Total Quality Improvement

When beginning the formation of total quality in an organization, there are several methods that can be used. The critical thinking activity has three seniors, Mark Berry, Sandra Griffith, and Juan Carlos, at Florida Technical University discussing some of these methods. They are all majoring in industrial technology with an emphasis on quality, and all are working toward a job as quality director upon graduation. Mark wants to use the Kaizen approach in his first job. He believes it is easy, simple, and effective. Sandra likes the Six Sigma approach better. Juan has a different idea. He will make a list of improvement strategies and use the best method for each. All the methods have good points. The idea is to choose one or more of the methods

Any organization can become and benefit from total quality. The key is commitment. Commitment must come from top management and extend down through all levels of the organization. There is not works every time formula. There is no “right” way (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). It takes someone making the effort to become knowledgeable about total quality and the requirements to make it happen. There is an abundance of literature that can help organizations to get started. When the top management makes a commitment to total quality, formation of a steering committee is necessary. These individuals are responsible for defining the organizations vison and objectives. Training is also critical beginning with the steering committee. Any organization that is committed to the future of the organization should become a total quality

Healthcare organizations are service organizations. This means that the work done is primary a process, like the process of admitting a patient, or the process of forming a diagnosis for a sick patient. Smooth and efficient processes are the goal of any healthcare organization (deKoeijer, Paauwe, & Huijsman, 2014). Total quality methods like Lean and Six Sigma can be important tools for healthcare organizations to make this happen. All organizations have problems and healthcare is no different. Total quality requires getting to the root of the problems rather than just fixing the symptoms (James, 2005). There was a time that healthcare management only focused on cost when considering competitive advantage. This is no long the case. Successful healthcare entities today are based more on quality and performance than cost (James, 2005). This requires that the organization become more customer focused. Customers for healthcare are patients along with the families, caregivers, and insurers (deKoeijer, Paauwe, & Huijsman, 2014). Total quality organizations are customer focused. A total quality organization knows that the success of their organization depends on the retaining customers and building new customers. Total quality is not a program that is completed. It is a never ending program that promotes continual