Manufacturers Cope By Going Into Lean, Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 9 October 2008 | 7:40 pm
Over at ThomasNet, a recent survey gives us an idea of how manufacturers cope during this economic downturn. As Philippine Senator Mar Roxas said, this is a major tsunami.
Well, on my way to work today, I heard on the radio that because of the economic turbulence in the U.S., about 400,000 workers in the Philippines might be affected. These workers work for the contact centers.
In the manufacturing side, I asked Wizheart about its implication. And he said that manufacturing companies, or any other company for that matter, live and breathe on credit. With financial institutions going bankrupt affecting local stocks, local banks would have stricter guidelines on credit or credit lines, or they might not grant loans to companies. Companies wouldn’t have the means to buy the raw materials. For manufacturing companies that are exporting to the U.S., such as semicon, they would find themselves without market.
Going back to that survey on ThomasNet, manufacturing companies are:
responding to the economic downturn by looking to streamline business, manufacturing and supply chain operations.
To handle the downward spiraling economy and to increase business efficiency, 63 percent of respondents have already adopted, or are examining, lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM) and other methodologies for improving supply chain management.
Filed under: Finance, Lean Manufacturing, Economy, Six Sigma, TQM
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Australian Companies Looking to Go Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 21 September 2008 | 8:18 pm
At this time of global economic crisis, many business any where in the world have to find ways to stay afloat. Many have embarked on performance and quality improvement methodologies and principles.
Lately, there has been an increasing demand for senior level executives who have functional specialization and experiences in in Lean manufacturing principles including Six Sigma, TQM, 5S, Kaizen, Kanban, and Quality Circles. It is hoped however that implementing these Lean principles will pervade entire organizations and be their culture. Read more…
It’s good to know that companies are now acknowledging these improvement methodologies to protect and grow their business.
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Deployment, Lean Manufacturing, Lean, Six Sigma, TQM
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Six Sigma-based Lean Office and Service Training
Posted by: meikah | 14 September 2008 | 8:34 pm
Productivity Australia is offering a Lean Office and Service Training package for offices. The training will improve and enhance office operations and productivity.
The programme is based on the proven principles and practices of Lean Manufacturing and incorporates TQM, Six Sigma and other practice principles. The participants are provided with the opportunity to contextualise these lessons to their own individual circumstance and achieve real and sustained workplace improvements.
Filed under: Training, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, TQM
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Six Sigma and TQM
Posted by: meikah | 21 November 2007 | 11:41 pm
Long before Six Sigma, there was Total Quality Management or TQM that was the panacea for ailing companies.
The TQM approach started in the 1950’s and became popular in the 1980’s. TQM is a philosophy that makes quality the driving force behind leadership, design, planning, and improvement initiatives. This philosophy is governed by eight elements: ethics, integrity, trust, training, teamwork, leadership, recognition, communication. Read more…
Six Sigma on the other hand, is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving towards six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process — from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service. Read more…
How do they differ then?
BusinessKnowledgeSource.com puts the two side by side and highlights the following differences:
- TQM helps improve quality but it often reaches a stage where no further quality improvements can be made. Six sigma focuses on taking quality improvement processes to the next level.
- TQM views quality as conformance to internal requirements. Six Sigma focuses on improving quality by reducing the number of defects.
- Six Sigma helps numerous organizations because it reduces the operational costs by focusing on reducing the number of defects that are produced, reducing the cycle time, and cost savings.
- Six Sigma focuses on cost cutting measures that can reduce the value and quality and getting rid of costs that have no value to the customer.
- TQM focuses on improving individual operations within unrelated business processes, which means it has a broad view compared to Six Sigma’s narrow view, which focuses on improving all operations in a single business process.
What’s your take on this?
Source:
A Comparison of TQM Versus Six Sigma
