Question

Briefly describe TQM and Six Sigma Approaches to quality. What are the key elements of each of the approaches? Are there instances when one approach is preferred over the other? Explain your rationale.

Answer 1

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT - BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Total Quality Management (TQM) describes a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. In a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving processes, products, services, and the culture in which they work.

Total Quality Management Principles: The 8 Primary Elements of TQM

Total quality management can be summarized as a management system for a customer-focused organization that involves all employees in continual improvement. It uses strategy, data, and effective communications to integrate the quality discipline into the culture and activities of the organization. Many of these concepts are present in modern Quality Management Systems, the successor to TQM. Here are the 8 principles of total quality management:

1. Customer-focused

The customer ultimately determines the level of quality. No matter what an organization does to foster quality improvement—training employees, integrating quality into the design process, upgrading computers or software, or buying new measuring tools—the customer determines whether the efforts were worthwhile.

2. Total employee involvement

All employees participate in working toward common goals. Total employee commitment can only be obtained after fear has been driven from the workplace, when empowerment has occurred, and management has provided the proper environment. High-performance work systems integrate continuous improvement efforts with normal business operations. Self-managed work teams are one form of empowerment.

3. Process-centered

A fundamental part of TQM is a focus on process thinking. A process is a series of steps that take inputs from suppliers (internal or external) and transforms them into outputs that are delivered to customers (again, either internal or external). The steps required to carry out the process are defined, and performance measures are continuously monitored in order to detect unexpected variation.

4. Integrated system

Although an organization may consist of many different functional specialties often organized into vertically structured departments, it is the horizontal processes interconnecting these functions that are the focus of TQM.

Micro-processes add up to larger processes, and all processes aggregate into the business processes required for defining and implementing strategy. Everyone must understand the vision, mission, and guiding principles as well as the quality policies, objectives, and critical processes of the organization. Business performance must be monitored and communicated continuously.

An integrated business system may be modeled after the Baldrige National Quality Program criteria and/or incorporate the ISO 9000 standards. Every organization has a unique work culture, and it is virtually impossible to achieve excellence in its products and services unless a good quality culture has been fostered. Thus, an integrated system connects business improvement elements in an attempt to continually improve and exceed the expectations of customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

5. Strategic and systematic approach

A critical part of the management of quality is the strategic and systematic approach to achieving an organization’s vision, mission, and goals. This process, called strategic planning or strategic management, includes the formulation of a strategic plan that integrates quality as a core component.

6. Continual improvement

A major thrust of TQM is continual process improvement. Continual improvement drives an organization to be both analytical and creative in finding ways to become more competitive and more effective at meeting stakeholder expectations.

7. Fact-based decision making

In order to know how well an organization is performing, data on performance measures are necessary. TQM requires that an organization continually collect and analyze data in order to improve decision making accuracy, achieve consensus, and allow prediction based on past history.

8. Communications

During times of organizational change, as well as part of day-to-day operation, effective communications plays a large part in maintaining morale and in motivating employees at all levels. Communications involve strategies, method, and timeliness.

ELEMENTS OF TQM

TQM has been coined to describe a philosophy that makes quality the driving force behind leadership, design, planning, and improvement initiatives. For this, TQM requires the help of those eight key elements. These elements can be divided into four groups according to their function. The groups are: I. Foundation – It includes: Ethics, Integrity and Trust. II. Building Bricks – It includes: Training, Teamwork and Leadership. III. Binding Mortar – It includes: Communication. IV. Roof – It includes: Recognition.  

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SIX SIGMA

Six Sigma is a methodology that primarily focuses on eliminating defects in the business process. Motorola was the first company to introduce Six Sigma methods in its manufacturing process. These principles were employed by the company to bring down the defect rate in their production line. After it was implemented by Motorola, these Six Sigma methods were practiced by various other companies. Six Sigma principles caught the eye of various companies located around the globe when the General Electric company earned $300 million because they implemented Six Sigma principles in their manufacturing process. Well, that’s not the end of the story, these principles were also employed by healthcare, telecommunications, education, finance, military and service sectors. These results proved that Six Sigma methods are appropriate for meeting business goals and objectives in an efficient manner. Six Sigma is an organizational structure that concentrates on continuous improvement. The primary objective of this methodology is to achieve goals and objectives set by the organization in an efficient manner keeping costs and defect rate at a minimal point.

Six Sigma can also be thought of as a measure of process performance, with Six Sigma being the goal, based on the defects per million. Once the current performance of the process is measured, the goal is to continually improve the sigma level striving towards 6 sigma. Even if the improvements do not reach 6 sigma, the improvements made from 3 sigma to 4 sigma to 5 sigma will still reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction.

ELEMENTS OF SIX SIGMA

6 ? is usually understood to refer to three distinct elements:

6 ? is a Philosophy (Continuous Improvement)

6 ? is a Toolkit of Statistical Tools that are applicable to variation in manufacturing and, it turns out, any process.

6 ? is a Measure of Quality

INSTANCES WHEN ONE APPROACH IS PREFERRED OVER THE OTHER

Both Six Sigma and Total Quality Management are effective tools for quality management but a thin line of difference does exist between them although the methodologies and procedures involved in both the two appear quite similar.

The basic difference between Total Quality Management and Six Sigma is that TQM delivers superior quality manufactured goods whereas six sigma on the other hand results in better results. Total Quality management refers to continuous effort by employees to ensure high quality products. The process of Six Sigma incorporates many small changes in the systems to ensure effective results and better customer satisfaction.

The main focus of Total quality management is to maintain existing quality standards whereas Six Sigma primarily focuses on making small necessary changes in the processes and systems to ensure high quality.

The process of Total quality management involves improvement in existing policies and procedures to ensure high quality. Six-Sigma focuses on improving quality by minimizing and eventually eliminating defects from the system. Total quality management emphasizes on improving the existing policies and making necessary changes in the systems to ensure superior quality products and services. Organizations practicing Six Sigma are focused on removing errors and defects to ensure high quality products.

Total Quality management is a less complicated process than Six Sigma.

Six-Sigma is known to deliver better and effective results as compared to total quality management. The process of Six Sigma is based on customer feedbacks and is more accurate and result oriented. Customer feedbacks play an important role in Six Sigma. Experts predict that six sigma will outshine total quality management in due course of time.

The Six Sigma methodology is often used when the existing processes do not satisfy the customers or are not able to achieve strategic business objectives.