Happy’s Essential Skills: The Need for Total Quality Control (Six Sigma and Statistical Tools): Part 1

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

Implementation Principles and Processes
A preliminary step in TQC implementation is to assess the organization's current reality. Relevant preconditions have to do with the organization's history, its current needs, precipitating events leading to TQC, and the existing employee quality of working life. If the current reality does not include important preconditions, TQC implementation should be delayed until the organization is in a state in which TQC is likely to succeed. Fundamental is that TQC has to be "driven from the top" and includes those principles shown in Figure 3. When Dr. Deming would come to a company to lecture, he insisted the front row consisted of the company president and executives, otherwise, he said, "It is not worth my time!"

If an organization has a track record of effective responsiveness to the environment, and if it has been able to change successfully the way it operates when needed, TQC will be easier to implement. If an organization has been historically reactive and has no skill at improving its operating systems, there will be both employee skepticism and a lack of skilled change agents. If this condition prevails, a comprehensive program of management and leadership development may be instituted. A management audit is a good assessment tool to identify current levels of organizational functioning and areas in need of change. An organization should be healthy before beginning TQC. If it has significant problems such as a very unstable funding base, weak administrative systems, lack of managerial skill, or poor employee morale, TQC would not be appropriate[4].

However, a certain level of stress is probably desirable to initiate TQC. People need to feel a need for a change. Kanter (1983) addresses this phenomenon by describing building blocks, which are present in effective organizational change. These forces include departures from tradition, a crisis or galvanizing event, strategic decisions, individual "prime movers," and action vehicles. Departures from tradition are activities, usually at lower levels of the organization, which occur when entrepreneurs move outside the normal ways of operating to solve a problem. A crisis, if it is not too disabling, can also help create a sense of urgency, which can mobilize people to act. In the case of TQC, this may be a funding cut or threat, or demands from consumers or other stakeholders for improved quality of service. After a crisis, a leader may intervene strategically by articulating a new vision of the future to help the organization deal with it. A plan to implement TQC may be such a strategic decision. Such a leader may then become a prime mover, who takes charge in championing the new idea and showing others how it will help them get where they want to go. Finally, action vehicles are needed and mechanisms or structures to enable the change to occur and become institutionalized[5].

TQC Tools
Data collection and analysis tools are required to document and improve the process. Here are a few (as well as Figure 4), but this is not the complete list (other topics will be addressed in future columns):

• Pareto charts
• Cause & effect diagrams (Fishbone)
• Multi-vary charts (histograms, dot diagrams, correlation/scatter plots)
• Design of experiment
• Process optimization
• Control charts
• Process capability indices (Cp, Cpk)
• PPM

Figure 4: TQC data collection and analysis tools: process flow charts, fishbone 'cause and effect' charts, histograms, Pareto charts, correlation and scatter plots, and control charts.

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