Every firm expects quality results from the implementation of these programs. But the “good” and only be received only if the individuals who are working under its premises are fully aware of the functionality and the way it transforms the business. In order to help you out, we will discuss the meanings of quality, its evolution, and the practices of quality imperatives.

What is QUALITY?

As per the textbook term — Quality — means the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something. But in business terms, it takes different forms.

In business, quality is:

• Conforming to standards and specifications.
• Meeting zero defects. 
• Meets customer expectations and needs
• Assessed by customers
• Determined by deviations
• Customer satisfaction

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Total Quality Management is a management approach that describes the culture of an organization that strives to provide customer satisfaction with products and services of their preference.

This “culture” requires quality in all aspects of the organization’s operations with processes being done right the first time and defects and wastes are removed entirely.

It’s a management philosophy that attempts to blend organizational functions to focus on meeting customer needs and organizational objectives.

TQM views an organization as a collection of processes. It maintains organizations strive continuously to improve processes by incorporating the knowledge and experiences of workers. 

TQM’s main motto is

“Do the right thing, right the first time, every time.”

History of Total Quality Management

TQM began initially as a term coined by Naval Air Systems Command to describe Japanese styled management processes to quality improvement. It’s a form of umbrella methodology to continually improve process’s quality by taking elements of:

• The behavioral sciences
• The analysis of quantitative and non-quantitative data
• Economics theories
• Process analysis

1920s

• Quality Management first saw its establishment and usage as the principles of scientific management in the U.S. Industry.
• Businesses separated the processes of planning and carrying out the plan, and union opposition arose as workers were deprived of a voice in the conditions and functions of their work.
• The Hawthorne experiments in the late 1920s demonstrated how the productivity of workers is impacted by participation.

1930s

• Walter Shewhart developed the methods for statistical analysis and control of quality.

1950s

• W. Edwards Deming taught statistical analysis methods and quality control plans to Japanese engineers and executives.
• Joseph M. Juran taught the concepts of controlling quality and managerial breakthrough.
• Armand V. Feigenbaum’s book Total Quality Control was published.
• Philip B. Crosby’s promotion of zero defects paved the way for quality improvement in many companies.

1960s

• The Japanese named their approach to total quality “company-wide quality control”.
• Kaoru Ishikawa’s synthesis of the philosophy contributed to Japan’s authority as a quality leader.

2000s till present

• TQM is the name for the philosophy of a broad and systemic approach to managing organizational quality.
• Quality standards such as the ISO 9000 series and quality award programs such as the Deming Prize and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award specify principles and processes that comprise TQM.

6 Cs of TQM

1) Commitment

TQM development is always proportional to the implementation of quality in processes. It’s a normal essential. Without this, all else fails. It is impossible to make a segway in implementing TQM without quality, thus expectations must be made clear with the support and training necessary to achieve.

2) Culture

Training is always at the epicenter of effecting change in cultures. Management accounts associate creativity with creative accounting thus enabling negative perceptions. This must be altered to encourage individual contributions and make ‘quality’ a normal part of everyone’s job.

3) Continuous improvement

Recognizing TQM as a process and not a program necessitates that an organization is committed in the long term to a never-ending search to find ways to do a better job. After all, there is always room for improvement!

4) Co-operation

Total Employee Involvement (TEI) principles and applications are paramount. The on-job experience of every employee must be fully utilized and their involvement and co-operation in developments must be measured for better performance.

5) Customer focus

The need for customers is the primary driving force to both — external and internal customers. Perfect service with zero defects is the only viable solution to this. TQM implementation allows you to focus entirely on customer satisfaction thus bridging the relationship.

6) Control

Documentation, procedures, and awareness of current practices are necessary in order to make TQM implementation a success. The need for control mechanisms is often overlooked. Unless procedures are in place, improvements cannot be monitored, nor they can be corrected. 

Implementing TQM

The first step to implement TQM is to assess the organization’s current performance and reality. 

Organizations’ history, current needs, precipitating factors leading to TQM, existing employee quality, Work-Life structure, elements like such should be charted out and data should be gathered to perform analysis on it. If the current reality of an organization lacks preconditions, TQM implementation should be delayed until the organization is in the state where TQM is likely to succeed. However, a certain level of pressure is probably acceptable to initiate TQM. After all, if the vision’s in the gut’s feeling, you have to approach it anyhow.

A successful TQM implementation requires:

• A committed leadership
• Customer-based approach
• Process Management
• Good Communication
• Knowledge Management
• Empowerment
• Staff Involvement
• Organizational Culture

The Key Players — Customer, Suppliers, and Employees

To achieve success with TQM, managers must understand the quality goals of their organization. They must communicate goals, understand the employees, have knowledge of the product/services, and create processes that dive deep into creating a value chain.

TQM’s philosophy is comprehensive, thus making suppliers a crucial part of its execution. Organizations must appraise new suppliers and carry out regular audits to guarantee the stock meets market standards.

Lastly, customers hold the major responsibility for a successful TQM implementation. After all, they are the reason TQM is in existence.

The post Total Quality Management: A Modern Path to Business Excellence appeared first on 6sigma.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach that plays a pivotal role in improving quality for businesses. It’s a philosophy that emphasizes the importance of customer satisfaction, continuous improvement, and employee involvement. TQM is a holistic approach that involves all employees, from top management to front-line workers, in an effort to improve quality. The goal of TQM is to identify and eliminate all non-value-adding activities and to continuously improve processes and products to meet or exceed customer expectations.

Implementing TQM can provide significant benefits for businesses, including increased efficiency, reduced costs, and improved customer satisfaction. In this article, we will explore the key principles of TQM, how to implement it in your business, and the benefits that you can expect to see. Whether you are in manufacturing, healthcare, or any other industry, TQM can help you improve your business’s quality and drive success.

The TQM Methodology

Total Quality Management differs from other quality management approaches in that it involves all employees in an organization, from top management to front-line workers, in an effort to improve quality. The following are the key principles of TQM:

• Continuous improvement: This involves continually improving products, services, and processes to meet or exceed customer expectations. It involves setting and achieving goals, and measuring progress towards those goals.

• Customer focus: TQM places great emphasis on understanding and meeting customer needs. This means gathering customer feedback, understanding their needs and expectations, and continuously improving products and services to meet those needs.

• Employee involvement: TQM recognizes that employees are critical to achieving quality and involves them in the quality improvement process. This means empowering employees to identify and solve problems, encouraging open communication, and providing the necessary training and resources.

• Process approach: TQM takes a process approach to quality management. This involves identifying and understanding the key processes involved in delivering products and services and continuously improving those processes to achieve better results.

• Data-driven decision-making: TQM emphasizes the importance of using data to make informed decisions. Businesses should be collecting and analyzing data to identify trends, measure progress, and identify opportunities for improvement.

How is TQM Related to Other Process and Quality Improvement Strategies?

Total Quality Management (TQM) is related to other process and quality improvement strategies such as Six Sigma, Kaizen, Lean, and Agile. While each of these strategies may differ in terms of their specific methodologies, they all share a common goal: to improve quality and efficiency in business processes.

TQM integrates Six Sigma’s focus on reducing defects and variability, Kaizen’s emphasis on continuous improvement through small, incremental changes, Lean’s focus on the elimination of waste, and Agile’s emphasis on flexibility and adaptability in project management. 

Harness the Power of Total Quality Management for Your Business

When you follow the key TQM principles, it’s possible to implement an optimized TQM approach that will lead to improved quality, increased efficiency, and better customer satisfaction.

The post Your Guide to Total Quality Management appeared first on 6sigma.

Six Sigma is becoming increasingly popular with each passing day. Organizations around the world are using it to reduce waste and process variation. In doing so, they are giving customers more and consistent value. In turn, this has allowed the organizations that have successfully implemented Six Sigma to increase both customer satisfaction and their bottom line. 

As with anything popular, there are bound to be myths. These are just misunderstandings that appeal to common sense but fall apart when closely examined. When deciding whether Six Sigma is the right methodology for your organization or not, it helps to separate facts from myths. 

Let’s look at six common Six Sigma myths and find out if there is any truth to them.

Myth #1: Six Sigma is a Fad

If you are hearing about Six Sigma for the first time, you might think it is a fad. However, Six Sigma has been around since 1987. It was introduced by Motorola to compete with Lean manufacturing. The methodology, which is a set of process improvement tools and techniques, has proven so successful that it has seen widespread adoption since its conception.

Myth #2: Six Sigma Causes a Lot of Stress

Six Sigma requires a dramatic shift in organizational culture, which many people think is hard to do. They think change can cause unnecessary stress on employees who have become accustomed to working a certain way. While you might face some initial resistance, when communicated clearly and implemented gradually, people will find it easier to adapt to change.

Myth #3: Only Manufacturing Companies Need Six Sigma

When you hear that Six Sigma is the brainchild of Motorola, a manufacturing powerhouse, you might think it has little use outside the assembly line. That can’t be further from the truth. Six Sigma is an industry-agnostic methodology that works on any process with repeatable steps. This can be anything outside manufacturing, from restaurants and hotels to house cleaning and hospitals.

Myth #4: People Will Lose Their Jobs

Six Sigma was designed to improve processes, which can trigger anxiety in people who think they may no longer be needed once it does its job. This is a myth because employees who know how to use Six Sigma become instantly valuable to the organization. Six Sigma professionals are in high demand, and becoming certified is a good way to not only retain your position but move on to bigger and better Six Sigma projects.

Myth #5: Six Sigma and Total Quality Management are the Same

People in business circles also like to conflate Six Sigma with Total Quality Management (TQM). Yes, both Six Sigma and TQM are methodologies that aim to improve the quality of products (as well as services), but there is a difference in which each one is approached. Six Sigma seeks to improve all processes throughout the entire organization, while TQM seeks to improve only a single process within a respective field.

Myth #6: Six Sigma Needs a Lot of Resources

When talking about Six Sigma and its ambitions, it is natural to wonder just how much time and money it will take to make it a success. Unfortunately, Six Sigma does take a lot of time and money to make it successful. This begs the question: why even do it at all? Well, simply because the benefits outweigh the costs. 

Six Sigma organizations consistently deliver quality products. This means customers are perpetually satisfied and eager to do business, which drives up profits considerably. And with an efficient process on hand coupled with extremely low defects per million opportunities (DPMO), the cost of production goes down significantly as well.

Conclusion

Anything that is widely discussed in the business world as Six Sigma is bound to have myths spreading around. You will probably come across the above-mentioned myths in one form or another. If not armed with the right information, they can turn you off to a methodology that can take your organization to the next level.

The post 6 Common Six Sigma Myths – Are They True? appeared first on 6sigma.

4 Myths About Process Improvement

Six Sigma is one of the most popular process improvement methodologies in the world, despite there be a number of them. However, process improvement itself is one term that many people have strong feelings about. Depending on how it is perceived, those feelings can range from good to bad. Ultimately, perceptions are influenced by what one has heard about process improvements.

This brings us to the myths that surround this concept. Many people know that when it is done correctly, optimizing a process to be better than it previously was can reap numerous benefits. Among these benefits is increased customer satisfaction and revenue. But some people are either reluctant to try out process improvement or want to try it for the wrong reasons because they have heard unhelpful myths.

Here are four myths that you will hear when it comes to process improvement and why you shouldn’t believe them.

1. There’s only one way to improve a process

Many industry professionals have one methodology of process improvement that they champion over others. But process improvement transcends such dogma. As mentioned earlier, there are a number of process improvement methodologies out there, including Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM) and Toyota Production System (TPS).

The methodology you ultimately use depends on the process you are trying to improve. While the underlying principles of the methodologies are the same, the inner tools and techniques are different. There’s no one-size-fits-all methodology that you need to follow to make it a success.

2. Process Improvement is only for manufacturing

Since process improvement is popular in manufacturing, many people believe that is the only place where it belongs. Indeed, companies that champion process improvement include the likes of Toyota. But one does not need to have an assembly line if they wish to reap the benefits of process improvements.

In order to ascertain if a process can benefit from process improvement, you need to ask yourself if it creates value. If the answer is in the affirmative, then that process is a great candidate for improvement efforts. And doesn’t matter if you’re in the technology, health or non-profit sector.

3. You need to improve a process once

What happens after the process improvement efforts have become a success? Many organizations usually forget to make continuous improvement part of their organizational culture. This means people don’t know what to do after the process has been optimized. Eventually, the initial benefits are lost and the process can revert back to its former self.

Improvement is an ongoing process, and most methodologies usually stress this in the last step. While doing it once might sound like an attractive selling point, but without continuous improvements, the results won’t stick. Workers will no longer identify defects in processes and fix them to keep things running smoothly. You need to make sure that everyone, from the janitor to upper management, knows that continuous improvement is their responsibility.

4. Process improvement is time-consuming

Another myth that is often repeated about process improvement is that is a very slow process. When it comes to anything in an organization, it requires resources mainly time and money. This means that the longer something drags on, the more resources need to be poured into it. Thinking like this can make one dread undertaking process improvement, making it appear time-consuming and costly.

But saying process improvement is slow in and of itself is false. If an organization shows a strong commitment and drive to process improvement, it can be carried out pretty fast. Many organizations spend time on implementing specific methodologies instead of getting stakeholders on board and building the right team to push the agenda, even after it has succeeded. In the end, process improvement takes longer than it needs to.

If you want something to work for you, you have to know what is real about it and what is false. Unfortunately, even things like process improvement, with its proven track record of success, are not immune to fables. Luckily, with any false thing that is said about methods that produce positive results, the truth can be easy to uncover.

The post 4 Myths About Process Improvement appeared first on 6sigma.

Armand V. Feigenbaum is an American quality specialist who devised the concept of Total Quality Control (TQC). This concept later became the foundation stone of the stream of TQM (Total Quality Management).

Early Life, Work & Contributions

Armand V. Feigenbaum earned his master’s and doctorate degrees from MIT. During his doctoral studies, he started writing his book “Total Quality Control.” From 1958 to 1968, he served as the Director of Manufacturing Operations at General Electric.

In 1968, he founded General Systems Company at Massachusetts, which was mainly operational into the field of defining Business Operating Systems for companies. Dr. Feigenbaum shared his concepts and processes through a number of articles, books, and interviews.

Today, he is one of the most revered personalities in the field of quality and process improvement. His name cannot be missed in any discussion of the concept of total quality. He also served as the president of prestigious societies such as ASQ (American Society for Quality) and IAQ (International Academy for Quality). He passed away at an age of 94.

Approach to Quality and Six Sigma: Process Improvement

Armand V. Feigenbaum is most known for his major contributions in the field of quality and Six Sigma techniques, helping improve processes through his innovative strategies.

1. Total Quality Control: A system where quality development, maintenance, and improvement are effectively integrated to ensure production and service at considerably lower costs. This ultimately leads to higher customer satisfaction, which is so critical for all businesses.

According to Feigenbaum, it is imperative to consider a few elements of quality to enable complete customer focus, i.e. both internally and externally.

• Firstly, quality should be understood from the customer’s perception, not from the organization’s.
• Secondly, quality and cost should not be viewed as different, but the same.
• Thirdly, both individual and team commitment are needed for ensuring quality. Quality should be permanently embedded as a part of process improvement. Innovation and quality are interrelated and mutually benefitting.

2. Hidden Plant: Fiegenbaum stated that almost 15% to 40% of an organization’s capacity is wasted by not getting the things right as they should be. He explained that the cost of quality can be understood under two heads: the cost of getting the things right and the cost of not getting them right.

Even today, most organizations fail to understand that huge wastes on account of this major shortcoming. With what is called this hidden factory, it is a waste to establish big change interventions like restructuring or downsizing.

3. Quality Accountability: Fiegenbaum stressed that quality is a universal concept and cannot be restricted to a department or individual.

Each and every process and functional area is responsible and accountable for ensuring quality control in the organization. Quality in an organization needs to be managed actively and has to be made visible at the higher levels of management.

4. Quality Costs: Fiegenbaum described the concept of quality costs in an article in HBR (Harvard Business Review) in 1956. He stated that it is important to quantify the total cost of quality as a part of process improvement.

He challenged the conventional belief that higher costs are incurred in order to deliver higher quality (in buying better quality machines or materials or hiring expensive labor). He was of the opinion that the classification of quality-related entries in a company’s ledger would enable business managers and quality experts to evaluate decisions based on improvement in costs and the enhancement of profit.

He further identified the areas of cost control (prevention and appraisal costs) and the areas of failure of cost control (internal and external failure costs).

Conclusion

Armand Fiegenbaum will always be remembered for his invaluable contributions to the field of quality control and management. His works on quality costs and the hidden plant have paved the way for business organizations to identify the reasons for cost inefficiency and quality failures.

His principles in the areas of cost control and quality improvement are the guiding light for companies to build in processes with embedded quality systems in order to ensure higher customer satisfaction and value.

The post Armand Vallin Feigenbaum and His Contributions to Process Improvement appeared first on 6sigma.

In its most general sense, process improvement is an analysis of a series of set actions, especially in business, that is aimed at both improving quality and decreasing costs. The theory and practice of process improvement have increasingly been applied in various industries and corporate sectors for over two centuries.

During this period, there have been many prominent process improvement gurus, both in the industry and within the academic sphere, but a few stand out as key names in the movement to achieve efficiency, quality, waste reduction, customer satisfaction and elimination of variance.

Although most of them have passed on, their memory continues to live on in the revolutionary and innovative methods and concepts that are now so pervasive within the business environment today. We look at these individuals, how their work relates to each other and how their ideas continue to contribute to process improvement.

The Pioneers

The quality revolution kicked off in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, with Eli Whitney among the movement’s leaders. Eli came up with the idea of manufacturing using interchangeable parts. He believed that assembly of identical parts to create one finished product sped up the process and allowed for uniform quality of finished products during mass production. This method of assembly also lowered costs, since the interchangeable parts could be put together even by unskilled workers.

As experts began to look closer at different work processes to see where more efficiency and cost savings were to be gained, one of the greatest husband-wife teams in science and engineering history stepped up to the plate. In the early 1900s, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth collaborated to develop the study of motion as a technique for use in both engineering and management. Until his death in 1924, Frank Gilbreth examined the relationship between people and human effort. His observation that people did the same jobs in different ways led him to try and find the most efficient of these ways that would require the least effort.

Development and Improvement of Specialized Manufacturing Processes

If there is one name that encompasses the global view of American business success in the 20^th century, it would have to be Henry Ford. His manufacturing processes were so efficient and effective in reducing waste that even Toyota, the Japanese automotive giant, studied them. Besides encouraging his employees to build better cars, he also drove them to remedy any operational deficiencies that they found.

For instance, he introduced the moving car assembly line in 1913 and ensured that the necessary parts were readily available at each stage to ensure that there was no need for the line to stop or slow down to allow a worker to sift through a pile of parts to find the one that was needed.

With the American manufacturing sector growing quickly in the early 1900s as evidenced by the success of companies like Ford’s, and as products and markets became segmented and complex, organizations needed to develop ever more specialized business functions. As the new functions brought new capabilities and ways to work, it became necessary to find new ways to improve them.

Frederick Winslow Taylor established himself as a major player in the effort to improve engineering processes during this period. Specifically, Taylor focused on the standardization of work, the study of processes, systematic training and the employee-management structure of manufacturing organizations.

Improvement of Quality Assurance and the Birth of Statistical Quality Control

In the 1920s during his time working at Bell Labs, Walter Shewart devised the concept of statistical process control, allowing for improved planning and implementation of mass production processes. During this period, Shewart also developed PDCA Planning (what needs to change); Doing (making and testing the change); Checking (seeing whether the desired outcome has been achieved) and Acting (making changes a permanent part of the manufacturing process).

Yet another pioneer in the field of statistical quality control was Harold F. Dodge. He also worked at the Quality Assurance Department of Bell Labs alongside Harry Romig, where the pair was also responsible for the development of sampling plans. Dodge and Romig designed standardized schemes for use in sampling and published tables which related risks to sample sizes.

Scientific Analysis of Processes and Quality

Process improvement has proven most effective when carried out with data and metrics behind the identification of any areas of waste, poor quality or inefficiency. Eugene Grant became well known for his work in the field of engineering economics after publishing a book on the subject in 1930. He also taught at Montana State University in the 1920s and at Stanford University’s School of Engineering in 1930 on how to improve processes through problem-solving and decision making at the operational level.

Another process improvement guru responsible for important and enduring contributions to statistical quality control and the related sciences was George E.P. Box. However, he initially got into the field of statistics by happenstance rather than design. As a chemistry student carrying out scientific experiments during World War II, he needed the help of a statistician to help him make sense of the varied results he obtained. As there was no statistician available, he worked on his master’s degree in statistics, later taking up a job at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). In addition to research experimentation, he also helped ICI to improve its chemical and mechanical processes.

Putting People First

In contrast to Frederick Winslow Taylor, Peter Drucker decided to take an approach that was much more sympathetic to employees, whom he termed as knowledge workers. This was a stark contrast to Taylor’s highly structured and often inflammatory treatment of the common worker. By focusing on decentralization and simplification, Drucker pioneered the concept that we recognize today as outsourcing.

The key influences on business process improvement in the 1940s and 1950s were W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran, who made enormous contributions to the idea of Total Quality Management (TQM), which places the human aspect at the forefront of quality management. Deming and Juran were also responsible for many of the statistical quality control methods in use for the improvement of manufacturing processes.

Japanese Manufacturing Efficiency Comes to the Fore at Toyota

Much of the process improvement methodologies and tools that have become so popular today were developed in the period between 1950 and 1080, when Japan quickly emerged as the leader in manufacturing efficiency and quality. In 1950, engineer and statistician Genichi Taguchi joined the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation’s Electrical Communications Laboratory (ECL), at a time when the ECL was embroiled in a heated rivalry with America’s Bell Labs for the development of telephone switching systems. Taguchi also consulted widely with Toyota and other top manufacturers in Japan. His ideas on the loss function, experimental design and the reduction of variation have had a huge influence on fields beyond manufacturing and process engineering.

At the end of the Second World War, productivity at Toyota was way lower than the mighty American car industry based out of Detroit. The president of Toyota declared that his company must catch up with the Americans in three years and tasked Taiichi Ohno as part of the team to achieve this vision. He quickly deduced that the only reasons why the company was unable to match Detroit’s motor industry were waste and inefficiency. The strategy and methodologies that he and his team developed from the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s formed the basis of the famous Toyota Production System (TPS).

Another notable name in the practice of process improvement to have had an impact at Toyota during this period was Shigeo Shingo. A leading consultant on the improvement of manufacturing operations, he was greatly influenced by the work of Fredrick Taylor. In 1955, he joined Toyota and quickly developed the SMED system and error proofing. It is said that he managed to cut down the set-up time of a press from four hours to only three minutes. Throughout his life, he traveled around the world giving memorable talks on process improvement and carrying out remarkable projects as a consultant.

Japanese Efficiency Meets Quality Management

Kaoru Ishikawa is widely considered to be the Father of Japanese Quality. He not only invented the cause and effect diagram (Fishbone diagram), but was also responsible for the development of the Company Wide Quality Control (CWQC) method. In order to reduce workplace conflict, he also devised the next operation as the client concept. His belief was that management should not only be satisfied with offering the customer a quality product, but should also offer service to the customer after they had purchased the product.

During the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, Noriaki Kano, a consultant and professor of quality management, set up the foundation for a radically new approach to customer satisfaction. He challenged the belief that to achieve customer satisfaction, it was necessary to improve all attributes of a product or service. Kano instead stated that only certain attributes need to be improved. The Kano model for customer satisfaction puts customer preferences in five quality categories.

America and Europe’s Soul Searching

With Japan’s eminence in manufacturing based largely on its automotive industry, it came as little surprise that the US would try to find out how America’s car makers performed in comparison. James P. Womack and Daniel Jones carried out a study on American car manufacturing efficiency titled The Future of the Automobile. It indicated a 3:1 productivity ratio in favor of the Japanese, in contrast to Taiichi Ohno’s estimate in the 1950s which showed that Detroit’s worker productivity was nine times higher than that of Japan’s car manufacturers’. Womack’s book, The Machine That Changed the World used the study’s findings to conclude that Lean manufacturing in Japan produced higher quality products by using half the resources required by American car makers.

The GPRI model was initially mooted by Richard Beckhard in 1972. An acronym for Goals, Roles, Processes and Interpersonal Relationships, it represents the critical and interrelated aspects required for effective teamwork. The model, which started out in social science but has since been adapted for the change acceleration process (CAP) toolkit for Six Sigma, helps team leaders to ensure efficiency, quality and productivity.

As the 1970s drew to a close, it was apparent that North America and Western Europe were losing out to Japan’s more efficient manufacturers who produced reliable, affordable and high-quality goods at a fraction of the cost. Armand Feigenbaum, a process improvement consultant, estimated that as much as 40% of the capacity of manufacturing plants that do not follow lean principles is wasted.

Finally, a Way Back for the West?

By the time Philip Crosby‘s book Quality Is Free hit the market, the US manufacturing industry was slogging through a recession and struggling with foreign competition. Crosby provided a 14-step blueprint for the improvement of quality, and introduced the manufacturing world to the zero defect concept, which many considered to be a sure recipe for success.

Eliyahu M. Goldratt, an Israeli businessman, took an unorthodox approach to publish his theory of constraints by having it as the central theme of a novel called The Goal. His theory states that the weakest link in a business process a constraint – needs to be identified since it keeps the rest of the process from successfully achieving its goals. When constraints have been identified, they can be fixed or eliminated.

One of the most celebrated methodologies in use by process improvement professionals in the world today is Six Sigma. The name of this framework was coined by an engineer at Motorola known as Bill Smith. In the early 1980s, under the chairmanship of Bob Galvin, engineers at Motorola felt that traditional measures of quality, which measured defects in terms of thousands of opportunities, were not granular enough. They instead measured defects that occurred per million opportunities, created a culture that supported it and gave it the now iconic name. Because of the incredible bottom-line results that Bill Smith’s methodology achieved for Motorola, it has been adopted by tens of thousands of organizations from across the globe.

The post Major Contributors to the Theory and Practice of Process Improvement appeared first on 6sigma.

A key part of Business Process Management (BPM) is the application of process improvement methods. These methods are a representation of an overall approach toward achievement of efficiency and reduction of waste. Although these methods are often erroneously equated to Business Process Management, the truth is that each method only focuses on a particular aspect within the wider scope of BPM.

We examine four of the main process improvement methods that are commonly used in the field of education, and how they are applied within the academic sector.

1. Lean

In many cases, educators will find that they are faced with pressure from both their community and the government to improve the performance of their students despite receiving neither the necessary funding to achieve this aim nor sufficient influence to affect policy. Basically, teachers and school administrators are being forced to do more with less. For this reason, it is hardly surprising when professionals in academic institutions turn to an approach from the business management field that has been effective and successful in other sectors like healthcare and manufacturing.

The Lean methodology is predicated on the concept that excellent results can be achieved in a cost-effective manner by streamlining processes. Lean’s core principle is that each process needs to add value as defined by the process customer. Any step that fails to add value is considered waste and should be eliminated.

In schools, all members of staff in each department and at all levels document their current practices in order to define opportunities for process improvements.

2. Six Sigma

The Six Sigma methodology has made a big impression in the business world, particularly in the service, healthcare and manufacturing sectors. Today, it is helping to drive improvements in the classroom as well. The emphasis is on the setting of high objectives, collection of data, and analysis of the results in order to reduce defects. It key philosophy is that, if defects within a system can be measured, then it becomes easier to find ways to eliminate them and get as close to perfection as possible.

The reason for this method’s success in such an unexpected area is because many activities carried out at academic institutions are repeatable processes, the type of which benefit from the applications of the principles of Six Sigma. Much like Six Sigma itself, the field of education has a tight focus on finding out the voice of the customer in this case, the students and putting improvements in place to ensure the customer’s needs are met.

3. TQM

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a concept that was advanced by W. Edwards Deming at the end of the Second World War as a means of improving the quality of goods and services produced. The TQM concept also applies to academics, with many professionals in the education sector believing that the methodology and its principles can guide educational reform.

The first principle of TQM is the focus on synergy, where the methodology considers everyone involved as both a supplier and customer. At the heart of the TQM concept of synergy is the suggestion that performance and production can be enhanced by combining the talents and experience of individuals within an educational institution.

4. Kaizen

Kaizen is Japanese for change for better.’ Kaizen represents a set of practices, a philosophy or mindset with an emphasis on employee involvement, teamwork, process improvement and elimination of waste. Kaizen could be as simple as an individual identifying an area within their domain that can be improved or a group of people who come together to enable the improvement of a process that affects them.

This philosophy is centered on identifying what’ is wrong instead of who’ is wrong, in order to eliminate waste in the workplace. It works by empowering the employees of an academic institution with tools to uncover improvement opportunities as well as a methodology for each person to make small changes. Its quality control tools Ishikawa diagrams, the PDCA cycle and Pareto also provide a low-cost approach.

Conclusion

The method used to improve service delivery and quality of education at an academic institution will depend on the particular circumstances of the organization. The reason why multiple approaches exist is so that administrators and teaching staff can select the ideal method for their school.

The post 4 Practical Process Improvement Methods for an Academic Institution appeared first on 6sigma.

Understanding the Most Important Elements of Total Quality Management (TQM)

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management philosophy that strives to achieve the best possible results by centering all business activities and processes on customer satisfaction. Proper TQM implementation involves continual improvement and all members of the particular organization, and expected to take part in the process. The main idea behind this approach is that the best way to long-term success is through providing a high quality product or service that meets the needs and requirement of the customer. Thus, everything in TQM is defined through the lens of customer satisfaction.

TQM has 8 core elements that are grouped together in four groups. Let’s use a building metaphor to better explain these elements.

First Group: Foundation

As every building requires a foundation, every business philosophy requires some value to inform its approach to the world and its own organization. TQM institutes three foundational elements to its metaphorical building that foster productive attitudes and atmosphere

1. Ethics

Ethics is the study of right and wrong, and TQM places importance on understanding what is the ethical thing to do, both as an organization and as individuals in the context of the organization. As the organization recognizes the need to operate in a morally good way, it is expected to institute a clear code of conduct.

2. Integrity

While ethics is more concerned with knowing what is right, integrity focuses on acting according to the company values in a honest and open environment. Office drama, rumors or other forms of interpersonal hostility are to be frowned upon.

3. Trust

The successful implementation of TQM requires a relationship of trust among the individuals that are part of the organization. In order for teams to be able to improve and provide a high quality product or service to the customers, they need to work together in an atmosphere of trust. If that requirement is met, problem recognition, problem analysis, problem solution and decision making all become easier.

Second Group: Bricks

As the bricks are the main building block used to create and bear the weight of a house, the bricks in the TQM context rest on the foundation, and support the whole structure.

4. Training

Training is essential for employees to be able to achieve high levels of quality and efficiency. Since TQM is an all-encompassing approach to business management, it requires all participants to receive the needed training from their superiors. This training should cover how to be as valuable to the organization and its customers as possible.

5. Teamwork

Achieving common goals and providing the highest level of customer service requires teams to work efficiently together. Individuals should know how to work together, and the team environment should facilitate open discussions about both problems and solutions. There are 3 types of teams in a TQM organization: the temporarily formed Quality Improvement Teams, Problem Solving Teams, and the more organic and long-lasting Natural Work Group Teams.

6. Leadership

While training and teamwork are essential for making member prepared to be a valuable part of an organization, leadership has a crucial role to play in harnessing that potential. All supervisors and managers should understand the TQM philosophy and methodology, and should be able to implement them while clearly transmitting values, strategies, direction and goals to the teams they are responsible for.

Third Group: Mortar

Even when you have all the elements needed to construct an outstanding building, it is important for those elements to be bound together, and this is the job of the mortar.

7. Communication

The all-encompassing mortar of the TQM building is communication. It starts from the foundation, surrounds the bricks and reaches the roof. The only way to continually improve and reach optimal performance is for information and ideas to flow freely. Communication should be ever-present in the organization, but it should also involve all external entities like customers, partners, suppliers and stakeholders.

Forth Group: Roof

What tops off a building is the roof, which in the case of TQM is its last key element recognition.

8. Recognition

This element involves the positive feedback and encouragement that both achievements and suggestions should result within the organization. All supervisors should look for and detect contributions, and should provide recognition whenever they are made. This boosts both morale and performance. It gives member of the organization motivation to continue to participate productively in the TQM implementation.

What happened to TQM?

TQM popularity has steadily decreased in direct response to the increase in Six Sigma popularity.  This popularity in Six Sigma is a result of a couple key things:

• Stronger alignment and focus on the business results of the organization (targeted improvements in key areas)
• Broadened the training and skill set outside of manufacturing and quality organizations
• Set higher performance levels (3.4 defects per million) beyond acceptance quality levels
• Set training standards (belt system) and requires projects with mentoring and coaching
• Freed up resources to learn and implement improvements, and put them back into the business
• Training and experience expectations for leadership (must be certain level to get promotion)

Although TQM is no longer the key methodology behind improvement programs today, it is important to remember the history and structure of TQM. We don’t want to drift away from the beneficial building blocks it provides, so we don’t forget what made it a successful approach for many years, and make sure we leverage those strengths in our Lean and Six Sigma program.

If you’d like to learn more about Six Sigma, check out the video series >>>

The post Understanding the Most Important Elements of Total Quality Management (TQM) appeared first on 6sigma.