Forecasting Management Philosophy Life Cycles

1. Six Sigma is a management philosophy that sets objectives, collects data and analyzes results as a way to remove wasted expenses from its processes and help reduce the number of defective products produced. Six Sigma uses quality measures to strive for near perfection by eliminating errors and variables.

The driving factors for a success or failure of implementing Six Sigma is largely dependent on the inputs set forth at the conception and duration of the integration. This whitepaper will compare and contrast these critical inputs for a successful deployment. In order to accomplish this five various companies: GE Electric, W.R. Grace, Royal Chemicals, Diversified Paper and Lemforder. Some of these organizations had very successful results while others failed to reach their full potential. What is clear is the similarities of those that succeed and those that failed.

Senior leadership must determine and direct the level of quality that is acceptable within the organization. Leadership should prioritize areas of quality and use data based on benchmarks from other facilities. (Dlugacz, 2006). In addition the author states there are some important areas that must be monitored for quality. Compliance must be followed by leaders and all

There are always pros and cons to any quality improvement methodology. For instance, the pros of Six Sigma tend to place extreme importance on leadership and its support for the success of the project. Another pro is the integration of different human elements, which include cultural change, and focus on the customer and their needs. “By using the concept of statistical thinking, Six Sigma encourages applications of statistical tools and techniques that reduce variability” (Harry, 2000). The cons of Six Sigma include, not having the quality data available, especially when a new process has been implemented without having the data available. Often the solutions that Six Sigma proposes can be costly and only a small

Sullivan (2013) informed of the total quality management (TQM) created by Dr. Deming that are popular in numerous business organizations. Switching from solving problems to preventing problems, Sullivan (2013) explained that the TQM’s focal points are their clients, total employees’ participation, available data for measurement, and process improvements. With Deming’s 14 management points, St Jude Medical Center (SJMC) will be evaluated on its quality management.

The article highlighted several areas on how quality management affects the performance of an organization. Studies done have come back with mixed results. Some studies have proven that implementing quality implementation can have many benefits to an organization. However some studies have shown that organizations that have implemented total quality managements do not necessarily outperform organizations that do not or have not implemented total quality management programs. Of the results that have been published for organizations that had issues with quality management implementation several

Quality Circles as mentioned above was the key to success for better involvement of employees with management & better setting of goals related to qualified products.

Design can be related to the creation of products goods and services for the benefit of customer satisfaction. When a product is not created effectively the organization could be plagued with costly problems down the line. However, Six Sigma uses tools that will allow companies protection from future problems and widespread liabilities (Kumar et al., 2009). If an organization implements six sigma in well planned out and methodical way, the benefits for the organization could be endless and have a positive effect well into the future of the organization. Therefore, main focus of Six Sigma is to ensure speedy breakthrough performances, substantial financial outcomes, and to have long lasting effects. Another component of Six Sigma is Total Quality Management which focuses things such as strategy, process, and the end

Six Sigma is a process improvement initiative developed by Motorola that assist organizations in identifying and reducing defects and inefficiencies within their existing business processes. The quality management system is a project-oriented system that drives cost savings and increases firm’s profitability by reducing variation in firm’s processes, products and services. (Russell, 2011). The process begins with four steps align, mobilize, accelerate and govern. Companies begin aligning by constructing company-wide metrics surrounding financial and strategic goals of the organization. These metrics are used to determine the area of the business that requires the most improvement and would have the largest financial

The President Ralph Larsen has realized that Wengart has some major problems with the quality however he is focusing on the profitability instead of the longevity of the company. He needs to have the team focus on improving the quality problem or the company’s profits will continue to decrease. Larsen in the effort to improve the quality has decided to seek out help from an OD practitioner who suggests to Ralph to implement Top Quality Management (TQM). Larsen feels that this should be easy to implement and hands it off to Kent Kelly the Vice President. He feels that the TQM program was a matter of common sense (Brown, 2011, p. 365).

Lean Six Sigma approach is recognized widely and has been implemented predominately in manufacturing rather than other industries. To illustrate the point, this paper draws attention to the adoption of Lean Six Sigma in various industries with a case study. The combination of Lean tools and Six Sigma methodology is used to improve the process and quality by eliminating the variations and creating workflow in a process. The hypothesis of this study was that the Six Sigma technique can be used along with lean tools in order to improve process and quality in any area of industries. The review of case study discovered the use of

The fourth element - quality circles. This is one of the fundamental elements of kaizen. It’s necessary to organize the work of quality circles. The composition of these circles should include workers at different levels. In the circles of quality employees have the opportunity to share ideas, skills, technology and other important collaborative resources. Exchange of information and cooperation within the framework of quality circles allow employees to assess the effectiveness of their work on the basis of a comparison with the work of others, and thus try to improve their performance.

Six Sigma tools and techniques have been standard Quality Engineering practices for many decades but these tools and techniques were rallied under an implementation banner called Six Sigma by Motorola in the 1980s. Under the banner of Six Sigma, these quality tools were given a sequential roadmap for successful implementation. When Lean and Six Sigma are combined, they offer a powerful combined toolbox of skills that we call Lean Six Sigma (LSS). LSS can create organizational breakthroughs in speed, quality and customer satisfaction. This new toolkit is used to solve one difficult problem at a time in a business by the LSS students who

Looking at the success of Motorola, many companies like Texas Instruments, Allied Signal etc started using Six Sigma methodology to bring organization-wide improvements.

The above four were the main reasons for the company to put together a set of processes which would formally combine SCM and six sigma, by training and developing supply chain people become capable of leading innovations. Over the last years of implementation, SCM six sigma became a unique and useful component of Samsung’s strategy for systematic and continuous improvement of its SCM