This issue covers a wide range of traditional and new operations management techniques. Total Quality Management (TQM) and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) are considered as two pillars of any quality management system. In the first paper, “Statistical Analysis and Reliability Estimation of Total Productive Maintenance”, the authors M S Prabhuswamy, P Nagesh, and K P Ravikumar, perform a statistical analysis to measure the effectiveness of total productivity maintenance. The number of parts produced and defects for a product are noted for different shifts in a factory before and after TPM. The difference between the defectives is computed and it is seen that there is a change in productivity after the implementation of TPM. The contribution of the paper lies in performing quantitative analysis pre- and post-implementation of TPM.

The second paper looks at an advanced version of Six Sigma—Lean Six Sigma. M Vijaya Sunder, in his paper, “Synergies of Lean Six Sigma”, dwells on two popular process improvement methodologies—Lean and Six Sigma—to compare and contrast the differences and commonalities which can lead to a successful continuous improvement program. The views of Lean and Six Sigma professionals using surveys, interviews and case studies have been studied and analyzed for understanding the real-time challenges of corporates in current markets for quality deployment across financial services, healthcare, hospitality and ITES. Lean, an on-floor improvement technique, and Six Sigma, a popular statistical-based methodology, are looked at from a focused perspective for developing a hybrid methodology. The model is further tested for acceptability as a proposal of usage for process improvement professionals and proved successful with an acceptance rate of 98.8%. The important failure modes of Lean Six Sigma deployment, advantages and points of caution are presented in the paper.

The third paper, “Continuous Improvement Strategies: An Overview”, by Jagdeep Singh and Harwinder Singh, presents an overview of various continuous improvement strategies used by corporations. Most of the manufacturing industries are currently encountering a necessity to respond to rapidly changing customer needs, desires and tastes. To compete in this competitive environment, these manufacturing organizations need to adopt such strategies in their manufacturing process. The paper covers continuous strategies, including Kaizen, TPM, TQM, JIT, 5S, Six Sigma, and FMEA. The contribution of this paper lies in assimilating the concepts in a comprehensive manner and tracing the advancements and adoptions of these concepts.

Lastly, the Research Note, “Management by Walking Around: An Effective Tool for Day-to-Day Operations of Hospital”, by D Rama Mohan, S Sathish Kumar, and G Subrahmanyam, deals with a topic of management that is more spoken of and less written about. The authors, all doctors of a reputed medical institution in India, espouse ‘walking around’—the system of making rounds and interacting with staff and patients for effectiveness of day-to-day operations of the hospital. Making rounds by administrators at specific period in a day and organizing regular review meetings for taking follow-up actions is the key to the concept of ‘walking around’. Considering year-long data, the authors note that 87.28% of the issues were resolved sometimes instantly or within a very short span of time, whereas the rest were pending requiring follow-up action by various heads of the departments. This study is more relevant given the somewhat poor condition of service delivery in many healthcare institutions.

-- Anupam Ghosh
Consulting Editor