Business Excellence or Total Quality Management

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Dotun Adebanjo in his paper , analyses the seeming disparity between TQM and Business Excellence.
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He starts by saying that while EFQM was largely based on the concepts of TQM , subsequent revisions of the EFGM model in 1999 switched from TQM to organizational excellence. Recently the model was stripped of "quality" in title, sub criteria and areas to address.

This was because many managers found "quality" inadequate and not living up to their business requirements. This actually caused a lot of concern among conventional TQM experts. A lot of time and resources had been spent on educating organizations and the public on the significance of quality. However, the wave of persecution against "quality" continued unabated."Quality was perceived to be passé, and was superseded by the concept of "excellence". Being that as it may , even those who were heading new initiatives under the "excellence" model, still deeply felt that the underlying principle was based on 'quality'.
This did not stop the "Excellence" wave from rising and spreading relentlessly across businesses, obliterating the importance of TQM.

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Businesses welcomed the excellence model.The Excellence model seemed to have some clear advantages over the "quality model".

Disadvantages of TQM ( which lead to its slaughter in the hands of the "Excellence" model)

1. Historically mechanistic "tool and technique" basis. [ the social/people/soft skill focus which came later was never highlighted ].
2. The ownership of TQM was restricted to the quality department ,its historical owners within the organization.
3. Faulty perception of company managers that issues concerning quality was the sole responsibility of the 'quality' department.
4. TQM held on to its mechanistic history, which was not understandable by everyone.
5. Confusion in the definition and categorization of quality costs.
6. Skepticism of CEOs who are not from production or quality background.[CEO's commitment vital for TQM implementation. ]
7. Payback of TQM is medium to long term( 3 to 5 years ), while CEO's performance is scrutinized on a yearly or quarterly basis.
8. Another key concern with TQM - boundaries and focus.
9. While elements are common ( leadership, employee involvement, teamwork, customer focus) there is not one approach to TQM.(So there is a dilemma as to which approach to adopt -whether to adopt a Deming or a Crosby approach or any other quality gurus approach. Many quality 'consultants' all claim to have a unique and effective approach to TQM implementation).
10. Lack of cohesion and agreement within the TQM movement.
11. Very little generic guidelines to help organizations to implement these philosophies. For ...