Introduction to Prophet Muhammad

Introduction to Prophet Muhammad The choice of the topic was prompted because of the numerous impacts and transformation the leadership of prophet Muhammad had made to humanity and the world in general. So many scholars and historians such as Michael hart calyle in his book the hundred and mahatma ghandi even though they were not Muslims they made so many assertions that the world had never witnessed a leader who has achieved so much in all spheres of leadership ; socially, economically and religiously like such as man (Muhammad SAW). An Arab man who does not know how to read or write, but was able to transform the whole of Arabian Peninsula in less than three decades. He was able to change the mind of Arabian people who happens to be so barbaric during the jahiliya period killing one another. They fought so many battles due to ethnicity, ignorance and land disputes which usually last for decades. As he came in, he was able to unite them, change their focus so as to love one another as it was reported in one of his tradition that: none of you is a complete believer unless he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. In the glorious Quran, Allah the most high says: O mankind, I have created you from a single male and female and made you in to nations and tribes; so that you man know one another. None of you is greater than the other except he who fears Allah the most. Hence all are equal before Allah. From the aforementioned, I can categorically say that prophet Muhammad SAW is a role model to leaders of all kind; politically, economically, psychologically and religiously. Therefore all leaders in the world should learn and embrace the method of his leadership, this is because he conquered the whole of Arabian Peninsula without fierce battle except where they fought against him then he fights back in defense of his territorial sovereignty. I also choose the topic because he was able to liberate women from the bondage of becoming extinct. The world over, there is no religion that has given women the liberation, respect and recognition than the religion of Islam with its leader Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as it was enshrined in the holy book of Allah. But before the advent of this great leader, a female child born to a family is considered to ne a cause as such, they were either killed or buried alive. This was mentioned in the glorious Quran where Allah says; whenever one of them is giving a glad tiding of a female child, his fact would become darkened in sorrow in high state of grief. He will separate from his people the bad tidings he was given should he bury it in the earth. But he was able to bring liberation to the female folks, not only to the female folk but to humanity in general as stated in the glorious Quran we do not send you expect as a mercy to the world. Introduction: Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him his progeny) is the Prophet of Islam and the last prophet that God sent to mankind. He is considered the Seal of the Prophets, which means the bringer of the final revelations from God, and God will not send another prophet after him. Brief life history of Prophet Muhammad. He was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, then called Hijaz, in 560 A.D. Shortly after, he became an orphan, and was raised by his uncle, Abu Talib. He had no formal education and there is no documentation that he was taught to read or write before he declared his prophet hood. The Arabs of that region  were very backward, illiterate, immoral, and cruel. They were polytheists and idol worshippers. As a young man, Muhammad kept aloof from others and did not participate in pagan rituals and popular cultural activities. He frequently went to a cave known as Hira in order to meditate and seek nearness to God. At the age of forty, he received the first revelations from God, through Angel Gabriel. From that point on, he declared that there was only one God and that he was the Prophet of God. The pagan establishment vehemently opposed him. They offered him authority, honor, gold and silver, and any earthly pleasures that he desired, in order to stop preaching about one God and preaching against idol worship. Prophet Muhammad outright refused these offers, stating that if they put the sun in his right hand and moon in his left hand, he would not renounce his mission to preach about the one God. His followers were tortured and some of them were brutally killed. He and his followers were banished from his home city, isolated, and faced hardship and hunger. He finally emigrated to Medina,  where he was welcomed, and there he established himself. Muhammad as a youth. He refused to associate with people of his age in vain and immoral cultural practices of his time. As a young adult, he was dignified, soft-spoken, and considerate. He was so honest and trustworthy that he gained the respect of his peers  and the society, and earned the title of al-Amin, meaning the trusted. Muhammad the Prophet: He was focused, consistent, extremely patient, kind, and forgiving. He withstood the hatred and insults of his people and never retaliated in kind. During his banishment, he and his followers were socially and economically boycotted, and they underwent hunger, deprivation, and isolation. He kept the morale of his followers high and bore the hardships equally with the rest of his people, with full trust in the Divine Will. Muhammad the Statesman. He conducted the affairs of state with a great amount of diplomacy and wisdom. He sent emissaries to Roman and Persian monarchs and other governments near and far. He received ambassadors and delegations from other countries. They went away impressed and, in many instances, embraced his teachings. Muhammad the Commander in Chief. He fought wars, planned strategies, and actively participated in armed conflicts to defend himself and the new faith. A single defeat in any of the wars would have resulted in his death and an end to his mission. Muhammad as Judge: He judged impartially, with due consideration to all the parties involved. His decisions were based upon justice, compassion, and strictly upon divine laws. He did not permit nepotism, favoritism, or partisanship to interfere with justice. The rich, the poor, the lowly, the mighty, the privileged, and the downtrodden felt safe and secure under his administration. Muhammad the Lawgiver. Under his administration, criminal and civil laws were established based upon the Quranic injunctions. These laws were comprehensive,  addressing all situations. Many of the laws were based upon established Abrahamic and Mosaic religious laws. Muhammad as a teacher. His knowledge and understanding of the Quran was unmatched. He taught morals, ethics, mannerism, and civility to the uncultured Arabs of his time. He had remarkable tact and never belittled even the most ignorant and uncultured inquirer. Muhammad the family man. He was kind and respectful to his wives and promoted respect and kindness to parents. Arabs at that time used to bury alive their newborn girls out of shame. He forbade that practice, and taught that the education and raising of daughters was a virtuous act. He dealt with his wives with kindness and compassion, and  was frequently seen participating in house chores. Muhammad the ruler of Arabia. From an orphan, to pauper, then persecuted, then a refugee, then head of state, and finally the ruler of nearly all Arabia, he did not change  his demeanor. He continued to be humble and unpretentious. He was readily accessible. Bedouin Arabs used to call upon him, and even sometimes rebuked him based on their poor understanding of Islam. He showed the utmost amount of patience in dealing with them. Muhammads mission accomplished. In his lifetime, the religion of Islam as taught by him was completed and perfected. Islam became the religion of most of Arabia. This accomplishment is unparalleled in the history of mankind. No prophet before him could claim success like that of Muhammad. During their lifetime, their own people essentially rejected the two great prophets, Moses and Jesus. Great discoveries. Based on the teachings of Muhammad, the Arab Muslims made great strides in various fields of human knowledge. At the time when Europe was in the dark ages, universities and schools in Baghdad, Iraq were busy in research and discoveries in nearly all field of human knowledge, including astronomy, physics, mathematics, and medicine. Students from all over the world came to study there. During his prophet hood, as the Quran was revealed to him, he recited the verses to his companions, usually explaining their meanings to teach them. It must be noted that this is one of the prophets responsibilities. Elements of the prophets explanations are; Clarifying verses whose intents are not understood Indication of names, places, times etc. which have not been mentioned in the verse Restriction of meanings which have been given as absolute Reconciling expressions which seem contradictory Although scholars including ibn Taymiyyah claim that the prophet has commented on the whole of the Quran, others including Ghazali cite the limited amount of narratives, thus indicating that he has commented only on a portion of the Quran. These interpretations have not been collected independently in a book; rather, they have been recorded in hadith books, under the topic of tafsir, along with other narrations of the prophet. The leadership qualities I find most admirable were his humility, his recognition of talent, and his ability to think counterintuitive. When the prophet received his first revelation, he trembled with fear. He was fully aware of the awesome responsibility. So fearful was he that he could confide only to his wife Khatijah. In an era where females generally and wives in Particular were mere chattels of men, that he took her in confidence was remarkable. It reflected his inner strength and Confidence in judgment, regardless of the prevailing norms. He trusted and respected his wife, a rare trait in that time and place. It also reflected his deep humility. Lesser mortals who thought they had been chosen by God would undoubtedly Proclaim that fact loudly for the world to hear, a la George Bush, Jr., or Pat Robertson. True to his humility, he preached initially only to his close family and friends. He was fully aware that his message would Literally turn his society upside down, transforming it for the better. He risked dividing his community in the process. Allah in His Wisdom did not choose His Last Messenger randomly. Long before Allah had chosen him, Muhammad had already demonstrated his noble and sterling character. He was Al Amin, the Trustworthy, to his community in preaching, the Prophet was careful in ensuring that his followers memorized only the divine revelations, not his commentaries. He forbade what would be considered today as a personality cult. Had he not done so, every Muslim home would be adorned with his portrait, cities named after him, and statues erected in his honor. For added measure, Muslims would be sporting amulets bearing his name or likeness for protection and good luck charms. During his prophet hood, as the Quran was revealed to him, he recited the verses to his companions, usually explaining their meanings to teach them. It must be noted that this is one of the prophets responsibilities. Elements of the prophets explanations are; Clarifying verses whose intents are not understood Indication of names, places, times etc. which have not been mentioned in the verse Restriction of meanings which have been given as absolute Reconciling expressions which seem contradictory Although scholars including ibn Taymiyyah claim that the prophet has commented on the whole of the Quran, others including Ghazali cite the limited amount of narratives, thus indicating that he has commented only on a portion of the Quran. These interpretations have not been collected independently in a book, rather, they have been recorded in hadith books, under the topic of tafsir, along with other narrations of the prophet There are several factors that caused Muhammad SAW to be a successful leader. They are: 1. Belief (faith) is strong, recognition (justification) with the heart, sounding, by the tongue, demonstrated through action and body. 2. Fair, able to cause a sense of justice equally to all people without exception. Justice of the Prophet is never sacrificed in the name of any such reflection of Allahs teachings, Do not make your hate to a nation that will make you do not apply fair (QS 5:8). Prophet aware that justice is the correct window in order to realize a prosperous society. 3. Affection, he actually led with the touch of love, empathy and sympathetic that there is no counterpart that is presented to all the people. Prophet Muhammads unique communication and leadership style led to the spread of Islam, not only within Arabia but also outside to the north, south, east, west and southwest of Arabia.   As a leader during wartime or as a leader during peacetime, Prophet Muhammad proved to master skillful techniques with which he accomplished his goals in delivering the message of Islam. Prophet Muhammad communicative values of liberty, justice, modesty, and politeness were matched with practical deeds. The people saw this action of his and identified with.  Prophet Muhammad skills as manifested in his speeches demonstrated to the eyes of all humankind that he was indeed a great leader worthy of note. His skillful use of rhetoric demonstrated his commitment for meaningful competent communication for humankind in general. His speeches demonstrated that he sought to see all humankind from the lens of kindness, modesty, moderation, justice, liberty, gentility, generosity and love. Regardless of religion and political affiliation, Prophet Muhammad use Islam as a channel to preach kindness. This study has shown through his manifold communicative talents that he tried to influence thoughts by advocating kindness in our dealings with one another. By indicating to his wife Aisha that she should love the poor, it was an indirect way to teach all humankind to share love and kindness regardless of a persons economic background. This same implication in the speeches of the Prophet can be discerned in his notion of modesty.   Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   The world today is far from modest. Political factions and all sorts of social and economic discrimination have segmented the human race. People now think more in terms of class. Modesty is exclusive to members of the club. If you do not belong you can neither be heard nor seen. Prophet Muhammad speeches on the need for modest behavior and his exemplary behavior seen throughout this study have a significant meaning to our lives. When he said that every religion must have some kind of meaningful character, he laid emphasis on the fact that Islam was a modest religion.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚     Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   On the other hand, he was calling on all Islamic believers to question their conscience whether by following the belief system of Islam; they were practicing its basic tenets of modesty. He who is not has to examine his conscience and choose the rightful path and not be a hypocrite. This is how significant Mohammads message is to the world of today. This is what he intended to achieve in his message. Since modesty is akin to moderation, the Prophets communication themes also laid emphasis on it.   Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   His speech about abstaining from extremism in the practice of Islam has a greater significance to our world of today. His intended his message about religious extremism to be upheld through out the lifespan of humankind. He was so emphatic about this issue because he believed that by practicing extreme Islamic rituals or ideals, the person or persons doing so would be following something else than Islam and that kind of attitude could send a different signal to his enemies. And the only way to show to potential followers of Islam that by practicing extreme Islam, they were not true followers of Allah, he said: Those people who went to extremes (in practicing their religion) were destroyed. (This therefore, shows in no ambiguous terms that Prophet Muhammad condones extreme religious practices. The findings on the Prophets values of moderation revealed that he placed a lot of weight on mannerism. Humankind has to match words with deeds. Believers were not to say one thing and do the other. When told by some of his followers that they will abstain from women and devote their entire energy to prayer, he responded by stating that he was married. This was like an indirect way to inform the speaker that there was no room for pretense. By choosing to abstain you open yourself to irresistible temptation. Getting married would therefore serve as the means to shun sin and other forms of temptation. This is certainly the landmark of difference between Muhammad and other spiritual and secular leaders of his time and today. To begin with, some other spiritual leaders remained unmarried and by deciding to do so created a pattern for their followers to follow suit. But experience has shown that most of these followers could not faithfully follow their religion without falling into the te mptation of bodily pleasures. This could have been unwelcome by Muhammad. He foresaw this kind of contradiction and so taught by examples. It was like doing justice to natures calling. The Prophet was in essence advocating justice between sexes.

Gay Marriage Essay -- Same-Sex Marriage Essays

Gay Marriage There seem to be Specific time in history where certain issues define the culture tension in a society. They become representative of large worldview and clearly emphasize the battle between divergent moral and spiritual perspectives. Homosexual marriage in the United States is one of these issues. In the past five years, there have been various threats and debates about the possibility of legalizing homosexual union. The issue took centre stage in February largely. The U.S Senate quashes a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gays from marrying. President Bush and other same-sex marriage opponents say they will try again. Most of Americans are against same-sex marriage because how the nation would change if gay were allowed to marry. Gay marriage could affects on American society in many different ways. 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Polygamy. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Federal spending. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Religious speech. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Children. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Civil Rights. First, it is more likely to lead to polygamy. For instance, says legalizing same-sex marriage will open the floodgates to polygamy. The more government moves towards sanctioning homosexual relationships, the less right it has to prevent plural marriage. The idea that same-sex marriage could lead to polygamy is â€Å"Not beyond the bounds of reality, although incredibly unlikely,† said Michael Allen who teaches constitutional law at Stetson university college of law in Gulf port. We do not see that is as a realistic view. For instance, it is highly doubtful that solemnizing the union of accepting adults, equal in power in their relationships, would lead to acceptance of polygamous unions, which have, throughout most of history in those societies that have accepted them. â€Å"If one man can marry anther man, you need to ask then, what is it that you doing by prohibiting one man from marrying two women?† â€Å"What’s the evil that you are tying to prevent?† â€Å"If same sex marriage is legalized there is no natural stopping point in redefining what is or is not acceptable.† It would take much longer to legalize polygamy then gay marriage because it is more socially taboo.† That is the reason that polygamists would get away with trying to take credit on same sex marriage (Attorney John Bucher). Second, gay marriage will affect on t... ...arched alongside Martin Luther King Jr, said the proposed Marriage protection Act was a step backward in civil rights. â€Å"Those of us who came through the civil rights movement saw the federal courts as a sympathetic referee. If it had not been for the federal courts, where would we be? If it had not been for the supreme court of 1954, there would still be legalized segregation in America to vote for this legislation would be like members of congress trying to stand in the courthouse door, just like Government. Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door to stop the integration of Alabama schools today it is gay marriage, tomorrow it will be something else†. In conclusion, it seems that the basic problem facing the problem is the limits between a right and privilege. The problem with an issue like marriage is that it is neither a right nor a privilege. In its simplest form a marriage is a union between consenting souls to share assets, responsibility, and form a â€Å"Unit†. We have the right to life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness, we do not; but it is a system that not only works well but has also been established as our system of laws. So the idea about gay marriage should be banned.

Updikes Rabbit Essay -- Updike Rabbit Run

Updike's Rabbit As the gap between homo sapiens and their uncivilized ancestors widens, reproduction looses its value as the most important means to continuing the species. For humanity to progress in an increasingly modern and complex world, men must be required to think of themselves in broader terms. Rabbit Angstrom cannot understand that he could find meaning in life if he devalued the importance he places on sex. He is unable to accept the realities of life in twentieth century America and the role he must accept. He runs from his responsibilities, despite the harm this causes many people. By not accepting the changing nature of life for what it is, Rabbit’s life is devoid of meaning. The message John Updike hopes his reader will receive from Rabbit, Run, is that society would move in a positive direction if men like Rabbit accept the responsibility they have towards others. Updike understands that society is structured in such a way. Men are not required to marry or have children, but must be good husbands and fathers if they do, for humanity to progress as a whole. Rabbit â€Å"dislikes manipulation† and views these inherent facts about life as societal constrictions which deny him his freedom (17). His position as a privileged male allows him to feel â€Å"the world owes him what he wants† and thus is not compelled to provide for his family (153). For Rabbit, life feels like a â€Å"series of grotesque poses assumed to no purpose†(198). He justify’s leaving his family because it is simply what he wants to do, and shows no remorse that this will cause damage to his family. â€Å"If you have the guts to be yourself other people will pay the price† (149). As the plot continues it becomes increasingly apparent that Rabbit will never... ...ompassion for others. Updike intended Rabbit, Run to get people, especially men who live like Rabbit, to understand life on a deeper level. Men have been dominant for so long that it is hard for many of them to understand the duty they have to help humanity. Rabbit has promise but can find no reason, even the death of his daughter, to change. God â€Å"gives to each of us special talents, So: know thyself, learn to understand your talents and then work to develop them, that’s the way to be happy† (10). Thus Rabbit is one of the greatest obstacles which stands in the way of social advancement, because he does not realize the contribution he could make. His selfishness blinds him to the harm does cause, or the good he could cause, if he came to a deeper understanding of himself, and men’s role in society. â€Å"Isn’t that the whole secret, to come to grips† with life (53). Updike's Rabbit Essay -- Updike Rabbit Run Updike's Rabbit As the gap between homo sapiens and their uncivilized ancestors widens, reproduction looses its value as the most important means to continuing the species. For humanity to progress in an increasingly modern and complex world, men must be required to think of themselves in broader terms. Rabbit Angstrom cannot understand that he could find meaning in life if he devalued the importance he places on sex. He is unable to accept the realities of life in twentieth century America and the role he must accept. He runs from his responsibilities, despite the harm this causes many people. By not accepting the changing nature of life for what it is, Rabbit’s life is devoid of meaning. The message John Updike hopes his reader will receive from Rabbit, Run, is that society would move in a positive direction if men like Rabbit accept the responsibility they have towards others. Updike understands that society is structured in such a way. Men are not required to marry or have children, but must be good husbands and fathers if they do, for humanity to progress as a whole. Rabbit â€Å"dislikes manipulation† and views these inherent facts about life as societal constrictions which deny him his freedom (17). His position as a privileged male allows him to feel â€Å"the world owes him what he wants† and thus is not compelled to provide for his family (153). For Rabbit, life feels like a â€Å"series of grotesque poses assumed to no purpose†(198). He justify’s leaving his family because it is simply what he wants to do, and shows no remorse that this will cause damage to his family. â€Å"If you have the guts to be yourself other people will pay the price† (149). As the plot continues it becomes increasingly apparent that Rabbit will never... ...ompassion for others. Updike intended Rabbit, Run to get people, especially men who live like Rabbit, to understand life on a deeper level. Men have been dominant for so long that it is hard for many of them to understand the duty they have to help humanity. Rabbit has promise but can find no reason, even the death of his daughter, to change. God â€Å"gives to each of us special talents, So: know thyself, learn to understand your talents and then work to develop them, that’s the way to be happy† (10). Thus Rabbit is one of the greatest obstacles which stands in the way of social advancement, because he does not realize the contribution he could make. His selfishness blinds him to the harm does cause, or the good he could cause, if he came to a deeper understanding of himself, and men’s role in society. â€Å"Isn’t that the whole secret, to come to grips† with life (53).

Tqm 6 Sigma

Six sigma and Total Quality Management 1 1 X Six sigma and Total Quality Management Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Chung Yuan Christian University Taiwan, R. O. C. 1. The practices and implementation of Six Sigma In the past two decades, Six Sigma methodology has been widely adopted by industries and non-profit organizations throughout the world. In this section, we demonstrate the development of Six Sigma program, and discuss the features and the five steps of the improvements 1. 1 The introduction of Six Sigma Six Sigma methodology was first espoused by Motorola in the mid 1980s. Antony & Banuelas, 2002; Wiklund & Wiklund, 2002). At that time, Motorola was facing Japanese competition in the electronics industry and needed to make drastic improvements in its levels of quality (Harry and Schroeder, 2000; Linderman et al. , 2003). A Six Sigma initiative ,which is originally focused on manufacturing process and product quality (Harry & Schroeder, 2000), is also design ed to change the culture in an organization through breakthrough improvement in all aspects of the business (Breyfogle III et al. , 2001, p. 32).The Six Sigma architects at Motorola focused on making improvements in all operations within a process—thus producing results far more rapidly and effectively (Harry & Schroeder, 2000). The successful implementation of the Six Sigma program in Motorola led to huge benefits. Motorola recorded a reduction in defects and manufacturing time, and also began to reap financial rewards. Within four years, the Six Sigma program had saved the company $2. 2 billion (Harry & Schroeder, 2000). The crowning achievement was being recognized with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Breyfegle III et al. 2001; Wiklund & Wiklund, 2002). IBM, SONY, and Allied Signal successfully followed Motorola in implementing Six Sigma. Allied Signal began its Six Sigma activities in the early 1990s, It successfully attained savings of US$2 billion during a five-year period (Klefsjo et al. , 2001). Sooner, the impressive results obtained by Allied Sigma induced General Electric (GE) to undertake a thorough implementation of the Six Sigma program in 1995 (Pande et al. , 2000) as a corporate initiative to improve net profits and operating margin (Hendricks and Kelbaugh, 1998).The 1999 annual report of GE showed that the implementation produced more than US$2 billion in benefit (Slater, 2001; Coronado & Antony, 2002, Raisinghani et al. , 2005). Yang, Ching-Chow www. intechopen. com 2 Quality Management and Six Sigma As a result, the impressive benefits of implementing Six Sigma programs in Motorola, Allied Signal, and GE led the Six Sigma methodology being widely adopted by industries throughout the world. American Express, Ford, Honda, and Samsung have all applied the methodology (Klefsjo et al. , 2001; Sandholm & Sorqvist, 2002; Yun and Chua, 2002).The Six Sigma has become the most prominent trend in quality management (Sandholm & Sorqv ist, 2002; Yang, 2004) not only for manufacturing and service industries, but also for non-profit organizations and government institutes. The GE-6? program and the Motorola Six Sigma program did have some differences. Whereas Six Sigma activities in Motorola had focused on product quality and the manufacturing process, the GE-6? program extended the improvement activities to cover all key processes related to customer satisfaction. 1. 2 Some key views on Six Sigma Several prominent researchers have expressed views on Six Sigma. Hahn et al. (1999) emphasized that Six Sigma improvement is a highly disciplined and statistically based approach for removing defects from products, processes, and transactions, involving everyone in the corporation. * Harry & Schroeder (2000) emphasized that Six Sigma provides maximum value to companies—in the form of increased profits and maximum value to the consumer through high-quality products or service at the lowest possible cost. * Harry & S chroeder (2000) also concluded that Six-Sigma is a business strategy and philosophy built around the concept hat companies can gain a competitive edge by reducing defects in their industrial and commercial processes. * Pande et al. (2000) commented that Six Sigma is a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business success. It is driven by close understanding of customers’ needs and disciplined use of facts, data, and statistical analysis. * Pearson (2001) described Six Sigma as a program that combines the most effective statistical and non-statistical methods to make overall business improvements. Slater (2001) stated that the Six Sigma approach provides a very specific control program with control techniques that ensure continuation of improved processes. * Lucas (2002) described Six Sigma as a statistical business system and a functional methodology for disciplined quality improvement that achieves successful outcomes. * Treichler et al . (2002) concluded that Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps organizations to focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services. It is also, in Treichlers’ (2002) view, a change-acceleration process that focuses on pursuing success and the rapid adoption of change. Yang (2004) asserted that the GE-6? program and the Motorola Six Sigma program did have some differences. Whereas Six Sigma activities in Motorola had focused on product quality and the manufacturing process, the GE-6? program extended the improvement activities to cover all key processes related to customer satisfaction. www. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Management 3 In addition to the major features noted above, other features of the GE-6? program include (Breyfegle III et al. , 2001; Pande et al. , 2000; Treichler et al. 2002). * GE-6? rojects are integrated with the company’s visions and strategies; * all GE-6? projects are rigorously evaluated for finan cial impact; * everyone who contributes to the success of the program receives significant rewards, especially in terms of staff promotion; * significant financial incentives (representing 40% of all bonuses received by employees) are tied to GE-6? projects; * a sound statistical approach to improvement is adopted; * projects are completed rapidly (usually within 3–6 months); and * bottom-line results are expected and delivered. 1. 3 Implementation of GE Six Sigma The main features of GE-6? re discussed above, in this subsection we introduce the implementation of GE Six-Sigma: * improvement steps; * * staff roles; and investment in training. 1. 3. 1 Improvement steps There have been many improvement models for process improvement or re-engineering. Most of these have been based on the steps introduced by W. Edwards Deming, which can be characterized as ‘Plan’, ‘Do’, ‘Study’, and ‘Act’ (PDSA)(Deming, 1993). GE-6? has a five-p hase improvement cycle that has become increasingly popular in Six Sigma organizations: ‘Define’, ‘Measure’, ‘Analyze’, ‘Improve’, and ‘Control’ (DMAIC).There is another cycle characterized as ‘Define’, ‘Measure’, ‘Analyze’, ‘Design’, and ‘Verify’ (DMADV) (Pande et al. , 2000). Like other improvement models, the DMAIC (or DMADV) model is grounded in the original Deming PDCA cycle. Usually, Six Sigma organizations use DMAIC for process improvement and DMADV for process design (and redesign). Table 1. 1 describes the specific tasks in each step, and the tools and techniques used in the steps. Step Define ? ? ? ? ? ? Map process and identify inputs and ? outputs ? ? Establish measurement system for ? inputs and outputs ? ? Understand the existing capability of ? rocess ? ? ? ? ? Specific tasks Identify improvement issues Organize project team Set-up improvem ent goal Estimate financial benefit Measure Tools and techniques employed Customer complaint analysis Cost of poor quality (COPQ) Brainstorming Run charts, control charts Benchmarking Process map (SIPOC) Cause and effect matrix Gauge R&R Control charts Process capability analysis Failure models and effects analysis (FMEA) www. intechopen. com 4 Quality Management and Six Sigma ? Identify sources of variation in ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Analyze Improve ? ? ? Control projects Table 1. 1 DMAIC steps and tools usage ? ? Standardize the process ? ? Maintain critical inputs in the optimal ? area ? ? Verify long-term capability ? ? Evaluate the results of improvement process Identify potential critical inputs Determine tools used in the improvement step Conduct improvement actions Use experiments Optimize critical inputs Cause-and-effect diagram Pareto diagram Scatter diagram Brainstorming Analysis of variance (ANOVA) Design of experiment (DOE) Quality function deployment (QFD) Process capability analysis Control charts Standard operation procedure Process capability analysis Fool-proofing (Poka Yoke) Run charts . 3. 2 Staff roles Along with the systematic improvement steps described above, the design of specific roles and their effective operations are important factors of the GE-6? program. Senior management is ultimately responsible for the success of the project through the provision of sufficient support, resources, and strong leadership. The implementation of GE-6? is thus top–down. The chief executive officer (CEO) is usually the driving force who sets up the vision, develops the strategies, and drives the changes.Apart from the critical role of the CEO, other players also have their specific roles (Henderson and Evans, 2000): (i) ‘Champions’ are usually the senior managers, who are the sponsors of the project and responsible for success of Six Sigma efforts, they are fully trained business leaders who promote and lead the deployment of Six-Sigma projects; (ii) ‘Master Black Belts (MBBs)’ are the full-time teachers and consultants, they are responsible for Six-Sigma strategy, deployment, training, mentoring, and results.A master Black Belt in Motorola has leaded as a Black Belt for about ten successful projects at least five years, and needs the recommendation of high managements; (iii) ‘Black Belts (BBs)’ have the key operational role in the program as full-time Six Sigma players, they are fully-trained Six-Sigma experts and lead the improvement teams. They are qualified as they successfully leaded at least two Six-Sigma projects; (iv) ‘Green Belts (GBs)’ are the process owners who, led by the BBs, work on Six Sigma projects while holding down their original job functions in the company. . 3. 3 Investment in training Because training is a key ingredient in achieving success through Six Sigma (Pande et al, 2000), Motorola and GE have invested heavily in employee training for their Six-S igma programs. Motorola invested $150 million per year in Six-Sigma courses, GE also spent $ 500 million per year in the implementation of Six-Sigma program (Sandholm and Sorqvist, 2002), GE has invested more than a billion dollars in this effort (Hahn et al. , 1999). GE has designed ww. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Management 5 a complete training plan for the various roles described above—from the CEO, to the ‘Champions’, ‘MBBs’, ‘BBs’, and ‘GBs’. In addition, the training program extends to all other employees in the organization. The training courses are comprehensive and cover team leadership skills, measurement and analytical tools, especially statistical methods, improvement tools, planning and implementation skills, and so on.For examples, (i). Champions have one week champion training related to Six-Sigma development, leadership, and the implementation plan. (ii). BBs spend about four to five weeks to receive the intensive, highly quantitative training, roughly corresponding to the five steps of the implementation of Six-Sigma improvement project. Thus, the length of training is approximately 16-20 weeks. (iii) GBs receive the training of six to ten days.The courses include the statistical tools and the use of statistical software, the detailed modules of five steps, the innovative and improvement tools, and the skill of project management. (iv) MBBs then take over the responsibility of the training for all the BBs and GBs. 2. The critical success factors of the implementation of Six-Sigma In this section we want to discuss the critical success factors for the successful implementation of Six-Sigma projects.We investigate the importance degree of the critical success factors in implementing Six Sigma, and their implementation level by using the questionnaire survey. 2. 1 The consideration of critical success factors Table 2. 1 lists the key factors, as asserted in five previous studies. The factors identified by Coronado & Antony (2002) and Antony & Banuelas (2002) are almost identical, with the exception that Coronado & Antony (2002) added one extra factor (â€Å"communication†). Most of the success factors in the other three studies are included in the work of Coronado & Antony (2002).The total twelve critical success factors in Coronado & Antony (2002) are considered in the present study In addition, two additional key factors, â€Å"complete evaluation system of project performance† and â€Å"promotion and incentive for employees tied to the results of Six Sigma projects†, are also considered in this chapter according to Yun & Chua (2002) and Sandholm & Sorqvist (2002). The former introduces the factor of â€Å"accurate and fair evaluation of all successful Six Sigma projects with meaningful recognition and rewards for employees†.The later suggests â€Å"focus on results† to assert that the employee promotion and ince ntive compensation are tied to the results of Six Sigma projects. Finally, apart from the above, another key success factor somewhat neglected by previous studies is the application of techniques and innovations. Although Coronado & Antony (2002) and Klefsjo et al. (2001) mention it as a required technique in the progress of Six Sigma projects, and Yun & Chua (2002) asserts that â€Å"linkage with all innovation and infrastructure activities† is also a key factor. We therefore add another key factor: â€Å"usage of innovative techniques and IT systems†.In total, a study is conducted to adopt fifteen critical success factors in the questionnaire to investigate the extent to which they are implemented and their degree of importance from the firms’ perspective. www. intechopen. com 6 Quality Management and Six Sigma The author conducted the empirical study for those enterprises have implemented Six Sigma program in Taiwan, The aim of this empirical study is to inve stigate the importance degree and the implementation level of the critical success factors. Thus, the research design is conducted according to the aim of the research. The Likert-type scale is used in the questionnaire.In the investigation of the importance degree of the critical success factors, a five-point scale from 1 (not important) to 5 (very important) is used. In the analysis of implementation level, a five-point scale from 1 (not implemented) to 5 (full implemented) is adopted 2. 2 The analysis of critical success factors The main focus of this study is to analyze the degree of importance of critical success factors for Six Sigma effectiveness as perceived by the respondents, and to assess the implementation level of these critical success factors by the organizations (see Table 2. 2).As Henderson & Evans (2000) notes that â€Å"top management leadership and support† should be the critical success factor, our first priority of success factors is â€Å"top managemen t involvement and commitment†. The other critical success factors are prioritized as follows: â€Å"cultural change†, â€Å"communication with all employees to achieve congruence†, and â€Å"training in Six Sigma†, and so on. It should be noted that â€Å"employees’ promotion and incentive tied to the results of Six Sigma projects† is considered as an important factor for the success of Six Sigma in GE (Hendericks & Kelbaugh, 1998; Henderson & Evans, 2000). However, inTaiwan, this practice is not followed in the industries investigated. Hahn et al. , 1999 Key factors for Six ? Quantified functional impact Sigma effectiveness ? Continued top management support and enthusiasm ? The emphasis on a quantitative and disciplined approach ? The value placed on understanding and satisfying customer needs ? Combining the right projects, the right people, and the right tools Yun & Chua, 2002 Success factors for ? Strong proactive support with required S ix Sigma resources provided by top management ? Acceptance and implementation of Six Sigma’s effectiveness basic disciplines by employees ?Linkage with all innovative and infrastructure activities ? Accurate and fair evaluation of all successful Six Sigma projects with meaningful recognition and rewards for employees www. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Management 7 ? Management commitment and visible support Sandholm & Sorqvist, 2002 Requirements for Six Sigma success ? Adaptation to an organization’s situation and ? Development of uniform language & ? Prioritization and selection of projects ? Focus on training and its content ? Customer orientation ? Focus on results ? Investment of adequate resources Treatment of Six Sigma as a holistic concept needs ? Responsiveness to external influences. ? Follow-up and communication of success stories ? Cultural change ? Management involvement and commitment ? Development of strategy to introduce Six Sigma terminolo gy Coronado & Antony, 2002 Critical success factors for Six Sigma projects ? Understanding tools and techniques within Six ? Project prioritization and selection Key ingredient for ? Management involvement and commitment ? Cultural change Six Sigma ? Organization infrastructure effectiveness ? Training ? Project management skills ?Project prioritization and selection, reviews and tracking ? Understanding the Six Sigma methodology, tools, and techniques ? Linking Six Sigma to business strategy ? Linking Six Sigma to customers ? Linking Six Sigma to human resources ? Linking Six Sigma to suppliers Table 2. 1 Critical success factors for Six Sigma effectiveness ? Project management skills ? Linking Six Sigma to suppliers ? Linking Six Sigma to human resources ? Linking Six Sigma to customers ? Linking Six Sigma to business strategy ? Training ? Organization infrastructure ? Communication SigmaAntony & Banuelas, 2002 www. intechopen. com 8 Quality Management and Six Sigma Critical succe ss factor 1. Top management involvement and commitment 2. Cultural change 3. Organization infrastructure 4. Training in Six Sigma 5. Project management skills 6. Project prioritization and selection 7. Understanding methods, tools and techniques within Six Sigma 8. Linking Six Sigma to business strategy 9. Linking Six Sigma to customers 10. Linking Six Sigma to human resources 11. Linking Six Sigma to suppliers 12. Communication with all employees to achieve congruence 13.Complete evaluation system of project performance 14. Employees’ promotion and incentive compensation tied to the result of Six Sigma projects 15. The usage of innovative techniques and IT systems Importance degree mean order 4. 808 4. 365 4. 019 4. 192 3. 865 4. 077 4. 137 4. 192 4. 192 3. 725 3. 635 4. 231 4. 135 3. 885 3. 596 1 2 10 4 12 9 7 5 6 13 14 3 8 11 15 Implementation level mean order 3. 885 3. 192 3. 596 3. 981 3. 577 3. 558 3. 667 3. 423 3. 269 2. 882 2. 692 3. 519 3. 481 2. 981 2. 942 2 11 4 1 5 6 3 9 10 14 15 7 8 12 13 To be improved factor * * * * * Table 2. Importance degree and implementation level of critical success factors Most of the organizations paid significant attention to training in Six Sigma. The factor of â€Å"training in Six Sigma† is thus the first priority of implementation level, followed by such factors as â€Å"top management involvement and commitment†, â€Å"understanding methods, tools and techniques within Six Sigma†, â€Å"organization infrastructure†, and so on (see Table 2. 2). In Table 2. 2, if a critical success factor has a higher importance degree with a lower implementation level, then the firm should pay more attention on its implementation.In this case, we denote five CSFs as the â€Å"to be improved† factors for the industries in Taiwan: – Top management involvement and commitment – Cultural change – Communication with all employees to achieve congruence – Linking Six Sigm a to business strategy – Linking Six Sigma to customers. www. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Management 9 3. The Integrated Model of TQM and Six Sigma By the end of the 1970s, the competitiveness of Japanese industries had equaled or exceeded that of American industries.In large part, this was due to the successful Japanese implementation of company-wide quality control (CWQC) (Powell, 1995). By the 1980s, Japanese CWQC had been replicated in the United States, and total quality management (TQM) soon became the prevailing business strategy adopted by industries around the world. This evolution of TQM has resulted from the development, on a global scale, of a consistent philosophy concerning the relationship between business and customers. At various stages in this development, different ideologies and practices for implementing quality management have been prominent, but the onsistent goal has been to pursue the quality of products and services, to reduce costs, and to raise business performance. The success of Japanese industries in the total and effective implementation of TQM meant that Japanese firms led the way in the production of good-quality products at lower cost. 3. 1 The decreasing adoption of TQM and the increasing trend of Six-Sigma The successful implementation of TQM does indeed result in better business performance, as firms expect (Hendricks & Singhal, 1996; Gunasekaran, 1999; Hansson & Eriksson, 2002).The benefits come in the areas of cost reduction, increased market share, increased profit, and enhanced business competitiveness (Youssef et al. , 1996; Gunasekaran, 1999). TQM has therefore been widely adopted by industries, even in non-profit and governmental organizations (Powell, 1995; Zabaha et al. , 1998). Several critical factors are essential if TQM is to be successfully implemented. These include the support of top management, visionary leadership, effective management of human resources, employee involvement, and a corporate culture of commitment to quality and customer satisfaction (Joseph et al. 1999; Sureshchandar et al. , 2001). However, in practice, these corporate factors are not easy to achieve. As a result, the literature contains reports of several cases in which the implementation of TQM has failed. Hubiak & O’Donnell (1996), for example, have asserted that approximately two-thirds of companies in the United States have either failed or stalled in their attempts to implement TQM. Many of these TQM programs have been cancelled, or are in the process of being cancelled, as a result of the negative impact on profits (Anonymous, 1996).The failure implementation of TQM is due to several factors. Besides the difficult achievement of TQM practices, one of them is that TQM has been a rather diffuse concept, with many vague descriptions but few more graspable definitions, and the management does not have a complete picture of what TQM really means (Hellsten & Klefsjo, 2000). Another o ne is that too management teams over the world do not realize that implementation of TQM means a cultural change (Hansson & Klefsjo, 2003). In fact, TQM was one of two workplace trends that recorded a significant decline in 1996 (Anonymous, 1996).Academic discussion of TQM and its implementation has suffered a similar decline in recent years. Is this trend really due to poor corporate business performance as a result of the implementation of TQM, with a consequent decline in the implementation of TQM, as has been asserted (Anonymous, 1996)? It is a contention that this is not an accurate reflection of the current status of TQM. Reports of instances of failed TQM implementation are only part of the explanation for the apparent declining trend in TQM. In reality, TQM has been so prominent for about twenty years that many firms and institutions have incorporated TQM ww. intechopen. com 10 Quality Management and Six Sigma into daily management activities. The result is that a well-estab lished model of TQM has been so much a part of the routine business activities, that the ‘decline’ in discussion and implementation of the TQM is apparent, rather than real. As interest in TQM has apparently waned, interest in the Six Sigma program has increased. Since General Electric (GE) initiated its Six Sigma program (GE-6? ) in October 1995, the results have been far beyond the company’s original hopes and expectations.Based on the remarkable business successes achieved in GE and other large corporations, an increasing number of companies have initiated the GE-6? program as a business improvement and re-engineering strategy (Pearson, 2001; Lucas, 2002). As a result, the Six Sigma program has gained great popularly in recent years (Slater, 2001; Lucas, 2002). It has even been suggested that TQM will be replaced by Six Sigma as the main strategy for successful business management. However, such assertions reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of TQM and its relationship with GE-6?. For example, Pande et al. 2000) have asserted that TQM is less visible in many businesses than it was in the early 1990s, pointing to several major TQM gaffes as reasons for this apparent decline. According to Pande et al. (2000), these problems include a lack of integration, leadership apathy, a fuzzy concept, an unclear quality goal, failure to break down internal barriers, inadequate improvements in performance, and so on. They conclude that Six Sigma can overcome many of the pitfalls encountered in the implementation of TQM and, hence, that Six Sigma’s expansion heralds a ‘rebirth’ of the quality movement (Pande et al. 2000). However, Klefsjo et al. (2001) and Lucas (2002) have a different perspective. Klefsjo et al. assert that Six Sigma is a methodology within- not alternative to TQM. Lucas asserts that Six Sigma is essentially a methodology for disciplined quality improvement. Because this quality improvement is a prim e ingredient of TQM, many firms have found that adding a Six Sigma program to their current business system gives them all, or almost all, of the elements of a TQM program.Lucas has thus concluded that: Current Business System + Six Sigma = Total Quality Management The TQM pitfalls noted by Pande et al. (2000) are not essential features of TQM. Rather, they are caused by incorrect practices adopted by firms, especially the lack of proper endeavour shown by management in the implementation of TQM. 3. 2. Total quality management Since TQM began in the mid 1980s, several gurus, like Deming, Juran and Ishikawa have much contribution on the development of TQM (Boaden, 1997).Besides, many researchers and experts on quality management have been eager to study the essentials of TQM. In the beginning, there was a lack of consensus on the contents and practices of TQM. Now, with TQM having been implemented for more than twenty years, academics and practitioners alike have achieved a degree of consensus on TQM. Tobin (1990) has stated that TQM is a totally integrated program for gaining competitive advantages by continuously improving every facet of organizational culture.TQM programs are usually based on the ‘quality philosophies’– customer focus, employee participation, teamwork, and management by facts and continuous improvement (Brown, 1992). TQM is therefore an integrated management philosophy and set of practices that emphasize increased employee involvement and teamwork, continuous improvement, meeting customers’ requirements, team-based problem-solving, constant measurement of results, closer relationship with suppliers, and so on (Ross, 1993).Short and Rahim (1995) www. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Management 11 have agreed that TQM can be viewed as a set of philosophies and methods used by an organization to guide it in continuous improvement in all aspects of its business. McAdam and McKeown (1999) have concluded that customer focus, employee involvement, empowerment, teamwork, measurement tools, training, quality systems, and top management commitment are all key factors in the successful implementation of TQM.Boaden (1997) also examine the critical elements of TQM based on some early studies. It is worthwhile to refer to the research of Sila & Ebrahimpour (2002), they conduct a huge investigation of elements of TQM survey based on 347 researches published between 1989 and 2000. These views indicate that, although various researchers approach the issues of TQM from different perspectives, there is a general consensus regarding the essential principles, practices, and values of TQM (Hellsten & Klefsjo, 2000).On the basis of these various approaches, especially the research of Sila & Ebrahimpour (2002) and Yang (2003a), the present subsection asserts the following to be essential agreed elements of TQM: * customer focus and satisfaction; * training and education; * top management commitment, suppo rt, and leadership; * teamwork; * employee involvement; * quality assurance; * quality information system and application; * continuous improvement; * flexibility * benchmarking and strategy planning; * process management; * product and service design and quality control; * employee management and empowerment; * corporate quality culture; 3. Comparison between TQM and GE-6? As previously noted, the passion for TQM has apparently declined, whereas GE-6? has been receiving increased attention (Anonymous, 1996; Pande et al. , 2000). As a result, there are several assertions related to the relationship between TQM and GE-6? appeared, especially the treatise that TQM will be replaced by GE-6?. However, there are very few studies in the literature that directly compare TQM with GE-6? completely, and in the limited studies that do exist, conclusions on the relationship between TQM and GE-6? have differed significantly.Harry (2000b) has claimed that Six Sigma represents a new, holistic, mul tidimensional systems approach to quality that replaces the â€Å"form, fit and function specification† of the past. However, it is not readily apparent from Harry (2000a) which aspects of this multidimensional systems approach are presumed to be absent from TQM. Breyfegle III et al. (2001) have stated that Six Sigma is more than a simple repacking of the best from other TQM programs. Pande et al. (2000) had already taken a similar approach when they provided a review of some of the major TQM gaffes, and then compared TQM and GE-6? n the light of these problems with a view to showing how successful implementation of Six Sigma can overcome these failures. However, it should be noted that www. intechopen. com 12 Quality Management and Six Sigma these gaffes are principally a result of inappropriate implementation processes, rather than being caused by inherent TQM concepts and practices. In view of a lack of consensus on the relationship between TQM and GE-6? , the present sect ion wants to compare TQM and GE-6? by using complete perspectives.The author reviewed several studies (Boaden, 1997; Hermel, 1997; Goh, 2002), and selected the appropriate criteria used in these researches, and then integrated into 12 dimensions. They are: (i) development; (ii) principles; (iii) features; (iv) operation; (v) focus; (vi) practices; (vii) techniques; (viii) leadership; (ix) rewards; (x) training; (xi) change; and (xii) culture (Yang, 2004). These are presented in Table 3. 1, which represents a comprehensive review of the similarities and differences between the two approaches. 3. 4 Integration of TQM and GE-6?It has been suggested that the implementation of TQM results in an over-emphasis on customer satisfaction, with a relative neglect of the pursuit of profits (Anonymous, 1996). Indeed, several empirical studies have asserted that implementing TQM might not achieve any significant positive effect on profitability (Bergquist & Ramsing, 1999; Harry, 2000b; Breyfegle III et al. , 2001). Furthermore, Harry (2000a) has noted that â€Å"What’s good for the customer is not always good for the company†. In contrast, it is argued that GE-6? achieves both customer satisfaction and excellent financial performance.The major problem with TQM is that there is a disconnection between management systems designed to measure customer satisfaction and those designed to measure business profitability, and this has often led to unwise investments in quality (Breyfegle III et al. , 2001). It should be recognized that the objective of TQM is to achieve customer satisfaction, in order to increase customer loyalty. To sustain competitiveness and long-term profitability, companies not only devote themselves to attracting new customers, but also to retaining old customers in a continuous business relationship with incremental additional purchasing.For these reasons, increasing customer loyalty should be one of the main concerns of all companies (Gorst et al. , 1998). Any assessment of the effectiveness of TQM thus requires a system to measure customer loyalty. If a management system cannot raise business performance and profitability, it will obviously be abandoned by firms. It is therefore apparent that indicators of customer loyalty and business performance should be added to TQM measurement systems. It is well known that GE-6? pursues both customer satisfaction and high profits.If an integrated model of TQM and GE-6? were developed, synergistic effects could be anticipated. In the integrated model proposed here, two major indicators are included—customer loyalty and high profit performance. www. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Management Dimension 1. Development TQM Started in the mid 1980s, influenced by Japanese CWQC developed in the 1970s GE-6? in 1987. GE adopted Six Sigma program in 1995, Comments at about the same time. TQM was widely and 13 First espoused by Motorola TQM and Six Sigma began resulting in many benefits. uickly adopted, but interest has now declined. The situation with GE-6? is the reverse. TQM over-emphasizes customer satisfaction, and this can sometimes negatively affect profits. GE-6? focuses on both customer satisfaction and financial performance. 2. Principles ? Customer satisfaction (satisfaction of ? Pursues zero-defect, quality customers’ needs) ? Pursues financial ? Focuses on voice of ? Emphasis moved from problem-solving to ? Rapid change problem prevention ? Pursues zero-defect customer performance ? Responsibility for ? Continuous improvements 3. FeatureA systematic approach to quality management by integrating concepts, methods, processes, and systems. Uses project management to perform thorough change and process re-engineering, which are integrated with the company’s vision and strategy. TQM is essentially a system of continuously improving the quality of every aspect of business life. GE-6? focuses on radical change (which is also integr ated with vision and strategy). TQM emphasizes that every person is involved in quality improvement at all levels. GE-6? uses specially designed roles and disciplined training to progress the radical changes. . Operation Continuous improvement through employee involvement and teamwork in total quality activities. Specially designed roles and a highly disciplined training program using statistical methods to perform reengineering of key processes through project management. 5. Focus TQM focuses on all quality Key processes and systems TQM considers every activities, all processes, and are all driven by the voice all systems. of customers. aspect of quality. GE-6? initially emphasizes the key processes related to customer needs, but gradually extends its improvement scope. www. ntechopen. com 14 6. Practices ? QCC, QIT Quality Management and Six Sigma ? Project management TQM methods are more traditional, and are learnt from Japan. GE-6? uses methods that can produce more aggressive r esults. The statistical tools used in TQM and GE-6? are very similar. However, the statistical tools used in TQM are quite basic, whereas GE-6? uses more advanced SQC tools. Both TQM and GE-6? emphasize leadership, especially the commitment and support of top management. However, TQM has a bottom-up management style whereas GE-6? gives emphasis to top-own leadership. 40% of bonuses are tied to the results of ? Promotion dependent ? High status accorded to MBBs and BBs on project results 6? projects GE-6? programs have more motivations and rewards than TQM. ? SPC, TPM 7. Techniques ? Hoshin management ? Seven QC tools ? Daily control ? Project management ? Suggestion system ? Design of structural ? Analysis of variance regression roles ? Benchmarking ? DMAIC or DMADV ? BPR ? Kano’s model ? Managers ? New seven QC tools ? Cp, Cpk, ppm ? Taguchi methods ? DOE ? Control Chart ? Multiple linear ? DOE ? Kano’s model ? Reliability FMEA, QFD ? Cp, Cpk, ppm ? Taguchi methods 8. Leadership ? Top management stresses leadership demonstrate best behavior, and influence subordinates by ? Autonomic ? Decentralization and ? Empowerment 9. Rewards ? Promotion ? Motivation delegation management example ? Senior managers are ? Senior managers are ? Top management emphasize the execution of 6? -program mentors responsible ? Manager’s praise and encouragement ? Bonus rewards www. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Management 10. Training ? Education and training for every ? Focus on instilling ?Leaders’ instruction ? Improvement tools ? Gradual and slow on daily basis quality consciousness person ? Vast investment in ? MBBs are the teachers ? BBs have training, combined with the ? GBs have training with the application 11. Change ? Vast change of improvement tools GE-6? emphasizes fast change and significant re-engineering. Change coming from TQM is progressive. TQM brings about a culture change with a quality focus and customer orientation. Th e culture change in GE-6? is fast, with an emphasis on pursuing customer satisfaction and business performance.DMAIC process and mentors training Both TQM and GE-6? emphasize employee education and training, but GE-6? has more investment in training than TQM. In GE-6? , training and its application are combined 15 ? Improvement results are small, and do not bring big changes ? Change is fast, and its scope is large. ? Cultivation of a culture incorporating the concept of pursuing business ? The culture change is caused by the ? Innovation-awareness re-engineering performance ? Re-engineering 12. Culture ? Setting up of a quality culture with ?Employees are autonomous customer focus ? Employees have a team-awareness Table 3. 1. Comparison between TQM and GE-6? 3. 4. 1 Integration of management principles Although the management principles of TQM and GE-6? are somewhat different, there is congruence among their quality principles, techniques, and culture (as was demonstrated in Table 3. 1). As a result, the integration of TQM and GE-6? is not as difficult as it might seem. The critical task is to combine the best aspects of TQM continuous improvement with those of GE-6? re-engineering.Although the activities of a quality Control circle (QCC) and quality improvement team (QIT) cannot achieve significant effects in themselves, they can cultivate quality concepts and team awareness among employees. Therefore, QCC and QIT can be performed by the operators and junior staff members to progress continuous improvements while focusing on daily operations and processes. GE-6? projects can be applied by engineers and senior staff members to the key processes and systems that are related to customer requirements and the provision of performance in products and services.For GE-6? projects, some aggressive goals can be set, in conjunction with rapid project completion times. The target performances can be set according to the criteria of the critical-to-quality (CTQ) of key p rocess—which are, in turn, determined according to the voice of customers (VOC). In TQM, the improvements are based on a customer satisfaction www. intechopen. com 16 Quality Management and Six Sigma survey and an understanding of customers’ requirements (Yang, 2003b). In this fashion, these two ways of understanding customers’ needs and expectations can be combined. See Figure 3. for a depiction of the model. 3. 4. 2 Integration of implementation practices Having discussed integration of management principles, the discussion now turns to the integration of implementation practices between the two systems. Fig. 3. 1 Integrated framework of TQM and GE-6? Employee participation, teamwork, quality management system, human-resources management (HRM), quality principles, objectives, and strategies are the key enablers of TQM implementation. They are also the critical factors in upgrading business performance, www. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Managemen t 7 and are therefore also required for the implementation of GE-6?. The practices of GE-6? are project management, role design and operation, statistical quality control (SQC) tools, leadership and motivation, full support from the CEO, and so on. Most of these practices are also integral to TQM implementation. The framework of the integration of these practices and related systems of TQM and GE-6? is shown in Figure 3. 1 (Yang, 2004). Both TQM and GE-6? emphasize employee education and training, and there is only slight difference in the details of such training.Statistical tools and improvement methods are the main ingredients of the training contents for both TQM and GE-6?. Apart from these statistical tools, TQM and GE-6? have other shared training imperatives—including basic concepts, leadership and communication skills, and project management. Apart from these shared elements, in planning training for an integrated model of the two programs, it is necessary to cover th e elements that are not shared in common. This is incorporated into the model. Moreover, a certification system for fulfilling the needs of the GE-6? scale can be developed. 3. 4. Integration of cultural changes Both the implementations of TQM and GE-6? will bring the culture changes of the organization (Boaden, 1997; Pande et al. , 2000; Klefsjo et al. , 2001). However, GE-6? also emphasizes an awareness of speed and innovation, and is heavily performance oriented. These cultural features are the critical factors in pursuing excellent performance, and in raising competitiveness. In contrast, these have been somewhat neglected previously by TQM. In the integrated model presented here, these cultural features will enhance the performance effects of TQM implementation.Summarily, in this integrated model, continuous improvement and 6? -reengineering are the key activities, located in the center of Figure 3. 1, and the customers’ needs and the voice of the customers are the deriv ers of the improvement and reengineering. The initiatives of TQM and those of GE-6? , located in the two sides separately, can be integrated as the enablers of the integrated system. Comprehensive education and training with certification to the employees are the powerful force in the realization of these practices. Finally, the culture changes with the features described in the base of Figure 3. are the fundaments of the successful implementation of this system. The overall objective of this integrated model is to reach both the customers’ loyalty and excellent performance. 3. 4. 4 Practical examples and conclusion TQM and GE-6? can certainly be integrated very well, as the following two examples illustrate. INVENTEC is a hi-tech company in Taiwan that has implemented TQM for many years. Indeed, the company won the National Quality Award in Taiwan in 1995. In addition to its long-standing practice of TQM, INVENTEC also introduced the GE-6? rogram in 2000. It then integrated this with its existing TQM system. The Ford Motor Company in Taiwan is another successful example of the integration of GE-6? with TQM. These two examples confirm that an integrated model of TQM and GE-6? is feasible and practical. The successful application cased show that this integrated model will be a powerful and practical approach with great potential for all industries. This integrated model is also could be a suitable quality management system for the non-profit www. intechopen. com 18 Quality Management and Six Sigma rganizations. The integration of TQM and GE-6? is an important trend, and should receive a favourable response from both practitioners and academics. 4. An Integrated Model of Business Excellence System The integration of Six Sigma into overall business strategy is another important issue for quality researchers and practitioners. Harry & Schroeder (2000) emphasized that Six Sigma provides maximum value to companies—in the form of increased profits and m aximum value to the consumer through high-quality products or service at the lowest possible cost.It is a business strategy and philosophy built around the concept that companies can gain a competitive edge by integrating Six-Sigma program with the organization’s vision and strategy. In this section, we want to discuss the integration of Six-Sigma with the strategy management, Hoshin management, and Balanced Scorecard. 4. 1 The issue of the integration of Six-Sigma with other strategic management systems If the implementation of Six Sigma is to be successful, Blakeslee and Jerome (1999) suggested that â€Å"Six Sigma efforts must be integrated with existing initiatives in business strategy, and key performance measures†.They also provided an implementation model by integrating Six Sigma with business strategy. Smith & Blakeslee (2002) emphasized the potential of Six Sigma in helping companies to formulate and deploy business strategies and bring about broad transformat ional change. Thus, strategic Six Sigma principles and practices can help companies to formulate, integrate, and execute new and existing business strategies and missions (Smith & Blakeslee, 2002).A growing number of companies is beginning to realize the full implications of Six Sigma as an engine to accelerate corporate strategy and organizational transformation (Smith & Blakeslee, 2002). It is thus apparent that the implementation of Six Sigma must be integrated with a company’s business strategy. However, in this context there are several issues to be resolved. These include: ? How can the organization’s vision, business strategies, and strategic goals be converted into specific Six Sigma projects? ? How can Six Sigma projects be focused on the ‘voice of customer’ and the organization’s critical success factors? How can the strategic goals be communicated to lower divisions and departments in the organization, and further deploy the strategic goa ls to the Six Sigma projects and organize the project teams? ? How can project teams monitor and control the progression of Six Sigma projects? In response to these issues, businesses are increasingly making use of a variety of management systems, methodologies, and tools—including ISO 9000, total quality management (TQM), Hoshin management, Six Sigma, and the balanced scorecard (BSC). In all of these practices, quality is the main focus.Quality is no longer confined to the actual product or service; rather, the concept of quality is now applied to delivery, administration, customer service, and myriad other aspects of a firm’s business activities (Yang, 2009). Indeed, the concept of ‘quality’ now encompasses all the ways in which a company meets www. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Management 19 the needs and expectations of its customers, its employees, its financial stakeholders, and the community in which it operates (Tan, 2002). The effect ive management of such ‘quality’ is essential to competitiveness in the global market (Scheuermann et al. 1997; Prybutok & Cutshall, 2004). The implementation of ISO 9000 and TQM systems can be used to improve the quality of products and services and to raise the effectiveness of process management; implementation of the Six Sigma program can raise the level of customer satisfaction, process performance, and resources management; the implementation of BSC can improve strategy planning and long-term profitability; and so on. However, choosing and implementing these various programs is complicated by the fact that several of them have closely related concerns.For example, TQM, BSC, and Six Sigma are all involved with an organization’s vision and strategy, whereas quality control circles (QCCs) and Six Sigma are both related to process improvement. These various similarities and differences can create difficulties if a firm implements several of these management sys tems simultaneously in an attempt to improve performance in all quality activities. In these circumstances, employees will become confused by the conflicting demands placed upon them, and this will produce a number of significant problems. For example: * In the mplementation of TQM, a firm is first required to set up quality objectives and action plans; * In the BSC system, a firm must first develop its vision and strategies, and then deploy them in terms of performance indicators in four perspectives (financial, customer, internal process, and innovation and learning); and * In the Six Sigma program, a firm will first consider its key performance indicators (KPIs), before linking them to a Six Sigma improvement project. If a firm were to undertake all of these simultaneously, it would be faced with many objectives to be reached, and many strategies and action plans to be implemented.Given the finite limitations that exist in the resources of any organization, it is practically impo ssible for any firm to perform all of these tasks effectively. The ideal solution would be to integrate these various management systems and methods, thus enabling a firm to concentrate its focus and to navigate a unique course in the right direction. 4. 2 Development of an integrated business-excellence system An integrated model of business-excellence system has been developed in this section, see Figure 4. 1.The critical task in developing a holistic business-excellence system is to combine the best aspects of continuous improvement in TQM with those of GE-Six Sigma reengineering. The improvement processes in TQM and Six Sigma projects can thus be integrated and implemented simultaneously (Yang, 2003b) (see Figure 4. 1). Employee participation and teamwork are the prerequisite of the effective implementation of the continuous improvements. Besides, it is needed to instill the quality concepts and problem consciousness into the employees’ mind. www. intechopen. com 20 Quali ty Management and Six SigmaFig. 4. 1. Framework of integrated model of business excellence system 4. 2. 1 Integration of relevant concepts and systems While implementing these programs, it is necessary to monitor process quality using various methods of statistical quality control (SQC). However, a prerequisite to any quality improvement is effective human-resource management (HRM). The key enablers of TQM implementation are therefore HRM and a comprehensive quality-management system. The concepts, initiatives, and systems described above are also necessary for the implementation of the GE-Six Sigma program.In addition, Six Sigma also has its own unique features, including (Pande et al. , 2000; Breyfegle III et al. , 2001): * the systematic operational processes of ‘define, measure, analyze, improve, and control’ (DMAIC) and ‘define, measure, analyze, design and verify’ (DMADV); www. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Management 21 * the staff role s design of ‘champion’, ‘master black belt’ (MBB), ‘black belt’ (BB), and ‘green belt’ (GB); and * the utilization of advanced tools. It is necessary to integrate all of these into the new model proposed here.In addition, strategic leadership is a key factor in the implementation of Six Sigma. In most cases, QCC or QIT are conducted ‘bottom–up’, but in Six Sigma they are conducted ‘top–down’. In these circumstances, authoritative leadership is required. The chief executive officer (CEO) is usually the driving force who sets up the vision, develops the strategies, drives the changes, imposes the projects, and motivates the employees. Most Six Sigma projects pursue significant financial benefits from meeting and exceeding the critical requirements of customers.If the organization is to produce and deliver attractive and value-added products and services to customers speedily, it is essential th at business operations be customer-focused and market-focused. Six Sigma projects must therefore be linked to the development of ‘lean production’, in which research and development (R&D) and innovation (product innovation, process innovation, and business innovation) are all key factors. R&D and innovation are also the drivers of productivity. R&D and innovation should thus be covered in this holistic model.In passing, it is noted that these practices are not restricted to the Six Sigma program; they are also important drivers in the implementation of TQM. TQM programs are based on ‘measurement by fact’, and measurement is also a key step in a Six Sigma project. Various data are collected and analyzed, including product data, customer data, business data, technique data, R&D data, service data, and so on. To use the data effectively and efficiently, an organization requires an effective information technology (IT) system.The utilization of such data repres ents an intangible asset, along with other intangible assets—such as skills, techniques, experience, intellectual property, know-how, knowledge, customer relationships, and so on. These intangible assets represent a valuable organizational resource, and they must be managed and applied in an effective knowledge-management (KM) system. The firm’s IT system and its KM system are also powerful tools in the development of new products and services, and in ensuring the quality of the present customer service.Information technology has become an essential element in securing a competitive advantage—by facilitating the development of new products and services, assisting in adaptation to rapid market changes, incorporating new knowledge, and reducing times and costs in reaching customers (Bianchi, 2001). 4. 2. 2 Fundamental principles The objective of integrating TQM, Six Sigma, and several other major management systems is to pursue business excellence (Yang, 2009). Ho wever, the basic decision to be made is determination of the direction of development at the outset.Mission and vision statements set the general goals and direction for the organization, and they assist shareholders, customers, and employees in understanding what the company is about and what it intends to achieve (Kaplan & Norton, 2004). A mission statement sets out the overall reason for existence and objectives of the organization. As Welch asserted: â€Å"†¦an effective mission statement basically answers one question: How do we intend to win in this business? † (Welch and Welch, 2005). A vision statement is a concise statement that defines the ww. intechopen. com 22 Quality Management and Six Sigma medium-to-long-term goals of the organization. The vision should be market-oriented and should express how the organization wants to be perceived by the world (Kaplan & Norton, 2004). The enunciation of the mission and the development of the vision are usually the respon sibility of senior management (Welch and Welch, 2005). Actually, the vision is linked to the mission. In the realization of the mission and vision, the values, attitudes, and activities of employees are critical.According to Kaplan & Norton (2004), the actions of employees are guided by their values, and it is therefore important that the values proclaimed by the organization are accepted by the employees if those values are to be influential in guiding the thinking and behavior of the employees. Thus, in contrast to the creation of a mission, which is the responsibility of senior management, everyone in a company should have something to say about values (Welch and Welch, 2005).Organizations can use company-wide meetings and training sessions to encourage as much personal discussion as possible in developing organizational values (Welch and Welch, 2005). The vision and values of the organization should thus motivate individuals and serve as a guide for allocating resources (Smith e t al. , 1991). Effective leadership and successful execution are the prerequisites for achieving the organization’s vision. Execution has to be embedded in the reward systems and in the norms of behaviour that everyone practices.So, focusing on execution is not only an essential part of a business’s culture, it is the one sure way to create meaningful culture change (Bossidy and Charan, 2002) Mission, values, vision, leadership, execution, and organizational culture are all linked. Taken together, they represent the guiding principles for the successful implementation of an integrated business-excellence system. 4. 2. 3 Implementation of strategic performance-management system Drucker (1999) stated that the starting point both in theory and in practice may have to be â€Å"managing for performance†.The goal of an integrated business-excellence system is to go beyond mere ‘customer satisfaction’ to achieve customer loyalty through excellent performan ce (see Figure 4. 1). The management systems, programs, and practices of this integrated model are the tools that can be used to achieve this goal. However, an appropriate performance-management system is needed to monitor and evaluate the performance generated by this integrated business-excellence system. Strategic planning and Hoshin management are two popular strategic management tools (Glaister & Falshaw, 1999; Lee & Dale, 1998), and many organizations implement the two simultaneously.Firms commonly perform a SWOT analysis and develop a vision, objectives, and strategies according to the methodology of strategic management, before deploying the organization’s objectives and strategies to the departments or units by the way of Hoshin management. During the implementation process, they commonly conduct a quality audit according to Hoshin management to produce progress reviews and an annual review. These organizations thus use an integrated model of strategic planning and H oshin management to evaluate the performance of TQM (Kondo, 1998).Balanced scorecard (BSC) was launched in 1992 as a framework of performance measurement that was expected to overcome some of the deficiencies of traditional performance measurement. It gives a holistic view of an organization by simultaneously looking at four important perspectives: (i) financial; (ii) customer; (iii) internal process; and (iv) innovation and learning (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). The main benefit of the BSC is its www. intechopen. com Six sigma and Total Quality Management 23 bility to translate an organization’s vision and strategy into tangible objectives and measures (Kanji & SA, 2002). The process of building a scorecard clarifies the strategic objectives, and identifies the critical few drivers for strategic success. The BSC is thus more than a performance-measurement system, and is commonly adopted as a strategic management system (Kaplan & Norton, 1992, 1996; McClintock, 2000). If a firm ha s adopted other performance management systems or programs before adopting BSC, it is necessary to integrate BSC with any existing systems.Companies that wish to embark on the BSC while continuing to implement strategic planning and Hoshin management need to integrate the three systems. To do so effectively, it is necessary to understand the important features of each of these three performance management systems. They can be summarized as follow: * All three can be used in the development of vision, objectives, and strategies, and in the evaluation of execution performance. * Both strategic planning and the BSC involve strategic analysis, and the linkages among the objectives and strategies. Both strategic planning and Hoshin management impose action plans, and the allocation of resources to support the execution of these action plans. * Both BSC and Hoshin management emphasize goal-setting, the achievement of milestones, and the measurement of progress towards the achievement of s trategic objectives. * Strategic planning focuses on the strategy of business development and competition. In this regard, environmental analysis and SWOT analysis are essential. * BSC emphasizes long-term development, and uses a scorecard of the key performance indicators (KPIs). Hoshin management converts the policies and objectives of senior management to departments, and pays much attention to the daily execution of policies. The features and relationships of strategic planning, Hoshin management, and BSC indicates that it is feasible to integrate these systems, and it is reasonable to expect that such an integrated model will be more comprehensive and powerful than each individual system acting alone. This integrated performance-management system is illustrated in Figure 4. 2. www. intechopen. com 24 Quality Management and Six Sigma Strategic Planning Divisions, Business, UnitsFinancial perspective Customer perspective Process perspective Innovation perspective Do, Check, Actio n Fig. 4. 2. Integrated model of strategic planning, BSC, and Hoshin management In this integrated performance-management system, BSC remains the major construct. According to the model, strategic planning is used to perform an environmental analysis and a SWOT analysis, and to develop the vision and strategies for the organization. Having established its vision and strategies, the firm can then develop a strategy map and performance indicators according to the four perspectives of BSC.The firm can then use the methods of Hoshin management to deploy the strategies and the KPIs of the four perspectives to the departments and units within the organization. In this way, every individual receives the KPIs and a relevant action plan. The audit method of Hoshin management can then be used to manage and monitor the execution of this

Does ‘Better’ corporate governance cause better firm performance? Essay

A study had been generated and said that performance are affected either the implemented governance is good or bad: †¦ In summary, our results are as follows. First, we do not find significantly different firm performance between firms with â€Å"good† changes in governance and firms with â€Å"bad† changes in governance, except for isolated instances. This result holds for all the three samples (i. e. the Moderate Performance sample, the Abnormally Bad Performance sample and the Abnormally Good Performance sample). Second, both â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad† changes in governance are followed by positive as well as negative changes in industry-adjusted performance. Indeed, more than 50% of the firms with â€Å"good† governance changes exhibit negative industry-adjusted performance. Third, we find that both â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad† changes in governance lead to significant changes in performance. Therefore, if one restricts the analysis to only â€Å"good† changes in governance or only â€Å"bad† changes in governance, one would incorrectly conclude that changes in governance lead to changes in performance. Fourth, we observe that different firms vary in directions of governance changes when they experience the same direction in performance changes. A same firm also often simultaneously changes its different governance characteristics in conflicting directions (i. e. both â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad† governance changes). Last, our measure for Aggregate Governance Change confirms the first result for individual governance measure that the firms with â€Å"good† changes in governance do not have better performance than the firms with â€Å"bad† changes in governance. Our results present strong evidence against the null hypothesis that â€Å"better† governance causes better firm performance. Note that our results do not imply that governance is irrelevant. Instead, it implies that firms are endogenously optimizing their governance structure in response to observable and unobservable firm characteristics. These results are consistent with the strand of the literature that has shown each governance mechanism to be related to observable and unobservable firm characteristics. The statement proves that all decisions and change causes an effect to a business. This however means that every day, new challenge may face the company. It is normal for demands, and conflicts to happen. The thing that is important is the management and the organization as a whole would stand as one and face all the challenges with a positive outlook to solve it. From the study that we’ve conducted, the writer concluded that the main cause of business failure are the management’s negligence, improper planning. Conducting good and bad governance both causes changes in an organization so it’s better to be alert in all times. Decision making should be done carefully and the organization should choose the people who they will trust. Recommendations Having all the different factors of company failures and the experiences of the UK Industry Company and MISnet Inc. , the writer recommend that the top management should not take the needs of the company for granted but they should also be careful in giving. Decisions should be done care. The financial capacity must always be monitored and all departments must always be alert in all times. The management should encourage the workers to work with passion, be loyal to the company and work hand and hand to achieve all the goals that the company has. It is also important that the people working in the company are capable of doing their assigned job description. Workers are the company’s working hand. It is a must that the workers are at their best to bring the best product that the company wants to have. Investment has been always a part of life in a company. When it comes to people investment, the company must be sure that spending money for a person must be worth paying for. Hence, the company must be very careful of choosing the right people to trust and the right people for a certain job. Documentation is always a must. Never let any situation happen without any documentation. All reports and transactions must be done with papers and with the PIC’s (Person in Charge) signature to make it even more valid and powerful in meetings and agreements. Even important conversations must be recorded and documented to ensure understanding between parties. Meetings are also important and dissemination of information is a must. Memoranda should always be disseminated to all employees. Discipline has been an issue in all companies. The company must enforce a strict and fair rule and policies that the employees must do in order to organize a company. Make them come in the company on time and finish their work fast. Over time on work is not a measurement of quality service, it only show two things: its either the worker can’t handle too many work because of pressure or multi tasking or the worker can’t finish the work on time because he/she wasted it. The company should always have a room for improvement. Benchmarking or company observation is a big help to improve the company’s usual workflow and environment. People used to compare one thing to another. Make it a positive way of upgrading the company. Have a group of trusted people to assist the company to make improvements. Lastly, a company must have a goal or mission. No company must have an inspiration to look forward to. Set a series of mission, vision, the company’s commitment, core values and principles so that the workers will live by the company’s principles and for the company’s goal. There are series of ways and measurements that can be done through quality audits, and meetings. Implement good data management and all department management. Some analyst says that most business fails after its 8 years of operation it still depends on the teamwork of the people in an organization and its willingness to survive. Reference Websites N. K. Chidambaran, Darius Palia , Yudan Zheng , Does ‘Better ‘Corporate Governance Cause Better Firm Performance? , [2006], viewed on 28 January 2008. Greg Bustin, ‘Why Companies Fail? Take Charge! How Leaders Profit From Change’ [2005], viewed on 28 January 2008. Susan M. Heathfield, ‘Performance Management Process Checklist’ < http://humanresources. about. com/od/performancemanagement/a/perfmgmt. htm > viewed on 27 January 2008 ‘Management’, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia viewed on 28 January 2008. NEERAJ BHARGAVA, ‘Good Governance is Good Business’, The Wall Street Journal, [2006] < http://online. wsj. com/article/SB115671755403846763-search. html? KEYWORDS=Good+Governance&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month > viewed on 29 January 2008 ‘Good Governance’ Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia viewed on 28 January 2008 Herb Greenberg â€Å"Corporate Governance as a ‘Risk Factor’. Finding Relationship between Performance and a company’s board of directors† [2007] < http://www. marketwatch. com/news/story/weighing-risk-factors-bad-corporate/story.aspx? guid=%7B55BF9816-8CC4-4570-8D6D-13EBD531F5CE%7D > viewed on 28 January 2008 ‘Process Audit’ viewed on 27 January 2008 Customer Audit < http://www. understanding. co. uk/customeraudit. htm > viewed on 27 January 2008 ‘Final Assembly Supplier Audit Report’ < http://images. apple. com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Final_Assembly_Audit. pdf > (2007) viewed on 28 January 2008 West Cumbria Council for Voluntary Service, ‘Effective Meetings’ (2005) < http://www. westcumbriacvs. org. uk/docs/FactSheet4. pdf> viewed on 28 January 2008. Books Terry Collison â€Å"How to Write an Effective Business Plan in Just Three Hours†, 1993 Paul Todd, ‘Swot Equity and Trust (Swot)’(Gaunt; 5Rev Ed edition (October 1996)) Jeffrey Abrahams, ‘The Mission Statement Book: 301 Corporate Mission Statements from America’s Top Companies’ (TEN SPEED PRESS; Rev Sub edition (1999)) ARTICLES Evangeline Santos ‘How Failures Happen’ IT Tribune (Philippines December 2007) Bruce G. Posner ‘Why Companies Fail’ Inc. com Magazine (June 1993) Manuel Toledo ‘Coping With Business Failure: A Kaizen Approach’ Ginto (Philippines 2004) Term Papers. Hubert Ooghe, Sofie De Prijcker ‘Failure process and causes of company bankruptcy’ (Universiteit Gent) Wayne L. Welsh CPA, ‘Best Practices For Good Management’ Office of the Legislative Author General (2001) R Massey, J Widdows, K Bhattacharya, R Shaw, D Hart, D Law, W Hawes, ‘Insurance Company Failure’ < http://www. actuaries. org. uk/files/pdf/giro2002/Massey. pdf > viewed on 28 January 2008 Conference John Hunter, Natalia Isachenkova ‘Aggregate Economy Risk and Company Failure: An Examination of the UK Quoted Firms in the Early 1990s’ Department of Economics and Finance’ (Brunel University).