Mgt 449 - Total Quality Pioneers Paper

Total Quality Pioneers Paper

Tiffany Taylor

University of Phoenix

MGT/449

Demetrius Holt

June 21, 2012

Total Quality Pioneers Paper

Some individuals will define quality as the most excellent product available on the market, such as a luxury item, but quality is all about an item being the best fit for a particular situation. A quality item is one that will met the customer's need and perhaps even surpasses what they are expecting the product to be like. There are several different elements of quality that a company should focus upon to ensure that they are delivering a quality product to their customers. These elements include taking a long term approach to the strategy of delivering a quality product, being focused on those internal and external customers, taking a scientific approach, focusing on teamwork, getting employees involved so that they can assist with improving quality, continuing improvements on quality and never stopping to think about improvements that can be made by the organization.

Joseph M. Juran's use of the total quality elements made him very successful in being able to spot where companies could improve upon themselves. During a visit to Japan, Juran was able to examine the way that the Japanese were handing quality and determined that they would surpass other countries if they did not learn from the Japanese. According to Stephens and Juran (2005), "Juran came more or less directly from a visit to Japan, highly impressed by the way the Japanese improved quality. In particular, improvement work done by workers in teams, that later were called quality circles attracted his interest" (p. 67). Rather than insist on the superiority of the way that they were currently handling quality, Juran looked to other cultures to see how it could be made better. He was meticulous in how he went about learning about quality.

The elements of quality are useful in today's environment for the same reason they were useful in that past. Each of these elements helps to ensure that a company to producing the best possible product that they can be over time. Failing to meet one of the elements of quality can mean that customers may decide to choose a competitor's product over the product that they have been loyally purchasing from your company because it is no longer fully meeting their needs. A company not only has to focus on their strategy for making a quality product, but for keeping their company a quality company to continue to have their loyal customer base and attract new customers to their products.

I foresee that the future of quality will be continuing to change and improve. The global market