Reaching Total Quality

Reaching Total quality

"Quality is a dynamic state associated with products, services, people, processes, and environments that meets or exceeds expectations and helps produce superior value" (Geotsch & Davis, 2010, p. 5). There is more to quality than meeting or exceeding expectations of a consumer, reaching beyond improving this becomes total quality. The following will discuss the elements of quality and how it influences today's environment. Next a description of how the quality pioneers made the pioneer successful.

Quality

Quality may be difficult to describe yet simple to identify personal preferences. Quality is an aspect focused on by a consumer daily. Anytime a purchase is made quality comes to mind; examples would be grocery shopping, purchasing a home or vehicle, the type of gas, or even the quality of food served by a restaurant. Ultimately did the product or service meet the consumer's needs. This is an important aspect to quality but not the only one (Geotsch & Davis, 2010). Another important aspect would be total quality this measures the quality of people and the quality of process (Geotsch & Davis, 2010). Total quality can be defined as maximizing organizational competitiveness with continuous improvement with quality in the products, services, people, and processes within the current environment. Total quality increases the ability to compete in a global market (Geotsch & Davis, 2010, p. 22). Improving quality continuously is extremely important, understanding that what is considered quality today may not be considered quality tomorrow. The approach for total quality is through the focus of long-term profits and continuous improvement.

Elements

Numerous elements are involved in creating success with total quality; these include strategically based, customer focus, obsession with quality, scientific approach, long-term commitment, team-work, continual process improvement, education and training. Other important elements include freedom through control, unity of purpose and employee involvement and empowerment. Each of these elements are vital in successfully creating total quality, and meeting and exceeding consumers needs continuously.

Evolution of Quality

The elements mentioned above all have significant importance in today's environment. Without continuous improvement quality would be non-existent just as described by Goetsch and Davis, what may be considered excellent today may just be mediocre tomorrow (Geotsch & Davis, 2010, p. 7). The world is changing rapidly without continuously improving quality consumers will not be satisfied causing harm to an organizations success and dissatisfaction by consumers. With today's expectations of quality it would have been in imaginable