Pros and cons of total quality management

One advantage of pursuing total quality management as a business strategy is the creation of a loyal customer base with loyalty to the company. Drawing in customers once is usually much easier than getting them to return time and time again--a new restaurant will attract people out of curiosity, but only if the food and service is great, will those customers bother to come back. TQM can also result in products and services with fewer defects which meet customer needs more exactly. The downside to TQM can be said to be a loss of productivity as a result of worker's need to be focused on customer at all times. Training and other exercises use up time that could be spent producing value, and such a system may have negligible impact for certain positions, especially those with no customer contact, such as janitorial staff or assembly line workers for instance.