SUMMARY
In the 1990s, Total Quality Management or TQM governed the quality efforts of every organization. While TQM is still being practised in a number of companies, a number of pitfalls have been identified so that they will not be repeated in Six Sigma initiatives.
Listed among the TQM pitfalls are: lack of integration, leadership capacity, a fuzzy concept, unclear goal, purist attitude, failure to break down internal barriers, ineffective training, and focus on product quality.
| TQM Pitfall… | Six Sigma Solutions… |
|---|---|
| 1. Quality is treated as a “sidebar” activity in which middle management are left out and the project is left with unsupervised teams. | 1. Process management, improvement, and measurement are made part of the daily responsibilities of operating managers. |
| 2. Quality is “temporary.” Management felt skeptical, thus render weak support, if not a lukewarm treatment. | 2. Leaders recognize that Six Sigma is synonymous with constant reinvention, and that change is essential to survival. |
| 3. TQM concepts are vague, especially with the introduction of ISO9000 certification or reengineering, which were not integrated to TQM. | 3. Concept is clear, accurate, and fairly specific. By sticking to its definition, an organization cannot go wrong, whichever philosophy it may be espousing. |
| 4. The emphasis of TQM training was on projects—time-bounded, off-line improvement efforts, thus irrelevant to people’s daily responsibilities. | 4. Six Sigma training are highly demanding with large investment in time and money. |
| 5. Efforts focused on product quality. | 5. Efforts focused on customer requirements. |
COMMENTARY
Six Sigma principles are not exactly new. Most of them are actually the same principles applied by total quality management (TQM), which was popular in the 80s and 90s. In turn, TQM principles were also application of quality principles espoused by quality gurus like Deming, Juran, Drucker, etc. These principles fueled Japan’s quality revolution in the 60s. In many ways Six Sigma is a rebirth of these quality ideas, only applied with more vigor, and greater passion and commitment than in the past.
Understanding both TQM and Six Sigma is crucial in the sense that if you are not careful and totally committed, some of the mistakes of TQM might reappear in your Six Sigma endeavors and derail your efforts.
It is significant to note that both systems share the same policy on customer focus, improvement models, statistical tools management by fact, and other quality management principles. The weaknesses lie inside, from leadership commitments to cross-functional barriers, people awareness and empowerment. In sum, though, TQM pitfalls can be described in one word: complacency. Six Sigma addresses precisely this problem.
