Modeling Total Quality Elements Into A Strategy-Oriented Simulation

Abstract

"It has only been in recent years that quality -- as a strategic concept -- has truly moved into the management arena. Quality is now the prime focus of management for many companies in this country. The business sector, however, and not academia has lead the paradigm shift to a focus on total quality management (TOM). Academia needs to integrate TOM into its curriculum and teaching methods. The use of strategy-oriented simulations, that embody TQM concepts, is one method of ensuring our future managers are prepared to work in a TOM environment and to meet the demands of world-class competition. This paper reviews the rudiments of TOM and describes algorithms for integrating many of the key elements into a strategy-oriented simulation. Specifically, the modeling of three key TOM components is described in detail. These include (i) an increased focus on customer need and satisfaction. The increased focus involves altering the demand equation in the model to include product failures and developing a quality-focused customer survey; (ii) continuous improvement and process capability modeling. This entails integrating quality prevention activities, statistical quality control procedures, and Taguchi Loss Function into the model; and (iii) adding competitive benchmarking options. Teams can assess who is “best’ in the industry and use this information to aid in goal-setting and continuous improvement activities. "