Difference between Quality Management System and Total Quality Management

The increased emphasis on “Quality” has made it mandatory for organizations to have a structured, streamlined, and standardized quality management system that can help them manage all the quality processes while mitigating operational risks. However, not every quality management solution is suitable for achieving total quality management and business objectives.

What? Aren’t quality management solutions and total quality management the same? Many of you might be wondering that, right.

Well, they are not the same. There are some fine differences between quality management system and total quality management that you need to understand. Only then you will be able to choose appropriate tools and solutions to drive the cycle of continuous improvement.

Let’s quickly have a look at the definitions of Quality Management System and Total Quality Management

Quality Management System

It refers to the collection of business processes, policies, and procedures to ensure that the organization is meeting all the customer and compliance requirements. achieving the ultimate goal of customer satisfaction. The quality system guides an organization the right way to achieve, manage, and maintain the quality expectations set by customers and the regulatory standards.

QMS is a must for every organization since it serves as a tool for your quality team to drive the quality improvements smoothly.

Total Quality Management

It refers to the well-defined approach towards organizational productivity and development. It focusses on improving the quality of organizational deliverables – be it goods and services while maintaining the cycle of continual improvement for the internal processes. A total quality management approach covers internal priorities as well as statuary requirements.

Industries Using Total Quality Management

Initially introduced for the manufacturing industries, total quality management has proven its potential for different industries nowadays including pharmaceuticals, life sciences, etc. since it focuses on comprehensive change.

The total quality management approach is not suitable for organization-level processes, but also the department level processes as well. Such an aligned approach helps to ensure that the entire organization is making efforts in the direction of goals, continuously improving the functions and workflows in each area.

However, implementing the TQM approach couldn’t be possible without an effective QMS. It won’t be wrong to say that the Quality Management System is a much-needed tool to ensure total quality management in an organization.

How QMS Helps Achieving TQM?

TQM is all about the involvement of all the employees working at the different levels to contribute to achieving business objectives including customer satisfaction. We will now look at the components of total quality management and how QMS helps to manage them.

• Meeting Customer’s Quality Requirements

Since the idea of total quality management revolves around customer satisfaction, a powerful quality management system helps an organization to communicate the customer and compliance requirements to their employees. This ensures that the entire organization is working towards a common goal of customer satisfaction.

Additionally, a QMS can help to identify the right training needs, reestablish the existing processes, implement newly introduced standards to achieve customer satisfaction through quality products.

• Focusing on Organizational Effectiveness

Though total quality management looks at the bigger picture for quality improvements, it needs consistency of quality processes to maintain customer satisfaction. You can maintain that consistency by using the right quality management software solution to streamline and standardize the quality processes.

A QMS can also help you manage the continual improvement cycle while keeping all the processes in a consistent workflow.

• Process Improvement

In total quality management, the focus is on improving the quality of the processes. Instead of making only staff accountable, the organization can change the existing processes to produce an improved product. A comprehensive quality management solution not only helps to streamline and to improve the existing processes but also guides through the change management process.

A good QMS software makes organization change-friendly especially when a change could mean a world of difference in product quality.

• Employee Involvement

The total quality management approach is not about keeping employees under unnecessary pressure to get the work done, it is more about giving them opportunities to improve. For example- you can identify the right training programs to enhance your employee competency. A full-fledged QMS  software can help you manage training needs as well.

Also, their contribution should be appreciated regularly to maintain a culture of quality.

• Making Quality Everyone’s Responsibility

For total quality management, everyone in the organization is held liable to maintain quality standards to meet customer’s as well as compliance requirements. A QMS software plays a key role here since it helps to establish a compliant system for quality checks and assurance. You can also perform validation and verification through the approval feature of a QMS.

Hence, a quality management solution helps to make the quality of everyone’s responsibility.

• Fact-Based Decision Making

When we talk about total quality management, it is very important to take all the data and information into analysis for informed decision-making. This cannot be done using traditional methods. You must have an electronic system to record and analyze all the data and information appropriately to make informed decisions.

Make sure you invest in an Enterprise Quality Management System that can serve all your needs from documentation to fact-based decision making.

• Improved Collaboration and Communication

As we have already discussed that total quality management is the outcome of team efforts and quality is everyone’s responsibility, having a fine-tuned communication and collaboration among teams is very critical. A quality management system like Qualityze gives your employees a centralized platform to collaborate and communicate for all the important tasks and decisions.

You can get a cloud-based QMS software for added flexibility.

• Continuous Improvements

Total quality management focuses on waste reduction and improved efficiency to ensure that a quality product is produced right from the first time. It relies on continuous improvement to ensure a consistent product and process quality while resolving issues, which can be managed using a robust QMS.

Now that you understood how TQM and QMS complement each other for organizational productivity and effectiveness. Be sure that you choose the right quality management software to make the total quality management approach a success for your organization.

Though there are multiple options for quality management solutions to choose from, one of the highly recommended and reputed solutions is Qualityze eQMS software. It is the next-generation system software, designed on the most powerful and secure cloud platform Salesforce.com.

Qualityze has an intuitive, configurable interface, to ease the way you manage your quality processes. It adheres to regulatory compliances to ensure the systemic adaptability of industry best practices in the organization. From document control to internal and external audit findings, training programs to customer complaints management, Qualityze helps to create a centralized, automated system to help you manage every process with ease.

Also, you can leverage built-in capabilities like e-Signature, Configurable Workflows, detail audit Trails, and much more. Experience the difference with Qualityze eQMS software today by requesting a free demo!