Total Quality Management at TECOM Investments in Dubai
Ensuring effective practices of quality management is one key way through which competitive advantage in both services and manufacturing organizations can be obtained. Quality can be defined as the degree to which services; products, relationships as well as processes are free from any kind of constraints, defects and even kind of items which do not enhance customer satisfaction (Pryor, White, and Toombs, 1998). To ensure quality, manufacturing and services organizations have implemented a number of quality initiatives that include six sigma and Quality Award Criteria such as ISO14000, ISO 9000 and the Malcolm Baldrige National quality Award Criteria as well as Total Quality Mnagemnet (TQM).
TECOM Investments makes one of the fast growing companies in Dubai. The company which falls under Dubai Holding works towards promoting the development and management that promotes the growth of Dubai’s knowledge oriented industries. The key focus areas for TECOM Investments within the various industries include biotechnology, information and communication technology (ICT), energy, education, as well as the media. As a company aiming at ensuring quality delivery of services as well as the achievement of set goals and objectives, TECOM investments has continuously worked towards enhancing quality management as well as the implementation of effective systems of quality management and have set up processes and systems that are in line with the best set up standards. The implementation of Total Quality Management is one way through which the company is working towards improving their quality of service delivery, decision making as well as overall management and improvement of business standards.
Implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) at TECOM Investments: Challenges and issues faced
Total Quality Management aims at continuously improving every process of work right from the process of decision-making, formulation of strategic plans and down to the implementation of these plans. The general principle within the system is that firms can prevent the occurrence of faults and errors (Goetsch & Stanley, 1995). Through TQM, better outcomes at TECOM investments have constantly been obtained in every process of their work due to the continued improvement in the people, potentials, processes, mechanical as well as technological abilities. One important step during the onset of the implementation process of TQM at TECOM Investments was the assessment of the company’s situation or status before the implementation. Aspects put into consideration at this point included the company’s history, factors that brought the need to implement TQM, the company’s needs as well as the quality of the workers’ quality of life. This was done to assess if the system of management was going to successfully survive. It was done through an efficiently worked out management audit.The assessment indicated the company as having been able to effectively respond to different occurrences within the economic environment and hence proved TQM implementation as a process that was going to be easy to implement as well as to be successful. A few improvements were however to be done especially in the human resource department to improve on the quality of staff and their workplace environments.
In the total quality management implementation, the role of the structure and also its type and usefulness in the organization is seen to vary from one organization to the other. The differences in this approach also bring along differences in culture according to Smith (2004). This strategy requires frequent revision and assessment in order for it to be in line with the objectives of the company (Carter and Mueller, 2005). Another important practice is that of strategy. For the success of the business process management, there has to be an effective alignment to goals of the corporation (Jarvis et al. 2000). All employees should be in such a way that they are in line with the customer requirements and thus the satisfaction of the customers. TECOM investments recognized this need during their implementation and have therefore always sought to link efforts in quality with the purpose of the organization. The organizational objectives in this case follow a formal process in line with corporate purpose. The process of implementing the goals work hand ion hand with what had been initially planned (McAdam, 1996).
One major hindrance to the implementation of TQM and that was a major concern to the company was the difficulty experienced while making quantifications on the cost benefit Return on Investments during the adoption of the system. Questions were constantly raised about the reliability and cost effectiveness TQM with many Skeptics regarding this system as being very expensive and tasking.
This opinion is likely to be a major barrier especially during the introduction of the system to the various members of staff who will be involved in decision-making. The high expense of making changes in the various sectors to meet up all the required standards is also another great challenge. These high costs are also likely to be reflected in the implementation and consultation, employment or training of existing quality assurance personnel that will be responsible for the maintenance and operation of the systems, enhancement of marketing and public relations to inform consumers on the targeted benefits as well as on the training of staff members on the operation of the system.
Another major challenge according to the chief executive at the TECOM investments was diffilculty faced in improving the quality of staff working life so as to meet up the necessary requirements to qualify for the implementation of TQM. This process involved putting up new standards of working, working policies as well as a change in many other aspects realted to the employees. This was not only tasking but also expensive.
How a quality Award can bring detailed feedback for additional steps the organization can take to ensure that it meets today’s standards of quality
Quality awards have been awarded to organizations both in the manufacturing and service sectors. In both of these organizations a similar criteria is used with emphasis been placed on the level of consumer satisfaction as well as clear evidence indicating that benchmarking makes up a major component of the quality system of all companies. The evaluators need to also to identify if the passion to enhance quality is present in the entire organization or not. The approach calls for all employees to ensure commitment to customer satisfaction. This therefore requires that all staff members get to actively take part in undertaken projects to improve quality. These projects are mainly based on the efforts of team members (Evans and Lindsay, 2007).The process of benchmarking performance and service standards are insightful both to the service provider as well as to the manufacturer.
One of the critical examples of business process management is the use of accredited quality assurance systems. One of the chief advantages of using these systems is for the provision of a culture which is based on the management of business processes. The quality assurance systems have been widely used as the basis points of the most important process of total quality management (Thawesaengskulthai & Tannock, 2008). Systems such as EN ISO 9000 have been widely recognized by a number of companies. Some people have argued that the process of registering with ISO 9000 lays a formidable foundation for building a quality culture which has made companies work towards the development of a total quality process (Stamatis, 2004). Due to active involvement in this area by the company it pushes it to very high profiles. This has made the company to be in better positions to meet the requirements of their particular customers.
In most of the recognized cases, registration to these systems has been met with international recognition. It has also occurred that in some cases, this registration process is not a choice matter but one of the customer’s minimum requirements. This shows that the quality assurance systems can help very much developing of approaches which are based on processes and some basic principles. Such a principle is doing the right thing without having to repeat it and repeating this process of doing the right thing first time over and over again (Smith, 1994).
Another important aspect is the quality structure. This has been depicted to be one of the core elements of management in the modern days. This is a very important issue in the setting up of a business process management. It is however noticed that it cannot solely change how the organization is managed towards the achievement of its objectives as set in the blueprints. This brings along quite some controversy. It is mainly due to the proponents of the processes who view it as one of the best ways to bring about change in the organization (Czinkota, Ronkainen & Moffat, 2005).
One key principal premise of quality awards is that executive sponsorship results into success (Montgomery, 2009). Most organizations that have developed a TQM approach of infrastructure have in turn placed individuals they have trained into positions of leadership. This means that these individuals use their extensive knowledge, tools and skills in business and in TQM to become leaders as well as creators of change. This is the reason that makes leadership training a large phase of the process of Black Belt certification (Communal & Senior, 2001).This means that through the award, TECOM Investments will be able to train and brinmg up qualified leaders with eefficient skills to promote quality.
Through quality awards, an organization can be able to assess its level of performance, look at its strengths, weaknesses as well as identify any gaps that need to be filled. Through this, it will be able to effectively identify the areas that need improvement and in turn put up effective measures that will ensure that the system of management is in line with the set up standards for the award. The award therefore allows the company time to learn from its mistakes and to make effective improvements from those mistakes. It is therefore through the award that TECOM Investments will be able to identify areas where they need to improve to ensure quality achievement.
References
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