TQM, Benchmarking, and Competitive Advantage: The Events Company

This report provides a detailed analysis of Total Quality Management (TQM) within The Events Company, a UK-based event management firm. It begins with an executive summary and table of contents, followed by an introduction that outlines the report's purpose: to evaluate the importance of benchmarking for organizational success. The report then provides an overview of The Events Company, its services, and the history of TQM, including contributions from key figures like Deming and Feigenbaum. It evaluates the role of benchmarking in generating overall success, detailing the benchmarking process, identifying problems faced by The Events Company, and emphasizing the importance of benchmarking for operational efficiency and competitive advantage. The report also discusses the implementation of TQM models, problems encountered during benchmarking, and concludes with recommendations for improvement.

Running head: TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Total Quality Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Executive Summary
The report has helped in analysing the importance of the TQM in the event management
company. The company is situated in United Kingdom and it specialises in arranging events
for the different occasions. However, there are different issues faced by the company relating
to the providing of customer satisfaction. The importance of benchmarking in TQM has been
discussed.
The main aim and purpose of the report is to understand the different TQM models and
contribution of gurus in the previous era. The model of PDCA cycle has been described as to
understand the importance of the model in gaining competitive advantage.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Overview of The Events Company............................................................................................3
History of TQM and contribution of TQM gurus......................................................................4
Evaluation and analysis of benchmarking in generating overall success of The Events
Company....................................................................................................................................6
Process of benchmarking in The Events Company................................................................6
Problems faced by The Events Company..................................................................................7
Benchmarking of The Events Company................................................................................8
Importance of benchmarking in The Events Company..............................................................9
Implementation of Model by The Events Company................................................................10
Problems faced by The Events Company in benchmarking....................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
Recommendations....................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
The report helps in analysis of the importance of the total quality management in the
respective company named The Events Company that is based in United Kingdom. Proper
analysis and evaluation has to be done in order to understand the importance of
benchmarking that will help in gaining overall success of the respective company. Proper
examples have to be used as this will help in providing proper analysis of the importance of
benchmarking in organizations.
The main aim and purpose of the report is to understand the evaluation of the
importance of the benchmarking that will help in analysing the overall success of the
organization. The different kind of limitations has to be analysed in an effectual manner with
the help of different examples in an effective manner.
The structure of the report will include the different kind of analysis that will help in
understanding the different contributions of the TQM gurus in an effectual manner. The
different evaluation of benchmarking will be discussed that helps the company in gaining
success and competitive advantage in the market.
Overview of The Events Company
The Events Company is an event management company that is based in United
Kingdom. The company focuses on providing the employees different kind of services
wherein this will help the company in gaining competitive advantage. The company helps in
implementation of the different product launching programs of other companies and this
helps in providing a brief overview of the different other services that organizes different
kind of marriages or meetings in a professional manner (The Events Company - Weddings,

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Corporate Events, Social Events, Galas & Bashes, Fundraisers: Design, Planning, Production,
Coordination, 2018).
History of TQM and contribution of TQM gurus
The concept of total quality management was originated in description of the Japanese
management approach that has been adopted by the Navy Systems Expertise for the
improvement of the quality.
Dr. Edwards Deming
There are fourteen obligations of the total quality management approach wherein
Deming has contributed a lot wherein this includes the different obligations that are as
follows:
Creating constancy of the purpose for the different kind of improvement of products
and services and allocate the different kind of resources for analysing the different
long-term needs (Kearney 2018)
Adopting a new philosophy wherein it helps in understanding and analysing the
different kind of mistakes and defects
Cease the dependency on the inspection that is mass in nature as to achieve the quality
in the first place regarding the different kind of products and services
End of the different kind of practices for awarding the business on basis of the price
as to minimize the total kind of cost and this helps in establishing long term
relationship
Improve every process that includes management as to make better utilization of the
different employees (Pun and Yiu 2018)
Proper institution of the different training methods has to be adopted by the company
as this will help in utilizing the skills of employees effectively

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Adoption of the institute leadership as this will provide analysis of the management to
work in an effective manner (Heizer 2016)
Drive out the fear as this will help in producing effectively in the organizations
Breakdown of the different barriers as this will help in solving different issues
Elimination of the different kind of exhortations as they will help in improving the
quality in an effective manner
Elimination of arbitrary numerical targets as this will help in achieving proper targets
Remove the different kind of barriers as to achieve the different kind of objectives in
an effectual manner
Encourage proper and accurate kind of education as this will help in self-improvement
among employees (Dale 2015)
Lastly, top managements commitments have to be analysed in an effective manner
that will provide strength in improving quality
Dr. Armand Feigenbaum
He has helped in development of the total quality management philosophy that helps
in improving the quality of the leadership in the different organizations. The proper usage of
the modern kind of technology will help in solving the different organizational commitments
in an effectual manner.
These are the different kind of contributions of the different gurus of the total quality
management wherein there are different kind of philosophies that has been adopted by them
in an effective manner. The total quality management has to analysed in an effective manner
in different kind of organizations as this will help in understanding the requirements wherein
training and development is required to be done as to incur such changes in an effectual
manner. The lack of quality has to be measured as this will help in implementing more

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positive changes as this will help in solving the issues in an effective manner (Psomas and
Antony 2017).
Evaluation and analysis of benchmarking in generating overall success of The Events
Company
Benchmarking is essential in nature for the events organization as this will help in
discovering the best kind of standards of the performance in an effectual manner. The
respective company needs to understand the different performance of the other competitors in
the market as this will help them in providing a brief overview of the different functions to
perform as per the standards (Olives et al. 2014).
The Events Company that is based in United Kingdom has to be analyse and identify
the benchmarking criteria in an effective manner as this will help in understanding the
performance of competitors in an effectual manner. However, benchmarking is not an easy or
simple process tool, it is necessary in nature to understand the different guidelines of the
competitors as this will help the respective company in gathering information about
competitors and their size of the company as well (Hazen et al. 2014).
Process of benchmarking in The Events Company
The Events Company follows the different process of benchmarking as this helps in
providing the entire company in the gaps in their performance in comparison with the
different competitors in the market of The United Kingdom. The process of benchmarking
that is followed by The Events Company are as follows:
It is essential for The Events Company in understanding the current process
performance gaps as this will help in understanding the actual requirement of
benchmarking

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It is required for the executives of The Events Company to gain knowledge and
approval from the leadership team of the respective company as this will help them in
eliminating the different roadblocks along with providing resources that is adequate in
nature and this will constitute the entire benchmarking process of gathering data
Proper documentation of the benchmarking scope and objectives effectively by The
Events Company as this is one of the essential necessities of the company that has to
be achieved by them (Schilling and Neubauer 2017)
The proper documentation of the current process is essential in nature that has to be
done by The Events Company as this will help in understanding and analysing the
amount of resources that is required to analyse the time and date to complete the
entire task in an effectual manner
The company needs to properly agree on the primary metrics as this will help in
understanding the difference between the current performance of the company along
with the partner organizations in United Kingdom (Cereda et al. 2016)
The entire metrics has to be put up in writing as this will help the company in
understanding the requirement of measuring and to understand the different kind of
necessary calculations (Sallis 2014)
Proper determination and application of the learning has to be done as this will help in
understanding the gaps in their performance and solve them effectively (Gerrish and
Spreen 2017)
Application of the entire learnings has to be adopted by the executives of the company
as this will help in providing company in developing recommended implementation
plan and try to update when it is required in comparison to the competitors

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Problems faced by The Events Company
There are different kind of problems that has been faced by the Events Company
wherein it includes that the total quality management was a major issue wherein the services
provided by them were not up to the mark and there were different errors in the services
provided to the clients. The respective company do not have proper and accurate
technological advancements that is required to implement different kind of services that is
demanded by the different customers in the market. The companies need to understand the
different services effectively as this will help Events Company in securing a competitive
position in the entire competitive market (Zaveri et al. 2016).
It has been seen that The Events Company did not follow different technological innovations
in their company that would have attracted more customers towards their service.
Furthermore, the respective company tried to adopt functional benchmarking wherein the
company received and generated different kind of ideas from other organizations who are not
necessarily competitors, however they are performing same kind of tasks within same kind of
technological domain. It was seen that the company had few problems wherein the services
provided were not up to the mark and they did not provide any kind of unique services as
compared to the different other competitors in the market (AACE). (Dey 2017).
The Events Company did not use any kind of technology-based services and there
was no such coordination in the team of the event managers and associates as well. There
were different kind of complaints from the customers as they did not receive the premium
services they were promised for and they were dissatisfied for the services. It was seen that
the company tried to focus on benchmarking activities as this helped them in analysing the
different kind of services offered by them.

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Benchmarking of The Events Company
It has been seen that there are different kind of competitors in the United Kingdom
market wherein the respective company needs to focus on continuous improvement as this is
required to improve the current performance of the company in comparison to the
competitors. The company needs to understand the requirements of the customers as to
establish effective goals and objectives appropriately.
Figure 1: Types of benchmarking
(Source: )
Importance of benchmarking in The Events Company
Benchmarking will help The Events Company in providing their customers perfect
atmosphere in a perfect manner. Proper benchmarking will help the company in improving
the operational efficiency along with design of the product. In order to improve the total
quality management of the different products of the company, the respective company needs
to adopt benchmarking as to:

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Understand their relative cost position as this will help the event management
company to identify the different opportunities for improving their services that are
delivered to customers
Gaining strategic advantage as this will help the company to focus on different kind
of capabilities as this will help in building strategic advantage
Increase the rate of learning as this will help the company in gaining new ideas that
will facilitate the experience sharing in an effective manner
Implementation of Model by The Events Company
Figure 1: PDCA Cycle
(Source: Wallis, Cole and Bates 2015)
From the diagram, it can be analysed that the respective company has adopted the
PDCA cycle wherein their main motive was the continuous improvement wherein PDCA
cycle was the effective tool for achieving the quality. The main issue of the company was the
issues related to quality wherein the services provided by the company did not meet the

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requirements of the customers and it was not following any kind of technological
advancements.
With the help of PDCA cycle, the company tried to understand their current status and
analysed the cause in an effective manner. With the proper planning, the company set a target
and prepare different schedule of activities as compared to the competitors. Furthermore, the
company implemented the corrective action with the help of providing training to the
employees to deliver such services effectively (Wallis, Cole and Bates 2015).
After a certain phase, the respective company tried to compare the overall result and
analysed the reasons for the failure as well. On analysing the failure, the company identified
appropriate actions that are required to be taken and solved them effectually. It was seen and
analysed that with the help of PDCA cycle, the Events Company tried to solve the customer
services and provided satisfaction to the customers by providing them with services and
products that are unique and they achieved such targets with the implementation of PDCA
cycle.
Problems faced by The Events Company in benchmarking
There were different issues faced by the company in benchmarking wherein the
company had difficulties such as:
There were different competitors in the market who did not share their information
about the services provided by them as this was unethical in nature.
There were difficulties wherein the company did not have any idea on understanding
which activities in their firm require benchmarking (Aquilani et al. 2017)
It was seen that The Events Company applied the applications used by other
competitors, however they were not successful for them and it was a complete failure

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Lastly, the implementation of different technologies was expensive and it was
difficult for the company at first to adopt such expensive products and services for
their company
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that benchmarking has been proved successful in
nature for The Events Company as this helped in providing more focus on the different
competitors along with their performance in an effectual manner. Furthermore, it has been
seen that benchmarking has helped the company in improving their services that was
provided to the customers by analysing their mistakes with the utilization of different kind of
models of the total quality management.
Lastly, it was seen that total quality management was achieved by the company with
the usage of Juran’s quality theory along with PDCA cycle as this offered the company in
improving their services and increased the rate of organizational learning as well along with
gaining strategic advantage.
The entire benchmarking has helped The Events Company in identifying different
opportunities for improvement and they succeeded in it. However, it was seen that there were
different kind of issues that has been faced by the company that were solved with such TQM
models and benchmarking as well.
Recommendations
Therefore, it can be recommended that the company needs to follow the external and
international benchmarking as this will help the company in solving the different issues and
gain competitive advantage. The main aim of the event management company is to satisfy the
different requirements of the customers by providing them world class services that include
different occasions and other conferences as well. In such circumstances, the criteria that is

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required to be followed by the company is to understand the issues and solve them with
different other models other than PDCA.

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References
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M., Wintermark, M., Bammer, R., Albers, G.W. and Parsons, M.W., 2016. A benchmarking
tool to evaluate computer tomography perfusion infarct core predictions against a DWI
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Convergence? Evaluating North Carolina’s Fiscal Benchmarking Tool. Journal of Public
Administration Research and Theory, 27(4), pp.596-614.
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science, predictive analytics, and big data in supply chain management: An introduction to
the problem and suggestions for research and applications. International Journal of
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Heizer, J., 2016. Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Kearney, R., 2018. Public sector performance: management, motivation, and measurement.
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