Snowball Engineering Quality Management for Organizational Excellence Imran Imtiaz Butt 3/18/2020  Table of Content: S. No. Topic Pg. No. 1 Introduction 3 2 Key Elements of Total Quality Management 4 3 Implementation of TQM in Snowball Engineering 8 4 Recommendation and Conclusion 10 5 References 13 Introduction: Due to the increase in business competition, firms are now working hard to design and implement such strategies that can provide them competitive advantage over others and fulfill all international and local standards that can satisfy the customers. In this context, Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management framework which is being adopted by many companies to help them in achieving business excellence. It is the way of improving and managing the efficiency, usefulness, flexibility, cohesiveness and competitiveness of the company as a whole. As TQM facilitates build a culture of trust, contribution, collaboration, quality excellence, passion for continuous improvement, constant learning and an environment where every stakeholder participates toward company’s prosperity, existence and success (Yusof, & Aspinwall, 2000). The evolution of TQM can be traced through different stages. According to Garvin (1998), the evolution process of TQM completed in four different stages; from Inspection (INS), then quality control (QC), then quality assurance (QA) and then finally total quality management (TQM). Figure 1: Evolution of TQM Quality derived from a Latin word “Qua Litas” meaning “what kind of”, as this statement further explains the quality of an automotive part about what kind of material and technique are used in its making. Quality of the product is defined as the predictable degree to which it fulfills the requirement of the customer by keeping its life expectancy and durability in mind, in reasonable cost and market competitive (Deming, 1982). Generally, quality of the product is based on its compliance over specified standards which meets customer requirements and continuously performs its desired operation without any compromise. Quality control usually being merged quality assurance, but both of them reflect different processes, where quality control inspects the manufactured good regarding its functions and specification, while quality assurance tries to determine the defect free manufacturing process and also eliminates the defected good from the production line. In Snowball Engineering, the quality of automotive parts should be considered as one of the most important aspect in order to become a market leader amongst the automotive parts manufacturers. The quality can only be maintained and improved if the Snowball Engineering emphasizes on key elements of TQM which are mentioned further. Key Elements of Total Quality Management: In organizations like Snowball Engineering, the TQM can successfully be implemented which can provides them an edge in local as well as international market through high quality production by which the customers become satisfied and repeatedly purchase the products from the same organization (Dale & Plunkett, 1990). It has already been tested in USA and Japan that successful implementation of TQM can lead to profitability, raising company’s standards and leads them for rapid return on investments (Quazi & Padibjo, 1998). However, in order to implement TQM in the organization, it is the duty of the management to first do proper research upon the key elements of TQM. Similarly, many researchers have put emphasis upon different elements which play a crucial role in the implementation of TQM according to their own perspective. According to Bhat et. al. (2009), in order to successfully implement TQM in any organization, their management should concentrate on six key elements, such as Training, Confidence, Leadership, Teamwork, Internal Communication and Recognition. On the other hand, Jablonski (1997) acknowledged three major key elements behind successful TQM, such as Continuous Process Improvement, Utilization of Team and Participative Management. Conversely, Gunasekren (1999) established the research that Communication, Job satisfaction, Teamwork, Empowerment, Cross-functional teams and Training are the six major pillars behind the TQM. Keeping the literature review in mind, it has been confirmed that Continuous Improvement, Leadership, Employee Involvement and Teamwork are some of the common elements of TQM on which most of the researchers have shown their agreement upon (Crofton & Dale, 1996). After thorough research upon literature review, we must include Teamwork, Continuous Improvement, Employee Involvement, Total Customer Satisfaction, Training and Communication as the key elements of TQM in our discussion so that we can identify their role in implementing successful TQM in Snowball Engineering. Figure 2: Key Elements of TQM Teamwork: The fundamental pillar of TQM is considered to be the Teamwork and without it, organizations cannot achieve their targets and improve their products’ quality. TQM is an initiative that requires the effort of every internal stakeholder of the company by working as a team. It can be applicable on single department or interdepartmental. This can only be done through instilling the concept of ownership into the minds of employees by developing the communication channels between them and the management (Barrie, 2007). In Snowball Engineering, the teamwork element is essential as it promotes innovative methods which cannot be possible by individual basis. Continuous Improvement: Those organizations, which believe on continuous improvement regardless from the customers’ feedback or market trends, tend to become more successful than those companies which do not have priorities for improvement. The improvement in processes and techniques can be done through proper trainings of the employees as well as introducing sophisticated advance technologies on continuous basis so that less defected items can be manufactured and less waste can be produced (Powell, 1995). Japanese first introduced the strategy of “Kaizen” which means “Continuous Improvement”, that should be the core vision of the organization to achieve best quality product by continuously improving the existing system (Hutchins, 1990). In Snowball Engineering, the kaizen strategy must be implemented because the company was established in 1980 and there is a lot of improvement required in form of replacement of existing obsolete machinery and training programs for employees upon latest equipments in order to compete with the market. Employee Involvement: Involving the employees for the betterment of the company is to empowering them and taking their feedback upon any policy implementation or decision-making processes, so that they can start taking ownership and put their best effort into the TQM process. It indirectly increases productivity and improves quality as human resource is a major asset for any company (Kim et. al., 2012). Employees should be kept informed regarding any changes in the system and should be treated as major stakeholders so that they can be involved in lower level decision making, adopting the novel strategies and sharing the innovative ideas with the management for the advancement of the company. Total Customer Satisfaction: The perfectly produced item has no value if the demand of the customer is not being met. Therefore, TQM confirms that the quality of the product is directly proportional to the satisfaction of the customer. The purpose of the TQM is to incorporate all the requirements of the customer into its planning process so that the desired product can be manufactured. It can be possible if companies could implement such a mechanism in which the requirements and feedback from the customer could directly be processed and proper decision can be taken on fast track to ensure that the quality of the product can be maintained and improved as per customers’ needs (Anderson, 1994). However, Snowball Engineering is based on Business-to-Business sales and its customers are mainly automotive cars manufacturers. Hence it is easier to collect data from the clients and check their satisfaction level. If the feedback from the clients requires some improvement in the product quality then it should be implemented on immediate basis. Training: Training is the essential part of TQM because if more involvement is needed from employees’ end then it will result more responsibility, which in turn needs high skill level, and in order to achieve such skill level, then appropriate training would be given to the employee respectively. However, the training categories may vary as per the requirement of the industry but the common area among all companies is problem solving. This skill can boost up empowerment and enhance the ability of the worker to perform in pressure. In Managerial training, the programs should be designed in such a way that the trainee can become fully aware to the strategic important of quality, liability and loss due to poor quality and his or her role in ensuring the quality of product and services (Bernie, 1992). Communication: Better communication within the organization can result quality products, yet many chief executives feel hard to find ways that can effectively communicate their message to the employees so that they can understand the bigger plan. The lack of communication is due to result in filtering the message properly, as the message from the top management goes down to the ranks where it loses its momentum and clarity. Those are the manager and supervisors who work as translator and as a relay to convey the directors’ messages to the employees need to be trained first in order to grab the essence of the message (Drucker, 1974). In Snowball Engineering, it is the duty of the managers and supervisors to minimize the communication gap between the CEO and the employees so that all stakeholders are taken into confidence in order to achieve the common goal. Implementation of TQM in Snowball Engineering: Implementation of TQM in Snowball Engineering can be possible by understanding the culture of the organization and using that information to design the steps for achieving the desired quality products from the manufacturing process. This culture is lies above the pillars of beliefs, norms, behavior, rules, values and climate. Such organization’s cultural bottlenecks need to be addressed at the first place before implementing TQM otherwise the plan could become an utter failure. The implementation of TQM is practical through creating a vision and mission statement for the company so that the whole team can have a clear perception that where they should go and how they should achieve the target. It has been observed that although TQM has considerable portion related to technological change but only change in technology and replace the existing machinery with modern latest machinery will not guarantee the success of TQM unless the political and cultural dimensions of the company are also be changed and improved (Tichey, 1983). In Snowball Engineering, the existing old technology must be replaced with state-of-the-art machinery but simultaneously the organizational culture must also be changed and improved. In order to implement TQM, the company should plan to acquire ISO 9000 certification which is a set of international standards which ensure quality management systems and quality assurance in the organization through which the clients can be satisfied and the organization can carry on its journey to continuous improvement and manufacture best quality products (Investopedia, 2019). Drive to acquire ISO 9000 Certification: By implementing TQM in Snowball Engineering, there should be a motivational factor available in order to achieve ISO 9000 certification at first place. As per the new market trends, now customers are only preferring those suppliers who comply with international standards of quality management. Due to the increased in competition in automotive parts manufacturing, the survival of any organization lies upon the competitive advantage against its competitors, and the best way to achieve such competitiveness is by implementing such mechanisms within the company which are not being practiced by its competitors. But Snowball Engineering should acquire ISO certification, not only due to the pressure from competitors, but in order to improve its quality of products and services, because those organizations who only implement TQM by getting influence through external factors, will fail to gain substantial benefits from ISO 9000 certification (Breka, 1994). Planning to acquire ISO 9000 Certification: The ISO 9000 certification needs a short term plan for its implementation and long term plan for its sustenance. These plans are required to be included in the overall planning of the top management to run the business efficiently so that the implementation can be done smoothly (Rao et al., 1997). The top management of Snowball Engineering must first decide whether they are willing to implement ISO standards. After decision making, the management must allocate resources so that training of the employees can be started; the standard operating procedure can be implemented with proper documentation and latest equipments can be purchased. Hence the progress by Snowball Engineering to achieve ISO 9000 certification is only be possible if drive for implementing TQM, resource allocation, information and planning work together (McTeer & Dale, 1995). Commitment to Implement TQM: The successful implementation of TQM within the organization requires commitment from all stakeholders within the organization at all stages of the process. According to the researcher Meyer and Allen (1997), the commitment can be in the form of three types, which are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. The affective commitment of the employees is the loyalty and emotional attachment to the organization. The continuance commitment of the employees based on monetary or incentive benefits while staying with the organization or cost or loss associated with leaving the organization. While normative commitment relates to the moral duty or obligation of the employees to remain attached with the organization. Hence committed workers are the real asset of the company. Snowball Engineering should also focus on nurturing and binding its most valuable employees to itself before implementing the TQM, as implementation is easy but sustaining the TQM is difficult for the organization if its employees are not committed. Organizational commitment involves all rank of people working within the company which are people related to top management, labor force or supervisory level. The high organizational commitment means increased in employee morale, improved productivity, teamwork and reduced stress, which indirectly leads to successful implementation of TQM (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Recommendations and Conclusion: As Snowball Engineering is growing very fast and it is forecasted that the market of automotive parts will expand rapidly over next three years. But in order to keep up the pace along with the market trends, Snowball Engineering should collaborative with other companies as a joint venture or partnerships so that it can make most out of the situation and generate greater revenue. Increase in the foreign participation can result in the introduction of novel and better practices, advance technology and equipments. The expansion in Snowball Engineering can boost its production and can help the company to implement TQM so that the product quality can be improved. Snowball Engineering should adopt benchmarking within the organization by comparing its performance against the top leaders in the field. This tool will lead the company to continuous improvement as it borrows the ideas and strategies from the best industries and adapting them in order to get competitive advantage. Snowball Engineering should study the mechanism of TQM in automotive giants such as Toyota, Nissan, Honda etc that how these companies have implemented TQM successfully. By researching upon these companies’ processes and mechanism can lead Snowball Engineering to succeed further. The Snowball Engineering should promote collaboration and integration among the departments because through integration between departments, the unity of efforts can be achieved (Galbraith 1994). If organizations want to ensure total quality effectively started from their cores, then their project team should be made up from accounting staff to production staff. In short, all the departments must work in harmony to achieve the common goal. Apart from above descriptive recommendations, some of the basic points which the top management of Snowball Engineering should consider while implementing TQM, are as follows: Long term commitment must be done by Snowball Engineering to develop the culture of continuous improvement. Guarantee the practice of error-free manufacturing policy in order to cast off chances for defected items produced. Emphasize the employees to understand the importance of supplier/customer relationship. The purchasing of raw material and equipment as well as acquiring services from third party must not only be done on the basis of prices but also it should be evaluated on the basis of quality, delivery time and reputation of the supplier. Eliminate the fear factor among the employees by motivating them and ensuring the job security. Develop standard operating procedures for all processes and activities within the organization. Ensure the culture of Health, Safety, Environment and Quality. Reduce or eliminate the communication barriers between the departments. Adopt advanced methods of training and supervising. By practicing above recommendations, the Snowball Engineering can project itself to the market as a world class organization with clear vision, conscience and energy. It has been confirmed from the report that in order to survive in this globalized world, the company must utilize the tools that makes possible the measurement of the quality of the finished product or offered services, since the companies are liable to provide best possible products and services to their customers. Failing to meet customers’ expectations can put whole company’s reputation at stake, as quality guarantees the future of the company whether it will be on success or failure. 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