six sigma in education: towards quality education
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The concept deals in with concepts of Quality Education and implementing the Six Sigma In Education as an expertise towards Quality LearningTRANSCRIPT
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Six Sigma In Education by Dheeraj Mehrotra
Implementing
Six Sigma In EducaSix Sigma In EducaSix Sigma In EducaSix Sigma In EducaSix Sigma In Educationtiontiontiontion
towards
TQM in Academics
DHEERAJ MEHROTRA
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Six Sigma In Education by Dheeraj Mehrotra
PREFACE
Six Sigma in Education is an art of learning through a study of orientation to the customers’
the ultimate parents and the children studying at a college in particular. It is a the pride and
enhancement of the products to get recognition out of the Quality Environment of Learning
and Study Cult which replicates and laminates the success at large among the masses.
The inception of Six Sigma technique in Education is implemented as a novice inception
using the quality learning tools, brainstorming and benchmarking over all.
I am sure my work on implementation of the SIX SIGMA IN ACADEMICS would not only
spread the cause but shall also given a new dimension to the standard of education in
particular.
(Dheeraj Mehrotra) [email protected]
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LIST OF CONTENTS
Page No.
CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION 5
CHAPTER 2 : WHY SIX SIGMA IN EDUCATION ? 18
CHAPTER 3 : IMPACT OF IT ON QUALITY EDUCATION 30
CHAPTER 4 : QUALITY CIRCLES APPROACH FOR TQM 40
CHAPTER 5 : TQM IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 51
CHAPTER 6 : PROBLEM SOLVING TECHNIQUES TO ATTAIN TOTAL
QUALITY 55
CHAPTER 7 : DEVELOPING STUDENT LEADERSHIP SKILLS
TOWARDS TOTAL QUALITY. 77
CHAPTER 8 :CONCLUSION 81
CHAPTER 9 : Pictures towards Quality Achievements,Thanks to His Excellence, Shri A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Our President. 103
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Six Sigma In Education by Dheeraj Mehrotra
1. INTRODUCTION
“Implementing Six Sigma In Education towards TQM in Academics”
Quality, quality, quality. Ours is an age of quality. In the marching trend of the commercial
arena there lies an indispensability of the presence of this essence of acceptability of any
commodity. In the academic arena, with an information backed age, the teachers have gathered
a revolutionary phase of education system.
A Shift from Industry to Schools:
Moving the Theory from Industry to Education In adapting quality management, originally
developed for business enterprises, it is important to keep in mind certain differences between
education and business:
• The school is not a factory.
• The student is not a “product”.
• The education of the student is the product.
• Successful completion of the product requires the student to participate as a worker, co-
managing the learning process.
• Teaching and learning are two different processes. Teaching is more akin to management
than to detailed supervision of activities. Learning is more akin to research and development
(R&D) than it is to an assembly process. Attempts to organize R&D as though it were merely
an assembly of ideas to be managed in the style of an assembly line have been disastrous.
The same is true in education.
• In industry, quality management requires every manager of every process to identify a
customer. If a process has no output for which there is a customer, why do it?
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BEST PRACTICE SCHOOLSBEST PRACTICE SCHOOLS
• MAXIMISE USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE INNOVATION
• CONTINOUSLY SEEK TO IMPROVE MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES
• ENCOURAGE INPUT FROM TEACHERS, STUDENTS AND PARENTS
• SIMPLIFY INTERNAL SYSTEMS AND PROCESSESS WHEREEVER POSSIBLE
According to the Kothari Commission report, of all the factors which influence the quality of
education and its contribution to national development, the quality, competence and character
of teachers are undoubtedly the most significant.
BEST PRACTICE SCHOOLSBEST PRACTICE SCHOOLS
• DEVELOP SYSTEMS TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE IN
EACH OF THE KEY AREAS OF THE ORGANISATION’S
ACTIVITIES.
• BENCHMARK PERFORMANCE INTERNALLY AND
EXTERNALLY WITHIN AND OUTSIDE THEIR SECTOR
FOR IMPROVEMENT TOWARDS RESULTS.
• LEARN FROM THE PRACTICES ADOPTED BY OTHERS.
• TAKE APPROPRIATE AND TIMELY ACTION ON
RESULTS.
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Presently if the teachers realise their importance, their commitment to their profession will
increase. They should be aware of their role and responsibilities for their effective functioning.
Till past years it was more than of an instructor but now they are well graded as a nation-
builder. Secondly, the role of the teacher as an animator of development or catalyst of change
also envisages a prominent and high value role to the teacher.
WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF TQM?
Although no two businesses use TQM in exactly the same way, its theory rests on two basic
tenets. The first and most important is that customers are vital to the operation of the
organization. Without customers, there is no business, and without business, there is no
organization. Consequently, it should be the primary aim of any group to keep customers
satisfied by providing them with quality products (Deming 1986).
These ideas are not foreign to most organizations; what makes TQM unique is its call for a
restructuring of management methods to create that quality. TQM proponents urge
organizations to turn nearsighted, top-down management “on its head” by involving both
customers and employees in decisions. This second tenet, that management needs to listen
to nontraditional sources of information in order to institute quality, is based on the belief that
people want to do quality work and that they would do it if managers would listen to them and
create a workplace based on their ideas (Deming).
Managers, in the TQM view, need to become leaders who “not only work in the system but
also on the system” (Rocheleau 1991). A company will see continuous improvement in
products only when managers realize all systems consist of interdependent parts and work to
aim all those parts toward a vision of quality, proponents argue. This type of leadership is
needed to ensure that product quality improves “constantly and forever” and truly satisfies the
customers (Deming).
The marching trend of the economic stimulations in the global village; touched upon by the
web has an enormous approach of QUALITY. The glossy ads do predict of the fact in respect
to the available product, but alas, the customer, the king, has the sole freedom to judge the
necessity and the quality of the same. To share the indispensability of this concept there lies
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the execution of the Quality Control, as an everlasting strategy by the managers at all levels.
The control of the quality performs the vigil of right operations which are inherent in nature. In
a school where the motto of quality is education, the control of quality has a competitive edge
in terms of academic excellence enabling the all round development of the child. Along with,
the staff of an educational institution has to be well trained, developed and involved in quality
control activities.
Since the attainment of Quality depends not merely on tools and techniques but on the people,
the students and the teachers together striving for it, a novel idea has been developed by
Professor K. Ishikawa of Japan in the sixties. The whole idea was termed as Quality Circle
(QC) approach, under which the task performers at the grassroot level are given the privilege
of participating in progress and to have a say in the work they do. It may sound farfetched but
the studies have revealed that it is more-so over a true explanations that Quality Circle concepts
were first piloted at the Nippon Telegraph and Cable Company in 1962. With the effect of the
great success in this arena, today, there are around 2.5 million QCs involving more than 20
million members and extending into the services sector of Japan. As an everlasting strategical
individuality, the Quality Circle concept to upgrade the qualitative analysis has had a unique
acceptability in nearly all fields of commerce, in nearly all parts of the world, with the tide. The
QC concept as the result of the interaction between the American statistical method of quality
control and Japanese Organizational practices, is a people-building rather than a people-
using approach. It aims at making every worker a decision-maker concerning his or her own
work.
In the process of polishing the acceptance of any commodity, which may be a product on the
side of any company or producing results on the part of the educational institute, the QCs’
constitute a formal, institutionalized mechanism for productive and participative problem-
solving interaction among employees or the students. Small groups of workers engage in a
continuing co-operative study process to uncover and to solve work-related problems. Each
circle also acts as a surveillance mechanism which assists the organisation/ institution in
adapting to its environment and in monitoring opportunities. It scans the environment for
opportunities, does not wait to be activated by a problem, and does not stop its activities
when a problem has been found and solved. It follows that for greatest organizational benefit,
QCs’ should function continuously and be independent of the production process.
At the part of the upgrading, the QC is humanistic, straight and very useful for exploiting the
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latent potentials of our people. In academics, where ranking method based on examination
rules the most, where many students’ creative energies remain untapped and slowly mellows
down due to want of recognition, motivation and participation, the quality circle may open up
new avenues for the students to expose off their hidden talents.
Keeping the educational qualitative analysis in view, the education industry is witnessing
growing competition. Previously, this competition was limited by geography, but with the advent
of degree programs and specific courses being offered over the Internet by prestigious
organisations such as Harward, MIT and Stanford, Universities and Colleges now have to
deal with competition outside their local geography. To stay competitive, Universities are
looking at new methods of reaching more students outside their local geography, while
minimizing the cost structure for delivering this demand for education.
Another concern for Universities as well as primary or secondary schools, is providing current
technology as part of the learning experience, and the need to share resources to minimize
costs. Most primary and secondary schools use PCs in the classrooms as an adjunct to
standard class work. The need to train children to use PCs in today’s world is similar to that
of training children to use Calculators, 20 years back. Children coming out of secondary
school without PC Skills, will be at a severe disadvantage in the university and the job market,
under the category of excellence.
Along with, much to the acceptability, the interface between the teachers and students involve
the main components of quality in teaching, which include communication skills of the teacher,
qualification of the teacher, innovative methods of teaching, need based curriculum, adequate
training input for teachers and learner centered teaching.
Tuitions, a threat to quality, has been a grave concern over the years. Some teachers are
found not to take their work very seriously and make the challenge as a recruiting ground for
their clients outside. On my part the ideal situation would be the teachers to undertake tuition
work voluntarily without payment, as been practised by the City Montessori Chain of Schools,
at Lucknow. Here, the teachers undertake REMEDIAL classes for the weak students and are
honoured by an extra salary termed as NON TUITION ALLOWANCE by the management
with the cost that the teacher should not impart private tuitions.
More-so-over, the effectiveness of the teaching process depends on the quality of
communication between the teacher and the pupil. With many teachers teaching a large
group of students, the quality of communication is diluted and the teacher is forced to distribute
his/ her attention amongst all students. The Institution of Teacher-Guardians seeks a happy
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compromise between the ancient ideal and modern realities.
The Quality assurance in education can thus be termed as a burning issue for all academicians.
Every educationist, teacher and student feels the need of it and has definite perception of the
falling standards. Every one seems to feel the urge to contribute his/ her share in reviving
quality.
Teachers normally complain that they are not given a say in crucial matters deciding the
issues related to the system of education, that they are not given proper audience when they
want to ventilate their academic grievances.
Keeping in view the necessity, the evolution of Educational Technology has had emerged
with a wide promotional acceptance. Under the prospective of the data available through the
research papers, the association for educational communications and technology has
identified the five domains that of Design, Development, Utilization, Evaluation and
Management.
Under the essence of the Total Quality Management, the Quality Giant, Dr. Ishikawa has rightly
pointed out in one of his definitions of TQM, as “ Control of Management of Quality of all
services, business, human beings etc. and control of everything but this is from top
management, middle management to the bottom, QC circle leaders, members and non
members.” As a concept, the TQM (Total Quality Management), has had a remarking feature
for qualitative analysis of the organisation at regard of polishing the overall development of
the product.
Quality as an everlasting strategy has been the need of the day. What strategy has to be
applied in today’s educational arena is a thoughtful concern on the part of the management to
dwell into. For carrying on any work effectively, a plan is required and after preparing the plan
an act is to be decided. If such planning and selection of means or methods is not done, work
will take place in an unorganised and haphazard manner and the cumulative effect of it, will
not be beneficial to the concerned. For this, the awareness of the faculty, with different teaching
strategies which can be adopted in institutions or higher and the usage of those strategies
would contribute to a better teaching-learning process at all levels.
According to Anthony S. Jones, an educationist, “Teachers need to vary their teaching
strategies in different class room situations and many competently utilise only a few and
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many times only one. This severely limits the teachers over all effectiveness. When a teacher
relies upon a single approach on an instructional strategy, student boredom can easily create
learning or discipline problems. A teacher’s lack of knowledge and methodological fluidity is
indicative of a lack of knowledge and methodological fluidity is indicative of a lack of knowledge
of student’s needs, interests and individual learning conditions. It is in effect a very detrimental
form of professional ignorance.
Along with, the method of discussion can well be adopted to make the teaching more effective.
Under this method, the very class can be divided into groups and the very same can be
arranged on different aspects of a subject. After this the group leaders shall report to the
entire class and prepare the summary of the discussion in their groups. This is also possible
by simply floating the questions in the class for discussion at large. The debate method at this
juncture can be effectively used to highlight the opposite view points on any subject. With the
revolutionary usage of audiovisual devices, the students can also be asked to write papers
on a particular subject and after the presentation of papers, the discussion shall take place
on the respective subject. Under this method of imparting knowledge of literacy, the thinking,
writing and presentation skills of the students can be kindled. Now with the march of time and
tide, there has been a novel way of teaching through the framing of Quality Control Circles in
Academics. Under this the value based concept could be very rightly adapted for infusing a
spike of excellence, emotional development, humaneness and self discipline. The main
objective of QCC is to build the people of tomorrow. A family chatting around the fire place of
a weekend evening, or at the dinner table on a routine basis, discussing what happened
today and what needs to be done tomorrow, sums up the spirit of “QUALITY CIRCLES”. In the
family there is warmth, comfort and mutual concern. There is a sense of belonging and
collective pride. Along with, in the work arena, this has to come about, to be created as QC
aims at just that.
It is a good saying that, those who feel good, produce good results. All of us carve for some
freedom, some opportunity to put our latent potential to use and to receive recognition in
return. Quality Circles are not a panacea, not also a tool to solve all problems in an organisation.
They are a people-building measure and also a step towards great involvement. The ownership
of issues is of importance. The learning and synergy that emanates from effective team work
is an experience worth seeking. QCs’ choose their own projects from work related issues
and brainstorm to resolve the issues. The “Ownership” of the issue constituting the “project”
leads to much satisfaction subsequently.
All in all, quality circles need careful nurturing. It is a simple concept, easy to understand. But
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it also requires conviction. Conviction that people can contribute and in the process be creative,
given a chance. It demands patience and perseverance. In the present day situation of
liberalization and intense competition, when distancing could take place between the
individuals and their organisations, an effort like the quality circles needs to be encouraged
by one and all.
According to David Hutchins, who is responsible for bringing the concept of quality circles to
Europe and is ranked amongst the world leaders in its implementations. A “Quality Circle” is
defined as a “small group of work people who, under the leadership of their own foreman or
supervisor, are trained to identify, analyze and solve quality-related problems on a voluntary
basis and present their solutions to their managers.” In the field of academics, the quality
circles are framed among the students with a teacher as a facilitator and the circle framed
among the teachers is basically termed as a QUALITY IMPROVEMENT TEAM (QIT). Under
this in contrast to the norms of any company, the main objective is to create an institution in
which everyone becomes involved in working to make their organisation a better place to be,
to share equally in its success, to feel a part of the total community, to develop a sense of
pride and loyalty and to feel that their company/ institution is better for them being there.
Now since the Quality Control Circles movement has entered into the arena there has been
an extraordinary reflection of students’ case study presentations at national and International
Level conventions, in totality. The QC philosophy is a Japanese philosophy of participative
culture in any work arena. This novel aspect has come up to the view to enable the temples of
knowledge to have a competitive edge in terms of academic excellence, enable growth and
fame of the institutions, bring the parent’s satisfaction, delight and surprise by enabling the
overall development of the child in all spheres of life.
HOW DOES TQM CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT THAT PROMOTESQUALITY?
TQM is more than just a philosophy. In addition to proposing new theories about the workplace,
it advocates specific changes that managers need to make if they want to improve the system.
These changes are best described in Deming’s “14 Points,” which are condensed under the
four categories below:
* Customer Relationships: Customers can be either internal or external to an organization.
Just as a customer is the person buying a product in a store, an employee is the customer of
management. Managers need to realize that quality work will not be done unless they provide
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employees with quality products to work with (Blankstein 1992).
* Employee Empowerment: TQM starts at the top but should permeate the workplace; it fact,
it will fail without employee involvement. Since workers know more about their jobs than
management does, their input is vital to improving the system. It is a manager’s responsibility
to continually train employees in the methods of TQM, involve them in management decisions,
listen to their suggestions for system changes, and work to implement those changes
(Schmoker 1992).
* Continual Gathering and Use of Statistical Data: Most companies monitor the quality of
their products by doing mass inspections that determine how many low-quality items are
being produced, but Deming calls for monitoring of the production process by continually
gathering statistical data so that problems can be identified as they are happening instead of
when it is too late to solve them. When problems are identified, they should be the focus of
discussion, and the groups discussing them should rely on the data to institute change instead
of randomly assigning blame to individuals or departments (Deming).
* Create an Environment that Promotes Unity and Change: People need to feel comfortable
discussing problems and suggesting solutions. Managers need to work at breaking down
barriers between departments so that interactive discussion can take place. Fear must be
eliminated. Also, managers are urged to do away with slogans, quotas, goals, and objectives
since they encourage competition between workers and put the focus on individual results
rather than process (Deming).
HOW DOES TQM TRANSLATE TO EDUCATION?
Considerable effort has gone into translating ideas generated by TQM to education, and
adaptations of Deming’s fourteen points pepper recent educational journals. Most of the
points, such as the dissolving of barriers between departments, are essentially the same in
education as they are in the business world. Some TQM advocates, however, call for changes
in education that may seem radical to educators.
* The Role of Students: TQM recognizes students as both customers and employees of the
educational system. Administrators need to involve students in their own education by training
them to question the learning process, and once the students have questioned it,
administrators need to seriously consider student proposals for change (Olson 1992b).
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* The Role of Teachers: TQM calls for changes in teachers’ relationships with both students
and administrators; teachers need to view education through students’ eyes, and they need
to work with administrators as a team. This teamwork is largely the responsibility of
administrators, who need to delegate some of their responsibility and power to teachers
(Rhodes 1992).
* Testing and Evaluation: Instead of using standardized tests and grades to measure students’
progress, schools that embrace TQM often try to assess student progress regularly throughout
the school year. By doing so, they avoid bringing problems to students’ attention at the end of
the year, when it is too late to do anything about them. The same sort of process is used to
evaluate teachers and administrators as well; instead of basing teacher evaluation on one
classroom visit, teachers are evaluated throughout the year (Blankstein).
WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF TQM IN EDUCATION?
In a TQM school or college, improvement teams and individuals are constantly working on
improving service to customers. The concept of a service being “good enough” is considered
inadequate. The following are the required expertise towards TQM in schools:
1. Awareness and Commitment for Everyone
The linguistic, kinesthetic, visual, and/or mathematical talents of a student will not be developed
to their fullest potential unless EVERY member of a teaching-learning partnership promotes
the highest possible quality at each step in the development process. A transformation from
“good-enough” or traditional education (where marks or grades of “A” and “B” are good enough
even if they do not represent best work) should begin with everyone being made aware of the
potential and the elements of TQM. An excellent way to begin is with a total staff meeting with
parents and school board members participating. The meeting can provide:
o A dynamic overview of TQM elements and potential by one or more presenters who
have experienced both and
o A clear commitment from the school board, superintendent, and principal that they will
fully support TQM efforts and that they do not expect (to use the language of W. Edwards
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Deming) “instant pudding” results.
2. A Clear Mission
Managing continuous movement toward progressively higher quality standards depends on
defining those standards. If a TQM steering committee is formed in a school (See element
#10a.), it should determine the answer to this question—Does the school have a clear,
customer-focused mission statement and a functioning process for divisions and/or
departments translating this statement into exit outcomes for graduates? If the answer is
“no”, that problem must be addressed with local, state, national, and employer standards.
These standards should emphasize developing students’ abilities to solve real-life problems
rather than just memorizing subject matter. The latter does not represent quality for either
students or employers.
3. A Systems Planning Approach
Traditional education has become excessively compartmentalized. Teacher X provides an
English course; science teacher Y might focus heavily on a student’s knowledge of scientific
principles without paying much attention to developing that student’s ability to use English
principles in writing a technical report. Subconsciously, the student begins to view English as
a “course” instead of as skills to be USED. If higher levels of student competence are to be
developed, there must be higher levels of system-wide and cross-department PLANNING for
instructional improvement in schools and colleges. Lack of system planning is a serious
obstruction to higher quality in student learning. Compare this school-wide reading
development plan in a middle school with what you know about many narrower traditional
remedial reading programs.
4. Teaming Replacing Hierarchy
The hierarchical organizations of yesterday are still dominant in too many businesses and
schools. Such organizations tend to promote individual effort “good enough” to satisfy a
supervisor who sometimes knows less about how to achieve quality than those he/she
supervises.
5. Enablement AND Empowerment Replacing Fear
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Traditional do-it-to-them evaluation systems by themselves generate fear and lack of initiative.
Staff members focus on doing whatever is enough to keep the boss happy. However, if volunteer
members of empowered improvement teams are given opportunities to become experts
and/or to use experts, that enablement generates excitement and dedication.
6. Focus on Mastery Learning
In traditional classrooms, teachers often follow this sequence:
1 Plan—————————> 2 Teach———————————> 3 Test
The normal curve that usually results stands as testimony to the fact that many students fail to
learn at the highest possible level in this system. The TQM alternative is:
1 Plan—> 2 Teach (DO)—> 3 Check**—> 4 Revised Teaching (ACT)—> 5 Test**
In the “check” step, formative (not-for-grade) testing is used to determine which learning some
students have missed. Then non-mastered material is retaught in some different way or style.
If advisable, the checking and revised teaching can be repeated more than once. Meanwhile
students who have mastered the material move to enrichment learning or assist with instruction
of those who have not achieved mastery. This system of mastery learning can result in much
more complete learning for most students, in effect, a positive movement of the “normal”
curve. This improvement in learning is a basic purpose of TQM in the classroom.
8. Development of Student TQM Skills
In addition to using TQM to improve learning in general, every school district should specifically
equip its students to understand and use TQM. This is a basic part of schools contributing to
readiness for work in the global economy. Whether a school staff decides to integrate learning
TQM into existing courses or to provide it as a separate course, it is important that students
DO and not just study about TQM.
9. A Humanistic and a Brain Compatible Focus in the Learning Environment
Dr. William Glasser has provided one of the best translations of TQM principles into suggestions
for a very productive learning environment. Every educator can profit from reading his book:
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The Quality School Teacher, by William Glasser, M.D. (1993)
Harper-Collins Publishers, Inc.
10 East 53rd St.; New York, NY 10022
It provides information on six conditions for quality schoolwork:
a. There must be a warm, supportive learning environment.
b. Students should be asked to do only useful work.
c. Students should be asked to do the best they can do.
d. Students should be asked to evaluate their own work and improve it.
e. Quality work should always feel good.
f. Quality work should never be destructive.
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2. WHY SIX SIGMA IN EDUCATION ?
An Introduction Integrated with TQM
THE CONCEPT:
The marching trend of the new economic order has generated a new capsule of SIX SIGMA
as a unified approach to process excellence. The tests reveal that it has transformed some of
the most successful companies in the world like Motorola, GE etc. It is activated as an
approach to aiming at the target by changing the culture of a company, involving everyone in
the company, not just the Black Belts and Green Belts. The concept of SIX SIGMA is to identify
the problem in a process, set up project with the processes, evaluate the process and work
through the project in order to improve the process in totality. In the words of JACK WELCH,
Chairman of GE, the SIX SIGMA, is “The only programme I’ve ever seen where customers
win, employees are engaged in and satisfied by, shareholders are (rewarded), Everybody
who touches it wins.” In education it pertains of improving quality of matter taught, the character
generated of the pupils in certain and the quality of study and school life. With the revolutionary
usage of audiovisuals devices, like projectors, video conferencing, etc., the students can
also be asked to write papers on a particular subject and after the presentation of papers, the
discussion shall take place on the respective subject. Under this method of imparting
knowledge of literacy with quality, the thinking, writing and presentation skills of the students
can be kindled. Not only this, the existing method of QUALITY IMPROVEMENT through SQCC
(Students Quality Control Circles) have had the value based concept as a simile for the Six
Sigma standards. It infuses a spike of excellence, emotional development, humaneness and
self discipline.
ORIGINS OF SIX SIGMA:
The concept of SIX SIGMA originated in the 1980’ as MOTOROLA in response of the threat
of Japanese counterpart got excited of the zero defects. Further the concept broomed to
Allied Signal and General Electric (GE), as a result it became a news in 1996, that GE had
made over $1Billion of cost savings. In academics it is still in infancy. It is dependent on the
management gurus for implementation.
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TARGET & TECHNIQUES OF SIX SIGMA:
The SIX SIGMA tends to raise customer satisfaction by reducing the number of defective
from a process to 3.4 defective per million. The progress towards the target is measured by
the sigma rating. If it can not be measured it is bound to have a raise instead. Again in
academics, it standardises the enhancement of the result by percent increase. The defects
here symbolises the failures or the third divisioners.
WHAT & WHY OF SIX SIGMA ?
Six Sigma applies a systematic methodology for improving organizations’ processes, based
on rigorous data gathering and analysis. The approach focuses on helping organizations
produce products and services better, faster, and smarter by improving the capability of
processes to meet customer requirements. Six Sigma identifies and eliminates costs that
add no value to customers. Unlike simple cost-cutting programs, however, Six Sigma delivers
cost cuts while retaining or improving value to the customer.
Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps an organization focus on developing and
delivering near perfect products and services. The methodology is based on established
statistical process control techniques and data analysis methods. It features systematic
training of all personnel involved in the activity or process targeted by the program.
The Greek letter d (sigma) is a mathematical symbol that represents a measure of variation:
the distribution around the mean of any process or procedure. The term “Six Sigma”
mathematically defines an optimum measurement of quality: 3.4 defects per million events. If
an organization can reduce its product’s average deviation, then less of it will be faulty and
cost savings result. In other words, do it right by progressively monitoring and eliminating
mistakes.
Understanding what the customer considers “critical to quality” is a cornerstone of any
successful Six Sigma initiative. The link between Six Sigma and business process thinking
often determines the span and depth of performance improvements. Both incremental
business process improvement and Six Sigma are intended to develop focused solutions to
eliminate root causes of business performance problems without radically changing existing
processes or organizational structure.
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CULTURE OF SIX SIGMA:
The work environment or the quality of work life suggests the culture with permeates a company
in the desire of all staff to achieve that target, to increase customer satisfaction, to increase
efficiency, lower costs and improve profitability. This culture provides an important and
continuing focus to management. The quality of SIX SIGMA penetrates applying to all of a
company’s business, whether ‘defective’ means an out-of-specific time coming off a production
line, the amount of ‘re-work’ in a batch of a product, a document with a misprint, or an overlong
delivery time. Now, the implementation in the educational arena requires the significance of
the teaching fraternity as the employees or the workforce in general. The customers tend to
be the parents who pay the fees and want quality in return of the good result of their wards.
APPLICATION OF SIX SIGMA IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS:
The following are some of the common processes in the educational institutions which can
be significantly improved by applying the Six Sigma methodology:
* academic achievement
* the process of college admission
* teaching and academic programs
* study program and process
* institutional effectiveness
* student learning performance
* evaluation of the instructional delivery
* the accreditation process.
The implementation or application starts with the recognition of a problem, and the defining
of a project to cure or alleviate that problem. The dependence of any standard of academic
or production is totally dependent on the following format for DMAIC.
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The project is undertaken by a team using DMAIC, meaning DEFINE, MEASURE, ANALYSE,
IMPROVE and CONTROL. These are defined well as:
DEFINE : The definition of the project/ assignment, using process map, application area,
desired improvement, likely benefits etc. The importance lies of having the chance of a high
successful delivery of better quality and saving costs in totality. Here in context of academic
strata, the failures include the definition of the problem in as an identity. The others may
include projects like real life problems pertaining to “DISTRACTIONS IN THE CLASS ROOM”
for example.
MEASURE: This involves the analyses of the process to determine its present state and the
future, as obtained. The data collection is a well suited frame for this.
ANALYSE: This involves the data analysis for identification of parts of process which affect
the quality of the problem.
IMPROVE: This adds to the process to find a permanent solution to the problem. This may
involve better forecasting, better scheduling, better procedures or better equipment, specifying,
teaching techniques, work environment for the teachers and school campus quality life.
CONTROL: Involves the process of closing the problem by putting in the right procedures and
management statistics.
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SIX SIGMA PROFESSIONALS:
Six Sigma Organization
Executives
Champions Provide direction & resources
Master Black Belts Teach and Mentor Black Belts Lead Business Unit Projects
Black Belts Lead Multi-Functional Projects Mentor and Coach Green Belts
Green Belts Guide Day-to-Day Functional Projects
Sustain the Gains
COMMITMENTS RESULTS
AS IN ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS (AS UNDER)
BLACK BELTS:
They represent the Six Sigma experts with a thorough grounding with the ability to lead the
projects, an upper hand over Green Belts. The incharges of Senior School include in this
gentry. In industries, the project leader is called a Black Belt (BB). All BB candidates should
have a history of accomplishment. A BB assignment typically lasts for two years during which
the BB leads from eight to twelve projects, each lasting approximately one quarter (large
projects are broken down into segments of approximately one quarter). The projects will
likely come from different business areas, thereby giving the BB a broader view of the
business. Reporting on the projects and documenting their impact are important aspects of
the BB experience. They enhance the fast-track aspects of the BB experience.
GREEN BELTS:
These represent the Six Sigma Practitioners, with a thorough grounding of the approach.
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The Incharges of the Junior School, Primary School activate as these designators. The project
team members are called Green Belts (GBs), and they do not spend all their time on projects.
GBs receive training similar to that of BBs, but for less time. They typically get their training to
participate in an important project for their business. Six Sigma project participants, such as
BBs and GBs, tend to be agents of change who thrive in the new business climate of constant
change. They are open to new ideas and are used to rigorously evaluate new ideas.
MASTER BLACK BELTS:
These represent people who spend their time on SixSigma, assist leadership for projection
and consultation. The Adiministration Officer or the Vice-Principal act this position. Master
Black Belts (MBBs) are resources for the project teams. MBBs are often experienced BBs
who have worked on many projects. They generally have knowledge of advanced tools,
business and leadership training, and teaching experience. A primary MBB’s responsibility
is training and mentoring new BBs in the organization.
CHAMPIONS or LEADERS:
They are the senior managers who ensure that resources are available for training and projects
and also conduct reviews. The Principal activate this goal, in collaboration of the management.
IMPLEMENTATION OF SIX SIGMA
With the outcome of the implementation of this novel concept, researchers have found that
successful deployment of Six Sigma involves focusing on a small number of high-leverage
items. The following are the steps needed for the successful implementation of this concept:
1. The success improvement must start from the senior level of leadership. This is done by
providing training of the principles and the tools needed for the purpose. Simultaneously, the
steps are taken to “soft-wire” the organization and to cultivate an environment for innovation
and creativity, at totality. The generation of Quality Improvement Teams at the level of Principals
and other members of the management.
2. The module is developed for establishing close communication with customers, employees
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and suppliers. This involves developing rigorous methods of obtaining and evaluating customer,
employee and supplier input. The teachers act as these database for reporting and conduct
of study.
3. The assessing is made of training as an indispensability. The remedial basic skills
education is also provided to ensure that adequate levels of literacy and numeracy are
processed by all employees/ teachers.
4. A standardised framework for continuous improvement is developed with a system of
indicators for monitoring progress and success.
5. The six sigma projects are conducted by individual employees and teams lead by Green
Belts and assisted by Black Belts.
With the above mode of conduct of implementation of the SIX SIGMA, the research proves
that firms that successfully implement Six Sigma perform better in virtually every business
category, including return on sales, return on Investment, employment growth and share price
increase to the level of production within an organisation. With the above as an essential tool
of productivity and enhancement of quality, as an everlasting strategy has been the need of
the day. What strategy has to be applied in today’s educational arena is a thoughtful concern
on the part of the management to dwell into. The above management technique is a proved
methodology of success by one and all and pertains to KAIZEN or the continuous improvement
philosophy.
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IMPLEMENTATION OF SIX SIGMA:
How to get it started:
First, identify the organization’s key business processes that deliver value directly to the
customer and stakeholder. Most educational institutions have between five and eight core
customer and/or mission-critical business processes. These processes include college
admissions, academic achievement, faculty and staff development, and academic process
management and improvement planning. Map these processes at a midlevel and measure
the current process results. Detailed process flows, like those you’d find at the work-instruction
level, aren’t necessary here. Instead, outline the major handoffs between functional
organizations of the business. Next, identify the most important issues or “disconnects”
between the customer and the school/educational institution’s perspective, and involve the
leadership team in prioritizing them.
Next, decide on the required scope of improvement and whether to perform process
improvement or process redesign. Process improvement usually fixes a segment of a larger
process, whereas process redesign involves building a new process to replace an old one.
Initially, small to medium-sized schools/colleges should begin by performing process
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improvement using basic Six Sigma methodology and then measure the results and quantify
the savings.
Although these steps appear straight-forward, they’re far from effortless. In fact, the following
are just some of the elements needed for success:
* Visible top management commitment
* Keen sense of urgency
* Clear definition of customer/stakeholder requirements
* Shared understanding of core processes and key customers/stakeholders
* Honesty in measuring current performance
* Discipline in prioritizing the critical few improvement projects
* Communicating success stories and proving that the approach works
* Rewarding and recognizing the performers
* Institutionalizing the approach.
A Rising Example on Implementation of Six Sigma In Education:
Teachers, according to Hodges (who is one), are great at solutions. Often before they have
even identified the problem, they have a solution – or two or three solutions. So, Hodges
began every meting with teachers by asking these questions:
* What’s the problem?
(“Often, I’d get two or three problems they had thought were only one.”)
* How do you know?
* What are some of the root causes?
* What treatment can we apply?
* What are the results likely to be?
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After many repetitions of this process, the teachers began to see the value of identifying the
problem before tackling how to fix it, Hodges said. One story in particular illustrated how
understanding a complaint requires an understanding of the real problem:
Many of the teachers frequently complained among themselves about the poor air quality in
the classrooms. Poor air quality led to increased absences, more asthma attacks and labels
of “sick building syndrome.” The problem was examined carefully using a Six Sigma approach.
An environmental specialist was involved, and data was gathered and analyzed by a team
consisting of a teacher and a custodian. What they found surprised everyone. Some of the
teachers kept animals in their classrooms, with no protocol for caring for them or cleaning the
cages or other husbandry issues. Some teachers, for lack of appropriate space, had placed
books, papers and other materials on top of ventilators, thereby blocking effective air circulation
in those rooms.
Once the factors were identified and analyzed, curative measures could be discussed, chosen
and implemented. The result of the Six Sigma project was clean air. Plus, the teachers were
thrilled that their grievances had been listened to, and that a solution had been found. To top
it off, the school district was honored with an indoor air quality award.
The belief of the above says that it is a great success. In addition:
With careful use of the methodology, the teachers analyzed every aspect of the problem, and
began to see that it was quantifiable. The result was to pilot one textbook through the ninth
and tenth grade levels (and advanced eighth grade) in all schools in the district. At the end of
that period, with all students literally “on the same page,” they would be able to test on a
particular core of knowledge. Test results would be quantifiable, and there would be the added
benefit of a cost savings. With all the schools buying the same textbooks, a larger discount
could be negotiated.
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VOC – Voice of the STUD ENT
VOC VOC –– Voice of the Voice of the STUD ENTSTUD ENT
Every Six Sigma project should Every Six Sigma project should satisfy the STUDENTsatisfy the STUDENT’’S needs and S needs and
requirements.requirements.
Six Sigma for the Future
Hodges is full of ideas for new projects and issues that he has long wanted to explore, both
on the business side and the educational side. Among these are:
* Using a web-based system (which already exists) to assess what the students
actually know.
* Employing an internet resource to order textbooks, so that one person, and not
four, can order books for the coming school year, and then check the distribution of
those books as they are shipped to the various schools.
* Finding out why teachers are hired to perform one function, and end up doing
something entirely different. This happens quite frequently, Hedges noted.
A workable on-line system for applications for teaching positions is one of Hodges’ pet projects.
The district had one, “but no one used it,” he said. A new system is now under development.
It is being designed with data gathered from analyzing and testing the old system which had
multiple deficiencies. The concept – to eliminate some of the paperwork in job applications –
was admirable. “But there was no customer satisfaction in the program,” Hodges said. The
old on-line system was difficult to use, cumbersome and tended to quit on users before they
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had finished the application.
Implementation of Implementation of Six Sigma Six Sigma
Which process is causing you and your PARENTS the most amount of pain? Look for the low hanging fruit.
What’s wrong with the process? Why is this process not meeting your STUDENT’S requirements? No solutions at this point.
The best thing about Six Sigma in the schools, according to Hodges, is that, with help from
his colleagues, he has been able to effect change in areas that everyone agreed needed
serious overhauling. Six Sigma is now so integral to how things are done in this school system
that Hedges teaches it in his classes. “I teach students to follow the same methodology I’ve
had their teachers use.”
IN A NUTSHELLIN A NUTSHELL
6 Sigma is a Quality Philosophy. It's a philosophy that talks about attainable
short-term goals while striving for long term objective.
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3. IMPACT OF IT ON QUALITY EDUCATION
The marching trend of the computing arena has marked a revolutionary stroke to the developing
educational arena. With computers making a headway in every walk of life with increasing
software expertise, the very base of our social infrastructure, the schools have had a good
pace of advancement. The computer education has introduced an interesting phase among
the students. The result of the SAARC contest by the Indian teams in the past years of schools
has proved that it is more-so-over a true explanation.
Tomorrow is not far away to them when there will be more intelligent use of computers. It is
certainly through this mini desk top tool that the students can be best empowered for creativity
of operations for better prospects and overall development at all levels. These machines are
certainly going to prove as the indispensable substitute to pencils, papers and books.
There is a novel nomenclature of Edutainment, the latest buzzword of the day, as the
conglomeration of education and entertainment, with each element playing a significant role.
With the series of operation research over it, with the development of various software of
educational nature have provided a boon to both the learners and the deeply involved
educators. For the learners, there is an impressing attraction towards the educational CDs,
and has become a fun filled experience. Along with, the educators, the teachers are getting
aided with this tool and has made teaching easier and interesting. To provide an access to
the pre-primary lots, the software has been termed as ‘Totware’, to surprise. They are designed
specifically to promote a quality workstation for the teachers and budding tablets of prosperity,
the students. They are edutainment programs aimed totally at the needs and abilities of children
as young as two years of age. They are even given pace to use underactivity, bright colours,
music and sound effects keeping little children interested while introducing them to basic
concepts. The products in this category address a wide range of skills and concepts. These
programs are mainly supportive of exploration and experimentation. India has a proud image
before her academic gentry inclusive of trainers at large. The software developers in the
country have also not been blind to the needs of the tiny tots. The smart march towards the
year 2001 series has had an alarmingly interesting modules of teaching aids through
multimedia and virtual reality. The stunning example to cite is of an exciting computer class in
Bombay. As you step in, you find a classroom of tiny tots peering at colourful graphics on
computer monitors. Fruits such as bananas or pineapples appear on the screen in various
configurations. The children count the number of fruits and then punch the figure on the keyboard.
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If they get the number of fruits and then punch the figure on the keyboard. If they get the
number of fruits right, they are rewarded with a teddy bear on the screen. This novel way of
powerful animations and video, fascinating fagots, and exciting activities provide hours of
interactive learning.
With this, the student workforce is bound to come up with unique excellence like writing stories
on the computers, print out their own books and learn to use spread sheets and similar
programs in math projects.
Accordingly, the quality upgradation of the institute can be shaped well of universal acceptance
through the networking of computers in the classrooms through Internet or any other
international network which would delimit the walls of the classrooms by extending the reach
of its occupants to other distant countries. It is being made possible to even access to the
libraries of the different universities all around the globe. Far-fetchingly, some districts in
America have installed voice mail system that allows parents to call in the head of their kids
or to hear the day’s homework assignments or any other relevant information.
With this journey of excellence in academic arena, the next unique operation under way is of
accessing on to schools through computers sitting right at home. This is sure to make even a
bed ridden child attend the class. Also through this, to the level best, all the children would use
the school’s electronic resources for help with home work or for independent studies. Like
many other path breaking efforts these limited bids in education technology too have
considerable following skeptics. According to them the software wizardry applied to schools
will rectify the creation of haves and have NOTs’. It is going to build up a huge information
gap, with well financed schools at the one end and those in remote cities on the other. But
with the march of time this gap is going to be filled up through developments. We as educators
are to execute our expertise in this direction to promote the essence of “QUALITY IN
ACADEMICS”, for overall excellence in the schools all over.
The succeeding image is certainly going to produce in the mass revolt from the teachers, as
with the aid of the intelligent machine, the computers, as they may fear of being probable
jobless. But this has again the optimistic view and approach as it is quite clear that computers
are ‘His Master’s Slave’ and can never operate on their own. With the march of time and tide,
the arena of the Information Technology has had an indispensable role in nearly all spheres of
life. To quote the factual concern, the following proves the same.
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The Year : 2020 AD.
The Location: ABCD Medical College Lab.
The Session: Heart Surgery.
The Participants: MBBS students and the Instructor.
And, with all this what are they suppose to do?
The instructor is due to operate on the heart of a person who, in reality, does not exist. But the
students and the instructor can well “see” and “feel” and the Instructor can as well explain
about the minute of the cells possible, with all the activities being carried out in a typical heart
surgery. In fact, the concept is of ‘VR’ the virtual reality, in action.
Secondly, the year 2021 AD.
The Location: A Castle in GOA, India.
The Scenario: Tobo, a primary school kid, with his home PC. What is he there for? Well, he is
seeing a real time display of the great wall of China in order to prepare for a school seminar
on the great wonders of the world. And, how is this made possible? Tobo, is hooked on to a
world wide communication network made up of home computers, mainframes, super
computers with huge database, telecom lines, earth stations, satellites and cameras, all in
sync to meet to Tobo’s specific queries.
Now, with the buzzing virtual connectivity through the net, there is a global opening of new
vistas in the commercial world. It has created a powerful ripple in the ocean of information
world, to allow everybody to share the information for sustainable developments across the
globe. It is also a facilitation for all the connected to develop their own website for anybody to
access around the globe.
All this has become simple and even possible for a common man without a sound knowledge
of computers - one once awful device. Accordingly, the technology has extended human
capabilities, which is fundamental to the successful usage of technology. As per Kearsley’s
theory of qualitative productivity, “Increased productivity is a function of human abilities
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extended through the soft and the hard components of technology.”
INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY =
Human Abilities
+
Soft Technology
+
Hard Technology
i.e. any component on the right becoming zero results in zero productivity. Moreover, any
mismatch between any of the three components will lead to disaster. But, to the high order
grading, the appropriate technology, reduces training time, minimizes training resources,
lowers dropout rates improves proficiency in performance and increases satisfaction at all
levels. The way this very technology in the form of computers, known as Information Technology,
introduced a very important technology, introduced a very important instructional capability
as INTERCONNECTIVITY.
Today, in the traditional educational arena, the teacher performs different functions like planning,
evaluating and locating appropriate instructional resources, developing complementing
instructional resources, handling administration, laisoning with students/ parents/ administration
and teach as well. In addition the teachers do have to take care of slow learners changes in
syllabi, discipline and adhering to the overall development of the child.
A new concept featuring CAPES, i.e. the Computer Aided Paperless Examination System
has also been developed by the NIC (National Informatics Centre), Govt. of India, to regularise
and facilitate the examination system of the country. It is fool proof of any leakage and traditional
corruption. On the other hand, on the part of the teachers, the computer with well designed
software, has several strengths that make it an effective instructional tool. This computer
aided instruction is made possible by developing in accordance with the internal process of
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learning. These internal processes are alertness, expectancy, retrieval, selective perfection
and perception, semantic encoding, retrieval and response, reinforcement, cues and
generalisation. The more of these that are included, the greater is the degree of confidence
in the performance. Alongwith, the learner characteristics such as interest, reading rate, prior
experience and knowledge and job interests have been successfully used by designers to
zero in an appropriate instructional strategies. The interaction encourages participation, allows
for remedial measures and increases value added learning time. The learning should exercise
appropriate control in terms of convenience, preference, review, exit and sound tests. The
regular review of the computer aided instruction material is essential to improve on
presentation format and upgrade to ensure curricular and programme adequacies.
The University of tomorrow will certainly be serving in the information society, this irrefutable
fact has important implications for the strategies each institution should adopt as it enters
into the next century due to the significant impact the information society will have on higher
education in general and each University in particular. It is important that each University take
full cognizance of the changes in the information society and face one of the most complex of
all campus planning operations pertaining to acquisition, distribution and management of
computing and related technologies. Hence each institution must make its plans and develop
its strategies to be proactive with respect to the environment context and must not lag behind
society in general and other educational institutions in particular.
The big concern of the survival and success of an institution depends on the extend to which
it looks to the future, identifies the opportunities in the turbulent world around it and adapts its
special competencies to those opportunities. In general terms, strategy is the fundamental
means an institution employs to achieve a match with its environment, or, alternatively, a
pattern in a stream of actions or decisions which relates an organisation to its environment.
As we move forward, the role of that information services assumes on campus will surely
expand to accommodate the burgeoning technology that is finding increasing use in Higher
Education. Its role will not only be to provide the traditional academic and administrative
computer services, but to develop standards for networking computer acquisition, data
interchange, video transmission and whatever other areas are included under his or her control.
Attendant to this activity will be the development of organizational structures and enabling
policies that will allow the nation to better utilise the technology to satisfy the academic goals
at a large. With the accelerating phase of the advent of Information Technology there is an
emergence of a new social order. This has made the need for computer literacy among the
masses indispensable. Rapid progress in the area of electronics and space technology have
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contributed substantially to this phenomena.
A digital computer is an electronic machine and a very powerful tool in information processing.
The computer can well store, retrieve, analyse and synthesize data or raw information received
from various sources to produce meaningful information necessary in making decisions and
solving problems. It has become easy to obtain information about our bank and insurance
accounts, train and airline reservations through computerised systems. Several special effects
are created in electronic music and watch television programmes. Computerised zerox
machines, washing machines, digital watches and the like are familiar to nearly all of us. We
are also aware of all of the factories in which computer controlled robots perform various
mechanical operations and space programmes which are heavily dependent on the new
technologies. These are just a few examples of the kind of changes which have offered in our
society in recent years and the rate of change is only going to rise in the years to come. To
match the new realities of today’s sophisticated technology, there is a pressing need to develop
new skills to make the most of the new technology that is available to us. The costs of introducing
and using these new techniques, providing the necessary equipment, and training people in
their use have to be set against the old methods of operation and the social consequences of
making the changes. The children in our schools were born in this era of change. They cannot
see anything strange in these novel approaches. The curriculum for all pupils in schools will
have to place emphasis on technological change and its implications. Such a curriculum
should ensure that all students are able to use technology to communicate effectively with
and through the computer as well as appreciate its role.
The information revolution of the twentieth century which has been brought about by advances
in the computer technology has created an information society in which a majority of the
labour force is expected to hold information-related jobs. Ignorance about computers will
rather render people functionally illiterate as does ignorance of reading, writing and arithmetic.
This means that our society will depend heavily on information technology in many areas of
work and personal life. Hence, the new task of our schools is to familiarise pupils with
applications of computers. A computer literate has an aid to problem solving in a variety of
disciplines. This familiarity essentially involves an understanding of the use of facilities such
as word processing, screen reading and the effective usage of files and data. It also demands
a limited comprehension of keyboard skills.
Under this, keeping with the marching pace towards the promotion of literacy, the idea of
providing knowledge about computers in schools was put into practise in the country through
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a pilot project called CLASS, (Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools) in 1984, by the
Government of India as a joint venture of the Ministry Of Human Resource Development and
the Department of Electronics.
The interactive nature of computer based learning and the facility to individualise the learning
experience, the needs of the learner are the two most important aspects of computer assisted
learning. The capacity of the computer functions somewhat like a traditional teacher through
the use of a suitable educational software. In this mode, the computer can be used to teach
the learner through tutorials, drill and practice, games, simulations or a combination of any of
these strategies. Besides the computer can be programmed in such a way that tutorial lessons
can be given to the pupils. With this, students will be able to learn at their own performance
independent of the teacher.
Using quality educational software packages, good learning environment can be created in
schools. As such, it is necessary for all citizens to understand what computers are capable of.
Students should be aware of the many uses of computers, such as their use in teaching-
learning, information storage and retrieval. Any country’s social and economic well-being
depends entirely on how well equipped its people are for a literacy-intensive technology in
order to promote overall quality oriented academic excellence. If computers can assist us in
the teaching process then there is a good reason to welcome their appearance. Hence, it is
absolutely essential for all those involved in education to become computer literate.
With the irritation of leakage of question papers of academic arena, there appears a tough
tasks to exist for the academicians. Accordingly, there appears to be a great phobia of the
mass designing of the question papers of N sets manually.
The advent of the intelligent machine has led to the specific indispensable importance of
computers in this regard. The question paper setting assumes prime importance of computers
in this regard. The question paper setting assumes prime importance in the present education
system. Keeping this concept in regard, there has been a recent development in order to
pace the usage of computers, through the concepts of CAPES and QUEPS.
CAPES, the Computer aided paperless examination system, offers firing of the multiple
questions on the terminal to the candidate on a particular subject, with the questions having
been already fed into the machine by the authority concerned for the conduct of the examination.
This system allows no cheating as the probability of flashing out a similar question to a set of
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two candidates is one in every hundred. Here the candidate is not at all required to have any
working knowledge of computers, simply he/ she has to press the right alternative key on the
keypad. With this, there is no need of the office/ stationary/ Invigilators etc. The usage of this
system has revealed great success by the concerned authorities. The results are much more
reliable and speedy as compared with the traditional type of examination.
On the other hand, the recent development in this regard is the QUEPS, which is a prototype
knowledge based system, for question paper setting. This system also aims at modelling the
human expertise, which is perishable, is affected by fatigue and prejudices and lacks ability
to duplicate with ease. Perhaps, in the domain of question paper setting, deep knowledge
may be available in the form of question bank containing different types of questions framed
on a particular subject where they are made available in the form of units featuring essays,
short type questions and the objective questions. The QUEPS and CAPES offer the usage
of objective questions in terms of framing and designing items for testing.
The questions are stored in a dynamic database, where each question is stored as a predicate
containing unit number, question number and the corresponding attribute list. The attributes
are stored as elements of a list. List handling predicates are used while comparing the
attributes as also while updating the lists of each question given out once. This is in accordance
with the view that questions are never stored in the memory but are addressed or referred
only through question numbers.
It may sound farfetched but the tests have revealed that it is more or less the true explanation
that these systems offer plenty of scope for expansion in terms of the expertise contained in
it, as also using more sophisticated mechanism to incorporate advanced concepts such as
machine learning. Also in this domain the level of complexity of the system has risen up to the
advanced levels of testing.
A point which come to ponder over the introduction of this HI-TECH concept in the field of
academics, is of the limitation of its’ being to the objective system only. This again becomes
tiresome for the subjective brand of system where every level of the answer is ranked in a
different manner independent of any particular answer, which can be fed into the machine.
The quality in this direction is highlighted with the quick declaration of results, regularization
of sessions and all in all bringing out overall satisfaction of the students and the parents. This
further brings the profitable aspect of the organisation in long run as more and more fame is
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gathered for the same and the rush of admissions produce more revenue monetarily bringing
boon the education industry at large.
The capacity of any institution entirely depends upon the efficiency of the office staff working
in within. Keeping this view in regard, it is one of the concerns of the management to give
prime importance at times. In any organisation, the quality of work undertaken entirely depends
upon the speedy conduct with the strong guiding motivation of the BOSS. But unfortunately,
this has lagged far behind due to the increasing level of work load over the years to be
conducted through the old tools like carbon, pencil, ruler and the hard key typewriters.
Now, with the march of time, the very business environment has changed faster than ever
before. The increased competition among organisations has led to the reappraisal of accepted
business practices for higher efficiency. The attempts are being made to meet the competitive
threat by reducing cost by rationalizing production, shedding labour and restructuring business.
These are complemented with investment in technology to improve productivity. But the huge
bulk of commercial documents generated by companies in the trading cycle still remain locked
in slow, antiquated paperbound processes.
Documents produced by one computer are printed and posted, only to be entered into the
recipient’s computer - a time consuming, error prone and costly experience of exercise,
estimated between 4% AND 7% of the value of the goods traded.
In a complex web of trading relationship in which each organisation is a customer of another,
we can see what paper work all too easily becomes a barrier to the trade it was designed to
support. Under the novel scheme of hi-tech system within an organisation of academic nature,
for example, a small local area network within the office, the principal’s room, different other
subjected related departments if required, are linked through connected computers having
an access of each other universally. This certainly reduces the circular work from one desk to
the other. Accordingly, there is a paperless workplace having a direct line from one computer
system to the computers of all the probable customers and suppliers. With this, every transaction
could be electronic, sales returns could be analyzed and fed into ordering process, orders
could be raised to reflect both demand and the known stock process, orders could be raised
to reflect both demand and the known stock available in any commodity related business
environment. Similarly, under the economic activity pertaining to the services as the product,
like Banks and educational institutions, the on-line result display on the terminals, interactive
teaching etc. are the promotional qualitative services which can be adopted through this
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machine, belonging to information technology. Apart from this, the official work load of sending
of instruction etc., could be sent to the distributors in tandem with the order to ensure fast
delivery. Carriage by road, rail, sea or air could be booked simultaneously. Customer clearance
and documentation could be available in advance of the goods arriving, thus avoiding hold
ups. Even payment instructions could be issued to banks to ensure prompt payment without
the mountain of paper work involved in the present day business transaction. This very
transmissions of information to the trading partners computers for processing is known as
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). It replaces conventional paper documents with formatted
and standardized business documents, transmitted as electronic transmission of business
data from computer to computer, of independent organisations, using an agreed standard to
structure the transaction, which is accomplished without human intervention.
According to the principle of EDI, a ‘sending computer’, usually located at a customer’s
premises, uses telecommunications technology to transfer orders data instantly to the receiving
computer, usually located at the supplier’s distribution centre. The received order data is
then manipulated and formatted to match the order entry files in the order data base of the
supplier. Next, the information is transferred into other database, with the generation of any
appropriate error messages and/ or exceptions reports. This technology can be very rightly
applied to the transmittal of any business forms, including invoices and purchases orders.
The ‘sending computer’ stores and follows up on it. The ‘receiving’ computer automatically
transfers the data to the ware house, the factory, the accounting and billing departments and
the shipping departments. Similarly, in the institutional base, the orders of the different books
and deputed stationeries are accordingly ordered and assured of the deliveries. The electronic
data interchange is vastly implemented in the trucking, marine shopping and air cargo
industries in developed countries. Implementation need not be expensive. All that a small
organisation needs to have is a personal computer, a modem and telephone line and the
necessary software. The day is not far off, when this very technology would create the concept
of Total Quality Management (TQM), applicable to nearly all small scale business arenas as
well.
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4. QUALITY CIRCLES APPROACH OF TQM
Gone are the days when there used to be the preference for ‘Made in Japan’. Now, with the
high level of company wide competitions, there is a certain outlet of a fight for quality to
survive in the market. The multinational tie-ups have resulted in survival of the best but to have
a continuous stand over it, there is an indispensable toast for kaizen philosophy in the field of
production.
What ever may be the workstation, whether it is industry oriented or institution oriented, the
main object which lets the ball rolling is the quality of the outcome product in totality.
There is certainly a nose to Japanese technology even today at large in-spite of the tragic
devastation of her by atom bomb not long ago. To match the fact, the fundamental thesis on
which all Japanese Management techniques are based is the management of Human
Resources. Under this the Quality Circle has become a subject of considerable interest in
light of India’s massive Human Resource. This can be very well utilized to the country’s
advantage for best expected results. The human resource management is the key factor in
the improvement of not only product quality and productivity but in also improving the concept
and purpose of living, of an human identity.
Quality Circle was started by Americans but perfected by Japanese. It has really become
effective on linking with productivity Improvement programers. In order to understand the
philosophy and actual concept of QC and its contribution to increasing productivity, it is first
necessary to peep into the Japanese philosophy towards life. The western employee is not
happy, not satisfied in-spite of very high monetary benefits. On the other hand Japanese
employees have a very high degree of motivation in-spite of comparatively lower monetary
benefits as compared with the western countries.
The very purpose of Quality Circle starts with:
force at the grass root level do not know how to read and write, up to the upmost level of
literacy at times. In this regard QC bases its solution after obtaining accurate data collection
which leaves no scope for ‘I know, I know’. QC is panacea in removing bottlenecks. It brings
in a feeling of comradeship among workers, staff and management. QC improves the quality
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of service to customers. Every colleague serves another colleague as his client.
QC is synonymous with productivity and excellence. In academics, the concept of QC is an
accelerating force of motivation and overall development of the child acting as an earnest
employee of the institution with liberty of choosing a problem and expressing its pros and
cons through the cause and effect diagram and finally implementing it in the same environment
for the other mates and also for the management to set up an example for future. This way, the
elements that affect quality also automatically affect excellence of productivity. The success
in this direction is the fruit cause of the efforts of the ‘participative culture’, prevailing within
the organisation due to the existence of Quality Circles within them. As the success depicts a
VIP child of two ordinary parents, of Quality and Productivity, the following medicines of
prosperity lay foundation to a healthy nature of acceptance at large to the extent of universal
acceptability.
⇒ Education and training
⇒ Team Work/ participative culture
⇒ Competitiveness for excellence
⇒ Standardization in work
⇒ Procedure
⇒ Accurate factory layout/ workstation
⇒ Human Resources and workstation
⇒ Development
⇒ Motivation
⇒ State of Art Technology
⇒ Bubbling with ideas
⇒ A joint mass movement
⇒ Fearlessness
⇒ Non apologetic cultural change
⇒ General Common language
⇒ Setting of novel standards
⇒ Reduction of costs
⇒ Reduction of repetitive operations
⇒ Ignorance of conflicts
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⇒ Prevailing of peace of mind
⇒ TQM (Total Quality Management)
⇒ Perfection of Job
⇒ Building of Confidence
⇒ Delegation of authority not quality
⇒ Well Housekeeping
⇒ Justice and Equality
According to Dr. Ishikawa, the father of Quality Control Circles, a manager should never say
‘I am busy’, it is well equivalent to digging ones own grave, as he should say this on the cost
of his organisation and his own future. Now, pertaining to the present pace to the 21st century,
quality should become a household name and should exist in our hearts and minds. Without
this creation of ‘Total Commitment’ to quality, every thing else is simply window dressing, but
a reality.
Any organisation which pertains to the KAIZEN philosophy of “Continuous Improvement”,
holds the credit of existence in this highly competitive economic world of today. Not apart
from this is the formation of “Quality Circles” which depicts an existence of participative culture
within the workstation of concerned organisation. With this, the jovial atmosphere with true
appraisal and motivation by the managers at all levels help to promote overall excellence in
the field of productivity and quality. This solely affects the attainment of total quality which
depicts the competitive strategy. It in totality involves everything an organisation does, in the
eyes of its customers, in order to not only bring their satisfaction but delight. The recent
revolutionary phase of customer satisfaction is termed as “customer’s surprise” to attain the
level of “Total Quality Management”.
Comparably to the educational arena, the norms of the attainment of TQM differs minutely
with reference to the evidences. As far as the personal management or the human resource
development aspect is concerned, it has a similar approach in this direction. In a way the
same theory is highly affective in implementation in this regard.
Involvement of all the work-force through the framing of the quality circles (QCs), for the
betterment and prosperity within the organisation is the indication of the participative culture.
The failure at times, due to the wrong decision making on the side of the management or lack
of proper motivation, communication etc., may crop up due to the misunderstanding. At this
juncture, the presence of Quality Circles as a vital part of Total Quality is indispensable. The
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management theory marks full credit to the philosophy of TQM, for total involvement of
executives, managers and the managed.
Keeping in view of the failures to achieve significant progress through achieving the gaol,
there has to be a shift to a changed strategy of adopting Total Quality Management integrated
with Quality Control Circle at large. For this march of attainment to TQM, is to develop, design,
produce and service a quality product of utmost economic usage and satisfactory to the
customers. To have this every individual within the company must participate in the promotional
activities of Quality Control, right from the grass root level employee to the top management.
In Schools, when there is an existence of an education industry, there has to have a flow of
TQM as a philosophy. This can well imbibe a healthy spirit of overall excellence. Quality Circle,
which is the vital ingredient of Total Quality, aims to develop humanware rather than developing
the product. It is basically a man making tool and aids well in the Human Resource Development
cell of any organisation.
This man making tool when applied to schools marks the right implementation as of an
accepted concept to a nourishing age. At this tender age, the tablets of quality are sure to
nourish as a fertilizer to the blossoming environment of qualitative nation builders of tomorrow.
This is sure to acknowledge the wants and needs of the students and of course the parents of
their optimum demand of a “Good and Smart” tag in their wards.
We as teachers have no option but to adopt this philosophy as a religion and propagate the
effectiveness through the chain of excellence and productivity.
Borrowing the Total Quality concept of “Japan”, we have to also undertake other things of
three Ks’ featuring KODO, KAGNE and KAIZEN, meaning continuous thinking, continuous
acting and continuous improvement for us and our students to avail “KUDOS” in their
excellence. The notion of the student as the school’s primary customer provides an important
guiding principle for many of today’s school reforms. In many schools, this principle can be
seen in the philosophy that “We teach students, not content.” This philosophy represents a
major paradigm shift from process to product. When efforts to improve learning focused on
rigid instructional processes and materials, the resulting emphasis was on “covering material.”
Many hoped that if teachers followed the approved process to the letter, students’ learning
would improve. Hence, the Quality Circles in academics tend to promise as a pedagogical
tool that makes students responsible for their own learning and increases class participation.
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The Scenario:
A class is a lighthouse of society and so the future of any individual. One may have received
the computer-generated scores for the two courses that had just been over. The wards have
scored over performance on a scale from 1 for poor to 5 for excellent, and one is delighted to
see that for one course being rated is 4, well above average for the school concerned.
Kudos, Great! Now, to no surprise one matches the rating for the other course: 3, well below
the average. Oh-no!, sorry, comes the response.
In pursuit of quality, the search of excellence, one may turn to the students’ written remarks on
the 4 graded course, hoping to learn the secret of one’s success. The satisfying, aiding hints
are hinted, but only hints. The teacher take the credit, it was the quality class content, the
latest teaching tools made the effect, etc. etc. “Great lecturer,” says one. “Really held my
attention,” comments another. One may even ask to see the students’ comments received by
a colleague who had scored 4.9 and last year and had even won a teaching prize. Not really
much help here, either. The comments are memorable: “Mr. Manish is good and intelligent,
there was no reason why he would have not got this success,” gushes one, but not the stuff of
a learning curve, would laminate as the fact behind the success.
Maybe the students’ comments for the 3.2 score based course, one may think, would prove
more substantive since they would surely have caught their errors. One may even think of
taking something from the bad news, which counts to be a serious misestimate. The main
effect of such comments would be ”this is one of the worst courses I’ve ever taken” is to ruin
the whole day, even the week and even years to come. And you’ve learned nothing constructive
of as an intelligent asset.
The history suggest of a unique concept devised in Japan in early years. The companies
there evolved a device for learning what’s troubling line workers, and what they would do to
improve production. And as a result the nomenclature defined it as a quality circle, which fills
in the blanks left by the numerical ratings of production and success. The device also sends
a signal that an individual and the firm as a whole encourage continuous improvement, the
signature of a “learning organization, as a premier requisite of any organisation”.
With the march of time and tide, many American companies adopted this practice as well. A
recent survey of U.S. Firms reveals that nearly half have instituted quality circles, and more
than a quarter use them with at least half of their employees. Quality circles and their first
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cousins focus groups and 360-degree feedback exercises (in which an individual receives
detailed assessments from subordinates, peers, and bosses) are now widely used in the
private sector, but their university inroads have been modest.
Not only at the industrial arena, but the academics have yielded results out of the framing of
the quality circles as the integral part of the school curriculum. The students quality circles
normally known as the SQCs’ have had tremendous success in maturing academic standards
in all fronts of clearing competitions, removing and solving their day to day problems, like
“How to avoid tooth decay”, “Papa says, be happy, how to be happy?”, “Distractions in the
class room”, etc. (Source: Journal, ICSQCC’97, CMS, Lucknow, India).
Implementation of Quality Circles in Academics sounds to be a very easy task, with emphasis
on the following modules as a practice.
On the first day of the course, describe the purpose of the quality circle (to acquire continuous
feedback for improving the course now and redesigning it for next year) and ask for three
volunteers.
Assure to meet every other week throughout the term.
The time burden is modest: the discussions are limited to 30 minutes, and they usually follow
a class meeting so travel time is minimal.
The quality circle, its purpose, and the meeting schedule are also described in the syllabus.
When the quality circle first meets, It is required to note that giving and getting feedback are
learned skills on both sides, and that the members would have to self-consciously work to get
it right. If the students make the Facilitator, the teacher, feel defensive, it is required not to get
their message in record.
It is also required to make an announcement that the student volunteers to the entire class at
the next meeting, suggesting that complaints can be safely channeled through them. QC
members often take the initiative to sound out their classmates before and after class.
As a pre-preparation, the members should have even e-mailed/ intimated all of their fellow
students just before a QC meeting to take complete stock.
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At the meet, it is also required to provide the quality circle members with an excerpt of the
course syllabus covering the past two weeks. Which topics, readings, and cases, to ask,
worked, and which didn’t and why? Some topics are not well connected with the thrust of the
course, one may access. Some modules appear too old and too boring. On the flip side,
some may work extremely well, clearly “keepers” for the following year.
In all this as a practice, there may one conclude of some annoying tendencies, which may vex
the class. Among the answers received may feature as failure to call on students in the corners
of the classroom, the occasional mistake of repeating oneself, insufficient clarity on the main
points of a topic presented, and failure to summarize the day’s key lessons. The constructive
criticisms are the stuff of a learning curve that the numerical ratings and written comments
had never before provided.
As a part of the next modeling step, the hardest step, is to have the quality circle members
report briefly to the entire class at the next course meeting. This requires that the facilitator
teacher should stand at the front of the room while his mistakes are publicly described. Not
only this, the strengths also come out in the QC discussion, but the tests and practical
experiences reveal that it is more so over a true explaination that the students are often
reluctant to offer much overt praise in front of the entire class for fear of classmate censure.
After the QC members have finished their report, which only requires 2 or 3 minutes, the
facilitator tends to offer his own assessment and report what changes as per the self
assessment in making or not making in response to their suggestions.
This sums up the story of a conduct of a Quality Circle and its practice.
Participants or the group members of the concerned course are the blossoming tablets of
the future managers or individuals of professional approach, and hence this has to have the
conduct of this tool of quality an indispensables approach towards any teaching environment.
Confirming that effective information sharing is a learned skill, during all the problem solving
approaches in order to make the best use of the time, the course syllabus and the tools
inclusive of the multimedia libraries, on-line Internet technologies and available resources for
expertise generation among the takers of the course in the most exploited manner ever
possible. The facilitators may have exited from several quality circle meetings with them
thinking they had found little wrong with the course.
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In a nutshell, the capsules of the manipulation and conduct of the operation in regard to the
Quality Circle practice has the following formats to laminate:
Three volunteers are requested on the first class day.
Pre-schedule frequent but short meetings in the syllabus (every other week for 30 minutes).
Announce QC members to the class once the QC is formed and before each QC meeting.
Ask QC members to canvass students for feedback before QC meeting (e-mail is useful
here).
Present copies of the syllabus or excerpts from it to QC members at the start of meetings.
Review how to give and receive feedback at the first meeting.
Focus discussion on:
classroom ecology, course readings, problematic students, cases & exercises, evaluation &
grading, course topics, your communication, course assignments, clarity of instructions,
classroom culture, your movement, exams and projects.
At the next course meeting, QC members and the facilitator make brief reports on feedback
& actions.
Supplement QC meetings with frequent informal discussions or canvassing of QC members.
Use the final QC meeting to review the course & syllabus to revise for next year.
Finally access the outcome of the circle operations as a part of the result. Make the presentation
before the management i.e. the principal or the incharge teacher for implementation of the
steps derived by the circle research & study, for the eradication of the specified problem. If
the topic of study pertains to the course expertise, the same may be applicable to the next
batch of study for the same module.
Looking at the set standards of any organisation, the quest for quality is an everlasting strategy.
Quoting the lines of CERVANTES, through commitment,
⇒ To dream the impossible dream
⇒ To fight the unbeatable foe
⇒ To bear with the unbearable sorrow
⇒ To run where the brave dare not go
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⇒ To fight the unrightable wrong
⇒ To love, pure and chaste, from afar
⇒ To try when your arms are too weary
⇒ To reach the unreachable star
⇒ This is my quest...............
There has been some great progress in the field of producing results within any organisation.
Commitment involving the sense of ownership quality among the workforce has been the root
cause of the high competitive environment of the war for TQM among the similar organisations
of today. The sense of commitment can well be dwelled into the minds of the humanware by
reflecting into them the sense of willingness through motivation, training and inspiration by
the management. There has to be a strong dedication towards the job to be executed not for
the sake of duty but responsibility.
In the educational arena, the commitment on the side of the teachers plays an important role
as it brings in totality the better result and not only for the betterment of the students and the
community but also fame to the organization at large. Comparably, to the highlightning fact of
the education industry of the present scenario, there has had a rough weather of satisfaction
of the parents, the ultimate customers, due to the existing ‘TUITION Mafias’ of the schools.
Unfortunately, this sorry figure has been the alarming issue for producing quality, in the march
towards TQM in academic cell. The teachers, under this category, don’t take interest in their
job of conduct, during the class hours and are often interested in minting money by teaching
in coaching institutes. The parents of this felled lot, have no option but to get their wards
admitted into these so called coaching (scorching) classes, in order to benefit their wards as
their ultimate duty. This sorry figure has been practised by over a majority of the Government
schools, producing a blow to the philosophy of quality in academics. This even leads to the
ridiculous aspect of this philosophy. But we as teachers have a bound responsibility to produce
a revolutionary phase of change in the academic arena which would develop a strong cell of
commitment towards the teachers of these affected lot, in order to bring laurels to the society.
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Gone are the days when “Education” was considered as a ‘Social Work’ for the masses, and
literacy a gift to the mankind. Today is the age of professionalism. Here we treat the students
as a product and a customer, which has an expectation of total students as a product and a
customer, which has an expectation of total satisfaction through the school, the once known
temple of learning. It is highly debative of the fact that education is an industry, as the majority
of us support being against the same. But when we see the real phase of its existence to our
surprise, there is certainly an acceptable fact to this saying. After the declaration of this an
industry, the experts have come across to implement the concept of quality management in
this arena, through the implementation of quality circles, and much to the surprise, it has had
a wide acceptance world wide. It is through this basic concept, the students are given the
liberty to come up with their problems, find probable solutions and produce the same before
the management for implementation. All in all, the management theory in this direction,
practically involves the promotion of the sense of belongingness, without which, the work
force consider it normal to rapaciously grab whatever they can lay their hands on with ease,
without keeping the interest of the company they are working for. Under the streams of personal
management, which covers the promotional activities of the employees towards profitability,
an organisation can be truly effective if the employees feel satisfied, are continuously developed
in skills, knowledge and behavior, show commitment to the objectives of the institution/
organisation and are ever willing to rapidly change the way things are done as soon as they
realize that the utility of something is over. The sound applicability of the flow of inspiration
through the department heads and the tablets of motivation out of every success from the
side of the management, representing the top manager, is the main result oriented capsule in
this direction. Conviction and commitment are the two root causes or any organisation to
progress with the aid of total work culture of the employees and it results applicable for Total
Quality. Through the framing of the quality circles, there is a certain involvement of the pertaining
participative culture, with commitment, conviction and ownership among the employees with
a step towards the attainment of TQM. This small group activity is certainly a big activity,
yielding big results for a big growth of the organisation. It is also worthwhile to remember of
the fact that the due recognition to a workman at the appropriate time will give him the
satisfaction of deriving the benefit of participation in QCs. It helps to promote this concept
within the organisation and sets up an example for others to show off their hidden talents and
interest for the organisation. Surely, but in a slow pace, this set up is bound to render happiness
on the part of the worker and results in auguring well for the organisation at large in the long
run.
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The sense of ego is the act of retardation of success in any organisation, among the masses
in relation. It is the duty of the manager/ principal to ensure the sense of harmony and unity
among the roll of workforce and the employees, best communication skill and conduct of
meetings as a regular module on the site. The sense of discipline plays an active participation
with the promotion of complete involvement of the employees in the operation of conduct. To
avail total quality, the principals must rely in totality of the abilities of the QC activities in order
to bring out the potentials of the people involved and develop a happy and lively work
environment where every individual is committed to the objectives of the institution.
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5. TQM IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Total Quality Management (TQM), is a novel approach to the improvement of product and the
service quality in order to increase the customer’s satisfaction by the renovation of the existing
management principles. This is a concept of overall excellence being derived from people,
through creativity, flexibility, teamwork, participation and ownership quality among them. The
wide spectrum of the acceptance of this philosophy has shown remarkable improvement in
the organisations with their increased rate of productivity and quality of excellence. Accordingly,
it has gathered importance as a philosophy of getting things RIGHT and subsequently it has
to be accepted by all the business houses as a religion to follow.
In the field of education which is having the stamp of an industry there has to be an
indispensable inclusion of this philosophy for the overall growth and excellence of children in
totality. It not only involves polishing the quality of the students but also covers the participative
culture of the employees working in the institution, as teachers, office staff etc. The quest for
the continuous improvement is the core of this theory as there is no end to the limit of progress.
As an organisation, the management is equally responsible for developing the human
resources, in the school. Once the institution is set, the task of the management is to add the
manpower through suitable deployment. After this, it is the duty of the manager to make the
most of them in the most efficient manner, by utilizing their talents and capabilities tactfully.
This is basically brought out by setting the basic requirements of the students, the ultimate
customers and the parents. Alongwith, the job satisfaction through the redesign of work enables
the employees of the organisation to get away with the monotonous operation. With the advent
of the new technology like that of information technology, for example, the work environment
has become more interesting and encouraging.
These aspects ultimately bring about the surrounding of the probable attainment of the total
quality management, reflecting the novel standard of the organisation among the competitors.
Highlighting the fact of the institution to promote the qualitative aspect, it is the duty rather the
responsibility of the same to provide customers with defect-free goods and services, with a
proper after sales support at times. To refer to the theory of “Customer being the king and the
right judge of the job”, there is a strong force of liking which makes the product to his
requirement. For a school to reflect TQM, the students should not only reflect the image of
academic excellence but also stand high in the other fields of the needs of the parents. The
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teachers have to have the sense of ownership and decision making interest for the organisation
in support of the management. Similarly there has to be a continuous training of the people by
the management in quality management, with the promotion towards teamwork and
commitment. The tests have revealed of the fact that around an excess over the majority of
the TQM activities do not get success after implementation due to the lack of leadership. The
delegation of the authority to lead by the manager/ principal has to be done after the right
thinking of the decision making capabilities of the probable leader. A right selection of the
leader is the fractional attainment of TQM. In this regard the right implementation of the human
resource policies play a crucial role as the leaders are not born but made.
No organisation can attain TQM without the setting up the goal to attain. In this regard, the
MISSION and the VISION play an activate role as a catalyst for Total Quality. Without the
VISION and the MISSION an organisation is similar to the arrowing in the dark as no one
knows what to achieve and what is being achieved for.
Another aspect which lies to be dwelled upon while going for TQM, is of not to promote the
liberty to make individual decisions without consent as to create changes. The limitations are
required to be set in this direction with a clear co-ordination with the management. The teams
which are engaged in TQM have to be periodically monitored and briefed up at times. It can
be a waste of time and money if they are not given timely guidance and regular followup. The
support from the side of the top management has to be there as a regular schedule of
methodology of this journey towards excellence.
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According to the set standards of the TQM philosophy, the following shifts are required to be
executed at times for the further improvement of product and service quality in order to increase
the customer’s satisfaction:
⇒ A move from the ultimate product orientation to the process orientation, with a
more emphasis on the process involved like humanware as the prime resource for
the production/ service of any economic activity at large.
⇒ A step towards continuous improvement of the process involved rather than stagment
to the available ultimate progress achieved.
⇒ A switch over from the existing available hi-tech resources involved to the more
involved and committed workforce through result oriented training for the attainment
of better quality organisation wide transformation.
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⇒ With the movement of managers to think and plan, there has to be a change under
which they are required to guide and substitute the other responsibilities of thinking
and planning to the workers who as well implement the same in their field of operation
for the result oriented stream of excellence.
⇒ With the old management strategy of winning and loosing, there has to be an advent
of a win-win strategy which has an alarming feature of a proven concept of TQM in
any organisation.
⇒ With the lone objective of achieving profit as the main outcome, there has to be a
major shift in the emphasis on quality leading to profits.
⇒ And finally, under the category of involvement and responsibility, in the ultimate
shift towards the attainment of Total Quality, everyone from the top management to
the grass root level has to be a sure success for attainment towards TQM with the
proper initiation of process orientation, customer orientation and the orientation of
the workers who are involved thereby. With the application of right tools and methods
and refining of product development process, reliability & quality process and
business planning process the concept has had a company wide customer
satisfaction.
PAMS, the well nomenclated acronym for principles, actions, measures and strokes finally
pertain to the move towards the journey of total quality. The ‘p’ for principles represent the
guiding set of rules and objectives the institution is heading for. The planned mission of the
institution depicts the planning of the principles keeping in view the strong devotion of the
employees. Secondly, the ‘A’ for actions represent the code and conduct of the workforce
under the strong leadership headed by the management. With a small group activity, the
involvement of the members in a group is accessed periodically for a well result orientation
implementation to achieve overall excellence. The ‘M’ for measures regulate all the operations
that are checked within the organisation for a result oriented decision making activity by the
leaders. They basically contribute the main items which have a long and important stay in the
institution for the betterment. And finally, the ‘S’ for strokes pertain to force of motivation,
inspiration and encouragement in the form of rewards and promotions.
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6. PROBLEM SOLVING TECHNIQUES TO ATTAIN TOTAL QUALITY
To analyse any problem is easier than to solve as it requires a wide spectrum of research and
development through data analysis and reasoning. To gather the stroke of momentum towards
attainment of total quality the solving of such a problem has to undergo large amount of statistics
involving calculations as well. And hence, this technique of problem solving is also referred to
as statistical quality control (SQC).
For any organisation to flourish with the logo of total quality management towards excellence,
the SQC or the problem solving techniques utter prime importance at large. Accordingly,
about 95% of the problems within an organisation can be solved by the usage of these tools.
The result oriented categories in this direction which applicably sum up are divided into
categories as:
Deming Wheel - This is a rough standard under which Dr. Deming explains a four layout for
any organisation to have a proper control over quality. With the age, this got developed as a
Deming Wheel. With an explanative view, it is basically a PDCA cycle for effective controlling
and minimisation of the problems within an organisation.
PLAN - DO - CHECK - ACT
THE PDCA Cycle:
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DO
• Implement solution/s
CHECK
• Evaluate results
• Standardize solution/s
• Take follow-up action
• Review team’s progress
• Select Theme
• Current situation analysis
ACTION PLAN
The PDCA Cycle
• Set target • Analyze problem• Determine solution/s
To further improve upon the said implementation, Dr. K.Ishikawa, the father of Quality Control,
developed a new approach assisting the PDCA cycle as :
PLAN:
(a). Pondering over the objectives and targets.
(b). Methods of achieving the objectives.
DO:
(a). Execute education and training.
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(b). Conduct the outcome/ result.
CHECK:
(a). Check the outcome/ result.
ACT:
(a). Undergo Action.
Once the action has been taken, it is the duty of the manager to validify the strength of the
processes or the action. The result so obtained has to be analysed for final implementation
for excellence if applicable.
he Plan-Do-Check-Action cycle is a systematic approach to making improvements and solvingwork place problems.
It as an approach used by work teams to:
• agree on a topic for analysis,• identify the main cause/s,• determine possible solutions through consensus,• recommend and implement the solution/s,• track the benefits to the team and for the organization,• formalize the new work method/s so that they are part of the work procedures
The cycle also allows the team to continuous challenge the improved procedures to makefurther improvements in the future. This is the meaning of continuous improvement.
When the team uses the PDCA cycle it is working on a project. The PDCA cycle will not beuseful when the team already knows the solutions to problem or situation. It is possible tosolve problems in this way because the causes are easily determined. In this case the teamshould submit such improvements through the suggestions system.
For a wide implementation and quest for excellence, the three sub categories are evolved for
statistical operations featuring elementary statistical methods, intermediate statistical methods
and advanced statistical methods.
The elementary statistical tools have fetched a lot of importance as the seven indispensable
tools for any organisation to flourish to the zenith of excellence. They feature as:
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Þ CHECK SHEET
Þ STRATIFICATION
Þ GRAPH AND CHART CONTROL
Þ PARETO DIAGRAM
Þ CAUSE AND EFFECT DIAGRAM
Þ HISTOGRAM
Þ SCATTER DIAGRAM
With the implementation of the above as OLD SEVEN tools of SQC (Students’ Quality Circles),
the experts have contributed three new additions modifying the existing version and have
finally come up with GRAPHS and CHART CONTROL as two separate identities and
exercised two new standard tools viz.
Þ FLOW DIAGRAM
Þ CONTROL CHARTING
The novel and updated list of elementary statistical tools have come up as:
Þ FLOW DIAGRAM
Þ BRAIN STORMING
Þ DATA COLLECTION
Þ GRAPHS
Þ STRATIFICATION
Þ CAUSE AND EFFECT DIAGRAM
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Þ SCATTER DIAGRAM
Þ HISTOGRAM
Þ CONTROL CHART
To sum them up as to bring on finger tips the flow can be referred as:
F : Flowchart
B : Brainstorming
D : Data Collection
G : Graphs
S : Stratification
P : Pareto Diagram
C : Cause & Effect Diagram
S : Scatter Diagram
H : Histogram
C : Control Chart
1. FLOWCHART or THE FLOW DIAGRAM:
It is a graphical or a pictorial representation of a problem or a process. It depicts a clear
picture of what is being involved within a said process of execution. It is the reflection of all the
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involved with clear description and explanation. It facilitates planning and decision making
over the potential problems availing through the process involved. It is through this tool that all
the members of the circle understand the problem in order to solve the same. Unless or until
the problem is clear, tit is stupidity to conduct other operations in detail. A well conducted
study of the Flowchart conducts the task for designing the strategy with the data available,
estimating the total cost involved, explaination of the present process and due changes as
per the decision made, planning and making available, the required guiding of abilities to
develop and maintain a competent workforce in such a manner as to accomplish with
maximum efficiency and economy the functions and objectives of the organisation.
2. BRAINSTORMING:
A brainstorming session is an effort by a improvement team to list as many ideas and viewsregarding a topic or subject. It can be used to list the “gaps”.
It can also be used when the team wants to list the experiences of the members regarding thework situation or identifying possible countermeasures.
It is crucial for a team to obtain the ideas and views from everyone who may affected by thelikely change to the situation.
There is a need to also get others outside the team to contribute their views. This ensuresthat the topic is thoroughly examined.
It is an art to conduct the floating of new ideas out of a group of members of the same
environment. It is the best judged tool for innovation of ideas for the identification of any
problem and also facilitates in yielding solutions pertaining to the said problems as a group
activity.
With the march of high competitive standard in the quest for quality, this tool of Brainstorming
has had its pace as an accelerating one of importance for solving quality problems.
This is the omnipresent tool and can well be used as a ‘ready’ tool at various sessions of
problem solving process. Any time, any problem or any concern which involves decision
making can well be shared as a group activity and the leader can shoot out the problem
before others to get ideas through Brainstorming. This can be conducted in three ways as
Unstructured, Slip Method and Structured Method.. Under the unstructured mode of conduct
of this tool, there is no boundation of the presentation of ideas, it comes up randomly before
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the leader and is jotted for future reference. Secondly, the slip method allows anonymity as
the member is allowed to freely expose of his concern without any fear of the management.
This way the feel free and confident in exposing and floating down their ideas and problems
which they would never come up with if allowed to speak out in public. And finally, the structured
method is all in all a sophisticated mode of conduct of the whole process of Brainstorming.
Under this operation, a sequential process of allowing all the members individually in turns is
applied. If a member is not prepared he/ she can pass and speak out on the next turn and the
process carries on and on till all the members say ‘pass’ to it as to have satisfaction over all
the ideas so generated as optimum. During the process of Brainstorming, the leader has to
undertake an activative responsibility of not to criticise the ideas, and should not allow the
members to explain the ideas.
Modes of brainstorming
The most common mode of brainstorming is the face to face mode.
Face to face
The persons involved come together for a meeting. The rules for brainstorming are used togenerate the ideas from everyone. The following roles are assigned :
a. Leaderb. Recording memberc. Time keeperd. Resource persone. Secretary
Other modes
Sometimes it may not be possible to meet the members for a brainstorming session. The
team may use any one of the following modes to achieve the same result required for
brainstorming.
• Memos A memo with the required information is circulated to all affected. The
ideas and views are listed by each person and passed on to the next.
• Notice boards A flip-chart-size paper is put up on a stand or notice board. The
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participating persons respond to the requirements indicated at the top of the paper. Ideas
and views are written down on the chart.
• Telephone, Facsimiles, Email The persons involved could pass the ideas and
views by phone, on a formatted facsimile or via email. The ideas and views are sent to a
central point for collation.
• Interviews The affected persons are asked for ideas and views. A central point
for collation is assigned.
Rules for brainstorming
1. Announce an exact definition of the topic to be brainstormed.
2. Write the topic or subject boldly on the board or flip chart.
3. Obtain ideas and views from each person turn by turn.
4. Tell one idea or view per person per turn.
5. Say “PASS” when there is no idea or view from a person.
6. Stop any criticism or challenge to the ideas or views.
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7. Go for as many ideas and views.
8. Insist on ideas and views that are observable from experience.
9. Accept combination of similar ideas or views.
10. Remain focused on the topic or subject.
11. Time the session to keep to the time.
12. Evaluate ideas and views only at the end of the brainstorm.
3. DATA COLLECTION:
Under this category, a lot of research work is involved. It contributes collection of all the facts,
figures and assumptions to be undertaken in figures for the statistical manipulation of the
problem. If facilitates in decision making and sound conduct of operations.
In the QC arena, the collection of data is entirely applicable to the problem solving than decision
making. In the field of education industry, this rectifies the periodic study of concerns denoting
absenteeism, academic standard and teachers’ evaluation.
The team needs to examine the nature of the problem or area of improvement selected in
terms of how often it occurs, the amount of time it takes or its impact on the overall work
performed by the work group. This means that the team needs to gather data and information.
Data may be collected in many ways. They are:
· Past records - by studying previous occurrences, information from files, log
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books, job cards etc.
· Observations - by using check sheets.
· Inspections - by troubleshooting, checking the present condition etc.
· Check lists - by first listing do’s and don’ts or “go” and “no go” items. This is
followed by making observations and marking off the items accordingly as they
are observed.
· Sampling - by selecting a grouping that represents the situation that is being
studied. This method is used when the size of the occurrence is large and time
does not permit the collection of all the data.
Methods Graphs Pareto Check Histogram Stratification Scatter C & EActivities & Charts Sheets
Select theme *
Present situation *
Problem analysis * *
Data collection *
Set target *
Implementation *
Results achieved *
Standardization *
Application of the methods and techniques
4. CHECKSHEET:
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Check sheet is a form designed for recording observations. It is a means for collectingcontinuous or discrete data. The form is made user friendly so that observations can bepromptly recorded, as and when they occur.
A check sheet can be in the form of columns and rows. Check sheets may also take otherforms such as the defect location check sheet. Shown below are the different types of checksheets.
1. Check sheet to record damage parts. This is discrete data.
Shortage items
DateNov 4Nov 3 Nov 6Nov 5 Total
23
27
56
42
27
17
17
20944 42 62 61
Duster
Charts
Chalks
Tables
Chairs
Fans not working
Others
Total
Shortage items
DateNov 4Nov 3 Nov 6Nov 5 Total
23
27
56
42
27
17
17
20944 42 62 61
Duster
Charts
Chalks
Tables
Chairs
Fans not working
Others
Total
Check sheet for Discrete Data
Preparing a check sheet
Step one
Identify the observations that are required. Make sure that the factors listed describe theproblem or issue that is examined and is relevant.
Step two
Decide on the time frame required for recording the observations. Choose a time framethat realistically represents the frequency of occurrences. All the members are involved incollecting the data.
Step three
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Design the form for recording the observations. Members should be able to collect dataeasily. Label the columns and rows.
• The time frame is always indicated in the horizontal column at the top.
• The factors are listed in the vertical columns on the right side.
• The columns to accumulate the total should also be included.
Step four
Begin the recording of occurrences. Each member should record the occurrences on theirown.
Step five
Gather all the check sheets from the members and collate the observations. Draw up thefinal check sheet that shows the totals for each factor.
Step six
Analyze the results and draw the conclusion.
Now that the data is collected, the team should decide on how the data should be analyzedand presented. The graph or chart can best represent the data.
4. GRAPHS:
Graphs and charts are pictorial representations of data. Large amount of data is summarizedand helps in analyzing the nature of the problem or the issue under study.
Under this the discrete data is presented by using the line and bar graphs and pie charts. Infact, your unit or department may already have the software to help you draw up graphs in
your work systems.
This tool of the control of quality represents numerical values as a visual. Through this, at a
glance approach is examined for the study of the situation. The basic idea of this tool sum up
as to provide an explaination to others, comparing with the past and the present and analysing
the results.
There are two major categories of graphs as the general purpose and the special purpose.
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Under the general purpose graphs, the constituents are:
* Line Graph
* Pie Chart
* Bar Graph
* Pictorial Graph
And under the special purpose category, the graphs include:
* Pyramid Graph
* Float Graph
* Belt Graph
* Compound Graph
* Strata Graph/ Area Graph
* Radar Graph
* Gantt Graph
* Zee Graph
It is basically on the nature of the problem to manipulate the selection of the type of graph to
be used for solving the problem. The decision for the same does not entirely depend upon
the leader but is a group decision out of brainstorming.
Examples:
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BAR CHART - Showing stratification of occurrences
It is used to show and compare the breakdown of the data.
The comparison helps to visually highlight the major or more critical factors.
20
30
45
27
38
46
85
34
45
20
31
43
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Error A Error B Error C Error D
Counter 1
Counter 2
Counter 3
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STACKED GRAPH - Showing stratification of expenditures
Used to show sectionalized data. It is useful when factors are further divided within themselves.
These bars help us to compare the occurrences and visually highlight the major factors. In
this case we can also visually identify the relative strengths of the sections within and between
each factor.
500
200100
300
200
150
150
100
300
450
350
50
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
A B C D
Department
DO
LL
AR
S
Fuel
Ammunition
Expendables
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PIE CHART - Showing portions or share
Used to show portions and the relative strength of each portion when compared with thewhole. It is best used when data is presented in percentages.
20%
60%
10%
10%
5. STRATIFICATION
This is the tool to categorise the available data into groups. The further classification in this
direction makes an easy gathering of the solution to the problem. It facilitates testing theories
for study and comparison over the other classified groups and sensing of the most important
one is done accordingly.
6. PARETO DIAGRAM
This is an art to identify the most preferable problem out of the many.
The Pareto diagram is a graph that shows discrete or quantitative data. This graph is used
to rank the occurrences in descending order of occurrence. Based on the Pareto 80-20
principle the graph identifies the vital few or main occurrences.
It is important to remember that the Pareto diagram is only useful when there are many
occurrences and the vital ones are not easily identifiable. As a guide, there should be at least
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4-5 occurrences.
The Pareto diagram is a useful method to prioritize the issues or causes that affect a problem,
theme or subject under study. It can be used to define the problem under the heading “grasping
the present the situation”. It can also be used to identify the vital few causes after a cause and
effect analysis.
Pareto analysis on Rejects
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1 0
1 1
1 2 3 O t h e r s
5
2
1
3
x
x
x
(Thousand) 100
%
80%
Causes
Pareto analysis on Rejects
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1 0
1 1
1 2 3 O t h e r s
5
2
1
3
x
x
x
(Thousand) 100
%
80%
Causes
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1 0
1 1
1 2 3 O t h e r s
5
2
1
3
x
x
x
(Thousand) 100
%
80%
Causes
Through this the arrangement of data is made according to the priority of their importance
over others. i.e. from “Trivial Many” to “Vital Few”. The QCs get benefitted out of this tool in
order to make decisions while solving problems of interest. The decision making in this
direction is totally based on the facts which are reflected through the diagram. This as structure
is a combination of a bar and a curve, where the bar represents the data as per the tally sheet
and the curve denotes the cumulative value. The further identification of the contributing factors
which contribute over 50% i.e. the majority, are made to be represented as vital few and are
given preference for tackling.
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7. CAUSE & EFFECT DIAGRAM
It is also referred to as Fish-Bone or Inshikawa Diagram. It is quite explanatory in its own and
provides an overall idea of the possible causes of a chosen problem. For any concern the
four main causes through which the whole story is built are MAN, MACHINE, METHOD and
MATERIAL, as because any cause of improvement involves the four M’s categorically. This
tool functions to find out the relationship and through this the study is conducted to execute
the measure to solve the problem.
As a structure, the effect is put in a box with different causes connected to the straight line
joining the effect similar to a structure of a fish bone. Apart from 4 Ms’, the ENVIRONMENT,
TOOLS, EQUIPMENTS and OPERATOR, conduct the contribution of the basic causes for
any specific problem. To make the understanding more simple, each cause is further divided
to present the further causes.
Points to remember when preparing the Ishikawa diagram
• The steps for preparing the diagram are closely followed.
• The brainstorming technique is used to identify the observable experiences andfacts related to subject examined.
• The causes do not imply any blame, criticism, complaint or a solution.
• The words used help all the team members to understand the experience orobservation. It is important to be specific.
• The team brainstorm causes arising form their own actions and not just others.
• The work flow chart is a useful means for identifying the causes.
• All causes are identified by asking “why” and answered by “because”. The “why -because” relationship is used to confirm the cause and effect relationship.
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Example
CAUSES EFFECT
1. ># time taken to ..........
2. Broken parts in ..........
3. ># late approval for ..........
Example
CAUSES EFFECT
1. ># time taken to ..........
2. Broken parts in ..........
3. ># late approval for ..........
The Brainstorming once again brings facilitation under this category for listing out the causes,
sub-causes and further sub-causes for resolving the whole issue. The final interpretation of
the root cause pertains to lively brainstorming over the floor among members, potential
members and even the facilitator at times is required. A hasty decision in the selection of the
prime cause among others, at times causes confusion. There has to be a proper R&D over
the same as the whole case study involving this step as well, has to be well explained and
queried before the management for implementation.
8. SCATTER DIAGRAM
This pertains to the evaluation of relationship between the variables related to the study of the
problem. The causes and the effects relate to the strength but of what nature is examined by
this diagram. A correlation is obtained between the variables signifying positive nature,
negative nature and zero correlation. This is calculated by statistical formula by applying the
plotted data values recorded truly over the actual existing conditions of the organisation.The scatter diagram is a correlation chart. The X and Y axis of the graph correlate two factorswith each other. Let us use an example.
A team analyzed the causes to the problem “Time taken to issue items to employees”. Thecauses identified were:
• Errors on request forms - measured in terms of frequency of errors
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• Number of items requested - quantity of items requested
• Number of servicemen queuing at one time - number of people present.
Each of these causes are measured differently. A common graph does not help the teamhere.
Therefore a scatter diagram is prepared for each cause. The dots on the graph record thenumber of observations.
The dots form a pattern that help the team to draw a conclusion.
Time taken to issue items
(mins)20
15
10
5
10 128642 Errors
Diagram A
Time taken to issue items
(mins)20
15
10
5
10 128642 Errors
Diagram A
All the scatter diagrams show a positive correlation i.e. all the three causes contribute to thetime taken to issue items to servicemen. However, in the case of scatter diagram C, the dotsare closer to each other in a tighter formation compared to the rest. This shows that thenumber of employees queuing at one time is the main cause. The team therefore decides totackle this cause.
Preparing the scatter diagram
Step one
Identify the number of causes that are to be examined.
Step two
Plot a X and Y axis. On the Y axis show the problem, theme or subject under study. On the Xaxis place any one of the causes. Use separate graphs for each of the other causes.
Step three
Scale the X and Y axes from the lowest to the highest frequency.
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Step four
Record the observations by correlating the cause against the factor on the Y axis which is theproblem under study.
Step five
Observe the pattern formed by the dots. Also consider the spread of the dots. A positivecorrelation exists when the dots increase and rise diagonally from the left to right.
9. HISTOGRAM
This tool is a simple graphic image used to show the variation of process oriented factors
according to the comparable variable. The frequency distribution is analysed and plotted
signifying the variation.
The histogram is also known as a frequency chart. It identifies variances in the measurements.The arrangements of the bars show the distribution of the frequency. The pattern that emergeshelps to define the problem, theme or subject under study. The histogram is used to show theoverall occurrence of a measured value such as time, dimensions, degree or the range offrequency within a particular occurrence.
The depiction of mean indicates ideology of decision making for problem solving. This is
rightly used to reflect the following features:
* Relative Variation
* Controlling Capacity
* Probable Improvement over the existing stage through further decision making.
Example Segment:
60% of sections take >4 hours to prepare for field exercise
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1
10
7
23
6
2
11
0
10
20
0.5 1.5 2.5 3.5 4.5 5.5 6.5 7.5 8.5Hours
Sections
Limit line N = 40
1
10
7
23
6
2
11
0
10
20
0.5 1.5 2.5 3.5 4.5 5.5 6.5 7.5 8.5Hours
Sections
1
10
7
23
6
2
11
0
10
20
0.5 1.5 2.5 3.5 4.5 5.5 6.5 7.5 8.5Hours
Sections
Limit line N = 40
10. CONTROL CHART
This tool is used for on-line control of problem solving. The process involved as a direct
inclination of depicting the central line marked as the controlling line with a target
representation. The upper and the lower lines signify the upper control limit and the lower
control limit respectively. The periodic measurement of quality is plotted accordingly for the
general assessment of the process.
The selection of the tool out of the set of 10 is dependent on the nature of the problem to be
solved. It is not at all necessary for a circle to make use of all the ten SQC tools available.
Generally, in concern of the nature of the problem to be solved, the conduct of Brainstorming
is the only subsequent alternative for selecting the type of problem solving techniques for the
circle in operation.
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7 : DEVELOPING STUDENT
LEADERSHIP SKILLS TOWARDS TOTAL QUALITY
The Quality of an educational environment is witnessed with the harnessing efforts of the
staff, students and the collaborative parents at large. The leadership of all counts towards the
perfection in practice for all the levels of learning and teaching. As a matter of fact, Today’s
youth are living with an explosion of technological advances especially in the areo fo the
Internet, mobile applications and the multi-player gaming. This increases the need for proper
supervision and mentoring as they may be overwhelmed by the sheer overlaod of activities
and information.
Over the years the students’ scenario has changed with the witnessing of the importance of
Students’ Activities as the ultimate learning methodology today. The students are empowered
towards better learning, decision making and ultimately made to be disciplined through self
disciplined modules and leadership skills. It is mandatory for all to have and imbibe the
Leadership skills to make them a better and Total Quality Person in future. In order to practice
Group Leadership Skills the following are the essentials for practice at schools:
* Classroom Environment: We can help our students by establishing a supportive, relaxed
and respectful learning environment. Be warm and welcoming. Do not raise your voice when
they ask for clarification.
* Physical arrangement of the room: As soem of our class sites, it is not our prerogative
to change the arrangement of the room. It is also helpful to leave some open space in the
room where students can stand up for oral exercises.
* Encourage Student Participation and interaction: Encourage students to express their
opinions and to ask questions not only to you, but to who ever they feel like getting a clarification
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as well.
* Eye Contact: Eye contact is a polite way to communicate that speaks a person’s honesty.
If it is difficult for a student to make direct eye contact, he/ she can look at the other person’s
eyebrows.
* Pacing Lessons: Watch your students’ faces, and check for comprehension. Do the
students need more explanation? More time to practice? Pacing is also important in asking/
answering questions.
* Group Rules and Respect: Cultivate a spirit of cooperations and respect within the
group. Help participants to understand that everyone in the group is a student and that everyone
is also a teacher.
* Dealing with dominators: If a particular student tends to dominate the conversation- or to
anser all of the teachers’ questions- teh leader can give other students an opportunity to
speak by using the student’s name to interrupt them.
* Encouraging Shy Participants: If a student is not participating encourage him/ her in the
same way, by using the student’s name.
Good leaders always seem to be able to “get things done”. Ever wonder how they do that?
The skill they have most likely mastered is the skill of prioritizing. Out of moment, it counts at
large that the Leadership Values are crucial life-skills for students because they enable
students to be able to manage their career-progressions and financial independence when
they mature. The accessibility of updated information is not a problem, however, there must
be aleadership quotient for a student to make a decision and act on this information. This is
the ultimate towards Quality in Education, Worklife and upliftment of the society in a big way.
Though “Quality” should have been Natural, as yet it is not. The anti-quality pollution and
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redundancy in operations has set in too deep that the “Quality Thought” has to be induced by
a conscientious effort. Who does it? The onus is on mothers, teachers, families and friends
and Quality Gurus. Since Mother is the first and most potent teacher or the Quality Guru, the
onus falls back on mother with a greater thrust. If mothers have inculcated the Quality Culture,
the growth process witll be as sound as any good inoculation would do.
As a matter of fact, the implementation of TQM in an organizationnecessitates wholehearted
efforts towards quality improvement, quality development and quality maintenance to satisfy
customers. Productivity needs to be increased by improvement in quality in all our activities
and working together to eliminate errors and prevent wastages. Some of the basic
requirements fro successful implementation of TQM in an organization are as follows:
a. Management Commitment and Teachers’ Participation: This is one of the responsible
features of Quality Culture within a school. This is the very basic need towards TQM with the
commitment of management to achieve total quality. The organisation should have a clear
objective and mission that should be clearly spelt out in the Quality Policy of the school. Here
the concept and implementation of TEI, i.e. the Total Employee Involvement is equally important.
One way to achieve this target of TEI is through installing Quality Circles (QCs) and Quality
Improvement Teams (QITs) in the school.
b. Training and Communication: Together with success lies the importance of training. A Clear
understanding of the TQM is the second most important requirement for its success. The
need of implementing TQM in the organization should be properly spelt out. Until employees
feel a need, it will be very difficult to get them involved and take initiative in this direction. In
fact, TQM starts with training and awareness of employees in this subject. Continuously
upgragind the skills of the staff is the key to the good results of the philosophy of TQM.
c. Parents/ Teachers relationship: As a matter of fact, all the activities in a quality organization
should be towards Parents satisfaction. If fact, the external customer, the parents who buys a
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product in the form of educating his ward, is considered the best designer of a product. It is
his requirements, which are to be, understood, designed and manufactured by the
organisation. Attitude of “Parents’ First” is a real must for a school to succeed in its march
towards quality and the bottom lines of all its decisions must be looked into the prospective of
“Parents’ Happiness”.
Helga Drummond in his book “The TQM Movement” had said “it is dangerous to rely solely
upon repeat business because customers can always go away by competitions from other
firms”. The writer also stated that “ a stable clientele is a shrinking clientele and the customers
who bought the product are important but what about the others who went elsewhere. Therefore,
the most important customer is the one who did not buy your product”. Can this be applied in
education today? Yes, with one reason of involving the parents as the ultimate customers,
Indeed!.
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8. CONCLUSION
One ought to be proud of the fact that no single aspect of our future has been debated more
hotly than education. Our hope for the next century is that education finally will make the
individual’s dream a reality for every member of our society regardless of race, economic
background, gender or religions affiliation. There is no question that the technological
developments during the last several years are creating more educational opportunities for
our citizens -- or at least for some of them. Educators from pre-schools toddlers through
college have embraced the new technology, and most believe it will provide an increase in
learning opportunities for students. Inspite of the fact that school corporations and colleges
have spent tremendous sums of money on technology, many are still left behind. Spending
more and more money to support technology, that too, affectionately referred to by educators
as the toilet that keeps on flushing, may be achieving the intended purposes for some, but is
it really achieving the intended purposes for all. Or for that matter, is technology, in fact, helping
more students than was the case previously.
As per the website of the Government of India, Department of Education there is a right belief
that, There is no exact definition of what constitutes quality in school education. However,
there is a general perception that students’ performance in terminal public examinations
conducted by the Autonomous Boards make a school “good” or “very good”. In contrast to
such perception, conventional researchers in quality and school effectiveness have stressed
on the identifiable inputs that would go into improving the quality in schools. Such inputs
would include infrastructure linked with the curriculum transactions, teaching and learning
processes, teachers’ qualifications and experiences and their training. Against this, a new
model, also known as the ‘contextual modes’, is developing at the international level which
takes into account the context, ‘which means a school’s linkage with the community, its intake,
that is students seeking admissions in it, and autonomy given to its teachers to chalk up their
plan and strategy in organizational as also in respect of curriculum and pedagogy’. The spirit
of this model has been well captured in the National Policy on Education as modified in
1992, which says, ‘To promote equality, it will be necessary to provide for equal opportunity
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to all not only in access, but also in success’. Assuming a direct co-relationship between
‘success’ and quality, one can argue that the national policy sees no conflict between quality
and equity, and it conforms to the international trend, which advocates, ‘The successful schools
in the post industrial era will be ones that achieve excellence and equity simultaneously
indeed one that recognizes equity as the way to excellence.’
It further says that, Any quality improvement programme in schools has to keep these
perspectives in the background. Private schools, which largely accommodate the upper middle
class students in urban areas, are becoming models of ‘effective schools’ and government
schools are increasingly being perceived as a failing system. This trend has to be arrested
by a carefully designed strategic policy and programmatic interventions that could include a
marriage between quality and equity, bringing diversity in student population, extending common
school system policy to private schools and better cooperation and networking with different
systems of schooling for sharing resources and expertise so that there is a systemic quality
improvement in schools. In order to make the scheme flexible and responsive to the needs
for improvement in quality of school education, which has multiple dimensions, it is proposed
to provide a small lump sum amount each year to implement new programmes and initiatives
which are not covered by the preceding paras. It could be for any activity which has great
bearing on the improvement of quality in school education.
As a matter of fact, in context to the increase in the standard of education, one must defer to
the clause of Quality Life rather than Quality at Work. If one experiences Quality at live, it is
obvious of the fact that it ought to fetch the Quality at Work as well. Those who demand our
schools’ improvement would be well advised to pay significant attention to the social issues
that have played such a critical role in the decline of our students’ performance. If we wish to
improve the performance of our Schools, we must first improve the quality of life for our youth.
Also in addition, while the schools need to be reformed and teacher education does need to
be improved and our students need to be held to higher standards; criticism of the public
schools is frequently inaccurate, unfair and divisive. The real criticism should be of our lack of
commitment to support education at all levels. To the fact, known to all, education has always
been politicized, and there will always be those who will use the schools and colleges to
advance their own political fortunes. Unfortunately, the criticism of our schools never adequately
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answers the question. If there has to have improvement, its educational-attainment level, which
will require initially improving elementary and secondary student performance, we must
develop a genuine commitment to education. While many political figures will advance the
notion that they have such a commitment, there is little to indicate they have backed it up with
progressive policy and funding initiatives that will solve our educational problems.
Furthermore, in virtually every school or college, reform efforts are dramatically raising
expectations for students, and consequently, for teachers. In response to these reform
initiatives, educators are being asked to master new skills and responsibilities and to change
their practice. Also to meet new expectations, teachers need to deepen their content knowledge
and lean new methods of teaching. They need more time to work with colleagues, to critically
examine the new standards being proposed, and to revise curriculum. They need opportunities
to develop, master and reflect on new approaches to working with children. All of these activities
fall under the general heading of professional development. Also in persuasion, historically,
state policy makers have paid little attention to the form, content or quality of professional
development. If today’s teachers are to be adequately prepared to meet the new challenges
they are facing, this laissez-faire approach to professional development must come to an
end. The needs are too urgent and resources too scarce to simply continue or expand today’s
inefficient and ineffectual arrangements.
The concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) activates to a large extend in academics.
The concept of TQM was developed by an American, W. Edwards Deming, after World War
II for improving the production quality of goods and services. The concept was not taken
seriously by Americans until the Japanese, who adopted it in 1950 to resurrect their postwar
business and industry, used it to dominate world markets by 1980. By then most U.S.
manufacturers had finally accepted that the nineteenth - century assembly line factory model
was outdated for the modern global economic markets.
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DEMING’S 14 Points on TQM:
1. Create constancy of purpose: Develop a mission statement as your corporate purpose or
aim. For example, the mission statement for a university might be, ‘To develop the skills,
attitudes, and motivation in our students so they will become responsible citizens and be
capable of making positive contributions to society.’ The mission statement for a college of
engineering might be, ‘To develop the skills, attitudes, and motivation in our students so they
will perform in a technically competent, socially
responsible, and ethical manner as engineers entrusted with the safety and comfort of their
clients.’ Developing a mission statement is not a trivial task; it requires a real understanding
of just why the organization exists. The mission statement is also hierarchical; the department’s
mission depends on the college’s mission, which depends on the University’s mission, and
so on. Once the mission statement is developed, everyone (not just the faculty and
administration, but everyone employed by the University) must know how they contribute to
the mission. The analysis suggested
here is to assess the value added by a process. If a process or a position does not add
value, that is, does not contribute to the mission, it should be eliminated.
2. Adopt a new philosophy
Insist on quality in everythingÐclassroom instruction, bookstore service, campus policing,
restroom cleaning, interactions with the legislature Ðeverything. To achieve this quality, an
atmosphere of cooperation as opposed to competition must be instilled. This is particularly
true in the classroom; management must ensure that the processes put in force encourage
cooperation at every levelstudent to student and faculty to student.
Do away with the ‘us versus them’ attitude. Instead ask questions like, ‘What can we, the
faculty and staff, do to make the learning experience in this classroom better?’ or ‘What can
we, the teacher and the students, do to ensure every student has the best opportunity to learn
this material?’ It is a completely different approach than most of us experienced in school as
students.
3. Cease dependence on mass inspection
Focus on the product or service process. Don’t depend on audits, tests, or inspections to
build quality. Inspections will only keep bad products from hitting the market, but there are
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large costs incurred with each bad piece. The analogy in education is that the failed student
is scrap that must be either reworked (take the course again or get extra
tutoring) or discarded. We need to develop processes in which there is less testing but more
focus on progress in learning. For example, ask yourself why you are giving a particular test.
If the answer is to evaluate your students, then ask yourself if you need
this extra piece of evaluative information. There is evidence that we test far more than is
needed to evaluate our students [7]. On the administrative side of the university, are there too
many checks and balances? Can a process be changed to make inspections
unnecessary or at least to reduce the need for inspections? Statistical process control can
be an important tool in developing processes that do not require much inspection.
4. End the practice of conducting business on cost alone
The lowest bid usually does not result in the lowest life-cycle cost. In all our processes, we
need to focus on long-term costs and benefits. That may mean that the trendy new course not
be offered if it means the failure of a course with more long-term value. Awarding the printing
contract to an offcampus vendor may have lower first cost, but the
inability to get adequate turn-around time or poorer quality may make the overall cost of that
decision very high. University professors often complain about the poor job the high schools
are doing in preparing students for college. The longterm costs of supplying educated people
to society may be less if some of the resources of the university were spent on improving high
and junior high schools.
5. Constantly improve processes
Are your customers (the students and their future employers) more satisfied than they were
last semester? Are the faculty members happier? Are the secretaries happier? Are the
suppliers of the University happier? If the answer to a question is no, find out why and fix the
situation immediately. If the answer is yes, determine what it was in the process that made it
so. In any case, analyze the process to determine what changes can be made to make it
better. Incremental improvements must be made every semester. This is essentially the Kaizen
philosophyÐencourage innovation, but insist upon incremental improvements, especially after
the innovation . The phrase, ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,’ does not apply. To help decide where
to look for things to improve, use course grades, student performance on ‘anchor’ problems,
student critiques, faculty and staff organizational climate surveys, inputs to suggestion boxes,
summaries of c omplaints, etc. Carefully designed questions on anonymous surveys can be
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very valuable, but talking directly to the customer is still the best way to find out what the
barriers are. There is a side benefit to talking directly to the students about their problems-
they appreciate it and make the ‘us versus them’
attitude much less likely.
6. Institute training
Everyone needs to know their job. The faculty is certainly well educated in their disciplines but
maybe not in the art of teaching. Faculty development programs help teachers know their
jobs. Word processing classes help secretaries do their job better. Money spent on faculty
and staff training has long-term payback. In addition, you should teach TQM to everyoneÐfaculty,
staff, and especially students. The more everyone knows about the management principles
used on a daily basis, the easier it is for everyone to buy into the
idea.
7. Institute leadership
Emphasize leadership instead of management. Everyone at the university has a leadership
role of some sort. Each person in a supervisory role (including the faculty) should try to be a
coach and R. C. Winn and R. S. Green 26 teacher, not a judge and overseer. As put by
Senge, the leader should be a designer, a creator of an environment [6]. Effective leaders will
search for barriers to communication and productivity and remove them. A poorly lit classroom
can have a significant effect on student performance. A teacher who is an effective leader will
see to it that the lighting problems are fixed. A teacher who will adjust the due date on a
project based on special student situations, will probably increase the learning of his students.
8. Drive out fear
In the academic setting, fear is often a big factor in student and faculty performance. For
students, any steps that can be taken to reduce the fear involved in taking a test will pay large
benefits in student performance and attitude. Allowing for a make-up exam, points for reworking
missed problems on an exam, and dropping a low grade are examples of little things that can
be done to reduce student fear. Teachers must balance their roles as
educators versus evaluators. When asked, most professors will readily say that their job is to
educate their students; however, the amount of time they spend on evaluation tends to
contradict this view. On the faculty and staff side, fear can also play an important role. If a high
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price must be paid for failure, few people will be willing to risk experimenting with a promising
new innovation, thus keeping a process improvement out of the system. If a teacher would
like to try an innovative teaching technique, the effort should be applauded
even if it is a failure. Certainly something of value will have come from the experiment.
Researchers must have the opportunity to fail without the fear of demotion or lack of promotion
opportunity. Fear is a powerful emotion and can have very negative effects on the performance
of an organization.
9. Break down barriers
Encourage cooperation, not competition. Encourage the forming of cross-function teams to
address problems and process improvements. A team made up of faculty, staff, and students
(perhaps from more than one department) will have a broader perspective in addressing
issues than a more narrowly composed committee. When addressing a problem in the
registration process, address it with a team consisting of representatives from every involved
organizationÐfaculty, advisors, students, registrar, computer services, etc. A solution devised
by only one organization will usually have a negative impact on some other organizations.
Bringing everyone in on the decision process will usually result in a better solution, and certainly
one that is easier to accept.
10. Avoid obsession with goals and slogans
Just telling someone to do good is meaningless without the means to achieve that goal.
Management must improve the processes so that the goals can be achieved. Stating that
80% is the minimum acceptable score on an exam will not by itself achieve that goal. Stating
that goal and then providing excellent instruction, arranging for study teams, giving extra help
where needed, etc., will give the students a much better chance for success.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas
It is often said that numbers are the crutches of poor supervision. On the assembly line, this
principle is easy to see; in the academic setting, it is not as obvious but just as true. If there
are quotas established for ‘x’ number of papers per year or ‘y’ number of majors enrolled,
quality will decrease. The number one priority should be quality. Only after the process is
designed so that quality is assured should the questions of quantity be addressed.
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12. Remove barriers to pride of workmanship
Pride is a strong motivator. In the academic setting, pride certainly flows from personal and
group achievements, but there is also a good deal of pride in the institution as well. Often this
institutional pride is a result of having survived the program, but it can also stem from having
had a part in the development of that program. If the students are included in some of the
decisionmaking processes, they will develop a strong pride of ownership that can have a
significant impact on their attitudes. A step as simple as talking to student representatives
about their concerns can change an antagonistic faculty/student relationship
into a cooperative one. Using some of the elements of cooperative learning also empowers
the students by sharing some of the teaching role with the faculty. A secretary who is allowed
to choose how the work is to be done and has a voice in some of the administrative decisions
that affect secretarial work will be a much more productive and happy worker. Barriers between
departments and colleges should be dismantled; each professor can learn a lot by studying
the operation of another department.
13. Organization-wide involvement
Everyone in the institution must be included in the education process and be aware of and
concerned for their immediate ‘customer’. Lab technicians who sit in on the courses that they
support will have a much better idea of how their work contributes to the mission. Secretaries
who learn about new techniques and technologies for use in the office are much more likely to
suggest improvements to the processes they are exposed to. Professors
should audit courses in other departments, particularly those courses that are prerequisites
for their own courses. Faculty members who learn about TQM are much more likely to endorse
the concept and to suggest new ways to implement TQM in their jobs. One cannot predict just
what Applying Total Quality Management to the Educational Process piece of knowledge will
spark the idea that will lead to a significant process improvement.
14. Define management’s responsibilities to make it happen Management, at every level
but particularly at the very top, must take and show pride in adopting the TQM philosophy. The
meaning of each of the 14 points as related to the mission must be clear to all involved. This
is not a trivial process; a good deal of time must be spent in analyzing the various processes
and discussing how the 14 points relate to those processes. The time spent in this effort
forms the foundation for all of the TQM implementation.
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APPLICATION OF THE 14 POINTS
The above 14 points are very general. When TQM is successfully applied, it is a result of a
careful study of each point and a clear determination of how each applies to the situation at
hand. No two applications of TQM will be the same. The form that a particular implementation
takes is dependent on many factors such as the size of the institution, whether the institution
is private or public, and the strengths of the people involved, but the most important variables
are the maturity of the students and the involvement of the employer. Careful consideration of
all aspects of the educational system will help determine just how the TQM implementation
will ultimately look.
The principles of TQM can also be applied to high school, middle school, and elementary
school educational processes as well as to training situations. The principle differences in
the implementation of TQM will be the result of the relative weight assigned to each of the
customers at the different levels of education. The weighting that is applied is primarily the
result of the maturity of the students, but there are other considerations as well. For example,
in elementary schools the most important customers, listed in order of importance, are the
parents of the students, the students themselves, and the middle school to which the students
are headed. As the maturity of the students increases, the students replace the parents as
the most important customer. In a training situation, the most important customer is the
organization that needs the individuals trained. Regardless who your primary customer
is, it is essential that the students be included in the list of customers.
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Figure 1 shows a qualitative assessment of the relative importance of various customers in
different educational environments. Please keep in mind that only a few of the potential
customers have been presented, but students must be considered in each case.
It is come out of the belief of many educators that the Deming’s concept of TQM provides
guiding principles for needed educational reform. In his article, “The Quality Revolution in
Education,” John Jay Bonstingl outlines the TQM principles he believes are most salient to
education reform.
He calls them the “Four Pillars of Total Quality Management.”
Principle #1: Synergistic Relationships
According to this principle, an organisation must focus, first and foremost, on its suppliers
and customers. In a TQM organisation, everyone is both a customer and supplier; this confusing
concept emphasises “the systematic nature of the work in which all are involved”. In other
words, teamwork and collaboration are essential. Traditionally, education has been prone to
individual and departmental isolation. However, according to Bonstingl, this outdated practice
no longer serves us: “When I close the classroom door, those kids are mine!” is a notion too
narrow to survive in a world in which teamwork and collaboration result in high-quality benefits
for the greatest number of people. The very application of the first pillar of TQM to education
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emphasises the synergistic relationship between the “suppliers” and “customers”. The concept
of Synergy suggests that performance and production is enhanced by pooling the talent and
experience of individuals.
In a classroom, teacher-student teams are the equivalent of industry’s front-line workers. The
product of their successful work together is the development of the student’s capabilities,
interests, and character. In one sense, the student is the teacher’s customer, as the recipient
of educational services provided for the student’s growth and improvement. Viewed in this
way, the teacher and the school are suppliers of effective learning tools, environments, and
systems to the student, who is the school’s primary customer. The school is responsible for
providing for the long-term educational welfare of students by teaching them how to learn and
communicate in high-quality ways, how to access quality in their own work and in that of
others, and how to invest in their own lifelong and life-wide learning processes by maximizing
opportunities for growth in every aspect of daily life. In another sense, the student is also a
worker, whose product is essentially his or her own continuous improvement and personal
growth.
Principle #2: Continuous Improvement and Self Evaluation
The second pillar of TQM applied to education is the total dedication to continuous
improvement, personally and collectively. Within a Total Quality school setting, administrators
work collaboratively with their customers: teachers. Gone are the vestiges of “Scientific
management”... whose watchwords were compliance, control and command. The foundations
for this system were fear, intimidation, and an adversial approach to problem-solving. Today
it is in our best interest to encourage everyone’s potential by dedicating ourselves to the
continual improvement of our own abilities and those of the people with whom we work and
live. Total Quality is, essentially, a win-win approach which works to everyone’s ultimate
advantage.
According to Deming, no human being should ever evaluate another human being. Therefore,
TQM emphasizes self-evaluation as part of a continuous improvement process. In addition,
this principle also laminates to the focusing on students’ strengths, individual learning styles,
and different types of intelligences.
Principle #3: A System of Ongoing Process
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The third pillar of TQM as applied in academics is the recognition of the organisation as a
system and the work done within the organisation must be seen as an ongoing processes.
The primary implication of this principle is that individual students and teachers are less to
blame for failure than the system in which they work. Quality speaks to working on the system,
which must be examined to identify and eliminate the flawed processes that allow its
participants to fail. Since systems are made up of processes, the improvements made in the
quality of those processes largely determine the quality of the resulting product. In the new
paradigm of learning, continual improvement of learning processes based on learning
outcomes replaces the outdated “teach and test” mode.
Principle #4: Leadership
The fourth TQM principle applied to education is that the success of TQM is the responsibility
of top management. The school teachers must establish the context in which students can
best achieve their potential through the continuous improvement that results from teachers
and students working together. Teachers who emphasize content area literacy and principle-
centered teaching provide the leadership, framework, and tools necessary for continuous
improvement in the learning process.
According to the practical evidences, the TQM principles help the schools in following clauses:
(a). Redefine the role, purpose and responsibilities of schools.
(b). Improve schools as a “way of life.”
(c). Plan comprehensive leadership training for educators at all levels.
(d). Create staff development that addresses the attitudes and beliefs of school staff.
(e). Use research and practice-based information to guide both policy and practice.
(f). Design comprehensive child-development initiatives that cut across a variety of agencies
and institutions.
In order to achieve the above as opportunities to the academic scenario, in addition to
patience, participatory management among well-trained and educated partners is crucial to
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the success of TQM in education; everyone involved must understand and believe in principles.
Some personnel who are committed to the principles can facilitate success with TQM. Their
vision and skills in leadership, management, interpersonal communication, problem solving
and creative cooperation are important qualities for successful implementation of TQM.
A keystone in the Deming Philosophy is the continuous improvement of all processes. It is not
important to identify, at any one moment, the best process someone else has developed.
Rather, the enterprise and its managers should learn to develop the habit of continuous
improvement. Any theory of management which seeks the best process for delivering a service,
and then organizes itself to keep that process constant with time is suspect. Although today
there is much attention paid to “bench marking”, that obsession should be understood as a
crutch for managers who do not know how to make their organizations obsessive about
improvement. The justification given by most managers, for their focus on “bench marking,” is
that it supplies a motivation for the workforce. “See how well they are doing it? We ought to
be able to do at least as well!” An obsession with bench marking relieves the managers from
having to lead the way in improvement and of having to inspire
creativity in the workforce. If boards of directors understood their jobs, they would appoint as
CEO’s only those who have demonstrated their ability to lead people in the processes of
improvement. School boards who understand quality would look first at candidates for
Superintendent by asking for strong evidence of leadership coupled with good managerial
skills. William Glasser, an educationist, summarizes the key ingredients to quality in education.
First, treat people well by motivating them to do a good job without coercion. Second, teach
people to evaluate their own work. Third, establish a warm, caring environment by eliminating
fear, punishment, and threats. Fourth, make the learning useful, and more importantly, ensure
that the learning is perceived as useful to the students. Looking with an eagle’s eye to the
above capsules of Quality framework in academics, moreover at any organisation, there can
be an improvement of worklife to the individual, paving way to the TQM and TQP (Total Quality
People) in totality.
Quality Circles in Schools - A Narration:
Quality cannot be achieved accidentally. It requires intelligent and international effort. The key
to rapid strides on the parth of success and progress in 21st century is going to be self-
reliance, self-discipline and exploiting synergy of team- work. For schools to foster and sustain
quality educational standards, to keep pace with the globalization and to implement information
technology, they will have to be dynamic, creative and collaborative hubs of energetic activity.
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These in turn will help to have total quality management in educational institutions. Total quality
management brings about a radical change in culture and the way an institution functions. It is
easy to infer that a continued qualitative growth is possible only if tis stakeholders earnestly
want it and pursue it.
What is Quality for Human Beings?
Quality is excellence. It is emotional development. It is character building. It is cooperative
living.
What is Quality for a School?
It is how a child is received, welcomed, cared for, supported, trained, educated, and prepared
to meet the challenges of life. QUality means quality of work, service, education and curriculum.
Total Quality achievement is education is based on many aspects such as schooling
process, collaborative school management etc.
The Schooling process comprises of defining and taking following steps:
* Objectives of the school : Schools function in different geographical, economic and
social areas and thus objectives of one school definitely will vary from that of the other school.
A school may want to specialize in developing good sports persons yet another may develop
good research talent and yet some school may decide to produce best board results. Each
one in its own right has its objectives firmly defined.
* School Climate: It is characterized by the definition of discipline, expectations from the
students and staff, freedom enjoyed by the students and staff in setting their standards.
* Methodology of Teaching: Though all schools profess to have designed methodologies
which adhere to the lates developments in pedagogies, each one of them will have to keep in
sight the desired objectives of the parents, quality of the students and the level of technological
advances possible for the school to maintain the technology available for the students to use
outside the school.
* Management and administration: School administration must facilitate achievements of
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the school. The management of the school concerns itself with the growth and development
of the people. The ideologies and philosophies of the management and capability and flexibility
of the managers will determine the extent to which a school can take plunge into improving its
standards.
* Collaborative School Management: No matter what objectives are and what school
management is, if a school is to remain dynamic and wishes to prepare indivisuals fit to take
on the reins of the nation tomorrow, each school will have to have collaborative school
management.
Collaborative School Management Requires:
New Vision of School Leadership: The Principal is the school leader. He/ She develops
sense of educational purpose in the staff and students. He/ She is responsible for formulating
broad policies and ensures that they are implemented. He/ She brings individual skills together
to obtain best progress. He/ She should provide opportunity to the staff for participation in the
continuous development of the school and its students should meet parents’ expectation for
quality. While doing all this, he/ she remains the facilitator rather than the dictator.
Shared Visions and Goals: Visions and goals are overall sense of direction in which the
school should head. The mission and gaol statements must be jointly written down. The
brainstorming sessions enable to jointly arrive at the vision an institution must look for. If all
stakeholders are well aware of the goals the path to excellence is smooth.
Less Hierarchical Distance: The Principal should be approachable to the staff and students;
similarly the teachers should be easily approachable to students. This eases the
communication and speeds the decision-making.
To sustanin and foster the collaborative school management quality circles must be
developed. As we know,
COMING TOGETHER IS BEGINNING,
STAYING TOGETHER IS SUCCESS,
WORKING TOGETHER IS PROGRESS.
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RESOURCES
(Acknowledgement)
Blankstein, Alan M. “Lessons from Enlightened Corporations.” EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
49, 6 (March 1992): 71-75. EA 526 563.
Deming, W. Edwards. OUT OF THE CRISIS. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, 1986. 507 pages.
Fuchsberg, Gilbert. “Quality Programs Show Shoddy Results.” WALL STREET JOURNAL
(May 14, 1992): B1, B9.
Olson, Lynn. “Quality-Management Movement Spurs Interest in New Awards for Education.”
EDUCATION WEEK 11, 26 (March 18, 1992a): 8.
........ “Schools Get Swept Up in Current of Business’ ‘Quality’ Movement.” EDUCATION WEEK
11, 25 (March 11, 1992b): 1, 24-27.
Rhodes, Lewis A. “On the Road to Quality.” EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP 49, 6 (March
1992): 76-80. EA 526 564.
Rocheleau, Larrae. “Mt. Edgecumbe’s Venture in Quality: How One Superintendent Learned
the Difference between Managing and Leading.” SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR 48, 9
(November 1991): 14-16, 18. EJ 434 405.
Using Six Sigma to Solve Issues in Public School System.htm: www.isixsigma.com
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http://www.education.nic.in/ Revised Scheme of Quality Improvement in Schools.htm/
Department of Education, Government of India.
TQM in Education, The Theory and How To Put It to Work, Myron Tribus, Exergy, Inc.,Hayward, CA
Quality Circles in Schools, by Mrs. Priyadarshini Kelkar, Source: Souvenir, VCCQCC-2005
Quality World, July 2006. Page 36, Implementation of Quality Management System.
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CHAPTER 9
Pictures towards Quality Achievements, Thanks to His Excellence, Shri A.P.J. Abdul
Kalam, Our President.
Dheeraj Mehrotra, teacher from City Montessori School, Lucknow, receiving theaward from President.
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Dheeraj Mehrotra as one of the TCS: Education WorldAwardee- 2006
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Dheeraj Mehrotra with PRIME MINISTER of India after being awarded theNATIONAL TEACHER AWARD.
Eat IT, Think IT, Walk with IT and Talk of IT
Quality education is the need of the hour and with the result, at the same timethe boards of education and learning must develop a plan to help schools,teachers and parents educate children about safe, responsible use of theInternet. For example, encourage schools and families to place computersin rooms that are shared (such as family rooms, dining rooms, offices orlibraries), where children can use the Internet with others around them. Andteach children never to share personal information (name, address, telephone,or credit card number) online. This may go a long way in making this a success.The day-to-day activities at the school and the home education will provide ahealthy liking for the computer and this is required to foster appropriate useof the Internet among preschoolers and other young children.
They say that “Computers, software, CDs and Smart Toys should always beconsidered a supplement to the other, more concrete learning activities likecompleting puzzles, building with Lego and blocks, reading books, creatingart projects and playing on the playground…”, is obvious by our observationsand research, out of the present day scenario.
(Dheeraj Mehrotra)http://dheerajmehrotra.tripod.com
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V i s i t
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