Six Sigma; Development and Utilization as a Part of TQM

Six Sigma; Development and Utilization as a Part of TQM Six Sigma is a tool associated with Total Quality Management (TQM), it is as a part of the TQM movement that Six Sigma needs to be considered in the way it has been developed and utilized. In practical terms TQM is a business stratagem, and as such, in line with any other type of strategy, TQM is only made up of components that may facilitate the creations of a successful organisation or the improvement of performance, alone it is not a transformation device that will automatically result in improvements (Reed et al, 1996). In order to understand what it is we mean by TQM we first need to define it. As we have seen there is no standard definition. However, in a report sponsored by Proctor and Gamble in 1992 of the Total Quality Leadership and Steering Committee and Working Councils there was a definition reached which was also endorsed by the business and academic communities. This definition read " Total Quality (TQ) is a people-focused management system that aims at continual increase of customer satisfaction at continually lower real cost. TQ is a total system approach (not a separate area or program), and an integral part of high-level strategy; it works horizontally across functions and departments, involves all employees, top to bottom, and extends backwards and forwards to include the supply chain and the customer chain. TQ stresses learning and adaptation to continual change as keys to organisational success. (quoted in Becker, 1993). Therefore TQM has an holistic approach and can be seen in the culture and attitudes of a company as much as in the goals and the rhetoric. This has been further divided down into three comp