Employing Six Sigma tools is different than a TQM process

Business planning and management often puts an entrepreneur in head scratching problem when he is confronted by several terms. Very often an entrepreneur is seen to solving the riddle of Six Sigma tools and its difference from TQM or total quality management. In most cases TQM is taken as a synonym of Six Sigma. But in reality these two business management strategies are not all the same. While TQM underlines the improvement of the quality of goods and services, Six Sigma tools spotlights on the priority of customer satisfaction.

By putting Six Sigma and Total Quality Management on trial to find differences between the two, we will catch along various issues.

TQM, as the name suggests, takes an approach that is solely dedicated to improve quality. The strategies adopted in TQM concentrate in the fields of development and deployment which can help a business achieve better quality.

On the contrary Six Sigma tools aims to improve the product and service quality while keeping in mind the customer satisfaction. The Six Sigma readily takes into account defects in the business process and attempts to reduce it. Nonetheless, the basic aim remains to be the customer satisfaction. As a consequence, Six Sigma tools tries to enhance the ability of a service or product to meet the specifications of customers. Definition of quality in traditional terms is not similar to Six Sigma since the traditionally quality defined meeting the internal requirements. Whereas Six Sigma meets the requirement of customers who are not an internal part of a business house.

To fulfill the objective, Six Sigma tools are utilized to curtail all the activities that are either waste or non-value adding. Eventually the processes of Six Sigma lead to cost savings of a company. It would be a wrong if you think that it imposes aggressive cost-cutting approaches. It is rather the process of identification of waste activities and eliminating them.

Now when we consider TQM, it focuses on making progress in operations at different non-related business processes. Six Sigma tools, on the contrary, concentrate on making improvements within a single business process. Besides, it also takes into consideration other external processes for business improvement connected to this single process which might affect the result of this process, if not addressed suitably.

While TQM activities are generally undertaken as part-time activities by company managers, Six Sigma demands fill-time devotion of experts ( Black Belts, Master Black Belts) to achieve its goals. The process of improvement is continuous and ensures sustainable improvements and innovations.

Another difference among Six Sigma tools and TQM is that the former process regards financial targets and savings while the later discounts it. Consequently a team of managers dedicated for TQM are not aware of the financial benefits of the process. Whereas experts in Six Sigma process can calculate the financial benefits offered to a company through the said process.

After explaining both the business management terms clearly, it is up to an entrepreneur to employ the process that he favors. My entry in this blog has hopefully madder the differences lucid enough for a layman to understand.