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This checklist provides guidance for those who have mapped a total quality management strategy for their organisation and are now seeking to implement it.

1. Decide whether to run pilots. Select for the pilots areas or functions which are significant and where you feel TQM will yield results within a year at most.

2. Draw up a framework and appoint a management team to assess and evaluate the results of the pilots

3. There are four key stages in the implementation of TQM: measurement; process management; problem solving and corrective action.

4. Decide which measurement techniques to use. The main techniques are: measurement and error logging charts; corrective action systems; work process flow charts; run charts and process control charts.

5. Select process management tools. Many may already be used in the organisation for other purposes, including: Gantt charts, flow charts and histograms. Select those which are right for the culture of your organisation.

6. Set up mechanisms for problem solving. Plan to establish groups throughout the organisation to look at improving quality from different angles.

7. The emphasis in TQM must be on identifying the causes of problems and solving them. Build in at the planning stage feedback loops with corrective action.

8. Decide when and how to announce the programme. Assume that staff may initially be cynical or sceptical and work out strategies for overcoming this.

9. Introduce the education programme mapped in your strategy. Target key groups first. Use these as the agents of change to cascade learning through the organisation.

10. Successful TQM depends as much on cultural change as on process improvements. Be aware that TQM will probably need to be accompanied by a general programme of information and education .

11. The team leaders will be pivotal to the success of TQM. You need to give them the resources, time, support and education to become leaders.

12. Employees will need to take ownership of quality and act on their own initiative. You will need to create an open culture and drive out fears of failure, of taking risks and reprisals.

13. Employees will not be able to make the changes needed without profound changes in management style. A new approach will be needed based on collaboration, consensus and participation.

14. Establish a means for monitoring progress. This will require a mix of short-term goals, to demonstrate progress, and more challenging long-term ones to stretch the organisation.

15. Maintain the impetus. Regularly review and report progress and recognise and publicise successes.

Do's and Don'ts

Do:

Make clear the relationship between TQM and other initiatives within the organisation.

Work out where the invisible barriers to change are. Be aware of them from the outset and develop a strategy for overcoming them.

Make clear that TQM is not a quick fix but an ongoing process of continuous improvement: you will never fully achieve total quality as the targets will constantly shift.

Ensure that systems concentrate on measuring the performance of work processes rather than the individuals engaged in them.

Don't:

View TQM as a precisely defined methodology or a series of neatly tabled sequential actions to be completed one by one.

Try to bring in TQM alongside other major initiatives if these already make heavy demands on management time.

Neglect the soft side of TQM: changing culture is as important as changing processes.

Lose sight of the ends by excessive concentration on the means.