Quality Management

Total Quality Management (TQM)

An organization-wide approach focusing on customer satisfaction through continuous improvement of processes, products, and services, involving all employees.

Continuous improvement

Ongoing, incremental enhancements to quality in processes, products, and services.

Customer focus

A guiding principle of quality management that prioritizes understanding and meeting customer needs and expectations.

Leadership

The role of leaders in setting vision, creating direction, and engaging people to achieve quality goals.

People involvement

Engaging all employees in quality initiatives and decision-making.

Process approach

Managing activities and resources as interconnected processes to achieve consistent results.

System approach to management

Viewing the organization as a system of interrelated processes to optimize performance.

Factual approach to decision-making

Making decisions based on data, analysis, and objective information.

Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

Partnerships with suppliers that create value for both parties and improve performance.

Tangibles (SERVQUAL)

Physical evidence of a service, including facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel.

Reliability

Ability to perform promised service dependably and accurately.

Responsiveness

Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.

Assurance

Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence.

Empathy

Caring, individualized attention the firm provides to customers.

SERVQUAL

A model for assessing service quality across five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy.

Perishability of service

Services cannot be stored; they are produced and consumed simultaneously.

Intangibles

Aspects of a service that cannot be touched or easily quantified.

Appearance of physical facilities

The look and condition of facilities, equipment, and staff; influences first impressions.

Types of service: Assistance

Basic service that meets customer needs; crucial to any business.

Types of service: Repair

Reactive service that fixes a problem or fault after it occurs.

Types of service: Value-added

Exceeding customer expectations by adding extra value beyond basic requirements.

Service recovery

Process of acknowledging, apologizing for, and fixing a service failure.

LEARN (service recovery)

Listen, Empathize, Acknowledge, Record, Notify – a recovery framework.

GUEST (service recovery)

Greet, Understand, Empathize, Suggest/Solve, Track – steps to resolve issues.

Customer expectations

What customers anticipate from a service, including explicit and implicit promises.

Ideal/Reasonable/Minimal expectations

Levels of expectations; ideal exceeds typical outcomes, reasonable meets standard, minimal is the lowest tolerated.

Primary vs secondary order of expectations

Primary expectations are core; secondary expectations are additional desires expressed by customers.

Zone of tolerance

The range within which customers will accept variations in service.

Customer delight

Exceeding expectations to create a wow experience and positive emotional response.

Customer experience

The overall impression formed by all customer interactions with a brand or service.

ISO 21001:2018

International standard for management systems in educational organizations.

Six Sigma

Quality program aiming to reduce defects to 3.4 per million, using DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control).

DMAIC

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control – the Six Sigma problem-solving process.

Affinity diagram

A tool to group ideas into natural relationships or categories.

Benchmarking

Comparing processes and performance with best-in-class organizations to identify gaps and improvements.

Brainstorming

Generating a large number of ideas in a free-thinking session.

Flow chart

A diagram showing the sequential steps of a process.

Gantt chart

A project planning tool that outlines tasks, timelines, and responsibilities.

Focus group

Qualitative research method where a small group discusses topics to provide insights.

Cost-benefit analysis

Evaluating the financial pros and cons of a decision or project.

Cost of error

Total costs associated with service mistakes or losing a customer.

Poka-yoke

Fail-safe mechanisms designed to prevent or detect errors in a process.

Root-cause analysis

Techniques to identify the underlying causes of problems.

GUEST and LEARN service recovery

Frameworks/formulas for handling service failures by guiding steps to address issues.

Continuous improvement of quality

Focus on the customer

Operations improvement

Human resources

TQM leadership

Concept of Total Quality Management

Tangibles

Reliability

Responsiveness

Assurance

Empathy

The FIVE SERVQUAL Dimensions

Customer Focus

Leadership

People Involvement

Process Approach

System Approach to Management

Continuous Improvement

Factual Approach to Decision Making

Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

8 Principles of TQM

Greet

Understand
Empathize
Solve
Track

Service Recovery Steps