System Improvements through Total Quality Management TQM and Total Productive Maintenance Techniques

System Improvements through Total Quality Management TQM and Total Productive Maintenance Techniques


ABSTRACT

System improvement through TQM, TPM, JIT & KANBAN is based on quality improvement. These techniques are used to improve the quality of product with minimum cost of investment. Nowadays there is tremendous competition for any product in market. The product, which will have high quality, will absorb the whole market. Because of this competition new techniques are developed to improve the quality.
Total Quality Management& Total Productive Maintenance techniques are used to maximize operational efficiency& to provide strategic competitive edge to business. Just In Time is the management that focuses organization on continuously identifying & removing sources of waste.
As with any new technique many questions arise. How these techniques help to improve the quality? What are the advantages of using these techniques?
Some of basic advantages of using these techniques are reduced finished& WIP inventory, shorter product flow times, increased worker productivity, low production cost.

INTRODUCTION

Quality is a customer issue. Success of any organization depends on its product quality. It arises because customers require products, which not only meet their performance requirements but also are satisfactory in terms of safety, working life and pride of ownership. So every organization is looking for a new technique which when applied will give better quality product without increasing cost of it.

Total Quality Management and Total Productive Maintenance are the latest and powerful techniques, which can be applied to improve quality. These techniques have potential to maximize an operational efficiency and to provide strategic competitive edge to business and strive to make the best use of all available resources and opportunities.

How TQM corelates with TPM, JIT and KANBAN?

In a manufacturing organization, the achievement of quality standards is not restricted to the production department. It extends to all parts of business from conceptual design to marketing, from order processing and distribution.

Thus to include every employee, concept of TPM evolved. Total Productive Maintenance is a means of creating a safe and participative work environment in which all employees target the elimination of losses in order to continuously enhance the capacity, flexibility and capability of processes leading to higher employee morale and greater organizational profitability.

Thus these techniques aim at improving quality through overall improvement of the system and waste elimination or reduction in the system. Just In Time (JIT) is management that focuses organization on continuously identifying and removing sources of waste so that processes are continuously improved.

Kanban is a simple to operate visual control signal/tool to facilitate a ‘pull system’, i.e. JIT, which offers the opportunity to delegate routine material transactions on the shop floor.