As We Discovered in Our Last Class Assignment There Is a Need for a Methodology to Support

As We Discovered in Our Last Class Assignment There Is a Need for a Methodology to Support

PDCA Methodologies /

As we discovered in our last class assignment there is a need for a methodology to support the PDCA approach.

There have been a number of approaches such as Total Quality Management, Business Process Reengineering, and Six Sigma.

  • TQM
  • Def: TQM is a management philosophy that seeks to integrate all organizational functions (marketing, finance, design, engineering, and production, customer service, etc.) to focus on meeting customer needs and organizational objectives.
  • TQM views an organization as a collection of processes.
  • It maintains that organizations must strive to continuously improve these processes by incorporating the knowledge and experiences of workers.
  • The simple objective of TQM is “Do the right things, right the first time, every time.”
  • TQM is infinitely variable and adaptable.
  • Although originally applied to manufacturing operations, and for a number of years only used in that area,
  • TQM is now becoming recognized as a generic management tool, just as applicable in service and public sector organizations.
  • There are a number of evolutionary strands, with different sectors creating their own versions from the common ancestor.
  • Quality is the responsibility of all members of the team, not just manufacturing or quality control.
  • Recognition that quality is multifaceted and not just on the characteristics of the product/service, but the entire experience.
  • TQM is the foundation for activities, which include:
  • Commitment by senior management and all employees
  • Meeting customer requirements
  • Reducing development cycle times
  • Just in time/demand flow manufacturing
  • Improvement teams
  • Reducing product and service costs
  • Systems to facilitate improvement
  • Line management ownership
  • Employee involvement and empowerment
  • Recognition and celebration
  • Challenging quantified goals and benchmarking
  • Focus on processes / improvement plans
  • Specific incorporation in strategic planning
  • Central theme is that people make mistakes but those mistakes are caused by faulty systems and processes
  • So the solution is change a process
  • Focus on prevention:
  • Mistake proofing
  • Early Detection of errors
  • Ability to stop production until fault is resolved
  • Implementation
  • First assess preconditions and the current state of the organization to make sure the need for change is clear and that TQM is an appropriate strategy.
  • Develop Leadership styles and organizational culture which are congruent with TQM.
  • If they are not, this should be worked on or TQM implementation should be avoided or delayed until favorable conditions exist.
  • BPR
  • Def: Business process reengineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign of workflows within and between enterprises in order to optimize end-to-end processes and automate non-value-added tasks.
  • Introduced by Michael Hammer’s 1990 HBR article
  • Hammer and James wrote Reengineering the Corporation
  • Noted that it was sometimes necessary to wipe the slate clean and start over to lower costs and increase quality of service.
  • Justification for all processes, metrics and activities
  • Initial assumptions no longer valid in regards to changing environment, technology and people.
  • Principles

1. Organize around outcomes, not tasks.
2. Identify all the processes in an organization and prioritize them in order of redesign urgency.
3. Integrate information processing work into the real work that produces the information.
4. Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized.
5. Link parallel activities in the workflow instead of just integrating their results.
6. Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control into the process.
7. Capture information once and at the source.

  • Originally focused on process workflows; has changed to include customer first philosophy
  • Combining with Six Sigma:
  • Currently not used as stated above but more in terms of BPM (Business Process Management) is an approach where the mfg process, CRM, ERP and other business processes found within the supply chain are reviewed as a whole to move towards customer satisfaction.
  1. Design – The design phase involves understanding the current process along with its customer(s), information and technology requirements, and designing an improved process that will reduce existing problems and prevent future ones. Design of the solution must be based on effective analysis and definition of clear and concise requirements. The importance of having well defined requirements cannot be over emphasized. Design includes building the rules, user interfaces and links to other systems.
  2. Model – Designs are often complicated; the best way to evaluate and understand them is to model and test them via simulation. The model stage involves performing what-if and scenario analyses by examining various combinations of factors to determine how they affect the end result.
  3. Execute – Execute is focused on deployment of a solution into the live production environment.
  4. Monitor – Processes, once executed, need to be monitored. Monitoring involves determining what to monitor and measuring key process flows and events using different measures ranging from time, cost, and delay to assess their performance.
  5. Optimize – Using performance monitoring data, the business can identify additional problems in the process. The focus of optimization is to continuously improve the process and initiate changes to redesign the process to generate further efficiencies.
  • Six Sigma
  • “Six Sigma is a quality program that, when all is said and done, improves your customer’s experience, lowers your costs, and builds better leaders. — Jack Welch
  • Def. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving toward six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process – from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service.
  • Striving towards near perfection
  • In statistical terms a 6 sigma means that the process will produce or deliver a product/service reliably at a 99.99966% or 3.4 failures per million operations.
  • The six sigma methodology is based on process referred to as DMAIC; used for incremental changes.
  • Define
  • Measure
  • Analyze
  • Improve
  • Control
  • A second six sigma methodology is DMADV; this is used primarily for new product processes or major changes.
  • Define
  • Measure
  • Analyze
  • Design
  • Verify
  • The DMADV has a focus similar to BPR.
  • Text mentions DMEDI; same thing
  • The specific ways of implementing six sigma can vary by the company or the consultant.

Comparisons

TQM vs Six Sigma

  • TQM focuses on conformance to internal requirements; Six sigma focuses on reducing the number of defects
  • These maybe the same result but not necessarily
  • The assumption is that the internal requirements are consistent with those of the customer
  • By focusing on defects as defined by the customer then any change will increase value.
  • These defects increase revenue or decrease costs by removing non value added actions.
  • By focusing on internal requirements the actions may exasperate a problem by moving further from customer changing demands
  • Six sigma focus is on statistical tools to understand the root cause; TQM relies upon part-time participant’s suggestions.
  • Six sigma is has a higher degree of organizational structure and training
  • TQM does not require a follow-up component

Six Sigma videos

6 sigma in plain talk

Jack Welch (2.5 min)

Manufacturing Example (20.47 min)

Articles

Similarities and differences between TQM, Six Sigma and lean.

Combining BPM to Lean six sigma

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Week 2Class 1