Making sense of quality philosophies

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to improve sense-making of different quality philosophies using a quality system model. We have chosen Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Lean Management and ISO 9000 as typical quality philosophies. The chosen model is based on describing a system as consisting of purpose, principles, methodologies and tools. This model is extended to include a roll-out process and a management process for each philosophy. The main results indicate that the proposed model presents a way of describing, comparing and interpreting quality philosophies. The major implication of the study is that it provides a way to describe and define quality philosophies. The study makes a contribution to Quality Management in proposing a model for describing a quality philosophy.

Keywords:

• quality philosophy
• quality models
• sense-making
• TQM
• ISO 9000
• Lean Six Sigma
• Lean Management

ORCID

Raine Isaksson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6487-5522