precisely is a quality management system (QMS), and what does it do?

QMS is a management system meant to formalize documents, processes, protocols, tasks, and responsibilities for achieving quality control objectives. The primary goals are positive customer results and compliance with regulatory requirements. The hope is that employees learn to improve the quality of their work continuously.

Let’s dive into the benefits of implementing a total quality management system to create better business processes and a high-quality customer experience.

Why is a quality management system important?

The idea of a total quality management system dates back to Japan in 1954. Its purpose is to streamline tasks, reduce error, and eliminate risk. QMS creates quality control for various areas of an organization.

Usually, the components of QMS help meet regulatory standards and regulations, improve the customer experience, and help improve employee training. These are just some of the benefits of quality management systems.

What types of organizations should have a QMS?

Industries that commonly use QMS in their day-to-day operations include commercial airlines, software development, automobile manufacturers, educational institutions, government agencies, and pharmaceutical firms, to name only a few. In fact, any company that might benefit from customer service and quality improvement would do well to implement a QMS.

For example, universities are expected to comply with ISO 9000, the international standard for quality management systems. So a QMS in higher education can help improve the quality of education that teachers deliver to students, the quality of training that the university delivers to employees, and the level of regulatory compliance the university must achieve for education regulators.

Pharmaceutical companies, meanwhile, must adhere to high quality standards from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and other regulators around the world. Quality management systems and their larger, accompanying philosophy, Total Quality Management (TQM) can help such firms keep their focus on standards of cleanliness, internal control, production, security, and financial reporting.

What are the principles of TQM?

There are eight principles of TQM as spelled out by ISO 9001, a standard that serves as the broadest, international version of a QMS framework.

1. Customer Focus

To survive, businesses need customers. Therefore, improving customer satisfaction leads to a successful business and profitability.

2. Leadership

Employees work collaboratively towards common goals, but they require leadership to be successful. The difference is that leaders work to improve productivity and positivity to benefit the greater whole.

3. The People

You can’t expect to improve your organization’s productivity and profit without committing to your employees. Their enthusiasm and dedication are necessary for the success of TQM.

4. The Processes

A significant component of TQM is process. Processes are a “series of steps that take inputs from suppliers and transform them into outputs (internal or external) that are delivered to customers (internal or external).”

5. Systematic Management

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) describes this principle as: “Identifying, understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system that contributes to the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives.”

6. Continual Improvement

All of these changes require continual improvement over time. Optimization will require metrics to be tracked over time, to measure which processes and protocols are working and which aren’t, so that you can adjust.

7. Factual Approach to Decision Making

Use data gathering and analytics to make better decisions based on current information. Making informed decisions leads to a better understanding of customers and your market.

8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relations

No matter what industry you’re in or size of your business, you most likely work with suppliers or vendors. This dictates that relationships between your company and any suppliers must be mutually beneficial to add value to both parties.

Which products are best suited for quality management?

With so many moving parts, it’s essential to invest in a total quality management system. ZenGRC is one GRC solution that meets such needs. It can handle numerous frameworks that can be tweaked to your specific needs to improve your business model.

ZenGRC simplifies risk management and compliance with complete views of control environments, easy access to information necessary for risk evaluation, and continual compliance monitoring to address critical tasks at any time.

Our user-friendly dashboards show you how to improve procedures and processes that will overall enhance customer service quality. ZenGRC migrates tasks based on regulations and your business perimeters, and our system helps track workflows, collect documentation, and more.

What industries can benefit from Reciprocity’s compliance management products?

Almost all industries that integrate TQM principles can reap the benefits of a quality management system. Implementing a total quality management system improves quality standards and positively impacts customer and vendor relationships. We have more resources on how to implement a QMS for your organization.

To learn more about how ZenGRC can support your risk evaluation efforts, contact us now for your free consultation and demo.