TQM Report: Six Sigma Implementation at StarHub Telecommunications

This report provides an analysis of Total Quality Management (TQM) with a focus on StarHub Ltd., one of Singapore's major telecommunications companies. The report explores how Six Sigma processes can be implemented to improve customer loyalty and overall business performance. It discusses s...Read More

Running head: TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Total Quality Management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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Answer to question 2(a)
StarHub Ltd. is one of the three major telecommunication companies that have its
operations based in Singapore (starhub.com. 2018). The six sigma process can be used by the
management of the organization to improve its quality performance in a number of different
ways. Any two such ways are;
1. Improving the loyalty of the customers- The main motto of Starhub limited is to retain
all of the customers it presently has and also to attract new customers by the improving
its customer loyalty programs. It is important for the management of the organization to
improve the satisfaction levels of the customers and thus implementation of six sigma
reduces the risk of the company to have unsatisfied consumers. This is because the
completion of the training process in the organization helps the employees to gather all
the different skills and experiences makes them capable to address the specifications as
selected by the consumers (Cherrafi et al., 2016). The six sigma method also helps the
management to have a clear understanding of the specific attributes that are believed to
be critical to the perception of customer satisfaction.
2. Management of Time- The implementation of the mentioned method in the organization
helps the employees of the company to manage their timings efficiently that results in a
more efficient business and improves the productivity of both the employees and the
organization. The users are asked to perform SMART goals and then apply the different
data principals of six sigma method to those goals. The following task is performed by
the observation in three different areas namely performance, fulfillment and learning.

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Answer to question 2(b)
The project charter is a living document that helps to outline the process of improvement
for both the team as well as the leaders. The charter officially authorizes a particular project and
provides power to the manager to start the project and gather the actual resources for conducting
the different activities of the project and improve the current state of conditions. The
management of the company has identified “Improvement of Customer Loyalty” as one of the
major problems for the organization. Thus a charter showing the problem statement has been
prepared. The charter is given below;
Sections Explanation
Business Case Customer Loyalty is the most important part of
the business and helps the organization to earn
the necessary goals for the betterment of the
business. The better the customer satisfaction
levels, the better the capability of the company
to retain the customers
Problem Statement/Opportunity Statement The services of the organization are not up to
the mark and the grievances of the customers
are not addressed properly. This is a major
problem for the organization as they are losing
consumers because of such a problem.
The only way of eradicating the problem is to
introduce friendly call centers to address the

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needs and demands of the customers
Figure 1: Six Sigma Tools (Improve Phase)
Source: (Cherrafi et al., 2016)
Answer to question 2(c)
 Brainstorming-Brainstorming is one of the major and popular techniques that is used
to determine and innovate new ideas and different kinds of possibilities. The
following method can be used by Starhub Telecommunication limited for solving
different problems, analysis of the failure, innovate new kind of products and also
improve the current products and services (Jiménez-Jiménez et al., 2015). In six
sigma method the brainstorming is very much valuable as it will help the

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management of the organization to monitor and change the performance of the
organization.
Figure 2- Brainstorming Application
Source: (Jiménez-Jiménez et al., 2015)
 Affinity Diagram- The following diagram is a particular tool that is used to gather a
bulk amount of data including different ideas, options and issues. These are then
organized into a number of different groupings based on the natural relationships of
the company. The employees can collect ideas from others and they implement them
to improve the productivity of the organization (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).

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Figure 3: Affinity Diagram
Source: (Goetsch & Davis, 2014)
 Analytical Hierarchy Process- The business organizations recognizes that when an
effective strategy is properly implemented, it will result into a sustainable competitive
advantage. However on careful examination on the proper formulation of the competitive
strategy it will be seen that the strategies selected by the organization is all about the
different choices (Furterer, 2016). The AHP is a mathematical tool that helps to solve the
problems in the business organizations. The AHP method can be implemented by the
mentioned telecommunication company as it views the problems in three different ways,
these includes the issue that needs to be resolved, the second part will determine the
alternate solutions to the problem and the last part will involve the different requirements
that are needed to solve the alternative solutions. The management of Starhub limited can

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thus solve the problems with utmost preciseness and accuracy. Though the AHP methods
vastly differs with the six sigma methods there4 are considerable similarities between
them that help the managers and the supervisors of the organization to assign numerical
weights to the different factors. The factors can both be the ones that are either used by
the customers to determine the products or the factors that are used to evaluate alternative
solutions.
Figure 4: Six Sigma Business Drivers and Evaluation Criterion Hierarchy
Source: (Furterer, 2016)


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References
Cherrafi, A., Elfezazi, S., Chiarini, A., Mokhlis, A., & Benhida, K. (2016). The integration of
lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and sustainability: A literature review and future research
directions for developing a specific model. Journal of Cleaner Production, 139, 828-846.
Furterer, S. L. (Ed.). (2016). Lean Six Sigma in service: applications and case studies. CRC
Press.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Jiménez-Jiménez, D., Martinez-Costa, M., Martínez-Lorente, A. R., & Rabeh, H. A. D.
(2015). Total quality management performance in multinational companies: A learning
perspective. The TQM Journal, 27(3), 328-340.
Starhub.com. (2018). Personal Mobile Phones, Broadband, TV, Voice and Rewards |
StarHub. [online] Available at: http://www.starhub.com/ [Accessed 26 Apr. 2018].