Total Quality Management refers to an integrated approach that seeks to improve quality and performance which will meet or exceed customer expectations and to develop continuous improvement. A company that implements this form of management is Ford Motor Company. Ford began to practice TQM back in the 1980s when “When Quality is Job 1” was their slogan. And of course back then Ford was a vast company. When TQM was first utilized, it started through a joint venture with ChemFil which is a division of PPG Industries.
Ford Motor Company wanted to produce better products and a stable environment not only for the workforce but also an effective management and profitability by the 1990s. During this process, “Quality is Job 1” became “Quality People, Quality Products”. Through this partnership with paint supplier ChemFil, paint processes were developed to ensure that a quality product that meets customer’s needs transform into financial success.
TQM was forefront in their painting design as the process of preparation was implemented by ChemFil with Ford management and workers informed of all steps needed to follow the application of paint to a quality outcome. A couple of years later, Ford Chief Engineer Art Hyde takes the executed Six Sigma a step further saying, The design and engineering analysis process makes it possible for problems, that previously may not have surfaced until launch, to be caught and corrected in the virtual world through the DMAIC process.
The DMAIC process, define, measure, analyze, improve, and control has built an overall strategy for consistency in Ford teams. Of their Six Sigma implementation for 2010 product launches, Dan Dobbs, The Six Sigma Master Black Belt said, The Company’s Quality Operating System or (QOS) is crucial for identifying and correcting problems within the manufacturing facilities. Six Sigma and QOS implemented in each plant includes cross-functional groups of engineers, plant management, and production specialists—all skilled problem solvers who’ve been trained through Six Sigma.
