TQM (Total Quality Management) | Benefits and 8 Principles of TQM

Total Quality Management (TQM)

• TQM is a continuous improvement process  which involves all the employees from top to bottom in improving quality of products and services to increase customer satisfaction and meet regulatory standards. 

• TQM is a systematic approach to manage organizational quality. 

• It concentrates on the quality of products and services delivering to the customer. 

• Quality is generally referred to a parameter which decides the inferiority and superiority of a product or service and it can be measured in terms of durability, reliability, usage and so on. 

• TQM was developed jointly by WILLIAM EDWARDS DEMING, Armand V. Feigenbaum and Joseph M. Juran. 

8 Principles of TQM

(1)- Customer Focus: Focus on the customer's requirements as they only determine the quality of your products. If it fulfils all the requirements than expected then only they will buy your products next time. 

(2)- Employee Involvement: Motivating and empowering all the employees to achieve their goals in an organization. 

(3)- Process Approach: A product or services reaches the customer after passing through different processes. It means it is monitored and assessed at each production level. So proper steps must be taken at right time to ensure consistency and speed up production. 

(4)- Integrated System: A company has 2 types of integration system, horizontal and vertical. However, TQM focuses on horizontal integration. In an integrated system, everybody in every department should have a thorough understanding of policies, standards, objectives, and processes. Integrated systems help the company to look for continual improvement in order to achieve an edge over the competition.

(5)- Strategic and Systematic Flow: Quality of products and services can be achieved by strategic and systematic planning. 

(6)- Continual Improvement: By continuous effort in improving quality can give high quality of products and services. 

(7)- Fact Based Decision Making: In order to know how well an organization is performing, performance data are necessary. Continuously collect and analyze the data to improve the decision making accuracy. 

(8)- Communications: As communication plays a vital role in any organization, so every employees need to be aware of plans, strategies and methods that will be used to achieve TQM. 

Benefits of TQM

• Enhanced quality in business organizations. 
• Improving productivity of an organization. 
• It reduces total quality costs and increases profitability. 
• It works on zero defects. 
• It improves organizational culture.
• It increases customer satisfaction by meeting their expectations. 
• Continuously improving quality of products and services. 
• It brings changes in the attitude of employees as they feel more responsible for delivering high quality of products and services. 

SIX SIGMA (6σ) | Calculation of Six Sigma and Sigma Level | DMAIC and DMADV

 SIX SIGMA (6σ)

• Six sigma is a methodology for improving business processes by identifying and eliminating the defects and reducing the variations in processes. 

• The business processes can be related to design, manufacturing or administrative functions. 

• The failure of business process or product is considered as defects.

• Six sigma is achieved only when a process produces 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO) i.e. only 3.4 defects are allowed in 1000000 (ten lakhs) products, sales, services or opportunities in any business processes. 

• The sign of sigma is denoted as "σ" used in statistics to represent the standard deviation. 

• Six sigma was first introduced at Motorola Company by Engineer Bill Smith in 1986 in America.

• It is a continuous improvement process which enables the organization to provide better products and services to customers.

• Customer satisfaction and business processes improvement are the main objectives of Six Sigma.

• DMAIC and DMADV are the main methodologies of Six Sigma.

• As sigma level increases from 1 to 6, defect level decreases as shown in below Sigma Performance Table. 

• The term Six Sigma is based on a Statistical Concept in which defective items can be minimized by maintaining 6 standard deviations (6σ) between the process mean and its upper & lower specifications limit as shown in below graph.

Calculation of Six Sigma

As we know, to achieve six sigma the number of defects must be 3.4 in 1 million opportunities. 

So, 1 Million Opportunities = 1000000

Defect Per Million Opportunities (DPMO) = 3.4

Therefore, Yield = 1 Million Opportunities − DPMO = 1000000 − 3.4 = 999996.6

Yield%  = (Yield ÷ 1 Million Opportunities) × 100%

              = (999996.6 ÷ 1000000) × 100%

              = 99.99966% (Defect Free) 

Defect% = 100% − 99.99966%

                = 0.00034%

Theoretically six sigma works on zero defect. 

Calculation of Sigma Level

Example: A manufacturing industry produces 12000 parts out of which 80 found defective. There were 3 opportunities to get the product defective. Calculate sigma level of the industry? 

Solution: 

Given

No. of Unit Produced = 12000

No. of Defects = 80

No. of Defect Opportunities = 3

As we know,

DPMO = 2222.22

Yield (Defect Free) = 1000000 − 2222.22 = 997777.78

Yield% = (997777.78 ÷ 1000000) × 100% = 99.7777%

Now using Sigma Performance Table, we see value of DPMO and Yield% lies between 4 and 5 sigma level. Hence this industry is working between 4 and 5 Sigma. 

DMAIC

This methodology is used for improving the existing business processes like existing design, product or service. It has 5 phases:-

(1)- Define: Define the problem or issue and process that needs improvement like project, product or service.

(2)- Measure: Measure and collect the data from existing process.

(3)- Analyze: Analyze the data to find the root cause of problem.

(4)- Improve: Improve the whole process by eliminating the problem.

(5)- Control: Control the process in order to keep the improvement for long lasting.

DMADV

This methodology is used for creating a new design, product, or service. It has 5 phases:-

(1)- Define: Define the process and set the goals to meet the customer's requirement.

(2)- Measure: Measure all the data including critical components of process and product capabilities.

(3)- Analyze: Analyze the data and develop various designs of a process and select the best one.

(4)- Design: Design and test the product, service or process.

(5)- Verify: Verify that the process designed meets the customer's requirement and make sure the designed product, service or process performs well under actual conditions.

JIT (JUST IN TIME) INVENTORY MANAGEMENT CONCEPT | ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF JIT

 JIT (JUST IN TIME)

• JIT is an inventory management concept which refers to the elimination of manufacturing wastes by receiving the right quantity of raw materials, producing and supplying the right quantity of products at right time.

• It is a Japanese philosophy based on the principles that manufacturer should receive the raw materials only when they are needed for production, produce the products what are demanded exactly and supply the finished products instantly so as to avoid the inventory stock. 

• This concept was originally developed in japan during 1970's by TAIICHI OHNO (father of JIT). 

• It is also known as Toyota Production System (TPS) because it was first adopted by car manufacturer i.e. Toyota Motors. 

• Just like zero defects, zero inventory is also impossible but theoretically it is considered as zero due to negligible amount. 

Advantages of JIT

• It eliminates the waste in terms of inventory, transportation, overproduction, defects etc. 

• It reduces inventory costs because manufacturer purchase the raw materials enough as needed for production and do not have to pay storage costs.

• It reduces the production cost by eliminating defects, scraps and inventory. 

• It fulfils the customer's demand exactly. 

• It improves the product quality. 

• It improves the productivity. 

Disadvantages of JIT

• Manufacturer may not be able to supply the extra products if there is sudden increase in demand because all products are made to meet the actual demand of customer. 

• Production schedule may be delayed if raw materials are not received on time because there are no extra inventory stock. 

• Manufacturers have zero margin to make errors. 

TPM (TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE) | 8 PILLARS OF TPM

 TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE (TPM)

• It is a Japanese Concept which involves all the employees from top to bottom in maintaining and improving the machines and equipment of a particular organization.

• Its main aim is to keep the machines always working at their best.

• It improves the performance of machines and reduces operating cost to an organization.

• It increases Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) i.e. minimum 90% OEE by reducing Downtime, Performance Losses and Quality losses.

• It was developed by SEIICHI NAKAJIMA during 1950's in Japan.

• It minimizes the machines failure and breakdown.

• It helps the teams and departments to exchange their knowledge, skills and experiences.

• It is the most useful Lean Manufacturing Tool in improving the productivity of an organization.

8 PILLARS OF TPM

All Eight Pillars of TPM are mainly focused on preventive techniques for improving machine reliability as stated below:-

Autonomous Maintenance

In this pillar, daily routine maintenance activity such as cleaning of machines, lubrication of all moving parts, tightening of nut & screw and inspection of machine parts are performed by machine operator.

Planned Maintenance

A preventive or schedule maintenance activity which is performed before breakdown occurs in order to avoid unexpected failure of machines in future.

Quality Maintenance

Specifically focused on quality issues and removes source of quality defects by applying root cause analysis.

Focused Improvement

A small group are formed from various departments to identify the cause of machine failure and work together to achieve continuous improvements in machine operation.

Early Equipment Management

Improving the design of new equipment based on knowledge and understanding gained through TPM program.

Education and Training

Educate and train all the employees from time to time about new equipment and basic knowledge of maintenance to achieve TPM goals. 

Administrative and Office TPM

Apply TPM concept to administrative and office functions to remove wasteful activities and supports the plant TPM by improving administrative activities like order processing, procurement of materials, tools & equipment and production scheduling.

Safety, Health and Environmental Conditions

It also aims at zero work accidents, zero pollution and zero burnout which can be achieved by proper maintenance of machines.

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) | Calculation of OEE with Example

 OVERALL EQUIPMENT EFFECTIVENESS (OEE)

• It is a measure of how well a machine is performing as compared to its capacity during scheduled runs.

• It is a measure of how well a manufacturing operation is running.

• It measures the effectiveness of manufacturing operation in order to improve the process and increase productivity.

• It is the calculation made by SEIICHI NAKAJIMA in 1960's in Japan.

• It helps to identify a problem and losses in manufacturing operations.

• It is the best practice to improve the performance of machines and manufacturing operations.

• It is measured in percentage (%).

• It focuses on continuous improvement process.

• It is expressed as OEE = A×P×Q , where A → AVAILABILITY, P → PERFORMANCE and Q → QUALITY.

• If OEE > 85% means the equipment is performing on a WORLD CLASS LEVEL.

CALCULATION OF OEE WITH EXAMPLE

As OEE = AVAILABILITY × PERFORMANCE × QUALITY 

AVAILABILITY = (Available Time − Downtime) ÷ Available Time 

where Available Time = Total Time − Planned Downtime

Planned Downtime = Time Lost in Lunch Breaks, Meetings and any other Regular Scheduled Breaks. 

Downtime = Time Lost in Breakdowns, Repairs, Changeover, Adjustments, Setup etc.

PERFORMANCE = (Running Time − Performance Loss) ÷ Running or Operating Time

OR 

PERFORMANCE = (Standard Cycle Time × Quantity of Product Produced) ÷ Running or Operating Time

where Performance Loss = Time Lost Due to Reduced Speed, Long Cycle Time, Minor Stoppage.

Running Time = Total Time − (Planned Downtime + Downtime)

QUALITY = (Productive Time − Quality Loss Time) ÷ Productive Time 

OR

QUALITY = (Total Quantity Produced − Defective Quantity) ÷ Total Quantity Produced

where Quality Loss Time = Time Lost Due to Quality Issues.

Productive Time = Total Time − (Planned Downtime + Downtime + Performance Loss)

14 Ways to Boost PRODUCTIVTY in an Organization

 How to Increase Productivity in an Organization

• By minimizing the wastage of materials.

• By minimizing or reducing the breakdown of machines.

• By proper inventory control.

• By efficient utilization of all the resources like men, machines and materials.

• By proper design of components.

• By reducing the downtimes.

• By using Lean Manufacturing Tools like Kaizen, 5S Methodology, 6 Sigma, PDCA Cycle, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Just In Time (JIT), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM).

• By application of Work Study, Method Study, Time Study and Motion Study.

• By eliminating the 8 Wastes of Lean.

• By educating & motivating the employees through proper training sessions from time to time.  

• By satisfying all the employees/workers.

• By setting up the daily/weekly/monthly production target.

• By proper effective communication between employer and employees.

• By increasing the work time through day and night shifts.

5S Implementation in WORKPLACES | Concept and Tips

 5S Methodology

• 5S is a Japanese concept which was first practiced in "TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM" by "HIROYUKI HIRANO". 

• 5S system is a Lean Manufacturing Tool that improves "workplace efficiency" and eliminates waste in an organization.

• 5S is a systematic approach of organizing and maintaining the workplaces. 

• The term 5S comes from 5 Japanese words i.e. :

1. SEIRI     
2. SEITON
3. SEISO
4. SEIKETSU
5. SHITSUKE

• In English these Japanese words are translated as:

1. SORT 
2. SET IN ORDER
3. SHINE
4. STANDARDIZE
5. SUSTAIN

• These five steps process of 5S can improve overall functions of an organization which are explained below:

SORT (SIERI)

It is often called the "Red Tagging" i.e. remove unnecessary/unwanted items and materials from each area.

SET IN ORDER (SEITON)

Organize the tools, equipment and other items in its identified place so that the workers can easily reach them means "a place for everything and everything in its place".

SHINE (SEISO)

Cleaning the workplace regularly including tools, equipment and machinery.

STANDARDIZE (SEIKETSU)

Standardize the processes used to sort, order and clean the workplace i.e. standardize the above 3 steps by regular site site checks and routine inspections.

SUSTAIN (SHITSUKE)

It implies/indicates "self discipline" of workers i.e. "do without being told". It ensures 5S approach is followed properly by maintaining and continuing all steps.

6S Concept

• 6S is a modification of 5S methodology which includes "Safety" as a 6th S. 

• All are same as discussed in 5S except "safety" step which is explained below:

SAFETY

It ensures "safe workplace" by identifying and eliminating all hazards (which can cause harm) for zero accident. All safety equipment like fire extinguishers, emergency exit signs, first aid kits, smoke detection etc. should up to date and in good working conditions.