From Raises to Steak Knives, From TQM to Six Sigma

Ten years ago when I was working as a printing press operator in San Francisco in the mid 90s, I was approached by my employer about joining a committee to help implement a new management / labor phenomena called Total Quality Management or TQM. The president of the company I worked for specifically picked me to represent “the shop” because I was outspoken, opinionated and I read. Since I was guilty on all three charges and because I’ve always been fascinated by the (often dysfunctional) relationship between the worker and the middle management--not to mention the unique disconnect that occurs between said laborer and the owner of the company--I jumped at the opportunity to find out more about how I could help the shop run more efficiently. Up to that point I had never been invited to take the elevator to the top of the “Ivory Tower” so I took advantage of this opportunity to see firsthand what goes on behind the doors with the fancy gold plates on them.

I have to say I was immediately taken in by this new way of thinking. What I liked most about TQM was the employee empowerment aspect of it. Instead of just being a time clock number, I was going to be a part of a team and a participant in positive change within the company. I had a reputation at work for my safety consciousness and I tried to always work as efficiently as possible, so being a part of the TQM transition was a good fit. But I liked that this was also my chance to voice my opinion and be heard by my supervisors. Needless to say I liked and looked forward to learning more about this idea of continuous process improvement.

During our initial meetings I was told by the president of the company that one of the features of TQM was the ultimate payoff of program success…RAISES! As one of the team captains, this is what I knew I could sell the guys in the shop on. I was asked to help come up with a system to eliminate spoilage and make the processes more efficient, so we sat down with members of each department and went to work.

After about six to nine months down the road, I’m proud to say that TQM is a success! As a team and as department spokesman, we had done it. Company wide we cleaned up our spoilage percentage and efficiency was skyrocketing. Every worker brushed off their surf board and we rode the wave to a model example of Total Quality Management. What a great feeling it was to watch an idea flourish and go from a flowchart to a reality. Great job everyone!

This experience is what I liked most about TQM and now in retrospect I know the number reason why it can fail: management abandons the team. The entire workforce supported the change for improvements and did their part as required to make it happen but the owner decided not to ultimately give any raises in the end. Even though spoilage was at a record low and efficiency was at its peak we got nothing for our efforts. He said and I quote, “Things are so bad that I have to keep the same Mercedes for another year.” Needless to say, I quit the team that day. I was called into the owner’s office for a personal interview and had to explain why I left the group. I took a verbal beating and vowed to never be taken advantage of again because that’s what it felt like. Note: later on, I did get a steak knife set for all my hard work.

Eventually I relocated back to Cincinnati, Ohio and I’ve stayed in the printing industry. In the early 2000s, my current employer decided to give TQM a try. They found out that I had gone through the process in California and asked if I wanted to join up. I did not want to rock the boat but I politely declined. The person who stepped up was very spirited and wanted it to succeed. She was a little nervous as she had to explain the program in front of the entire company, not just for the benefit of a few team members. I felt sorry for her in a way because she was asking everyone to work harder and become more efficient at a time when most people were working 12 hour shifts including weekends with no promise of any “reward”, raises or even steak knives.

The Vice President supported the program 100% and said we would all benefit from this innovative employee management system. Without going into specific details, the woman in charge was laid off within a few months and the whole program was scrapped before they’d even got started. It’s been replaced by a gain-sharing program that is also ineffective because management chose to include themselves in the program, essentially saturating the “pay off”.

I say these things not because I’m disgruntled but because the failure of TQM in both shops wasn’t just the result of management’s abandonment of the principles in order to help see it through in the long term. It even wasn’t from the owner’s unfortunate decision to renege on the promise of raises or his poor choice of words. It failed because TQM provided broad and relatively vague guidelines for management to follow. TQM focused on quality achievement through the help of all its members for long-term success but it didn’t work because it wasn’t allowed to.

It has recently come to my attention that many of the TQM principles I learned and applied in California have evolved into a redefined version called Six Sigma. Although the program sounds like an updated, reinvented version of TQM, I’ve read about some significant differences. The fact that it was developed some of the top CEOs in the world from GE to Motorola and beyond helps. From my perspective, if Six Sigma can help you as an employer identify and tackle the following issues with your employees, you’re already on the road to success:

>Create trust between employer and employees
>Admit that things aren’t going “great”
>Listen to concerns, don’t just shrug them off as “you’re just being negative”
>Be aware that individuals’ issues are not just their own, they are company issues
>Provide functioning equipment and “the tools” necessary to maintain quality
>Develop short-term and long-term incentives for employees and stick to them

Keep in mind that workers aren’t asking for the world and most employees realize that companies need to make money in order to be successful. There are many ways to show your appreciation and giving away steak knives isn’t one of them. If employers can bring the workers and the managers together to implement permanent and positive change and stick to it, everyone benefits from a program that aims to improve efficiency. Who wouldn’t want to make their company a good place to work? Can Six Sigma help bridge the gap between your workers and you?

Chuck Byrd has worked in the printing industry for 22 years and is currently a press operator working for a Cincinnati, Ohio printing company. He recently entered the publishing business in 2007 to become co-owner of Aurore Press, a Cincinnati-based publishing house that specializes in publishing local writers.