Quality Management Approaches Six Sigma

¶ … Quality Management Approaches

Six Sigma Quality Management

The Six Sigma Quality Management approach is based on two core concepts: (1) that business processes can (and should) be broken down into their component parts and standardized or optimized for maximum productivity, and (2) that the most effective method of instituting major changes in operational management in that regard is one that emphasizes the specific levels of expertise of team leaders who promote and facilitate those changes (George & Jones, 2008). More specifically, the most common form of the Six Sigma program is known as DMAICT, an acronym for Defining Opportunity, Measuring Performance, Analyzing Opportunity, Improving Performance, Controlling Performance, and Transferring Best Practice throughout the entire organization (George & Jones, 2008). To implement Six Sigma management, the system relies on team leaders who are certified as "belt" of various colors along the same lines as in the martial arts.

The principal advantages of using Six Sigma management is that it is well suited to organizations and processes that are conducive to standardization and in industries and applications where creativity and creative change is not highly valued. The Six Sigma system is not as beneficial within organizations whose processes are highly complex and whose rigid standardization could conceivably reduce rather than increase optimum productivity (Robbins & Judge, 2009).

Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach to business and operational management that is much broader than Six Sigma, in that it incorporates all stakeholders and processes rather than just the quantifiable elements of operational processes in relation to output and efficiency (Robbins & Judge, 2009). Whereas the Six Sigma approach focuses almost exclusively on operational management and processes, TQM seeks to optimize all aspects of business management, workforce relations and issues, partnership relationships, suppliers, vendors, and customers as well. It is a comprehensive approach that certainly includes the optimization of operational processes emphasized in the Six Sigma framework, but operational processes represent only one small component part of the much broader focus of TQM. If there is a disadvantage to TQM, it would be in connection with the types of businesses or industries in which the standardization and optimization of operational processes is extremely important. In principle, those types of organizations and operations would benefit from the Six Sigma approach whereas industries and organizations in which operational processes are merely one component of a much broader set of variables would likely benefit more from the TQM approach (Robbins & Judge, 2009).