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Total Quality Management (TQM) and Process Organisation

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Work Organisation in Practice

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Abstract

In total quality management (TQM) it is a responsibility for all workers in the organisation to focus on creating value for the customer. The quality movement has got one overall idea for all kinds of organisations—to satisfy the customer. To satisfy the customer is also emphasised in time based management (TBM), business process reengineering (BPR) and lean production. People and departments are, in TQM and lean production, divided in suppliers and customers, which forms a so-called internal market. In order to overcome lack of communication, coordination and focus on creating value for the organisation and the customer, process organisation has been introduced as a remedy. Instead of organising in functions, the organisation is centred around its processes. Only activities, which adds value to the customer should remain in the processes and the throughput time should be shortened as much as possible in order to save costs. Lean production, TBM and BPR are process oriented organisation models.

Lean production builds on the Fordistic assembly line system but without buffers. The work is, like in Taylorism and Fordism, characterised by a high division of labour. The coordinating/controlling methods are the assembly line, the just-in-time (JIT) principle, team organisation combined with a highly demanding culture focused on sacrifices for the company, internal market, command and control by supervisors, visualisation, management by feelings such as shame and pride. The JIT-principle combined with limited recourses such as staff, and a sophisticated system of control mechanisms put a lot of pressure on workers. Lean production has, as a consequence, been criticised for high levels of stress and work-related ill-health.

Business process reengineering (BPR) is a very radical model for change in organisations. The traditional function organisation, which is often the starting point, is broken down and people are instead relocated in process teams. The individuals become generalists, contrary to the specialist roles they had in the old organisation. The change process most often includes downsizing, which combined with high demands on the teams, often creates a stressful work situation. There also tend to be a lot of conflicts, resistance from workers and many change projects fail to achieve their objectives as a result.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    £5.50 or €8.40 in 1999.

  2. 2.

    If a worker causes a delay by fixing a problem, so the quality will be up to standard, this will reduce productivity (the number of cars produced per time unit). If on the other side, the worker chose not to deal with the problem, the quality will suffer.

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    P-O Börnfelt

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Börnfelt, PO. (2023). Total Quality Management (TQM) and Process Organisation. In: Work Organisation in Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21667-1_5

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