TQM in JAPAN

1. Introduction of TQM in JAPAN

2. Taguchi’s Concept
3. Japanese Management Technique
4. TQM versus Six Sigma
5. Drawbacks in Japanese management
 Quality and its Management
• Total Quality Management
• What is quality ?
Quality is conformance to specifications
or
totality of features and characteristics of
a product or service that bears its ability to satisfy
stated or implied needs .
Management of Quality
All management activities and functions involved in
determination of quality policy and its implementation
through means such as quality planning and 
quality assurance
 Definition
TQM is methodology that aligns the activities of all
employees in an organization with the common focus
of customer satisfaction through continuous
improvement of all activities, goods and services

Introduction of TQM in Japan

TQM was invented by Americans in Bell laboratories
during world war -2 by Walter Shewarth and
implemented by a Philosopher Dr. Edward Deming. At
that times Americans were the king of market and they
supplied there goods all over the world. At that times
Japanese goods were inferior so they wanted to improve
them .Dr. Deming helped Japanese in lectures and to
follow a process of quality control.
 SQC-Statistical Quality Control
• Statistical process control (SPC) is the application of statistical
methods to the monitoring and control of a process to ensure that it
operates at its full potential to produce conforming product.
• These statistical methods are given by Walter Shewarth –father of
SQC
• These methods contains control charts regarding sampling,
probability.
• Juran and Deming were the two philosophers from which Japanese
learnt TQM and developed it as a process in the organizations these
philosophers implemented strategies of Shewarth. Deming’s 14
point plan of TQM clicked for them.
 Japanese management techniques
• Taguchi methods are statistical methods developed
by Genichi Taguchi to improve the quality of manufactured
goods .This method works on the innovative designs, loss
function and the offline controls.
• Loss function are representation of the discomfort or non-
conformances.
• Offline controls were to eliminate variation is during the design
of a product and its manufacturing process. The process has
three stages:
• System design- starting level where innovation are made
• Parameter design- factors affecting manufacturing are
considered
• Tolerance design-understanding of the effect that the various
parameters have on performance, resources can be focused on
reducing and controlling variation in the critical few dimensions
 5s technique
• It is a technique used to establish and maintain quality
environment in an organization. ‘Five S’ has five
elements.
1.  Seiri -sorting out useful and frequently used materials
and tools from unwanted and rarely used things
2. Seiton -keeping things in the right place systematically
so that searching or movement time is minimized.
3. Seiso -keeping everything around you clean and in a
neat manner
4. Seiketsu -standardizing the above principles in everyday
life.
5. Shitsuke -inculcating good habits and practizing them
continuously
• Toyota a successful automobile manufacturer of Japan followed
these 5s principles to improved their quality product many times.
The 5-S practice is useful because it helps everyone in the
organization to live a better life .
• Kanban and ‘Just in Time’ are two of the best practices in inventory
management systems that were pioneered by the Japanese
automobile manufacturers, such as Toyota, and have
revolutionized the manufacturing industry across the world.
Reduction in manufacturing costs is achieved through reduction in
the inventory stocks and supply of inventories by suppliers as and
when required. Quality improvement, on the other hand, is the
result of lower proportion of component scrap since the
components spend less time in the supply chain.
• Indian organizations, such as TATA Motors, India’s largest
automobile manufacturer, TISCO, India’s largest steel
manufacturer, Larsen & Toubro etc have benefited immensely by
the appropriate implementation of Kaizen over the last few years.
• Kaizen is one such technique, which in Japanese means ‘change
for the better’ or ‘to take it apart and put back together in a better
way’. Kaizen helps in improving productivity by focusing on the
incremental improvements achieved through small changes in
day-to-day activities, instead of big-bang improvements usually
characterized by significant investments in new technologies and
systems. The key elements of Kaizen are quality, effort, and
empowerment of employees at every organizational level,
willingness to change and communication.
Importantly, Kaizen must operate with three principles in place:
process and results (not results-only); systemic thinking (i.e. the
big picture, not solely the narrow view); and non-judgmental, non-
blaming (because blaming is wasteful).
 Qualified managers And work force
• Japanese depends for its success on 'highly experienced
managers working unselfishly with a motivated, well trained work
force'. It took a genius named Taiichi Ohno to realize that
production depended on people, not just machines.

• Areas targeted by Japanese management

• Improvements in the Workplace
• Cost reduction
• Safety
• Management
• Education and training
• Cross functional management
• Policy deployment
• Quality deployment
• Constant revision and upgrading of standards
 THE RINGI SYSTEM
• The traditional decision-making process in Japanese firms
is referred to as the ringi system.  The system involves
circulating proposals to all managers in the firm who are
affected by an impending decision. Proposals are generally
initiated by middle managers, though they may also come
from top executives.  All the ideas are discussed and they
try to reach to a consensus .And a document is circulated
for approval.
• Control circles - The extensive use of quality circles is
another distinguishing characteristic of Japanese
management .The circle use tables and graphs to
communicate the statistical details of their quality issues. In
one common format, problems are categorized by
materials, manpower, and machines. Quality circles
provide a means for workers to participate in company
affairs and for management to benefit from worker
suggestions.
• Supply, Production, and Selling Chain
• Supply management
• Meeting production quotas
• Meeting delivery schedules
• Marketing
• Sales
• Services
• Six sigma technique-Six Sigma seeks to improve the
quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the
causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing
and business processes.
It consists of six tools :-
1. Leadership Commitment 2. Customer Focus
3. Strategic Deployment 4. Integrated
Infrastructure
5. Disciplined Framework 6. Education and
Training
Six sigma technique is preffered in the western countries . It was
initiated by Motorola.
• Steps involved in six sigma
1.Recognize 2.define 3.Measure
4.Analyse 5.improve 6.control
7.Standerdise 8.integrate

Differences between TQM and 6 sigma

TQM 6 SIGMA
1.Frequently not part of the 1. A strategy from the
Business Strategy. top business unit
2.Improve everything 2. 3.4 defect per million
opportunities
3.Ussually not targeted to a 3. targeted areas
process or system
4.Use as many tools as 4.Use necessary tools for a
possible project
5.Change with in departments 5.cross functional
6. No time urgency 6. time frame part of scope
7.Main focus on manufacturing 7.All business some on
and quality marketing, non manufacturing.
service.
So Japanese management techniques are not completely
TQM they have some concepts of six sigma too like Taguchi
methods and some ishikawa methods (diagrams) they have
developed their industries because of their qualified work
force and respect for others, consensual and decentralized
decision-making ,lifetime employment, seniority-based
compensation, extensive use of quality control methods,
carefully codified work standards ,work as a whole
organization, individuals are motivated to maintain harmony
and participate in group activities .Japanese success is also
due to the initiative for a change for the best.
 Drawbacks of Japanese
management
1.Environment problems
2. Stress-Stress is seen to originate not only from additional
authority and responsibility, but also from the fast-paced
system where there is little slack and a continual push to
improve.
3. The emerging problem of Japanese firms ‘s inability to
integrate foreign.
4. The closed nature of the Japanese market