Total Quality Management And Its Applications

Introduction

This chapter talks about the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, the research questions, significance of the study, limitation, scope, and organization of the study.

Background to the Study

Total quality management is defined as the complete commitment to quality in all aspect of the firms operations. Total quality management is a management approach of organization, with the objective of attaining quality, through the full participation of all its members for long term success, customer satisfaction and benefits to the organization and the public. According to (Shankar, 2012). Total quality management (TQM) is the significant approach to improving quality which involves the organizations long term commitment to a sustained improvement of quality, throughout the firm with the active participation of all organizational members to meet and exceed customer’s expectations. (Weihrich and Koontz, 2005) states that total quality management is the constant effort of identifying with and catering for the customer needs from time to time. This is in view of the fact that customer’ needs, desires, and wants changes overtime as changes occur in the external environment of business. TQM embraces the culture of continuous improvement of learning and adaptation to changing customer demands. According to Jones (2011) total quality management is a management technique is concerned with improving the quality of the organizations products and services and therefore directs all efforts to achieving it. NG-Journal of Social Development (2016).

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management approach that originated in the 1950s and has steadily become more popular since the early 1980s. Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that strives to provide customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company’s operations, with processes being done right the first time and defects and waste eradicated from operations. Total Quality Management(TQM) is a huge area of study that includes various principles. Nonetheless, three main principles that resonates are customer focus, continuous improvement and teamwork. TQM emphasizes these three principles to the extent that each principle cannot be used independent of the other. Therefore, in order for TQM to be achieved in any setting, these three principles have to be implemented. However, it is necessary to find out how the integration of these principles affects organizational performance.

Quality Management has seen a lot of evolution through the stages of inspection, quality control, quality assurance and total quality management. Total quality management evolved from quality assurance methods that were first developed around the time of the First World War. The war effort led to large scale manufacturing efforts that often produced poor quality. To help correct this, quality inspectors were introduced on the production line to ensure that the level of failures due to quality was minimized.The new wave of quality control became Total Quality Management, which was used to describe the many quality-focused strategies and techniques that became the center of focus for quality movement.

According to Kenneth Laysons and Brain Farrington (2006) Total Quality Management is an integrative management concept of continually improving the quality of delivered goods and services through the participation of all levels and functions of the organization. They further declare that it is a way of managing an organization, so that every job, every process, is carried out right, first time and every time. He continues to say that; Continuous improvement must deal not only with improving results, but more importantly with improving capabilities to produce better results in the future. Five major areas of focus for capability improvement are demand generation, supply generation, technology, operations and people capability. It must therefore be the ultimate priority of any company to so as to boost the growth as well as the profitability of the business.

7up Bottling Company of Nigeria, Aba branch is the focus of study because of the fact that 7up Bottling Company, (Aba Branch) Total Quality Management domain, however, has not attracted much attention. As a result, little research has been conducted in this field, especially on Total Quality Management application.

Statement of the Problem

Total Quality Management is an essential aspect in the manufacturing, distribution and trading industries. For a company to remain competitive on a world scale, improvement must be made in both levels of cost and quality. Therefore, the researcher is undertaking this research to assess the application of TQM as one of the tool for organizational development at 7up Bottling Company, Aba branch.

Purpose of the Study

The main objective of the study is to find the application of total quality management in manufacturing firms in Nigeria: with a study of 7up bottling company (Aba branch).

The specific objectives of the study are:

To find out the strategies in ensuring quality.

To determine how 7up uses TQM in their processes.

To obtain the effects of TQM application on overall business performance in 7up Bottling Company.

To determine how the employees relate in a TQM environment.

Research Question

As the research works on the co-ordination of purchasing activities with other functions in 7up Bottling Company of Nigeria (Aba Branch), the following questions will be appropriate for the study.

What are the strategies 7up Bottling Company use in ensuring quality?

How do7up Bottling Company use TQM in their processes?

What are the effects of TQM application on overall business performance in 7up Bottling Company of Nigeria?

How do the employees of 7up Bottling Company relate in a TQM environment?

Significance of the Study

The results will help 7up ensure a continuous improvement and high quality standards in its operations. Furthermore, as an academic research project, it could be used as the basis for further academic research into the operations of 7up Bottling Company.

Scope of the Study

More data could have been gathered by spreading the study to cover a wider scope but due to the constraints mentioned earlier which hindered the research work, specific area was chosen. In view of that, the researcher restricted the scope of the study to only information provided by the management of 7up Bottling Company, Aba Branch.

Limitation of the Study

Collection of data was the major limitation encountered in the study. This is because most heads of functional departments were reluctant to reveal basic information needed for the study. There was this suspicion that information given will be handed over to other manufacturing companies. Information is generally viewed as very confidential and as a result of that, enough data was not gathered for the study. It is believed that might adversely affect conclusion drawn.

Also, the manager of the company or any other relevant staff capable of providing us the requisite information was not available during the time of visit.

Moreover, time constraints also affected the study in a way. The fact is that, the research is being combined with academic work and this affected the study to some extent.

Organization of the Study

The structure of the study is as follows;

Chapter one deals with the general overview of the study. This comprises introduction, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research question, significance of the study, limitation, delimitations of the study and organization of the study.

Chapter two also deals with the review of related literature in the area of study. It discusses the theoretical and empirical framework of other research such as definitions of Total Quality Management, Effects of Total Quality Management, strategies in ensuring Total Quality Management and Total Quality Management Process.

Chapter three covers the research methodology. This chapter discusses the research methods used to collect data for the study. It focuses on the research design, population and sampling, data collection instrument, data collection procedures and data analysis.

Chapter Four cover the results of the study. The data obtained through the administration of the research instruments are analyzed and discuss in this chapter. The analysis is in the form of frequencies and percentages, which were captured in tables, graphs and charts.

Chapter five provides the summary, conclusion, recommendation and suggestion for further research. It embraces the summary, conclusion, recommendations and suggestion for further research which suit the application of Total Quality Management (TQM) in 7up Company Limited, Aba Branch.