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Quality Management Systems

Comparison of Japanese Total Quality Control, Total Quality Management, Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge, Lean, Business Process Reengineering, and Six Sigma.

Bruno Pešec
Bruno Pešec
5 min read
Quality Management Systems

This post provides concise overview of six Quality Management Systems, based on the work of Professor Andrea Chiarini.  He  studied and compared Japanese Total Quality Control (JTQC), Total  Quality Management (TQM), Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge  (Deming’s), Lean, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), and Six Sigma.

Quality Management Systems are compared on the basis of the following points:

  1. Results and benefits (Table 1)
  2. Management style (Table 2)
  3. Deployment of the system (Table 3)
  4. Employee management, deployment and participation (Table 4)
  5. Voice of the customer (Table 5)
  6. Tools, techniques and IT (Table 6)
  7. Optimisation of the system (Table 7)
  8. Day-by-day check and control of the results (Table 8)
  9. Review of the system (Table 9)

Table 1: Results achieved and benefits

QMS Results achieved and benefits
JTQC Customer satisfaction and quality assurance
TQM Customer satisfaction, COPQ and CSR performance
Deming's Customer satisfaction, staff satisfaction and all the stakeholders
Lean Reduces waste, cost reduction system, particularly increases value added for the customer
BPR Cost reduction system, customer satisfaction, streamline and downsize oriented
Six Sigma Customer satisfaction, cost reduction system, particularly concerning COPQ

Table 2: Management style

QMS Management style
JTQC Long-term oriented, management by fact, respect for humanity, participatory management and capacity to involve all the staff
TQM Long-term oriented, management by fact, capacity to involve all the staff, participatory management
Deming's Clear view of the system of profound knowledge, long-period oriented, not particularly focused on numerical targets, promoting cooperation and not competition, being a ‘psychologist’
Lean Long-term oriented, management by fact, respect for humanity, participatory management and capacity to involve all the staff
BPR ‘Aggressive’ and autocratic top management. Long- and short-term oriented
Six Sigma Long-term oriented, management by fact, capacity to involve all the staff, participatory management

Table 3: Deployment of the system

QMS Deployment of the system
JTQC Hoshin kanri
TQM Hoshin kanri and other particular systems for deployment
Deming's No particular systems for deployment
Lean Hoshin kanri
BPR No particular systems for deployment
Six Sigma Use of a specific DMAIC pattern, DFSS within design processes

Table 4: Employee management, development and participation

QMS Employee management, development and participation
JTQC Use of quality control circles. Maximum involvement, respect for humanity, improvement of human potential. Education and training for the best-practices. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation trade-off.
TQM Use of quality control circles and other improvement teams. Maximum involvement. Education and training for the best-practices. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation trade-off. Training on quality tools and problem solving.
Deming's Use of quality control circles. Maximum involvement. Cooperative employees rather than competitive. Intrinsic motivation has to be developed. Quality training for reducing variation.
Lean Use of Kaizen events. Maximum involvement. Respect for humanity, improvement of human potential. Training on specific tools. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation trade-off.
BPR Use of reengineering teams with a ‘Czar’ as team leader. People involvement, structured hierarchy. Extrinsic motivation leads people. Training for specialists of mapping and reengineering.
Six Sigma Improvement teams, certified yellow and black belts as team leaders. Maximum involvement, structured hierarchy. Extrinsic motivation leads people. Training on quality tools and statistics.

Table 5: Voice of the customer

QMS Voice of the customer
JTQC Voice of the customer defined in relation to competition.
TQM Voice of the customer defined in relation to competition.
Deming's Voice of the customer is defined in observance to stakeholders’ needs.
Lean Voice of the customer is defined for the value added, processes are ‘demand driven’.
BPR Voice of the customer defined in relation to competition.
Six Sigma Voice of the customer defined in relation to competition.

Table 6: Tools and techniques, IT

QMS Tools and techniques, IT
JTQC Typical quality tools (basic, managerial and advanced). Problem Solving, quality audits
TQM Typical quality tools (basic, managerial and advanced). Problem Solving tools.
Deming's Quality tools are important, even if each organisation choose its own tools based on the theory.
Lean Uses specific and well-coded tools invented in the TPS.
BPR Tools for analysing and mapping processes, tools for problem solving. IT for mapping and reengineering the processes
Six Sigma Typical quality tools (basic, managerial and advanced). Problem solving and project management tools. IT for managing statistical data.

Table 7: Optimisation of the system

QMS Optimisation of the system
JTQC The entire system should be performed for all the systems.
TQM The entire system should be performed for all the systems.
Deming's The entire system should be performed for all the systems.
Lean The entire system should be performed for all the systems.
BPR The entire system should be performed for all the systems. Few processes or departments can be affected by reengineering.
Six Sigma The entire system should be performed for all the systems.

Table 8: Day-by-day check and control of the results

QMS Day-by-day check and control of the results
JTQC Non-conformities indicators. Quality audits, status of the corrective and preventive actions.
TQM Performance indicators.
Deming's Performance indicators. No use of targets. Methods are more important than goals.
Lean Visual control and management. Performance indicators including Lean metrics.
BPR Performance indicators.
Six Sigma Performance indicators. Certification of the improvement projects using sigma level and savings.

Table 9: Review of the system

QMS Review of the system
JTQC Quality indicators. Hoshin kanri.
TQM Performance indicators. Self-Assessment. Benchmarking.
Deming's Review of the theory.
Lean Hoshin kanri. Performance indicators including Lean metrics.
BPR Performance indicators.
Six Sigma Performance indicators in particular COPQ.

Concluding Remarks

In this post I presented the work of Professor Chiarini,  as I found it useful for quick comparison of different Quality  Management Systems. Out of six presented systems, Lean and Six Sigma are  definitely most popular and most widely spread. Michel Baudin wrote a great post comparing Lean, TQM, Six Sigma, ToC, Agile, and BPR. It is a lengthy read but well worth your time.

References

Chiarini, A., 2012. From Total Quality Control to Lean Six Sigma : Evolution of the most important Management Systems for the Excellence. Springer.


This article is a part of Quality Management series:

On Managing for Quality
Historical overview of quality movement from inspection to strategic management.
Quality Philosophers
Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, and Crosby changed the world of quality management forever. These are their most significant contributions.
Quality Management Systems
Comparison of Japanese Total Quality Control, Total Quality Management, Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge, Lean, Business Process Reengineering, and Six Sigma.
Quality Management Frameworks
Organisations can use quality management frameworks to benchmark the quality performance on their journey to excellence.
On Continuous Improvement
Core principles of continuous improvement are (1) process orientation, (2) improving and maintaining standards, and (3) people orientation. What are the fundamental behaviours for developing a culture of improvement?
Quality ManagementDemingLeanSix Sigma

Bruno Pešec

I help business leaders innovate profitably at scale.

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