The information requirements of total quality management

Abstract

T his article is divided into two m ain sections. In the ® rst section, we argue that total quality m anagement (T QM ) im plementation necessitates reliance on substantially more infor mation in the design, production and ser vice activities of ® r ms. In the second section, we present a blueprint of TQM infor mation requirem ents using data¯ow diagramming and suggest changes that occur in system usage within the three m ain organizational functions: planning organizational activities, making products and the selling of products. The m ajor contribution of the paper is in presenting evidence, albeit anecdotal, from organizations at the forefront of T QM practice, that TQM is an infor mation-intensive m anagement system, and then developing a model for the inform ation requirements in TQM .

Exploring the links between information capability and the EFQM business excellence model: the case of Basque Country Quality award winners

“…Using IT to facilitate the management of people was not evidenced in the reports we analysed. Matta et al (1998) explain that TQM is an information-intensive management system, and TQM implementation and IS deployment are therefore closely related. They point out that the IS must provide the information necessary to support the empowering of employees.…”

Exploring the relationship between information technology competence and quality management

“…Although theoretical evidence exists for the critical role that IT plays in the success of QM implementation (Collins, 1994; Matta et al, 1998; Perez-Arostegui et al (2012); Zadrozny and Ferrazzi, 1992), there are hardly any empirical or quantitative studies that support these propositions (McAdam and Henderson, 2004). Among the few existing studies, we emphasize several contributions.…”

“…Various studies have examined the relation between IT and QM. Matta et al (1998) describe a theoretical framework that analyzes the impact of a set of IT tools present in the firm on success in the implementation of QM practices. The main limitation of this study is that it defines IT as a mere possession of these tools.…”

Learning customer needs — An interdisciplinary framework

“…The operations management field developed several modeling tools relevant to service improvement before SSME was proposed by IBM; for example, the service blueprint [45][46][47][48], the QFD [49][50][51][52], and quality house [50,53]. Service blueprinting, a process analysis methodology proposed by Shostack [54,55], maps a sequence of events in a service and its essential functions in an objective and explicit manner.…”