Total Quality Management - CII Institute of Logistics
Total Quality Management - CII Institute of Logistics
Total Quality Management - CII Institute of Logistics
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
<strong>Total</strong> <strong>Quality</strong> <strong>Management</strong><br />
Bird’s Eye View <strong>of</strong> Six Sigma<br />
5.1 Six Sigma<br />
In the last 25 years or more executives have been both exposed to and involved fairly<br />
extensively in the popular programs that include <strong>Quality</strong> Circles, Benchmarking, Zero<br />
Defects, <strong>Total</strong> <strong>Quality</strong> <strong>Management</strong>, Customer Satisfaction, Data Mining, and Business<br />
Process Reengineering. They are meant to provide answers to complex industry<br />
problems. Very <strong>of</strong>ten, in practice, the executives and staff in many enterprises view these<br />
training programs with trepidation, and they are confident that these will fade way as<br />
time passes. It seems the next wave <strong>of</strong> the quality revolution that is currently impacting<br />
us is Six Sigma! Now you won't be able to either do a presentation or conduct a program<br />
without using the term "Six Sigma" somewhere in the middle.<br />
One may wonder if this is yet another business term coined by management pr<strong>of</strong>essionals<br />
and the elite corporate houses. No doubt a good degree <strong>of</strong> hype is associated with Six<br />
Sigma, as is generally encountered with every new management movement. It is in this<br />
context, we have to examine whether Six Sigma is a mere mantra or it is an effective<br />
action plan that can trigger a leapfrog jump in the corporate pr<strong>of</strong>itability.<br />
How Six Sigma is different from the rest? Is it a Breakthrough Strategy that can be<br />
likened to a renaissance in changing the mind set <strong>of</strong> the people in the organization? Is it<br />
entirely a new management tool or old wine in the new bottle? What distinguishes Six<br />
Sigma from the other methodologies <strong>of</strong> quality? In this section, an attempt is made to<br />
provide some kind <strong>of</strong> answers to these issues that are extremely important for any<br />
pr<strong>of</strong>essional who is concerned with improving the bottom line as well as enhancing the<br />
quality image <strong>of</strong> his/her organization.<br />
<strong>CII</strong> <strong>Institute</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Logistics</strong> 91<br />
Website: www.ciilogistics.com