TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01435129310027246 |
| Pages | 28-31 |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| Author | Nigel B. Butterwick |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
Total Quality Management in
the University Library
Nigel
B.
Butterwick
BACKGROUND
Total quality management (TQM) has its
origins in industrial environments and this is
often cited as a reason for it being
inappropriate for adoption by service-
oriented organizations. The irony here is that
it is, in fact, particularly appropriate for
service organizations since one of the basic
tenets common to the thinking of all TQM
"gurus"
is that the needs and requirements
of the customer are paramount. A service
could, after all, be defined as an enterprise
that focuses, or at least ought to focus, on
satisfying customer needs and requirements.
Recent studies have shown an increasing
volume in literature in management journals
on quality issues and on Japanese-style
management, yet there is little evidence of
significant interest in this area in the
literature of librarianship. As of December
1992 it would have been difficult to track
down more than a dozen articles relating to
the application of TQM to libraries. This is
not to say that TQM is not being applied to
libraries (Aston University has a TQM
programme operational, for instance), but
rather that there appears to be very little
written about its application to this sector.
This article describes the introduction and
operation of a "quality improvement
programme" (QIP) based on the principles of
total quality management within the Library
at the Queen's University of Belfast.
Library Management, Vol. 14 No. 3, 1993, pp.
28-31.
© MCB University Press, 0143-5124
WHAT IS TQM?
The definitions of TQM are many and varied
and the topic is quite often confused with
quality assurance. The following definition by
Cook[1] is one that fits well with the
principles we have adopted in our quality
improvement programme:
Total quality management (TQM) is the term
applied to the approach which organizations
adopt to improve their performance on a
systematic and continuous basis. This is
achieved via the involvement of employees
throughout the organization in satisfying the
total requirements of every customer, whoever
the customer may be — either external or
internal — and the development of processes
within the organization which are error-free.
This definition introduces three important
concepts, the first of which is the recognition
that customers are not simply the "end-
users"
(our "external" customers) but also
colleagues (our "internal" customers). Every
department or office has a series of suppliers
and customers. Suppliers are people who pass
work, information, etc. on to us for some
further processing. We then pass work,
information, etc. on to someone else who
becomes our customer. We must pay equal
attention to satisfying the requirements of all
our internal customers as well as our external
customers.
The second important concept in the
definition is "the development of processes
which are error-free". Most people in
organizations spend a large proportion of
their time correcting errors, looking for
things, checking why things are late, redoing
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