Six Sigma Training Vs Total Quality Management

Six Sigma Training focuses on the importance of analyzing structure and processes to determine the best possible paths to quality improvement. Total Quality Management also focuses on looking over the entire support structure of a company, but that is about where the similarities end. Six Sigma Training offers a five step process known as define, measure, analyze, improve, control, or DMAIC, that is often seen as comparable to the plan, do, study process involved with Total Quality Management. However, the reality is that the processes are actually vastly different from one another.

The Six Sigma Process was developed by some of the leading CEOs in the country with the goal of business success in mind. This alone makes it a much more effective process than TQM, which was designed by people with little management experience who didn't focus as much on management principles in relation to the application of improvement processes. The Six Sigma Process allows businesses to operate at their full potential in a manner that is entirely possible to be embraced by any business or industry, while TQM is stifled in its offerings and often limited to only offering process improvement methods to specific industries.

Basically, it can be much easier understood by looking at the situation as a sum of the parts. TQM has some great tools and offerings to give to process improvement, but is much less advanced and developed. The sum of the parts of Total Quality Management does not add up to complete business success. Instead, they stop at improving one process or another to improve a PART of a business. Six Sigma Projects, on the other hand are designed to offer a complete solution and ongoing process improvement plan that will offer business success by improving various aspects of the business over time.

Six Sigma Training is loosely based on older concepts such as TQM, but also offers a much more wholly-embracing approach to improvement. It realizes that in order to achieve business success, an improvement process needs to be developed in any area that a business is having troubles with. Six Sigma focuses not solely on the end result, but on improving the steps that it takes to achieve that end result, including processes and policies within an organization. TQM is a sort-of solution to process improvement, while Six Sigma is a complete solution to provide continuous improvement processes to achieve business success overall.