Total Quality Management (TQM) :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

TQM1TQM in FoodserviceIntroductionOne of the most important industries overall is the food for thought industry. Thefood industry consists of everything from food processing plants to fastfood restaurants. The food industry affects nearly every living person.Most quite a little dont realize how important this industry is and how it affectstheir everyday lives. That is why it is so critical that the products ofthis industry be at their highest quality, are free of bacteria and ensurethat the consumer leave behind not face any detrimental consequences. Total QualityManagement (TQM) plays a grand role in promising these results.Total Quality Management seems to be a confusing term for the layman. TQMis a philosophy advocated by Dr. Edward Deming, a demesne renowned qualityguru. It was widely accepted by Japan from 1950 onward. They used thisprinciple for continuous refinement of an organization-wide quality system.Since then many organizations around the universe of discourse hav e adopted TQM or similarmethodologies. There have been many successes and many reported failures.Success of the system depends on the total commitment of the people toquality from top to bottom within the organization. TQM implementation isbased on team work and the philosophy of continuous improvement. Statisticsneed to be used extensively to analyze and reduce the variation in the process.In the food industry, continuous improvement is vital to the survival of aspecific company or restaurant. The node is constantly purchasing theproducts of competitors and any decline in quality will equal a decrease ingross profits. There are several(prenominal) areas that a restaurant may focus on forquality improvement such as menu offerings, hospitality, service,cleanliness, and over all food quality. All of these aspects will becovered in this paper concerning Total Quality Management.SummaryEmployee & Product QualityVarious well known companies such as Ritz-Carlton Hotels and greaser Bell h aveimplemented Total Quality Management programs in an effort to increasequality and market share. Ritz-Carlton of Kansas City, Missouri, recentlyrevamped menu selections for its rooftop-level restaurant and band operation.This came about through customer surveys, focus-group studies of localrestaurant patrons, employee opinions, and market analysis. This began withthe general manager, Norm Howard, as TQM must start at the top to besuccessful. He states that It TQM is about listening to your customersand empowering your employees to participate in important businessdecisions (Stephenson, 1993).Taco Bell, with the implementation of a Total Quality Management system,has improved its speed of service, consideration of service, and value formoney ratings. This company has done this by empowering employees andseeking customer input. By integrating their employees into the system,