What is Total quality management?

According to Cambridge, TQM is the involvement of all of a company’s managers and employees in
making sure that its products and services are all of a high standard and exactly as designed.

It is a core definition of 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.

According to sixsigma, to be successful implementing TQM, an organization must concentrate on the 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.

ELEMENTS

1. Ethics – Ethics show the discipline of the person in a two faced situation. It may be neither good nor bad but ethic’s
concern is toward how a person would handle those kinds of circumstances.

2. Integrity – The characteristic of a person is what a customer usually expects to have; honest, has good moral
values, sincere and is adhere to the facts as well as fairness towards others.

3. Trust – Trust is the heart of it all, without trust the basis of the TQM would be meaningless in which they cannot
build. For Trust is the product of integrity and ethical conduct.

4. Training – Training is very important for employees to be highly productive for them to know well on what they do.
Training make employees do better to achieve success.
5. Teamwork - teamwork is also a key element of TQM, for them to be known as successful. No man is an island as
they say for they cannot build a city on their own. They need people that can help build those houses for teamwork is
a key to success.

6. Leadership – It is possibly the most important element in TQM, for there is nothing if there is no leader. The leader
points out what to do and help the team with everything that has to be done. He is a guide his subordinated and
provides an inspiring vision, make strategic directions that are understood by all and to instill values.

7. Communication – Without communication, all of these are meaningless. It shows the bond and strength that the
leader and its subordinates have. It binds everything together. Communication means a common understanding of
ideas between the sender and the receiver

8. Recognition – Employees strive to receive recognition for themselves and their teams. Recognition is the last and
final element in the entire system. It should be provided for both suggestions and achievements for teams as well as
individuals.

The elements make sure of the success of the TQM. It shows how subordinates and its leaders communicates well
with trust and understanding. A missing piece from these, it may cost so many damages already. It order for a
successful TQM, it take all of these foundations in order to build its structure.

ISO 9000

ISO 9000 is a well-established international standard for quality management systems for all kinds of companies in
nearly every industry.

ISO 9000:2000 offers a process model (Figure 1) and these underlying quality management principles:

Principle 1 – Customer focus

Principle 2 – Leadership

Principle 3 – Involvement of people

Principle 4 – Process approach

Principle 5 – System approach to management

Principle 6 – Continual improvement

Principle 7 – Factual approach to decision making

Principle 8 – Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

Use Six Sigma Tools to Meet ISO 9000 Requirements

One of the major differences between both systems is that ISO 9000 is a shell of requirements without any tools,
whereas Six Sigma is a methodology connecting tools and procedures for applying these tools through a “red thread.”

Requirements of ISO 9000:2000 are, for example:

Define quality management information needs

Collect quality management system data

Provide quality management information

Improve quality management system

Tools provided by Six Sigma to meet these requirements are, for example:

Dashboards as a set of key performance indicators to monitor all processes at a reasonable degree for all relevant
managerial levels.

Operational definitions to describe exactly how, when, where, with which tools, by whom, how often and how much
data should be collected. Additionally, Six Sigma provides tools to address such questions as sample size and
precision as well as capability, repeatability and reproducibility of data collection.

Data displays to help draw business-relevant conclusions and tests to justify the significance of conclusions drawn
from data collected.

DMAIC: Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control as a methodology for process improvement at a project level,

which is – after necessary customization – applicable to all kinds of processes.

Use the ISO 9000 Framework to Assess a Six Sigma System

Looking at the new ISO 9000:2000 requirements and comparing these requirements with the self-developed Six
Sigma gap-analysis shows the possibility of connecting both approaches and systems with each other. Six Sigma
does not come with the assessment tool per se. This tool needs to be added after a certain time frame in order to
keep the ball rolling and in order to help Six Sigma get into the company’s bloodstream. ISO 9000 is designed to
assess companies based on both external and internal requirements and to help close the gaps on a mid-term and
long-term basis. By adding typical Six Sigma requirements to the ISO 9000:2000 internal audit questionnaires, a
company can make Six Sigma part of its quality management system and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of
the Six Sigma initiative significantly.
A side effect is that both approaches get aligned and do not compete for resources any longer. Since the goals of the
two approaches are the same, there is a greater likelihood of an increase in bottom-line and top-line results on a
long-term basis to increase customer satisfaction and employee commitment.

REFERENCES:

https://www.isixsigma.com/community/awards-and-standards/using-power-iso-9000-and-six-sigma-together/

http://www.sixsigmaonline.org/six-sigma-training-certification-information/six-sigma-vs-total-quality-management/

https://www.isixsigma.com/methodology/total-quality-management-tqm/eight-elements-tqm/