Kaizen, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, ISO9000… how do different QA models compare? Clare Whittle

What is Quality?

 Customer Satisfaction  A perceptual, conditional & somewhat subjective attribute & may be understood differently by different people....  Just a feeling…  Reputation  “Fitness for Purpose”

Why is Quality Important?  Manufacturing: Increased sales Increased sales Increased number of customers Increased number of customers More satisfied customers More satisfied customers Improved reputation Improved reputation E.g. pre-TQM to post- TQM Japan E.g. pre-TQM to post- TQM Japan

Why is Quality Important?  Medical Education: Increases patient safety Increases patient safety Maximise benefit of training Maximise benefit of training Decreases likelihood of need to extend training Decreases likelihood of need to extend training Training tomorrow’s doctors today: Training tomorrow’s doctors today: “Could save a life…”“Could save a life…”

Can Quality Models be Useful?  “The real problem comes about because the perception exists that office work, or functions like marketing and employee relations, can’t be accomplished to procedures and specifications. Therefore, they have the privilege to be sloppy if they want to be” (Crosby, 1984).

Total Quality Management  Methodology  Fix the process rather than the product,  Take on board the suggestions of those that are experts in their particular area  Focuses on executive leadership

Total Quality Management  Decrease failure rate from 5% to 0.2%  Cultural Differences: Japanese embody the influence and guidance of leadership needed

ISO 9000  Standard (customer requirement)  Create quality mission statement and quality manual  Standard Operating Procedures (SOP): Describe how work is to be done  Standardisation can reduce the cost of quality

ISO 9000  Rudimentary  Cultural Differences- Puts more resources into independent checking and less into training.

Kaizen  Genuine desire by all to improve  Small incremental changes made by workers, but guided by managers.  Requires the intelligence and attention of every worker

Kaizen  Suggestion systems: 127 suggestions per worker, totalling over 200,000 suggestions with 99% of these being implemented.

Kaizen  More than 200 ideas for improvement were suggested by ground-level employees. The changes they suggested led to: a reduction in truck hours of over 17% a reduction in truck hours of over 17% 20% reduction in line-side materials (inventories) 20% reduction in line-side materials (inventories) 23% reduction in walking (the distance 23% reduction in walking (the distance that employees had to cover to carry out their work – 57 miles per day in total)

Six Sigma  Methodology  In the statistical sense, Six Sigma is only relevant if you have millions or billions of events or products to measure Sigma Level Defects per Billion % of Defects to Remove to Move from Prior Level % % 463, % 32,700, % 245,500, % 1317,000,000n/a

Six Sigma  “TQM” on steroids  Focuses on executive support (executive leadership [TQM] sometimes needed)

Six Sigma- DMAIC  DEFINE  MEASURE  ANALYSE  IMPROVE  CONTROL

Six Sigma- Successes  Virtua Health in New Jersey has had a vigorous Six Sigma program in place for several years  In one project focused on congestive heart failure, length of stay was reduced from 6 to 4 days length of stay was reduced from 6 to 4 days patient education improved from 27% to 80% patient education improved from 27% to 80% chart consistency improved from 67% to 93% chart consistency improved from 67% to 93% results-in-the-healthcare-industry&Itemid=92 results-in-the-healthcare-industry&Itemid=92

Conclusion  Quality models designed with industry in mind, the principles can also be applied more broadly.  These models need to be evaluated carefully, however, and applied sensibly.  Should be combined with a flexible change management strategy (Sculthorp, 2010).  This should yield the most effective results. and-Effectiveness&id= and-Effectiveness&id=