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Having started my career as a quality consultant and then moving on to
reengineering, activity based management, lean, and process management, I
notices that many of these techniques had very similar concepts but used
different words.
For example, the folks who promote lean talk about a value stream. However,
when I asked them to explain the different between a value stream and a business
process they were hard pressed. Finally they concluded that although there may
be some differences between a business process and a value stream, they are both
very similar.
Six Sigma is a subset of Total Quality Management. Six sigma simplified
quality for many organizations and thus made it more attractive to implement.
Six sigma was started at Motorola and made popular by some former employees.
If you read the literature on Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Black
Belts, Kaizen, and Malcolm Baldrige, you will find great similarities between
these techniques. You will also find great similarities between these
techniques and Business Process Management. It just depends on what consultant
you speak with and what their implementation philosophy is.
My former boss worked with both Juran and Deming and knew Phil Crosby. These
were the big 3 in the quality movement. When asked which approach to quality a
company should employee, my boss would say:
- If you have a bunch of engineers, you might want to take the Deming
approach which is more mathematical and statistical than the others.
- If you have a bunch of sales people, you might want to take the Phil
Crosby approach which was the least statistical of the 3.
- If you were somewhere in the middle, you might want to take the Juran
approach who was in the middle of Deming and Crosby in his approach to
quality.
Total Quality Management and Six Sigma focuses on defining, managing, and
improving processes.
Business Process Management also focuses on defining, managing, and improving
processes.
Because of the culture and commitment of different organizations some will
find six sigma using black belts works for them. I have worked with other
organizations where I was called in because a six sigma program had failed. It
could have been the consultant, the dedication to six sigma, the statistics
used, or something else, but neither six sigma nor business process management
always works.
Do if you are a disciple on one technique, just realize each technique can
work in any organizations. However, neither technique always works. So try the
one that makes the most sense for your organization or the one where you have a
very enthusiastic manager. If it works fine, However, if one technique
does not work, then be open to the other technique.
Call John Antos, Jim Brimson or Pat Dowdle at
972-980-7407 to find out how Process Management can improve results.
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