COURSE OVERVIEW:

The Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy of doing business emphasises lowering costs by reducing waste, helping suppliers provide quality products and satisfying the customer with quality goods and services.

Companies that can produce goods at lower costs than their competitors, while delivering quality products that satisfy their customers will have an advantage over those companies that do not duplicate those feats.

Implementing TQM can help a company gain a competitive advantage in their business.

TQM always focus on customer satisfaction. Competitive advantage denotes a firm's ability to achieve market superiority over its competitors. In the long run, a sustainable competitive advantage provides above-average performance. The characteristics relate to quality; quality can be an important means of gaining competitive advantage.

The role of quality in business strategy has taken two significant steps since 1980. First, many firms have recognised that a strategy driven by quality can lead to significant market advantages. Second, the lines between quality strategy and generic business strategies have become blurred to the point where TQM principles are integrated into most businesses' normal business planning; that is, TQM is a basic operating philosophy that provides the foundation for effective management.

For most companies, integration of TQM into strategic business planning is the result of a natural evolution. For most new companies or those that have enjoyed a reasonable measure of success quality takes a back seat to increasing sales, expanding capacity, or boosting production. Strategic planning usually focuses on financial and marketing strategies.

This course focuses on improving competitive advantage through people and processes. It explores the concept of total quality management (TQM) and looks at the practicalities of continually striving to improve processes through empowering people.

By the end of the course you will be better able to: (1) identify the underlying principles of implementing quality management in the workplace (2) review your techniques for involving your team in improving the quality of the team’s output (3) identify your team processes and what they contribute to the organisation (4) document existing processes using process mapping techniques (5) identify the relevant people to assist in the process mapping process (6) use process mapping to improve processes (7) identify quality checkpoints along your team’s processes and select appropriate measures (8) benchmark processes against similar processes elsewhere in the organisation or in external organisations.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of this course, you will be able to understand:

·       The characteristics of a strong competitive advantage

·       What is quality?

·       What does quality mean to an organisation?

·       The principles of TQM

·       The importance of putting the customer first

·       How customers can be internal and external?

·       How organisations are customers?

·       The process model

·       How quality is free?

·       Why prevention is better than cure?

·       The relative values of prevention, appraisal, and failure costs

·       How to reduce variation and aim for zero defects?

·       Why quality is everyone’s responsibility?

·       How quality management succeeds? And why it fails?

·       The advantages of a successful quality initiative

·       The disadvantages of a quality initiative

·       The conditions that foster success

·       The importance of empowerment and training for groups

·       What is business processes?

·       What is a process for?

·       Why manage processes?

·       The process entropy?

·       Where do you start with process management?

·       The framework for process management

·       How to get organised for process improvement?

·       What is process mapping?

·       How to build ownership?

·       The integrated flowcharts, the layout flowcharts and the deployment flowcharts and their pros and cons

·       How to identify process improvements?

·       What is streamlining?

·       What is error-proofing?

·       The critical examination matrix

·       The fishbone diagram

·       The process cycle time

·       The importance of customer expectations

·       The spectrum of business process efforts

·       How to measure for improvement?

·       Why measure?

·       What do you measure?

·       The ease of measurement

·       When do you measure?

·       Who measures?

·       How to collect and use the measurement information?

·       The feedback system

·       The importance of benchmarking and how to do it?

COURSE DURATION:

The typical duration of this course is approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Your enrolment is Valid for 12 Months. Start anytime and study at your own pace.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

You must have access to a computer or any mobile device with Adobe Acrobat Reader (free PDF Viewer) installed, to complete this course.

COURSE DELIVERY:

Purchase and download course content.

ASSESSMENT:

A simple 10-question true or false quiz with Unlimited Submission Attempts.

CERTIFICATION:

Upon course completion, you will receive a customised digital “Certificate of Completion”.