• Quality management is concerned with controlling activities with the aim of ensuring that products or services are fit for their purpose, and meet specifications. Quality management encompasses quality assurance and quality control.
• Quality assurance focuses on way the product or service is produced. Procedures and standards are devised with the aim of ensuring defects are eliminated (or at least minimised) during the development/production process.
• Quality control is concerned with checking and reviewing work that has been done. Quality control therefore has a narrower focus than quality assurance.

• Step 1. Establish Plan:
  Standards of quality for a product (e.g. software package) or service (e.g. an IT helpdesk)
  Procedures or production methods that ought to ensure that these required standards of quality are met.
• Step 2. Device suitable instruments and techniques to monitor actual quality.
• Step 3. Compare actual quality with planned quality using quality measures.
• Step 4. Take control action when actual quality falls below standard. Quality auditing involves a systematic inspection to establish whether quality objectives are being met.
• Step 5. Review the plan and standards to ensure continuous improvement. The activities and steps above describe a general approach to quality management.                                                                                                                                      (Any 2)
                                                                                                           (Please note: the steps or activities could be in any order.)

• Lack of consistency of purpose for the implementation of the total quality management concept.
• If there is too much emphasis on short term benefits for implementing the total quality management concept.
• If management fails to prepare the employees through training before the implementation takes place.
• Lack of commitment on the part of top management.
• Poor allocation of resources to the implementation of the total quality management concept.
• Incurring of excessive costs may lead to resistance to the implementation of total quality management concept.                                                                                                                                                                                                                (Any 3)

Total Quality management (TQM) is a management philosophy that emphasizes managing the whole organization in order for it to continuously excel in all dimensions of products and services that are important to the customer. OR Total quality management (TQM) is a philosophy involving all employees in an organization in a continual effort to improve quality and achieve customer satisfaction.

i) Management must demonstrate top down commitment and involvement approach to get all employees participating in the implementation of TQM.

ii) Training: Management must provide appropriate training, resources and human resource back-up to facilitate the smooth implementation of TQM.

iii) Measurement factors: Management must determine critical measurement factors that can be used to track the progress of TQM.

iv) Cost of Quality: Management must identify the costs of quality and routes to improvement to enhance the successful implementation of TQM.

v) Team work: Management must institute and emphasize on teamwork to ensure successful implementation of TQM.

vi) Time Span: Management must allow time to see progress of the implementation process and reward contributions for its success.

vii) Management must also spread stories about the successful implementation of TQM to serve as a motivator to employees.

                                                                                                                                                                                                 (Any 4)