Six Sigma versus Total Quality Management Essay

Six Sigma versus Total Quality Management - Essay Example During the past few decades, quality management has emerged as a major competitive edge in business and a source of long term profitability. Different techniques and concepts have evolved to improve product or service quality, including Zero Defects, Six Sigma, quality circles, TQM, Quality Management Systems (ISO 9001 and others) and continuous improvement. Essentially, it means setting up systems and processes that ensure product or service quality and that people are rewarded for doing the right thing, thus keeping their highest-quality performance strong and accurate. This paper attempts to compare, contrast and analyze two such techniques i.e. Six Sigma and Total Quality Management. What is Six Sigma? Bill Smith, a senior engineer and scientist at Motorola in the year 1986 introduced the concept of Six Sigma (Quinn, 2002). The main purpose was to standardize the way defects are counted. Six Sigma provided Motorola the key to addressing quality concerns throughout the organization, from manufacturing to support functions. The application of Six Sigma also contributed to Motorola winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality award in 1988 (Motorola University, 1994). Six Sigma not only improved Motorola’s products and processes, it also saved the company more than US $15 billion in the 10 years after it began the program (Microsoft Office System, Operation Agenda, N.D.).