Continuous Improvement

TQM is mainly concerned with continuous improvement in all construction work, from high level strategic planning and decision-making, to detailed execution of work elements on the shop floor. It stems from the belief that mistakes can be avoided and defects can be prevented. It leads to continuously improving results, in all aspects of work, as a result of continuously improving capabilities, people, processes, and technology and machine capabilities.

. The five major areas of focus for capability improvement are;

1.    Demand generation,

2.    Supply generation,

3.    Technology,

4.    Operations

5.    People capability.

A central principle of TQM is that mistakes may be made by people, but most of them are caused, or at least permitted, by faulty systems and processes. This means that the root cause of such mistakes can be identified and eliminated, and repetition can be prevented by changing the process.

There are three major mechanisms of prevention:

1.    Preventing mistakes (defects) from occurring.

2.    Where mistakes can't be absolutely prevented, detecting them early to prevent them being passed down the value added chain (Inspection at source or by the next operation).

3.    Where mistakes recur, stopping production until the process can be corrected, to prevent the production of more defects. (Stop in time).


Principles of TQM    

1)    Quality can and must be managed.

2)    Everyone has a customer to delight.

3)    Processes, not the people, are the problem.

4)    Every employee is responsible for quality.

5)    Problems must be prevented, not just fixed.

6)    Quality must be measured so it can be controlled.

7)    Quality improvements must be continuous.

8)    Quality goals must be based on customer requirements