Module IV : Quality Management

Basic concepts of quality

1. Quality Definition(s)
As Specified by Joseph Juran, Quality is the fitness of use i.e. it is the value of
the goods and services as perceived by the supplier, producer and customer.
The measure also pertains to the degree to which products and services
conform to specifications, requirements and standards at an acceptable price.
Some of the definitions of the term ‘Quality', provided by quality gurus are as
follows:
 Quality is fitness for use (JURAN) Joseph Moses Juran was a Romanian-
born American engineer and management consultant
 Quality is conformance to requirements (CROSBY)   Philip B. Crosby
 The efficient production of the quality that the market expects
(DEMING) William Edwards Deming was an American engineer,
statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant
 Quality is what the customer says, it is (FEIGENBAUM) Dr. Armand
Feigenbaum
 The totality of features and characteristics of a product or services that
bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs of the customers
(ASQC) The American Society for Quality, formerly the American Society
for Quality Control, is a knowledge-based global community of quality
professionals, 
 A quality system is the agreed on companywide and plant wide
operating work structure, documented in effective, integrated,  technical
and managerial procedures for guiding the co-coordinated actions of
people, the machines, or the information of company in the best and
most practical ways to assume customer quality satisfaction and
economical costs of quality. (FEIGENBAUM) Dr. Armand Feigenbaum

Quality Can be Quantified as

Q = P/E
where Q = quality; P = performance E = expectations
• If Q > 1.0 : then the customer has a good feeling about the product/service.
• P and E are determined based on perception.
• P is determined by the organization and E by the customers.
• Customer expectations are becoming more demanding from day-to-day
2. Dimensions of Product Quality
As prescribed by Garvin, the eight dimensions of quality are:
      Performance          (will the product do the intended job?)
      Reliability                (how often the product fails?)
      Durability                 (how long the product lasts?)
      Serviceability          (how easy is to repair the product?)
      Aesthetics              (what does the product look like?)
      Features                 (what does the product do?)
      Perceived quality   (what is the reputation of a company or its
products?)

Dimensions of Service Quality

      Reliability
      Responsiveness
      Competence
      Courtesy
      Communication
      Credibility
      Security
3. Joseph Juran's QUALITY Trilogy ( Planning ,Control and
Improvement)
A. QUALITY Planning

o Set QUALITY Goals

o Set Plans for Operations Based on these Goals 
B. QUALITY Control

o Responsible for Meeting QUALITY Goals

 oPrevent Adverse Changes
o Set and Observe
        Performance Measures
        Compare with Industry Standards
        Benchmarking  
C. QUALITY Improvement

o Moving from Current Level to the Next Higher Level

 Organize Teams, Train Operators to identify and Correct QUALITY
Problems

4. Deming's 14-Point Philosophy

A Recipe for Total Quality
After applying Deming's techniques, Japanese businesses like Toyota, Fuji, and
Sony saw great success. Their quality was far superior to that of their global
competitors, and their costs were lower. The demand for Japanese products
soared – and by the 1970s, many of these companies dominated the global
market. American and European companies realized that they could no longer
ignore the quality revolution.
The 14 Points
1. Create a constant purpose toward improvement.
 Plan for quality in the long term.
 Resist reacting with short-term solutions.
 Don't just do the same things better – find better things to do.
 Predict and prepare for future challenges, and always have the
goal of getting better.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
 Embrace quality throughout the organization.
 Put your customers' needs first, rather than react to competitive
pressure – and design products and services to meet those needs.
 Be prepared for a major change in the way business is done. It's
about leading, not simply managing.
 Create your quality vision, and implement it.
3. Stop depending on inspections.
 Inspections are costly and unreliable – and they don't improve quality,
they merely find a lack of quality.
 Build quality into the process from start to finish.
 Don't just find what you did wrong – eliminate the "wrongs" altogether.
 Use statistical control methods – not physical inspections alone – to
prove that the process is working.
4. Use a single supplier for any one item.
 Quality relies on consistency – the less variation you have in the input,
the less variation you'll have in the output.
 Look at suppliers as your partners in quality. Encourage them to spend
time improving their own quality – they shouldn't compete for your
business based on price alone.
 Analyze the total cost to you, not just the initial cost of the product.
 Use quality statistics to ensure that suppliers meet your quality
standards.
5. Improve constantly and forever.
 Continuously improve your systems and processes. Deming promoted
the Plan-Do-Check-Act
 approach to process analysis and improvement.
 Emphasize training and education so everyone can do their jobs better.
 Use kaizen as a model to reduce waste and to improve productivity,
effectiveness, and safety.

6. Use training on the job.

 Train for consistency to help reduce variation.
 Build a foundation of common knowledge.
 Allow workers to understand their roles in the "big picture."
 Encourage staff to learn from one another, and provide a culture
and environment for effective teamwork.
7. Implement leadership.
 Expect your supervisors and managers to understand their
workers and the processes they use.
 Don't simply supervise – provide support and resources so that
each staff member can do his or her best. Be a coach instead of a
policeman.
 Figure out what each person actually needs to do his or her best.
 Emphasize the importance of participative management and
transformational leadership.
 Find ways to reach full potential, and don't just focus on meeting
targets and quotas.
8. Eliminate fear.
 Allow people to perform at their best by ensuring that they're not
afraid to express ideas or concerns.
  Let everyone know that the goal is to achieve high quality by
doing more things right – and that you're not interested in
blaming people when mistakes happen.
 Make workers feel valued, and encourage them to look for better
ways to do things.
 Ensure that your leaders are approachable and that they work
with teams to act in the company's best interests.
 Use open and honest communication to remove fear from the
organization.
9. Break down barriers between departments.
 Build the "internal customer" concept – recognize that each
department or function serves other departments that use their
output.
 Build a shared vision.
 Use cross-functional teamwork to build understanding and reduce
adversarial relationships.
 Focus on collaboration and consensus instead of compromise.
10.Get rid of unclear slogans.
 Let people know exactly what you want – don't make them guess.
"Excellence in service" is short and memorable, but what does it
mean? How is it achieved? The message is clearer in a slogan like
"You can do better if you try."
 Don't let words and nice-sounding phrases replace effective
leadership. Outline your expectations, and then praise people
face-to-face for doing good work.

11.Eliminate management by objectives.

 Look at how the process is carried out, not just numerical targets.
Deming said that production targets encourage high output and
low quality.
 Provide support and resources so that production levels and
quality are high and achievable.
 Measure the process rather than the people behind the process.
12.Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.
 Allow everyone to take pride in their work without being rated or
compared.
 Treat workers the same, and don't make them compete with
other workers for monetary or other rewards. Over time, the
quality system will naturally raise the level of everyone's work to
an equally high level.
 13.Implement education and self-improvement.
 Improve the current skills of workers.
 Encourage people to learn new skills to prepare for future changes
and challenges.
 Build skills to make your workforce more adaptable to change,
and better able to find and achieve improvements.
14.Make "transformation" everyone's job.
 Improve your overall organization by having each person take a
step toward quality.
 Analyze each small step, and understand how it fits into the larger
picture.
 Use effective change management principles to introduce the new
philosophy and ideas in Deming's 14 points.
5. Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle (PDCA Cycle)
PDCA cycle is one of the simplest and the easiest management approaches for
process control and continuous improvement.
PDCA – stands for Plan – Do – Check – Act.
It is also called Deming’s cycle or Shewhart cycle.
Applications of the PDCA Cycle
1. PDCA cycle is mainly used in software field for Software
development lifecycle.
2. It is used in manufacturing and Service industries for new product
development.
3. It also finds its place in Project Management of any nature.
4. Areas like Change Management also use PDCA cycle for their
implementation.
Plan:
1. Establish the objectives and goals of the task to be improved or
developed.
2. Describe the task in detail with clear specifications
3. Develop a team that will be a part of the PDCA and set the
deadlines
4. Note down the data to be used, resources that will be needed,
cost expected, risks and mitigating steps, manpower required,
support needed from management.
5. Draw an implementation plan with breakdown of each task,
owner, expected outcome, operating procedure or guidelines etc.
Do:
 1. As per the implementation plan, perform all the tasks.
2. Keep the stakeholders informed of the progress
3. Adhere to the schedule and highlight any significant concerns and
variations noted.
Check:
1. Once the activity is performed, validate whether the outcome is
as intended and planned.
2. Make a note of all variations, defects, best practices, pain areas
and challenges faced
3. Identify the root causes for the problems

Act:
1. Correct the defects and make it comply to the specifications
2. Identify the preventive actions for all the root causes identified
3. Implement the preventive actions and check whether the
outcome is as expected.
4. Repeat the steps Do-Check-Act until all of the objectives are met
to the satisfaction of the stakeholders.
Thus the PDCA cycle will help in improving the performance of a process stage
by stage in a steady and levelled manner.
6. Quality Circles (QCs):
What is quality circle? It is a work group of employees who meet regularly to
discuss their quality problems, investigate causes, recommend solutions, and
take corrective actions. Generally, QC is a small group of employees belonging
to the same similar work area.
This is so because the employees doing the similar type of work are well
familiar to problems QC is formed to achieve the following objectives:
1. Improvement in quality of product manufactured by the organisation.
2. Improvement in methods of production.
3. Development of employees participating in QC.
4. Promoting morale of employees.
5. Respect humanity and create a happy work place worthwhile to work.
The main features of QC can be listed as follows:
1. Voluntary Groups:
QC is a voluntary group of employees generally coming from the same work
area. There is no pressure from anywhere on employees to join QC.
2. Small Size:
The size of the QC is generally small consisting of six to eight members.
3. Regular Meeting:
QC meetings are held once a week for about an hour on regular basis. The
members meet during working hours usually at the end of the working day in
consultation with the manager. The time of the meetings is usually fixed in
advance in consultation with the manager and members.
4. Independent Agenda:
Each QC has its own agenda with its own terms of reference. Accordingly, each
QC discusses its own problems and takes corrective actions.
5. Quality Focused:
As per the very nature and intent of QC, it focuses exclusively on quality issues.
This is because the ultimate purpose of QC is improvement in quality of
product and working life.
Developing Quality Circles in Organisations:
Like any other organizational change, QC being a new concept may be opposed
by the employees.
Therefore, QC should be developed and introduced with great concern and
precaution as discussed below:
1. Publicising the Idea:
Introduction of QC is just like an organisational change programme Hence, like
an organisational change programme, the workers need to be convinced about
the need for and significance of QC from the points of view of the workers and
the organisation. Moreover, participation in QC being voluntary, its publicity
among the workers is necessary. To begin with, management can also arrange
for initial training to those workers who want to form a quality circle.
2. Constitution of QC:
Workers doing the same or similar type of work are drawn voluntarily to form
quality circle. The membership of a QC is generally restricted to eight to ten.
Once a QC is formed, they remain as permanent members of the circle unless
they leave that work area.
3. Initial Problem Solving:
The members of QC should discuss the problem at threadbare and, then,
prepare a list of alternative solutions. Thereafter, each alternative solution
should be evaluated and the final solution should be arrived at on the basis of
consensus.
4. Presentation and Approval of Suggestions:
The final solution arrived at should be presented to the management either in
oral or in written form. The management may evaluate the solution by
constituting a committee for this purpose. The committee may also meet the
members of the quality circle for clarifications, if required. Presentation of
solutions to the management helps improve the communication between
management and workers and reflects management’s interest to the members
of QC.
5. Implementation:
Once the suggestion or solution is approved by the management, the same is
being put into practice in a particular workplace. Quality circles may be
organized gradually for other workplaces or departments also. In this way,
following above outlined process, the entire organisation can have quality
circles..

7. 7QC tools and 7 new QC tools, QC =QUALITY CONTROL

The Seven Basic Tools of Quality is a designation given to a fixed set of
graphical techniques identified as being most helpful in troubleshooting issues
related to quality. They are called basic because they are suitable for people
with little formal training in statistics and because they can be used to solve
the vast majority of quality-related issues.
These seven basic quality control tools, which introduced by Dr. Ishikawa, are:
1) Check sheets;
2) Graphs (Trend Analysis);
3) Histograms;
4) Pareto charts;
5) Cause-and-effect diagrams;
6) Scatter diagrams;
7) Control charts.
Check Sheet

Check sheets are simple forms with certain formats that can aid the user to
record data in a firm systematically. Data are “collected and tabulated” on the
check sheet to record the frequency of specific events during a data collection
period.
A checklist is used when users are interested in counting the number of
occurrences of an event, such as defects or non conformances. In many
instances, a checklist will summarize countable data related to certain types of
defects and will provide a rough graphical representation of where, in a part or
process, defects occurred.

The main advantages of check sheets are to be

 very easily to apply and understand,

 and it can make a clear picture of the situation and condition of the
organization.
 They are efficient and powerful tools to identify frequently problems,

Disadvantage

they dont have effective ability to analyze the quality problem into the
workplace.

Histogram

The histogram is a bar graph that shows the frequency of values. It is created
by grouping the measurements into ‘‘cells” or “bins.” Histograms are useful
to understand the location, spread, and shape of the data. In addition,
potential outliers or missing data can be seen.
Pareto Analysis
It introduced by an Italian economist, named Vilfredo Pareto, who worked with
income and other unequal distributions in 19th century, he noticed that 80% of
the wealth was owned by only 20% of the population. later, Pareto principle
was developed by Juran in 1950. A Pareto chart is a special type of histogram
that can easily be apply to find and prioritize quality problems, conditions, or
their causes of in the organization
Fishbone Diagram Cause and Effect Diagram
Kaoru Ishikawa is considered by many researchers to be the founder and first
promoter of the ‘Fishbone’ diagram (or Cause-and-Effect Diagram) for root
cause analysis and the concept of Quality Control (QC) circles . Cause and
effect diagram was developed by Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa in 1943. It has also two
other names that are Ishikawa diagram and fishbone because the shape of the
diagram looks like the skeleton of a fish to identify quality problems based on
their degree of importance

The cause and effect diagram is a problem-solving tool that investigates and
analizes systematically all the potential or real causes that result in a single
effect.
CONTROL CHARTS
 8. New Seven QC Tools
New seven QC tools are made to analyze non-quantity information
(knowledge) mainly. Those tools are could be said as reasoning methods.
"New seven QC tools" is also called "N7"
1. Affinity Diagram : Grouping of the idea of Brainstorming
2. Relation Diagram : Diagram of Why-why analysis. It is good to use if
cause-and-effect contains circulation structure
3. Tree Diagram : Collection of plans and methods systematically.
4. Matrix Diagram : A matrix to express the strongness of relationship
between two things. Basic of QFD (Quality Function Deployment)
5. Arrow Diagram : Same to PERT
6. Process Decision Program Chart (PDPC) : Same to "Flow chart"
7. Matrix Data Analysis : Same to Principal Component Analysis

Affinity Diagram Example

An affinity diagram is the organized output from a brainstorming session. Use it
to generate, organize, and consolidate information related to a product,
process, complex issue, or problem. After generating ideas, group them
according to their affinity, or similarity.
The following example comes from a hospital setting. Seeking to better
understand the barriers to on-time delivery of medications, the team created
an affinity diagram in six steps.
1. Assigned a group leader for the activity.
 
2. Agreed on a statement of the issue or problem.
Tip: Stating the problem in the form of a question (“What are the barriers to
on-time delivery of medications?”) can often prove useful.
 
3. Brainstormed and recorded ideas.
Tip: You have two main options for gathering ideas from team members.
Participation by everyone in the group is assured with silent recording
(option b, below), but traditional brainstorming can also generate ideas.
i. Traditional brainstorming—In order around the group, each person writes
an idea or response to the question on a 3” x 5” card while announcing
the content of the card to the group.
ii. Silent recording—Each person writes responses on 3” x 5” cards or sticky
notes, one idea per card, until all team members have exhausted their
 store of ideas.
 
4. Attached all of the cards to the wall, grouping similar ideas together. For
example, the team posted together all topics that suggested that the
pharmacy may be understaffed.
Tip: After posting all ideas the first time, fine-tune the groupings by moving
cards from one pile to another to reflect closer ties. Team members should
talk with each other as they arrange the ideas.
 
5. Labeled each final grouping with a header identifying the general topic that
all items in the group share. See the figure below.
 
6. Reviewed final groupings and headers. By walking around and examining the
posted notes, all members of the group had an opportunity to see the
groupings and then to comment on them.
Next Steps: Making Connections to Other Tools
While an affinity diagram may present interesting data and useful ideas, the
exercise itself should lead to further analysis. The team can now use a relations
diagram, for example, or even a cause-and-effect (fishbone) diagram to get to
root causes for late medications.
An affinity diagram, above all, stimulates discussion about a problem or issue,
opening up possibilities for improvement or solution.
Affinity Diagram: On-time Delivery of Medications
Relation Diagram:
An interrelationship diagram is defined as a new management planning
tool that depicts the relationship among factors in a complex situation. The
interrelationship diagram shows cause-and-effect relationships. Its main
purpose is to help identify relationships that are not easily recognizable.
An interrelationship diagram borders on being a tool for root cause
identification, but it is mainly used to identify logical relationships in a complex
and confusing problem situation. In such cases, the strength of
an interrelationship diagram is its ability to visualize such relationships. The
process of creating an interrelationship diagram can help groups analyze the
natural links between different aspects of a complex situation.
THE FACTORS WHICH HAS MAXIMUM ARROWS GOING OUT OF IT IS MAIN
FACTOR.

TREE DIAGRAM
A tree diagram is a new management planning tool that depicts the hierarchy
of tasks and subtasks needed to complete an objective. The tree diagram starts
with one item that branches into two or more, each of which branch into two
or more, and so on. The finished diagram bears a resemblance to a tree, with a
trunk and multiple branches.
It is used to break down broad categories into finer and finer levels of detail.
Developing the tree diagram helps you move your thinking step by step from
generalities to specifics

ACTIVITY CHART /NETWORK DIAGRAM

FOR QUALITY CONTROL
SAME USE IN PERT/CPM
An arrow diagram is defined as a process diagramming tool used to
determine optimal sequence of events, and their interconnectivity. It is used
for scheduling and to determine the critical path through nodes. The arrow
diagramming method shows the required order of tasks in a project or
process, the best schedule for the entire project, and potential scheduling
and resource problems and their solutions. The arrow diagram lets you
calculate the "critical path" of the project—the flow of critical steps where
delays can affect the timing of the entire project and where addition of
resources can speed up the project.
Process Decision Program Chart (PDPC) : Same to "Flow chart"

The process decision program chart (PDPC) is defined as a new management

planning tool that systematically identifies what might go wrong in a plan
under development. Countermeasures are developed to prevent or offset
 those problems. By using PDPC, you can either revise the plan to avoid the
problems or be ready with the best response when a problem occurs.
1. Obtain or develop a tree diagram of the proposed plan. This should be a
high-level diagram showing the objective, a second level of main activities,
and a third level of broadly defined tasks to accomplish the main activities.

2. For each task on the third level, brainstorm what could go wrong.

3. Review all the potential problems and eliminate any that are improbable or
whose consequences would be insignificant. Show the problems as a fourth
level linked to the tasks.

4. For each potential problem, brainstorm possible countermeasures. These

might be actions or changes to the plan that would prevent the problem, or
actions that would remedy it once it occurred. Show the countermeasures as
a fifth level, outlined in clouds or jagged lines.

5. Decide how practical each countermeasure is. Use criteria such as cost, time
required, ease of implementation, and effectiveness. Mark impractical
countermeasures with an X and practical ones with an O.

A medical group is planning to improve the care of patients with chronic

illnesses such as diabetes and asthma through a new chronic illness
management program (CIMP). They have defined four main elements and key
components for each element. The information is laid out in the PDPC below.
Only some of the potential problems and countermeasures identified by the
planning team are shown on this chart. (Dotted lines represent sections of the
chart that have been omitted.)
Matrix Data Analysis Chart (MDAC):

Example

The purpose of matrix data analysis diagram is to present numerical data about
two sets of factors in a matrix form and analyse it to get numerical output. The
factors most often are products and product characteristics. The purpose then
is to analyse the data on several characteristics for a number of products and
use the information to arrive at optimum values for the characteristics for a
new product or to decide the strong points of a product and use the
information for designing a strategy for the promotion of the product.
 A toy store was aiming to increase sales while improving the satisfaction of
its customers with the toys that it sold.
As a part of this, it employed a market research company to measure both
the initial appeal (which related to actual purchase) and
the longer term satisfaction (which related to company image) of a range of
toys for boys aged 5 to 10, both being scored on a one-to-ten scale. This
limited sector was chosen to prevent excessive complexity and confusion in
the analysis.
These were plotted on a matrix to identify the best toys to promote and to
find possible ways of improving other toys. The axes were crossed at their
mid-points to form value quadrants, as illustrated below.
As a result, improved packaging and promotion was sought for the better
construction toys, in order to increase initial appeal, some bottom end toys
were dropped, and the results of the survey were published in a form which
customers could easily understand. The result was an increase in the
reputation of the store as putting customer interests first, as evidenced by
the increase in complimentary letters.

 
 Matrix Diagram : A matrix to express the strongness of relationship between
two things. Basic of QFD (Quality Function Deployment)
A matrix diagram is defined as a new management planning tool used for
analyzing and displaying the relationship between data sets. The matrix
diagram shows the relationship between two, three, or four groups of
information. It also can give information about the relationship, such as its
strength, of the roles played by various individuals or measurements.
Six differently shaped matrices are possible: L, T, Y, X, C, and roof-shaped,
depending on how many groups must be compared.
  An L-shaped matrix relates two groups of items to each other (or one group to
itself).
  A T-shaped matrix relates three groups of items: groups B and C are each
related to A; groups B and C are not related to each other.
  A Y-shaped matrix relates three groups of items: each group is related to the
other two in a circular fashion.
  A C-shaped matrix relates three groups of items all together simultaneously,
in 3D.
  An X-shaped matrix relates four groups of items: each group is related to two
others in a circular fashion.
  A roof-shaped matrix relates one group of items to itself; it is usually used
along with an L- or T-shaped matrix.
What is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is a method that provides organizations tools to improve the
capability of their business processes. This increase in performance and
decrease in process variation lead to defect reduction and improvement in
profits, employee morale, and quality of products or services. Six Sigma quality
is a term generally used to indicate a process is well controlled (within process
limits ±3s from the center line in a control chart, and requirements/tolerance
limits ±6s from the center line).

9. A NORMAL DISTRIBUTION CURVE

NORMAL DISTRIBUTION IS NATURALLY FOUND IN NATURE
E.G EXAM SCORE
E.G LETS CONTRUCT A NORMAL DISTRIBUTION GRAPH USING BELOW DATA
1 sigma = 1 *mew
2 sigma =1* mew
BILL SMITH
DEFINE STAGE
MEASURE STAGE

ANALYSE STAGE
IMPROVE STAGE

CONTROL STAGE :
You make regular adjustments to the new process for higher productivity
EXAMPLE : A NEW SPORTS CAR IS TO BE BUILT
MEASURE :
We use customers requirement to make specific measurements abt car and
then after making pilot product measure it against specification.
ANALYSE:

In analysis we try to find if there are an alternative way to get desired output
and areas of improvement if any
Finally we find all specifications are met except the TOP SPEED PART.

DESIGN PHASE:
BASED ON ANALYSIS PHASE INPUTS
VERIFY PHASEE:
What is lean Six Sigma?

What is Lean?
Lean is a systematic approach
 to reduce or eliminate activities that don't add value to the process.
(eliminate waste)
 It emphasizes removing wasteful steps in a process and taking the only
value added steps.
 The Lean method ensures high quality and customer satisfaction.

 As far as  Lean methodology  is concerned, the only way to determine if

something has value or not is to consider whether a customer would be
willing to pay for it. Any part of the production that does not add value
 is simply removed from the equation, leaving a highly streamlined and
profitable process in place that will flow smoothly and efficiently

It helps in
 reducing process cycle time,
 improving product or service delivery time,
 reducing or eliminating the chance of defect generation,
 reducing the inventory levels and
 optimizing resources for key improvements among others.
It is a never-ending approach to waste removal, thus promotes a continuous
chain of improvements.
Using the Lean methodology, you can remove below mentioned eight types of
waste ("DOWNTIME" is the acronym for the eight wastes). These wastes are
further explained below:
Waste Definition of waste
The efforts involved inspecting for and fixing errors,
D Defects
mistakes through reworks.
Producing more products or services that the customer
O Overproduction
needs or downstream process can use.
Idle time created when material, information, people,
or equipment is not ready. It includes high job set up
W Waiting time
time in manufacturing. Or excessively high data
processing time in the service industry.
Not adequately leveraging peoples’ skills and creativity.
Non – Utilized
N Employee empowerment can counter this waste as
Talent
advocated by Japanese quality pioneers.
Moving products, equipment, material, information, or
T Transportation people from one place to another, without any value
addition to final product or service.
Unnecessary/ Unwanted stocking or storage of
I Inventory information and/ or material (eg WIP, WIQ – work in
the queue)
Unnecessary movement of people or machines that
M Motion takes time and uses energy. It may cause fatigue to
workman due to unwanted movement of a body.
E Extra Processing Process steps that do not add value to the product or
 service, including doing work beyond a customer’s
specification.

Introduction to some important Lean tools:

1. Kaizen:  It’s a continuous improvement approach focusing on small – small
improvements. It involves the commitment of down level people in the
organization towards process improvements, facilitated by subordinates and
supported by management.

2. Just in Time:  It’s a pull approach to meet customer demands as & when it
flows from a customer.

3. Poke Yoke:  It’s a mistake-proofing device used in assembly to alert operators

on defects or failures.
4. Jidoka (Autonomation):  Also known as intelligent automation. It stops the
assembly or production line if a defect occurs.

5. Heijunka: It’s the concept of Line Balancing. The aim is to evenly distribute the
load by balancing production lines.

6. Kanban: It’s a signal system to manage inventory level. Kanban boards can be

displayed and managed to see the current inventory level on a real time basis.
It also alerts to the management to bring the attention over excessive
inventory. Excessive inventory ties up the working capital and blocks it from
productive usage.
Lean Six Sigma is a fact-based, data-driven philosophy of improvement that
values defect prevention over defect detection. It drives customer satisfaction
and bottom-line results by reducing variation, waste, and cycle time, while
promoting the use of work standardization and flow, thereby creating a
competitive advantage. It applies anywhere variation and waste exist, and
every employee should be involved.
The demarcation between Six Sigma and lean has blurred. We are hearing
about terms such as “lean Six Sigma” with greater frequency because process
improvement requires aspects of both approaches to attain positive results.
Six Sigma focuses on reducing process variation and enhancing process control,
whereas lean drives out waste (non-value-added) and promotes work
standardization and flow. Six Sigma practitioners should be well versed in both.
Integrating lean and Six Sigma
Lean and Six Sigma have the same general purpose of providing the customer
with the best possible quality, cost, delivery, and a newer attribute,
nimbleness. There is a great deal of overlap, and disciples of both disagree as
to which techniques belong where.
The two initiatives approach their common purpose from slightly different
angles:
• Lean focuses on waste reduction, whereas Six Sigma emphasizes variation
reduction
• Lean achieves its goals by using less technical tools such as kaizen, workplace
organization, and visual controls, whereas Six Sigma tends to use statistical
data analysis, design of experiments, and hypothesis tests.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

What is Total Productive Maintenance ( TPM ) ?

It can be considered as the medical science of machines. Total Productive
Maintenance (TPM) is a maintenance program which involves a newly defined
concept for maintaining plants and equipment. The goal of the TPM program is
to markedly increase production while, at the same time, increasing employee
morale and job satisfaction.
TPM brings maintenance into focus as a necessary and vitally important part of
the business. It is no longer regarded as a non-profit activity. Down time for
maintenance is scheduled as a part of the manufacturing day and, in some
cases, as an integral part of the manufacturing process. The goal is to hold
emergency and unscheduled maintenance to a minimum.
Why TPM ?
TPM was introduced to achieve the following objectives. The important ones
are listed below.
 Avoid wastage in a quickly changing economic environment.
 Producing goods without reducing product quality.
 Reduce cost.
 Produce a low batch quantity at the earliest possible time.
 Goods send to the customers must be non defective.
 Similarities and differences between TQM and TPM :
The TPM program closely resembles the popular Total Quality Management
(TQM) program. Many of the tools such as employee empowerment,
benchmarking, documentation, etc. used in TQM are used to implement and
optimize TPM.Following are the similarities between the two.
1. Total commitment to the program by upper level management is
required in both programmes
2. Employees must be empowered to initiate corrective action, and
3. A long range outlook must be accepted as TPM may take a year or more
to implement and is an on-going process. Changes in employee mind-set
toward their job responsibilities must take place as well.
The differences between TQM and TPM is summarized below.
Category TQM TPM

Equipment ( Input and

Object Quality ( Output and effects )
cause )

Mains of attaining Systematize the management. Employees participation

goal It is software oriented and it is hardware oriented

Elimination of losses and

Target Quality for PPM
wastes.