Total Quality Management (TQM) aims to meet customer expectations through continuous improvement. The five principles of TQM are to produce quality work the first time, focus on the customer, have a strategic improvement approach, improve continuously, and encourage teamwork. Six Sigma is a data-driven approach to reducing process variation and defects using DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control). Case studies show how TQM and Six Sigma helped healthcare provider AtlantiCare improve patient satisfaction and double revenues, and helped appliance maker LG Electronics and pharmaceutical company Catalent Pharma Solutions reduce defects and process inefficiencies.
3. Five Principles / Goals ofTQM :
In order to exceed customer expectations, an
organization must embrace five principles:
Produce quality work the first time
Focus on the customer
Have a strategic approach to improvement
Improve continuously
Encourage mutual respect and teamwork
Tools & Techniques of TQM :
e.g. Fun Time Travel, an online travel booking website
1) Producing quality work (the first time) : The purchasing department at Fun Time
Travel evaluates data on client purchases to determine which packages are most
popular with clients. This helps them to determine what stays and what goes. The
information technology technicians monitor the website continually to assess
whether clients are just browsing or actually making purchases. The IT guys also
evaluate how long a booking takes to determine whether changes need to be made
to the check-out process.
2) Focusing on the customer : The marketing department is responsible to get the
cyber-word out to potential clients. Marketers use a wide variety of media sources,
like social networking, email and even texting, to get the word out about Fun Time's
website. If they notice traffic is not moving toward the website or that clients are not
staying online long enough, they will make strong suggestions to the IT department
and the research and development department to make changes immediately.
3) Having a strategic approach to improvement :The purchasing department monitors
client reviews to determine whether the ratings on the website are similar to those
of actual past customers. This makes it possible for purchasing to add more travel
packages to the company's inventory.
4) Improving continuously :The human resources department is interested in making
sure employees are qualified to perform their jobs. By having qualified and trained
employees on the team, the website will run effectively. Calls to the travel desk will
be handled efficiently. Any interruption to the booking process will be quickly fixed,
and improvements will be made.
5) Encouraging mutual respect and teamwork :The entire team at Fun Time Travel work
together to make viewing, planning and booking a vacation on their website a
pleasurable and easy experience. This requires an inter-departmental approach to
TQM.
4. e.g. AtlantiCare
New Jersey-based healthcare provider AtlantiCare. Managing 5,000 employees at 25 locations, AtlantiCare is a serious business that’s boasted a
respectable turnaround for nearly two decades. Yet in order to increase that margin further still, managers wanted to implement improvements
across the board. Because patient satisfaction is the single-most important aspect of the healthcare industry, engaging in a renewed campaign of
TQM proved a natural fit.
The firm chose to adopt a ‘plan-do-check-act’ cycle, revealing gaps in staff communication – which subsequently meant longer patient waiting times
and more complaints. To tackle this, managers explored a sideways method of internal communications. Instead of information trickling down from
top-to-bottom, all of the company’s employees were given freedom to provide vital feedback at each and every level.
AtlantiCare decided to ensure all new employees understood this quality culture from the onset. At orientation, staff now receive a crash course in
the company’s performance excellence framework – a management system that organizes the firm’s processes into five key areas: quality, customer
service, people and workplace, growth and financial performance. As employees rise through the ranks, this emphasis on improvement follows, so
managers can operate within the company’s tight-loose-tight process management style.
After creating benchmark goals for employees to achieve at all levels – including better engagement at the point of delivery, increasing clinical
communication and identifying and prioritizing service opportunities – AtlantiCare was able to thrive.
The number of repeat customers at the firm tripled, and its market share hit a six-year high. Profits unsurprisingly followed.
The firm’s revenues shot up from $280m to $650m after implementing the quality improvement strategies, and the number of patients being
serviced dwarfed state numbers.
5. Six sigma is the continuous process improvement tool to reduce variation
and values statistical tools to solve process problems.
Made famous at Motorola and General Electric, organizations that
practice six sigma assume that the quality of the product or service
produced is improved when variation is reduced throughout the process.
The emphasis is on reducing the opportunity for defects to occur in the
first place.
Engineers and scientist find great comfort in this continuous process
improvement methodology.
Six Sigma is a series of steps: 1) define 2) measure, 3) analyze, 4) improve,
and 5) control, often written as DMAIC.
What is SIX Sigma :
Organizations that follow the DMAIC process firstly define
performance gaps that impact the ability of a process to meet
the customer’s definition of value.
Secondly team members measure the process characteristics.
Are products and services meeting the needs of the customer in
terms of quality, time, quantity, and cost? Practitioners of six
sigma always ask, “What does the data say?”
Third, the data collected in the measure step is analyzed and
presented through descriptive statistics. The goal of this step is
to identify root causes of the performance gap.
The fourth step is to develop solutions to mitigate the root
causes of the performance gaps and thereby improve the
process. The improvement team assesses the value of each step
in the process; some steps are eliminated, others are modified;
countermeasures such as removing non-value-added steps or
constraints, error proofing, or new standard work are put in
place.
Once the improvements are finally in place, the process is
monitored through performance metrics. If the numbers indicate
the process is now performing as required and it is under control,
the new process is put into effect, allowed to stabilize and
monitored. If the problem resurfaces, the DMAIC steps are
repeated.
DMAIC approach to Process Improvement :
6. E.g. Six sigma in Digital Appliance Company of LG Electronics :
The Digital Appliance company of LG Electronics is another company
which received the first national Six Sigma quality prize in 2000. LGE was
founded in 1958 under the name of Gold star, and later became LGE in
1995.
LGE consists of three companies: Digital Appliance, Digital Media, and
Digital Multimedia. LGE-DA received the first national Six Sigma quality
award. The major products of LGE-DA are air conditioners, washing
machines, vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, air compressors,
refrigerators and motors.
As of 2000, the company had 4,800 employees with total sales of $2.5
billion. LGE now has 30 different overseas subsidiaries in China, Turkey,
England, Mexico, Hungary, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and other countries.
In early 1990s, for business reasons the company concentrated on
cooperation of capital and labor, since there were numerous labor strikes
in the late 1980s.
After they overcame the labor problems, the price reduction movement
became the major business issue for competitiveness in the international
market.
LGE-DA adopted the Six Sigma concept from 1996. From 2000, Six Sigma
and e-business strategies became the major innovation activities for this
company. As far as quality management is concerned, the AQL(Average
Quality level) was approximately at the 3σ level until 1991.
Owing to the 100PPM movement since 1992, the company became
successful in enhancing its quality level to 4σ. In 1996 it adopted Six Sigma,
challenging itself to achieving the goal of 6σ quality level in a few years.
7. E.g. Catalent Pharma Solutions :
Catalent Pharma Solutions, is a leader in developing solutions
for the pharmaceutical, veterinary, biological and consumer
health industries.
The company was faced with high numbers of defects after
producing millions of units. The process flow was slow because
of the time required to analyze the samples.
Six Sigma processes were applied to address these issues.
The company specifically required a solution for their
proprietary product known as Zydis.
The company needed new systems that would help to predict
the process variation. The improvements are also supposed to
help operators understand statistical analyses, Zydis tablets.
The project team devised a database to collect information.
Control charts were also completed and entered automatically.
The programming language used for automation was flexible
and easy to replicate.
The efficiency was improved by making these changes. After
two weeks of implementing Six Sigma processes, the company
prevented the loss of two batches of product, which was worth
50,000 pounds. (5101500.00 Indian Rupee) Which is ”Five
million one hundred one thousand Five hundred“
This case study demonstrates how companies can improve
processes to meet Six Sigma standards, prevent loses and save
money. Companies that save money can reallocate the funds
towards research and design or improvement of other
processes.
Hamm, R. E. (2016). Chapter 2 – Continuous Process Improvement In Continuous process improvement in organizations large and small: A guide for leaders (First ed.). New York [New York] (222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017): Momentum Press.
https://www.6sigma.us/six-sigma-articles/infographic-5-benefits-of-six-sigma-implementation/