The first is a US-based healthcare provider AlantiCare. Although the company had been successful for more than two decades managing more than 5 thousand people at 25 locations, it set the goal of improvements throughout the company in order to deliver the highest level of patient satisfaction,the most important factor in the healthcare industry.
The firm chose to adopt a ‘plan-do-check-act’ cycle, revealing gaps in staff communication – which subsequently meant longer patient waiting times and more complaints. Following the TQM program, the company's profits rose from $280m to $650m.
The second is a small business with just 14 employees,the Santa Cruz Guitar Company manufacture custom guitars. To ensure that each guitar is made to the highest standards the owner, Dan Roberts analyzed the process and decided to divide the shop floor into six workstations with a senior craftsman in each one and no instrument leaves the station until he is 100 percent happy with the quality.
Just another example of analyzing a process and maximizing it to ensure efficiency and customer satisfaction.
The company currently enjoy a very healthy backlog of orders and satisfied customers.
The third case study is a totally different environment, an institute of management studies,(RIMS) in Bangalore, India.
The problem which they were experiencing was that accreditation bodies in that country were questioning the quality of education being delivered.
RIMS implemented a study to ascertain where the problems lay in certain vital processes.The results were disappointing, it revealed that for instance an RIMS students' knowledge base was rated at just 36% compared with a Harvard student who rated at 95% and the mean salaries of graduating students averaged at $36,000 compared with $150,000 at Kellogg.
Once again it was the process that was analyzed and the need to bring everyone on board was apparent. In short after implementing a number of strategies and new methods results followed, the number of Top 100 businesses recruiting from the school rose by 22% and the average salary of graduating students increased by $20,000.
I believe that whatever the business, implementing a Total Quality Management program will provide beneficial results across the business providing that there is total commitment from the top and a company-wide inclusion and belief in the program.
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