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

17 Oct 2016 — 5 min read

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:

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