1st Edition

Quality is Everybody's Business

By Patrick L Townsend, Joan E Gebhardt Copyright 2000

    Done correctly, Total Quality Management (TQM) will increase your profits and preserve your resources, make your customers and employees happy, and it is the ethical thing to do. The key, of course, is to do it right. Unfortunately, when quality efforts fail to fulfill their potential, business leaders begin to doubt the efficacy of making the pursuit of quality a primary organizational priority.
    The most consistent mistake: starting small and implementing only part of the plan. Examples of partial efforts ending in disappointment or disaster abound. As a result, the only thing "total" about TQM processes has been the level of frustration. Quality is Everybody's Business makes it possible for people at all levels of your organization to understand the underlying theory and the specific mechanics of continual improvement.
    In an easy-to-read style, the book shows you how to untangle seemingly complex theory into guidelines for everyday managing and leading. The authors provide a comprehensive presentation of the practical details and the reasoning behind defining, implementing, and maintaining a 100% employee involvement process. Taken as a whole, the articles presented in this book address the theory and the practice of TQM in an integrated manner.
    Once your customers experience quality, they will continue to look for the quality option. Done correctly, TQM can be defined and implemented in six-to-eight months - and that includes actively involving everyone on the payroll in the process and seeing positive bottom line results virtually immediately. Whether your organization has a TQM process in place or is just beginning to implement one, Quality is Everybody's Business gives you the tools to make it a complete quality process.

    Origins
    Call to Action!
    Democracy and Quality
    The Three Components
    Leadership
    Participation
    Measurement
    Getting it Done
    The Role of Senior Managers
    Mechanics of a Complete Quality Process
    The Baldridge
    If They Can Do it...
    The Military as a Benchmark
    The Paul Revere Process
    Industry - Specific Examples
    Final Thoughts
    Ideas for Consideration
    Keeping Quality Alive
    Putting the Focus on the Right Place
    Closing Notes
    Sources

    Biography

    Patrick L. Townsend, Joan E. Gebhardt