What is the Total Quality Management for Emergency Services Project About?

There are two primary goals of this project. They are;

• Document the basic concepts and principles for the practice of TQM
• Provide the information in a concise and readable format for those who may not have had any training on the subject of TQM

This introductory course is no substitute for the education and training necessary to implement and practice TQM in your agency. This project merely provides an overview of the basic concepts and summarizes some organizational implications of implementation. We also have attempted to dispel some common misconceptions about TQM.

What is Total Quality Management?
Total Quality Management provides the means for any organization to more efficiently and effectively respond to the current and future needs of the communities they serve. It has at its foundation strong leadership and high quality characteristics. To understand the philosophy of Total Quality Management, we will examine the two areas that comprise the foundation of Total Quality Management, Quality and Leadership.

The single most important concept of TQM is that it is focused on system problems, not worker problems. This is attributed to Dr. Deming's 85-15 rule, which states that 85% of the problems in any organization are system related, while only 15% is worker related. In TQM, individual systems are observed, and methods are developed to improve the system. This resulted in TQM ideals moving the quality process a significant step forward.

Since the debut of the TQM ideology, it has been used in many fields, from manufacturing to service organizations to government, with Japan being the leader in TQM. The Japanese automobile industry embraced the TQM philosophy, and is the main reason that Japan was able to grab such a large share of the American automobile market in the 1970s. American industry's slow response nearly drove the "Big Three" American auto manufacturers out of business. The value of TQM is being discovered in the United States and across the world, and TQM methods are slowly but steadily replacing traditional Quality Control methods.

How is the Training Program Being Developed?
Currently there are three components being developed in this project. They are the textbook "Total Quality Management for Emergency Services - An Introduction" along with an Instructors Guide and the Instructors Presentations.

All of these items are being created in OpenOffice and are distributed in the OpenDocument format. Additionally, the textbook and the instructor's guides will be released in Adobe Acrobat format. We are also looking at being able to provide a printed hard copy for those who wish to purchase a set. All of the items are being distributed under the Creative Commons license.

Conclusion
The textbook is now available for download, and we have printed copies available for sale through our store. The instructor's guide and class presentations are currently under development. Keep watching this page for more information and updates concerning release dates.