TQM and Quality as Businesses Grow

Keeping quality high

Once a business knows what quality means, it needs a way to keep quality high all the time. One well-known method is Total Quality Management, or TQM, where everyone in the business is responsible for quality and it is built in at every stage rather than only checked at the end. Keeping quality steady gets harder as a business grows, because it may rely on outside suppliers or let others run branches under its brand. This module covers the TQM method and the quality problems that come with growth.

Quality method words

Learn these before you sort any idea. The exam wants you to explain how quality is kept high and why growth makes it harder.

Build it in against check it at the end

TQM is a different way of thinking about quality from the older idea of only inspecting the finished product.

How to think about quality and growth

For the method, remember the whole-business idea: every worker takes responsibility, problems are caught as they happen rather than at the end, and the search for small improvements never stops. For growth, think about loss of control. When a firm pays another company to make its parts, or lets separate owners run branches under its name, it no longer watches every step itself, so keeping the same standard everywhere becomes the challenge. Judge each case by who is in control of the quality.

Match the idea to its meaning

What is TQM?

Which statement best describes Total Quality Management?

• An approach where everyone is responsible for quality at every stage.
• Leaving quality only to inspectors at the very end.
• Making the cheapest possible product.
• Ignoring quality to make more products.

Features of TQM

Select the TWO features of Total Quality Management.

• Every worker is responsible for quality
• Quality is improved all the time
• Quality is only checked at the very end
• Only senior managers think about quality

Count the faults saved

Before using TQM a workshop made 30 faulty items in a week. After TQM the number of faulty items fell to 6 in a week. Subtract to find how many fewer faulty items are made each week. What is the answer?

Order how TQM stops a fault

Put the steps by which TQM stops a fault reaching the customer in order, earliest first.

• A worker checks their own work as they go
• A fault is spotted early at that stage
• It is fixed before the item moves on
• The customer receives a fault-free product

Complete the facts

A method where every worker is responsible for quality at every stage is _____. Always looking for small ways to improve is called _____ improvement. As a business grows it may pay an outside firm to make parts, which is _____. It may also let others run branches under its brand, which is _____.

Match the growth choice to its quality risk

Spot the true TQM facts

Tap the TWO statements that are true about TQM and quality in a growing business.

• In TQM everyone is responsible for quality
• Growth can make keeping quality consistent harder
• TQM checks quality only at the very end
• Outsourcing always makes quality easier to control

Judge the quality case

Read each case and choose the best answer.

• A factory asks every worker to check their own work and fix problems as they happen, and never stops looking for improvements. Which approach is this?
• A growing coffee chain lets separate owners run branches under its brand, and one branch keeps serving poor drinks. What is the main quality risk?
• A firm now buys a key part from an outside supplier instead of making it in house. Why might quality suffer?

Explain TQM and growth

Explain how Total Quality Management helps a business keep quality high, and why keeping quality consistent becomes harder as a business grows.

• Explain what Total Quality Management is
• Explain how TQM differs from only inspecting at the end
• Explain one quality risk of outsourcing as a business grows
• Explain one quality risk of franchising as a business grows
• Finish with a judgement on how a growing business can best protect its quality