Total Quality Management is a strategy used by companies to improve quality and performance, with the aim of meeting or exceeding customer expectations. Such expectations are possible when all quality-related functions are integrated across the organization. Total Quality Management is the management of ideas and processes aimed at producing high quality products and services.
For companies to function and operate according to the Total Quality Management strategy, they must break down external and internal barriers. As a result, when departmental boundaries are breached within a company, employees can work in harmony with other departments.
Harmony arises from the fact that employees can work together in a cooperative, respectful, mutually trusting, and appreciative manner for the success of their co-workers. Organizations that fail to break down departmental barriers cannot guarantee delivery of products and services that exceed customer expectations.
These are mostly companies that fail to build strong teams in their organizations. They fail to build strong teams in their companies because they focus on short-term goals instead of focusing on the long-term organizational benefits that will help their companies survive longer, especially in tough times like economic downturns and product differentiation. products.
Organizations focus on short-term goals, rewarding specific departments or individuals who achieve their goals. This encourages unnecessary competition between employees and between departments, which negatively affects effective team building in this type of company.
It is pointed out that internal and external barriers in companies impede the flow of information, stimulate the search for subunit objectives and most of them do not coincide with the general objectives of companies. Some examples of internal barriers are departmental and organizational levels, while external barriers include barriers between the company and its customers, suppliers, investors and communities.
The best strategies for removing external and internal barriers include building cross-functional teams, improving communication and incorporating appropriate organizational cultures and instilling a positive attitude among the various stakeholders involved. The successes of the MacDonald's restaurant chain in breaking internal and external barriers greatly increased its dynamic performance (Nanospeck, 2011).
The popular McDonald's fast food restaurant started as a single restaurant in San Bernardino, California. The restaurant was originally run by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald, and sold smoothie machines. When Raymond Croc, a salesman, learned of the company's success, he persuaded the two brothers to take him on. In 1963, the restaurant became a success.
Today, McDonald's fast food restaurants have more than 30,000 restaurants in over a hundred countries. Furthermore, statistics show that about 40% of Americans eat out, and surprisingly, one in four Americans who eat out eats at McDonald's fast food restaurants. Restaurants serve food to more than 5 million people every day (Olson, 2009).
Most people wonder why some companies like McDonald's are so successful. Research has shown that leading companies, such as the McDonald's restaurant chain, achieve their success because of their managerial abilities to effectively develop, acquire, and manage the resources that help companies gain a competitive advantage over their rivals.
McDonald's has managed to establish a world-class standard and a global brand. The success of restaurants has been linked to their management's ability to build good relationships with a wide variety of people involved in their business or in the organizations with which they are associated.
Today's tough competition, especially in the restaurant industry, requires companies to maintain good connections by building good networks and cooperation to remain competitive (Ulrich & Smallwood, 2008).
McDonald's restaurants have managed to break down the internal and external barriers that seriously impede the company's success. Restaurant management ensures that all departments within restaurants work together in harmony. Management ensures this harmony by building strong teams made up of members from different departments.
Having cross-functional teams helps ensure that restaurants operate as entire units and that all departments pursue the organization's overall goals, but not operate as subunits. The harmony between the different departments of the restaurants ensures that information is properly shared between the different departments to improve the performance of the restaurants.
Alignment between the sales department and the production department is critical to the success of McDonald's restaurants. The marketing and sales department works closely with the production department. This is because the sales and marketing team is in daily contact with the restaurant's customers.
Therefore, the sales and marketing team can identify customer needs and advise production accordingly to ensure that the products offered by McDonald's restaurants meet their customers' expectations. This has greatly helped restaurants stand out as it has allowed the restaurant management to anticipate the changing needs of their customers and respond accordingly.
In 2002, McDonald's restaurants experienced a serious setback. Their failure was because they focused more on expanding their restaurants while sacrificing quality. In 2003, McDonald's restaurant sales plummeted. Management asked the marketing team to conduct market research on why their sales had dropped significantly.
The investigation found that its sales dropped because many people chose to buy healthier food from other restaurants, considering McDonald's food to be junk food. The marketing department advised the production department to diversify its production by introducing new menus with healthier foods.
In addition to building strong internal relationships, McDonald's restaurants recognized the need to strengthen their external relationships. Restaurant management initiated new strategies aimed at improving relationships with external stakeholders. For example, management asked its suppliers for feedback and ideas on the facility's design.
Additionally, they challenged their flagship retail executives to produce cleaner, smarter restaurants. The incorporation of these new strategies greatly improved the performance of McDonald's restaurants (Olson, 2009).
McDonald's restaurant was established on the basis of providing quality, cleanliness, service and value to customers. Since its inception, McDonald's has promoted these values and given back to the communities that support it in conducting its business. You have a culture of celebrating your achievements as you strive to reach greater heights.
It makes it a priority to conduct all of its dealings with honesty and integrity and to reward its employees who enable them to achieve their goals. In addition to its strategic culture, McDonald's also emphasizes important principles that guide it in its quest to exceed customer expectations and beliefs.
It does this with excellence across all three business strategies, which include Franchise, Supplier Partnership and Corporate. McDonald's culture includes a passion for strengthening and protecting the brand and adapting a collaborative strategy as a management approach.
MacDonald's culture is stable and emphasizes the importance of a set of beliefs and norms that guide and control employees, rather than relying on formalized control systems. MacDonald's uses its rules and beliefs rather than formal systems to control employee behavior.
MacDonald's people are inherently performance driven and dedicate all of their energy to the success of MacDonald's. On the other hand, McDonald's management recognized that the use of a formalized system destroys employee morale and employees do not work for the success of their organizations but for fear of losing their jobs.
Such attitudes result in low incomes and low quality services that severely damage incomes. MacDonald has engaged Hamburger University to teach sound business principles to more than 5,000 of its employees each year.
The institution has been instrumental in helping MacDonald develop highly engaged employees. MacDonald's employees and customers appreciate service with a smile, fast food, cleanliness and bright lights. MacDonald's strategic corporate culture has helped the industry build a strong team where each party is aware of their duties and ready to perform them with passion (Megan, 2009).
McDonald's restaurant chains thrive on their management's ability to break down the internal and external barriers that prevent successful cross-functional teams from forming. Additionally, McDonald's strategic corporate culture, which fosters strong relationships among all stakeholders involved in its business, helps to significantly improve its performance.
reference list
Megan, P. (2009).Cultural Differences: McDonald's in Japan. Red.
Nanomota.(2011).Edwards W. Deming's 14 Management Principles Points in Quality Management. Red.
Olson, M. (2009).McDonald's Success Story. Red.
Ulrich, D. & Smallwood, N. (2008). Align business, leadership and personal brand.leader to leader diary, 47, 1.