How Organizations maintain Six Sigma and TQM in their Operations

Hi all,

How does organizations maintain Six Sigma and TQM in their operations?

Can we achieve 100% customer satisfaction and zero defects with TQM implementation? I know it is impossible. How wise is it to aim for a goal that is not achievable? Where should we draw the line?

Re: Total Quality Management in Organisations.

TQM is process of continuous improvement and its ultimate goal is to achieve 100% customer satisfaction level. But process to implement is as follows:

1.Form a team

2. Assign tasks

3. Brainstorming

4. Select one or more high volume /high risk process(s) to study

6. Use the necessary tools (e.g Fishbone, pareto etc.)

7. Use PDCA cycle

8. Report to sponser

But it is highly unachievable as you mentioned. It depends upon the goal you chose. You have to consider the present situation while you are defining the goal. There should be some basic criteria you should have before you are aiming for a goal. Thats the reason in all the companies two types of goals are being framed for the employees. Long Term and Short Term.

The definition unachievable depends on how rigorous you are setting the goal, what are the constraints & How many exists when you are setting the goal. For example you are the new fresher who joined recently in the company and you would like to become a Project Manager. This goal is feasible until you put a condition that I would achieve this in 2 years. This make your goal unachievable.

In short Your goal should be SMART

Simple

Measurable

Achievable

Reliable

Timebound

So to answer your question Goal cannot be set unachievable. A Goal is always having some target defined and you have to map the goal to a process to achieve in a predefined timeframe. If you do this you can achieve any goal.

Re: Total Quality Management in Organisations.

Thank you so much Gopal. That makes so much sense and is very clear.

Re: Total Quality Management in Organisations.

"Zero defects is a performance standard........The theme of ZD is doing it right the first time." Crosby "Quality is free". As gopalkoya says "zero defects" is unattainable, Zero defects should not be set as a goal but rather the basis for a quality system to prevent poor quality (however you define that).

Re: How do Organizations maintain Six Sigma and TQM?

TQM is more of a cultural mindset of extending Quality and continual improvement throughout the organization. As an example, companies without a TQM culture will not feel quality applies to FInance departments. A TQM company will consider view quality as applying to the finance department.

I would view Six Sigma as a methodology to implement continuous improvement by reducing variation. The best companies are able to make Six Sigma their cultural fabric in everything they do.

Re: How do Organizations maintain Six Sigma and TQM?

The easy answer is "not very well."

The true answer is by making it a system for managing the business. Integrate it with organizational strategy, how progress against business objectives is measured and managed, etc.

Re: How do Organizations maintain Six Sigma and TQM?

Keep in mind that transformational initiatives (6S, TQM, Lean, Baldrige, etc) all require complete long-term dedication from the CEO or it will fail. Unless the CEO completely believes in the transformation and requires it then it will fail. The support needs to be to the point of firing any execs who do not completely support it. Even at GE, 6S saw a dramatic decline after Welch left. I have experiences this many times at fortune 500 companies.