Total Quality Management Survey Paper

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Total Quality Management (TQM) is the strategic activities aimed to implement the awareness of quality in an organization by management. Manufacturing, service, non profit, and governmental organizations have been using TQM extensively since the 1990s. This paper discusses total quality management in a service and manufacturing organization. Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas is the service organization and Dell, Incorporation (Inc.) is the manufacturing organization discussed in this paper. The value of quality in customer satisfaction and the description of the need for customer-driven quality of METRO and Dell, Inc. are explained. A matrix that compares and contrasts the strategic roles of TQM for the two organizations is included. The significance of management and how leadership relates to quality is evaluated in this Total Quality Management Survey Paper.

Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) – Service Organization

Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) is a total quality management organization that provides public transportation service for Houston, Texas and surrounding areas. METRO ensures customer satisfaction by serving the Houston area with bus, light rail, paratransit, and high occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV). METRO also has a website to help meet the needs of the new and existing passengers. The company has a local service that operates on the city streets; and an express service that operates on the freeway. The local service has bus stops at every other corner of each route. The express service has Park and Ride Lots near the freeway where customers can park their cars and ride the freeway bus to downtown Houston. Some express buses travel to the Medical Center and the Uptown/Galleria area. These services increase during the peak hours for the convenience of the customers to and from work. From 1990 to 2004, METRO consisted of the largest all bus fleet in the United States before the METRORail.

The light rail service known as METRORail was founded by Houston former Mayor Lee Brown and METRO formerly CEO Shirley Deliberio. This service presently includes one light rail line called the Red Line and a mobility plan with five more lines to be completed by 2012. The Red Line consists of 7.5 miles, and is the second largest light rail service in Texas. Over 45,000 passengers ride METRORail on an average weekday (METRO, 2008). METRORail is the first light rail system in Houston since the streetcar system 60 years ago. METRO goal is to provide the Houston area with the five lines and services by 2012.

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