Making quality a way of life 
Recognizing that quality is a key growth driver in an increasingly competitive market, the new management of a large, well-established FMCG food company in India decided to explore total quality management (TQM) as the means of establishing a quality culture. The case presented here is the first successful application of TQM in the company’s manufacturing processes. The dramatic improvements achieved went a long way in demonstrating that TQM works.
The problemDamaged stock returned from the market (0.76 percent of sales) was a chronic problem defying resolution, and senior management threw this challenge to TQM. A quick analysis indicated that 67 percent of the returns were due to broken biscuits.
Reducing breakage in a specific product line was therefore chosen as the first project. A cross-functional factory team was selected for the effort. The manufacturing process has the following key steps:
The problemDamaged stock returned from the market (0.76 percent of sales) was a chronic problem defying resolution, and senior management threw this challenge to TQM. A quick analysis indicated that 67 percent of the returns were due to broken biscuits.
Reducing breakage in a specific product line was therefore chosen as the first project. A cross-functional factory team was selected for the effort. The manufacturing process has the following key steps:
- Mix ingredients as per the recipe
- Preprocess into a pliable mass
- Sheet mass to the specified thickness
- Mold-cut the sheet into individual units
- Cook in a six-stage oven
- Pack stacks of products into flexible retail packs
- Packing into shippers for dispatch
A two-day quality training program was conducted with the team to introduce them to TQM, why and how it works, and most important, to open their minds to explore change. The project was then begun using TQM’s seven-step problem-solving method, as defined below:
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