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For this post I will be looking at the use of TQM from one of the current jobs I hold, which is at a butcher shop.

After completing the reading in the resources, I believe that the company I work at does indeed use the TQM approach. I can see this through many of the different aspects that make up TQM$.$ First, employee involvement is a heavy focus at my current company, relying heavily on self$-$managed teams to complete the tasks and goals assigned throughout the days in short term, along with working towards medium to longer term goals. Another main part of TQM I observed is being customer focussed. The company is very good about taking in customer feedback and making adjustments and improvements based on their positive and negative feedback, as well as general recommendation and wants. This ultimately creates a culture where the customer is in the drivers seat of the quality.

When looking at the quality culture within the company, I see a culture based heavily on customer satisfaction through high quality products and service. The management has always made it very clear that the main focus is the customers and satisfying them however we can. They also make it very well known to employees and customers that they are not afraid to do a little more work to make sure the customers gets the best experience they can, which often comes through going back and cutting a new piece of meat for a customer if it has any oxidization, or simply that the customer just doesn't see one they particularly love. Interestingly enough, coming from a more outdated practice of "the customer is always right", the management here instead imposes that with the many different varieties of product there is$,$ it is likely for some customers to not understand exactly what they are looking for, which is common when they are following a specific recipe. Management then instills in new employees that through listening to what the customer is explaining, as well as making recommendations and explaining product, it is more likely to be able to help the customer have a positive experience while also getting what they are really looking for and not just what they think they are looking for.

Overall, I think that the company does quite a good job of using the TQM approach. The company does very well in areas like employee empowerment, being customer$-$focused, and fact$-$based decision making. This helps to ensure that the work environment is efficient in operation, but also enjoyable for the employees, which translates into better service of customers and higher quality. However, no company is perfect and has its areas that need improvement. In this case, communication could be better improved within the company. Often times there is miscommunication or just plain lack of communication between teams and through management. This leads to confusion among the employees about tasks, as well as some employees doing tasks differently than others, which leads to changes in the outcome. Fixing this would help the company in many ways and increase the use and effectiveness of TQM$.$

ALEX