This essay will focus on analysing Total Quality Management and Six Sigmas business management strategy. These concepts are hereby used as references to commonly used methods aimed at achieving better quality in businesses operational environment.

The first 200 words of this essay...

The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle is known to have said that "quality is not an act, it's a habit". But what was really meant by quality then? As far as operations management is concerned, quality relates to conforming both to specifications and customer needs. Such meaning of quality which has led to quality movement, can be traced back to medieval Europe where craftsmen began organising into unions called guilds in the late 13th century. However until the early 19th century, manufacturing in the industrialised world tended to follow this craftsmanship model. The factory system, with its emphasis on product inspection, started in Great Britain in the mid-1750s and grew into the Industrial Revolution in the early 1800s (ASQ, 2010). But as markets have become much more competitive in the last 20 to 30 years, quality started being widely regarded as a key ingredient for success in business. Consequently, one of the most important issues that businesses have focused on in that period of time has been quality. Various philosophies, systems and other procedures subsequently emerged around the quality concept. This essay will focus on analysing Total Quality Management and Six Sigma's business management strategy. These concepts are hereby used as