AWWA ACE94055

Achieving continuous quality improvement using the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) is one of today's most talked-about approaches to management. These principles include: focus on meeting the customer's needs and expectations, participatory problem solving, training for all staff, creating an environment that prevents errors rather than relying on checking to control quality, take measurements directly related to quality, make decisions based on these data rather than opinions, and continuously search for improvement. Largely based on these principles but using a variety of names for their approaches, American organizations of all types have attempted to translate the success with quality improvement principles achieved in Japan to their own organization--with mixed results. Although there have been successes, TQM is not the magic elixir that many are seeking. A recent survey of 500 executives from manufacturers and service companies confirms that most US companies, 93%, have some form of quality improvement program but many are finding that they simply are not improving fast enough in relation to competition. Only about one-third of those executives polled, 36%, believe their company's efforts have had a significant impact on their competitive position. Some of the most common pitfalls and their solutions are discussed in this paper.