Bus 670 Week 1 Learning Team Assignment

Learning Team Assignment: Quality Case Study
Keisha Echols, Michelle Prince, Katina King
BA 670 Integrated Business Operations
October 8, 2014 Total Quality Management (TQM)
TQM is a company’s complete “culture of quality” approach which focuses on long-term success. It strives for continuous improvement as a process and not as a short-term goal. TQM involves all stakeholders to transform the organization into a forward-thinking entity by influencing attitudes, practices, structures, and systems of the entire organization (Business Dictionary, 2014). TQM was crafted by William Edwards Deming, a statistician who specialized in statistical process control after World War II. Deming outlined 14 points of TQM where all people of an organization

They both knew that if you listened to, and made your customers happy, business and profit would increase. In Rachel Hobgood’s review of “How Did You Do It Truett,” it was stated that “the courtesy of the service at Chick-fil-A is one of the most noted things about the company (Hobgood, 2009). From the company’s initial inception and at the counter of his very first restaurant, Truett believed in listening to his customers and implementing changes that kept them happy, coming back, and bringing their friends and family with them. The article goes on to state that, “Chick-fil-A’s management system most closely aligns with the Total Quality Management system. Chick-fil-A’s primary concern is most certainly quality.” (Hobgood, 2009). Not only the quality of the food, but also the quality of service and customer experience. As a Chick-fil-A employee who interviews potential Operators, I hear several times a day how impressed candidates are because regardless of what state or area they are in, when they visit a Chick-fil-A, the food, service and experience are consistent. They often ask, “How does that happen?” Well it is a very ingrained, systematic process. Chick-fil-A is so committed to quality food, that it recently announced plans to serve chicken with absolutely no antibiotics within five years in all of its restaurants. This initiative is heavily due to customer demand, due to “70 percent of customers rating it a top issue in surveys” (Martin, 2014). The five year timeline is necessary in order for supply chain to transition to 100% antibiotic-free chicken, which Chick-fil-A’s Senior Vice President of Operations, Tim Tassapholous says is, “a 100% commitment; no antibiotics ever” (Martin, 2014). I had the pleasure of visiting a local chicken plant that