Souraj Salah

The integration of quality management and continuous improvement methodologies with management systems

For organisations to be successful, the use of well-structured management systems (MSs), quality management (QM) approach and methodologies for continuous improvement (CI) are all essential. Total quality management (TQM) has been a dominant management concept for CI utilising Demings concepts of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a widely-accepted methodology for CI considered among most modern in the 2000s. Recently, different MSs have gained more attention as they form critical infrastructure for improving and controlling different operating areas of any organisation. In many industries, CI methodologies and MSs are separately implemented, either formally or informally. The lack of their proper integration is one of the main reasons why lots of implementation efforts of CI fail, since it ensures alignment of activities and provides industry with competitive advantage. Thus, the need and benefits for formulating such integration of QM and CI with a comprehensive MS are discussed in this study.

Implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in supply chain management (SCM): an integrated management philosophy

Supply chain management (SCM) is essential for any company to survive the increasing pressures of global competition. There have been continuous changes in global manufacturing and service markets, causing supply chain (SC) members to reassess their effectiveness individually and as a whole. A new evolution in quality management (QM) is Lean Six Sigma (LSS), which is a continuous improvement (CI) methodology that aims at customer satisfaction and system waste reduction. SCM can utilise the QM concepts as well as the LSS tools and CI principles to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction regarding cost, quality and delivery. Researchers have considered the integration of Lean and Six Sigma with SCM. This research extends the previous works and proposes the implementation of LSS in SCM. A case study provides an example of how LSS, utilising value stream mapping (VSM), can be used to improve an SC.

Six Sigma and Total Quality Management (TQM): similarities, differences and relationship

Industries are continuously facing fierce competition and the challenge of meeting increasing demands for higher quality products at economic costs. The success of an organisation is directly related to how effective its implementation of continuous improvement (CI) is. For any manufacturing system, Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma are important CI methodologies. Effective understanding of these methodologies and their relationship will provide an industry with a competitive advantage. Many industrial organisations today are using either TQM or Six Sigma as the core for their CI efforts. There is a lot of dispute on which methodology is superior, how they relate to each other, what the common grounds are and what their differences are. As such, the relationship between TQM and Six Sigma is worth further investigation. In this paper, TQM and Six Sigma are introduced followed by a thorough comparison. More particularly, this work investigates their similarities, differences and how they relate to each other. Finally, this research introduces how they fit together in order to develop a new structure for integrating them together which will provide an improved approach for CI.

Total company-wide management system: its components

For any enterprise, management systems (MSs) are essential for success. MSs are structured approaches to manage the areas of business in an organisation. Traditionally, various MSs are implemented without being properly integrated together leading to waste of resources. Recently, MSs have gained attention as they form a critical infrastructure for improving and controlling the operation systems. However, there is a gap in the form of a need, as indicated in the literature, for a comprehensive system that integrates them together. This integration constitutes the goal of the proposed system, which is ensuring the existence of an infrastructure for continuous improvement (CI) and the strategic alignment of all areas of a business and the people towards the objectives of business excellence. The proposed system is called the total company-wide management system (TCWMS). TCWMS’s five main components are strategic, project, operation, process and performance MSs. This paper provides a comprehensive and precise study of these components in an attempt to add a new understanding for MSs to what is already known in the literature. A roadmap is provided for each of them, as well as a framework for the whole system and an auditing approach to clarify how it can be developed. The grouping and connection of these components is the novelty of the proposed TCWMS.

Integrated Company-Wide Management System (ICWMS)

Traditionally, various MSs are implemented without being properly integrated together leading to waste of resources. Recently, MSs have gained attention as they form a critical infrastructure for improving and controlling the operation systems. However, there is a gap in the form of a need, as indicated in the literature, for a comprehensive system that integrates them together. This integration constitutes the goal of the proposed system, which is ensuring the existence of an infrastructure for Continuous Improvement (CI) and the strategic alignment of all areas of a business and the people toward the objectives of Business Excellence. The proposed system is called the Integrated Company-Wide Management System (ICWMS) . ICWMS’s five main components are strategic, project, operation, process, and performance MSs.

The Integration of Six Sigma and Lean

There is a great necessity for the effective implementation of CI methodologies to all stakeholders at an industrial organization, including owners, workers, customers, and the society in general. The rate of improvement determines the survival of an organization as competition gets tougher in today’s global markets. Six Sigma and Lean are two well-recognized CI methodologies which are typically used to separate from each other. On the other hand, the effective integration of these methodologies will provide a company with a competitive advantage. In this chapter, the benefits for integrating Six Sigma and Lean are outlined, followed by a thorough comparison between the two methodologies. Also, this chapter investigates some of the existing models that describe how Six Sigma and Lean fit together. Finally, a new detailed description for integrating Six Sigma and Lean is developed to provide an improved approach for CI. The proposed structure is built upon the existing DMAIC structure which is well renowned in the literature.

ICWMS: Comparisons to Other Systems

There are different integrated systems proposed in the literature. Some deal with the integration of improvement methodologies with each other or with other MSs such as ISO 9000. However, ICWMS is believed to be more comprehensive, as it integrates all aspects of managing and improving a business operation. ICWMS practices correspond and compare to other MS models. This chapter presents a link between ICWMS and other MS models.

Implementing Lean Six Sigma in Supply Chain Management

SCM is essential for any company in order to be able to survive the increasing pressures of global competition. There have been continuous changes in the manufacturing and service markets across the world which caused the SC members to reassess their effectiveness individually and as a whole. SCM can utilize the QM concepts as well as the LSS tools and CI principles to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction regarding cost, quality, and delivery. Researchers considered the integration of Lean and Six Sigma with SCM. This chapter extends the previous works and proposes the implementation of LSS in SCM.

The Integration of QM and CI Methodologies with MSs

For organizations to be successful, the use of well-structured MSs, QM and methodologies for CI such as LSS is all essential. In many industries, various MSs and CI methodologies are separately implemented, either formally or informally. The effective integration of MSs with QM and CI interventions ensures the strategic alignment of all activities and provides an industry with a competitive advantage. There is a genuine need for more research in these areas. Recently, different MSs have gained more attention as they form a critical infrastructure for improving and controlling the different operation areas of any organization. Classically, CI methodologies are implemented without being properly integrated with MSs. This is one of the main reasons why lots of implementation efforts of CI methodologies fail. Thus, the need and benefits for formulating and modeling such an integration of QM and CI methodologies with a proposed comprehensive MS are discussed in this chapter.

Six Sigma and TQM

For any manufacturing system, TQM and Six Sigma are important methodologies used for CI. Effective understanding of these methodologies and their relationship will provide an industry with a competitive edge. Many industrial organizations today are using either TQM or Six Sigma as the core for their process QI efforts. There is a lot of dispute on which methodology is superior, how they relate to each other, what the common grounds are, and what their differences are. As such, the relationship between TQM and Six Sigma is worth further investigation. In this chapter, a thorough comparison is introduced between the two methodologies. More particularly, this chapter investigates the similarities and differences of the two methodologies and how they relate to each other. Finally, this chapter introduces how TQM and Six Sigma fit together in order to develop a new structure for integrating them together which will provide an improved approach for CI.