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Unit 24: Total Quality Management

evidence that we test far more than is needed to evaluate our students. On the administrative Notes
side of the university, are there too many checks and balances ? Can a process be changed to
make inspections unnecessary or at least to reduce the need for inspections ? Statistical process
control can be an important tool in developing processes that do not require much inspection.
4. End the practice of conducting business on cost alone
The lowest bid usually does not result in the lowest life-cycle cost. In all our processes, we need
to focus on long-term costs and benefits. That may mean that the trendy new course not be
offered if it means the failure of a course with more long-term value. Awarding the printing
contract to an off-campus vendor may have lower first cost, but the inability to get adequate
turn-around time or poorer quality may make the overall cost of that decision very high.
University professors often complain about the poor job the high schools are doing in preparing
students for college. The long-term costs of supplying educated people to society may be less if
some of the resources of the university were spent on improving high and junior high schools.
5. Constantly improve processes
Are your customers (the students and their future employers) more satisfied than they were
last semester ? Are the faculty members happier ? Are the secretaries happier ? Are the suppliers
of the University happier ? If the answer to a question is no, find out why and fix the situation
immediately. If the answer is yes, determine what it was in the process that made it so. In any
case, analyze the process to determine what changes can be made to make it better. Incremental
improvements must be made every semester. This is essentially the Kaizen philosophy encourage
innovation, but insist upon incremental improvements, especially after the innovation. the phrase,
‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,’ does not apply. To help decide where to look for thing to improve,
use course grades, student performance on ‘anchor’ problems, student critiques, faculty and
staff organizational climate surveys, inputs to suggestion boxes, summaries of complaints, etc.
Carefully designed questions on anonymous surveys can be very valuable, but talking directly
to the customer is still the best way to find out what the barriers are. There is a side benefit to
talking directly to the students about their problems— they appreciate it and make the ‘us
versus them’ attitude much less likely.
6. Institute training
Everyone needs to know their job. The faculty is certainly well educated in their disciplines but
may be not in the art of teaching. Faculty development programs help teachers know their jobs.
Word processing classes help secretaries do their job better. Money spent on faculty and staff
training has long-term payback. In addition, you should teach TQM to everyone—faculty, staff,
and especially students. The more everyone knows about the management principles used on
a daily basis, the easier it is for everyone to buy into the idea.
7. Institute leadership

Emphasize leadership instead of management. Everyone at the university has leadership role
of some sort. Each person in a supervisory role (including the faculty) should try to be a coach
and teacher, not a judge and overseer. As put by Senge, the leader should be a designer, a
creator of an environment. Effective leaders will search for barriers to communication and
productivity and remove them. A poorly lit classroom can have a significant effect on student
performance. A teacher who is an effective leader will see to it that the lighting problems are
fixed. A teacher who will adjust the due date on a project based on special student situations,
will probably increase the learning of his students.
8. Drive out fear
In the academic setting, fear is often a big factor in student and faculty performance. For students,
any steps that can be taken to reduce the fear involved in taking a test will pay large benefits in
students performance and attitudes. Allowing for a make-up exam; points for reworking missed

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