During the last decades, different quality management concepts, including total quality management (TQM), six sigma and lean, have been functional by many different organisations(Andersson et al. 2006). Six Sigma, lean, and quality management are quality and operations systems all directing towards process improvement. They have implementation factors and results in common such as: Continuous improvement, customer satisfaction, people and management involvement. Nonetheless the systems also present diverse origins and historic path of implementation inside companies. (Chiarini 2011). Although much important work has been documented regarding TQM, six sigma and lean, a number of questions remain regarding the applicability of these …show more content…
Through in-depth interviews with medical device manufacturers, researchers have noted that grander medical device companies tended to make more use of strategies like total quality management (TQM), six sigma and lean manufacturing, while smaller or newer organisations tended to have a much stronger focus on the suitable regulatory approval process (Brown et al. 2008). Lean is comparable to the ideas in total quality management (TQM), just-in-time (JIT), and Six Sigma, because they share the same fundamental approaches (Naslund, 2008). The lean concept is slightly altered from TQM and six sigma (Andersson et al. 2006). Six sigma and lean are excellent road-maps, which could be used one by one or combined, together with the principles in TQM (Andersson et al. 2006). Lean simply means streamlining the flow of production material throughout the value stream by reducing cycle time wherever possible, and the tools and techniques of lean actually are intended to reduce the processing time (Standard and …show more content…
Suggested methodology is able to systematically recognize manufacturing wastes, select appropriate lean tools, identify valid performance indicators, achieve significant performance improvement and establish lean culture in the organization (Karim, A., and Arif-Uz-Zaman, K., 2013). Incorrect application of lean strategies results in inefficiencies of an organization’s resources and reduced employee confidence in lean strategies (Marvel et al., 2009). The accomplishment of any particular management strategy normally depends upon organizational characteristics, which implies that all organizations should not or cannot implement a similar set of strategies in their individual case (Shah and Ward, 2003). It is noted that Wu and Wee (2009) proposed case founded four-step (problem finding, idea finding, obstacle finding and solution finding) problem solving method to demonstrate how lean supply chain affects product costs and quality. They used value stream mapping (VSM) as lean supply chain tool to lessen cost and lead time and enhance quality through P-D-C-A improvement