Quality Management in Heavy-Duty Manufacturing: TQM vs. Six-Sigma

The assignment evaluates two prominent quality management tools, Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six-Sigma, within the context of heavy-duty manufacturing. It examines TQM's focus on enhancing customer satisfaction through improved service standards and addresses its limitations, such as practical implementation challenges and diminished recent publications. Conversely, Six-Sigma is highlighted for its technical and financial benefits, with a historical success story from Motorola to underscore its effectiveness in reducing production defects and costs. Despite criticisms of both methodologies, the report underscores that TQM can be effective if fully utilized, while Six-Sigma's strengths are amplified when combined with TQM practices. The case study involving JCB Company demonstrates that while TQM has faced undue criticism, it remains a viable option for quality management, particularly when integrated with Six-Sigma to optimize performance in heavy-duty manufacturing operations.

Running head: TQM VS. SIX-SIGMA
Quality Management in Heavy-Duty Manufacturing Industry: TQM vs. Six-Sigma
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Executive summary
This is a report on two most effective tools in quality management such as TQM and Six-
Sigma. Some wrong speculations surrounding the effectiveness of the tool have lessened its
usefulness in major tasks. However, the paper depicts it beautifully from the example of JCB
Company that TQM is widely misunderstood. It is still a potential option. Nonetheless, Six-
Sigma delivers an utmost performance when it is built over TQM.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Total Quality Management (TQM)........................................................................................3
3. Six-Sigma...............................................................................................................................3
4. TQM vs. Six-Sigma...............................................................................................................4
TQM:......................................................................................................................................4
4.1 Scope of TQM..............................................................................................................4
4.2 Limitations of TQM.....................................................................................................4
Six-Sigma:..............................................................................................................................5
4.3 Scope of Six-Sigma......................................................................................................5
4.4 Limitations of Six-Sigma.............................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
Quality management in terms of products or services has become an elevated
requirement for the organisations across the globe in order to sustain their competitiveness
and maintain a progressive trend for revenues. Different sectors have different needs for a
quality performance. In manufacturing industry, it matters a lot to have a quality production
of products (Kim, Kumar & Kumar, 2012). The main purpose of this assignment is to analyse
the article provided. Moreover, the assignment analyses the difference between the
effectiveness of TQM and Six-Sigma.
2. Total Quality Management (TQM)
In the last few decades, there has been an increased talk on the requirement to have
practices for quality management. TQM is the one name that has gained popularity in
fulfilling such requirements. The ultimate focus of TQM is to enhance customer satisfaction.
However, it needs to be implemented according to what practitioners have preached (Ooi et
al., 2012).
3. Six-Sigma
Six-Sigma is another quality management tool, which has few unlike features in it
than TQM such as providing technical and financial benefits to the organisation. It recent
time it has gained popularity. Moreover, it is now seen as a replacement of TQM (Shafer &
Moeller, 2012).

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4. TQM vs. Six-Sigma
TQM:
4.1 Scope of TQM
TQM is primarily focussed in enhancing customer service standard. It is believed to
maintain the existing quality status by enhancing the customer service standard (Ramesh &
Ravi, 2013).
4.2 Limitations of TQM
TQM has few limitations, which has probably diminished the usage of it in the
organisations across the globe. One of the main issues behind the downfall of TQM is the
practicality of its implementation, which differed considerably from what has been preached
by the practitioners. There has been limited number of publications on the TQM in the last
few years. One of its shortfalls is its inability to repair the root causes behind the downfall of
operational efficiency. Negative criticism has also affected and diminished its importance in
the quality management process. It has also failed to produce any significant impact on the
financial sectors of operations. However, there still few who believe that TQM is beneficial if
it is used appropriately. There have been several research works on its usefulness in
organisations across the globe. However, a significant number of research works suggests
that TQM has been misunderstood. It has not been properly implemented or it has been found
as challenging to implement this completely across the different operations of organisations
across the globe (Sabet, Adams & Yazdani, 2016).

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Six-Sigma:
4.3 Scope of Six-Sigma
It delivers small changes in the system to ensure the attainment of high quality
services. It helps to attain a quality service on reducing and ultimately eliminating the defects
detected in the system (Easton & Rosenzweig, 2012).
4.4 Limitations of Six-Sigma
Six-Sigma in recent time has grown to popularity. Due to its benefits in technical and
financial terms, organisations and leaders have started viewing this as a good resource to
attain a quality performance. The reason behind the success of Six-Sigma can be traced in the
fact that Motorola in the year 1987 to 1997 gained huge growth in sales. The profit nearly
touched to approximately 20 per cent in a year. Additionally, Six-Sigma helps to overcome
the shortcomings, which TQM could never attain. Six-Sigma is also very effective in winning
the global competition and reducing the cost of production. An increased publication of
articles on Six-Sigma has also facilitated its enormous growth in recent times. It is also more
effective than TQM in eliminating the root cause behind a reduced operational performance.
The process has also received a comparatively reduced criticism than what has happened with
the TQM (Sabet, Adams & Yazdani, 2016).
Conclusion
JCB is one of the largest manufacturers of heavy-duty construction machines in the
world. Both the TQM and Six-Sigma have been implemented in the company. After an
extensive research on the results, it has been found that TQM has been criticised more than it
deserves. TQM was found to be effective in the company. However, it has shown few
deviations in the performance when it is being out into heavy works. On the other hand, Six-
Sigma was found as faster and better option for quality management. However, it has

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delivered the performance when it is used with the help of TQM. Nevertheless, the
experiment conducted in the JCB Company has proved that TQM is a potential option for
quality management provided if it is used at its fullest of potentials.

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References
Easton, G. S., & Rosenzweig, E. D. (2012). The role of experience in six sigma project
success: An empirical analysis of improvement projects. Journal of Operations
Management, 30(7), 481-493.
Kim, D. Y., Kumar, V., & Kumar, U. (2012). Relationship between quality management
practices and innovation. Journal of operations management, 30(4), 295-315.
Ooi, K. B., Cheah, W. C., Lin, B., & Teh, P. L. (2012). TQM practices and knowledge
sharing: An empirical study of Malaysia’s manufacturing organizations. Asia Pacific
Journal of Management, 29(1), 59-78.
Ramesh, N., & Ravi, A. (2013). TQM tools and techniques in promoting team working
culture in the manufacturing organisations. International Journal of Productivity and
Quality Management, 12(4), 466-479.
Sabet, E., Adams, E., & Yazdani, B. (2016). Quality management in heavy duty
manufacturing industry: TQM vs. Six Sigma. Total Quality Management & Business
Excellence, 27(1-2), 215-225.
Shafer, S. M., & Moeller, S. B. (2012). The effects of Six Sigma on corporate performance:
An empirical investigation. Journal of Operations Management, 30(7), 521-532.

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