Total Quality of Management

OVERVIEW OF THE BASICS OF STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES USED

AS TQM TOOLS

This section gives just a glimpse of the basics of statistical techniques to help readers

to appreciate the relevance and indispensability of certain techniques that act as

TQM enablers. Serious readers interested in the theory may kindly consult reference

books on statistics or those TQM books which have elaborately dealt with statistical

tools & techniques used in TQM.

TQM without statistical techniques is unthinkable; implementation of total

quality management principles is just not possible without deploying any of the

statistical techniques or tools. Leaders, businessmen, and professionals, irrespec-

tive of their specialization, need to have an overview and appreciation of statistical

techniques as used in business and governance, just as in this modern world they

cannot ignore information technology. Unfortunately most businessmen and pro-

fessionals have an unfounded fear that statistics is too difficult and complicated to

understand. Thanks to advancements in software packages, complicated calcula-

tions and graphics can be done on computers and this development has really

made statistics user-friendly to non-statisticians. Leaders or professionals can now

easily understand, interpret, and initiate actions based on the statistical data

though they might require the help and guidance of a professional statistician in

certain cases.

Life is a pattern and its every activity follows a rhythm. The heartbeats follow

a particular rhythm; if the rhythm of the heart beat shows some irregularity or

abnormality the doctor says that we have a problem! The pump supplies the blood

to the heart, if the rhythm is distorted or erratic, the doctor or God intervenes. A

workaholic professional wonders about the worried (rather panicky) expression

of his wife when he returns home early at 4 PM instead of usual 8.30 PM to 9 PM.,

it is the broken rhythm of the routine that triggers the warning bell in the mind of

wife. The point is that all our activities of life, whether it concerns our body, mind,

profession or family life follow a certain pattern or rhythm. Whether one is suffering

from typhoid or not, is diagnosed by the doctor by studying the temperature chart

of the patient. We may not actively notice, but the milkman comes more or less in

same time, so does the newspaper vendor when delivering newspaper early

morning at certain time. All our daily activities or chores follow a particular pattern

or rhythm. Any major variation from this routine or rhythm causes some concern.

The ‘spikes’ in our routine (normal) trends or rhythms are indicative of aberrations

in the system. These aberrations need to be corrected, otherwise one day the system

could be out of tune. Regularity of these spikes is indicative an underlying pattern

and suggest its treatment, but if the occurrences are sporadic or random, interpre-

tation and correction may be totally different. When the doctors say that cholesterol

level is high, he is referring to an indicative range or limit; similarly range or limit

is also a usual thing in our profession or daily home/social life. If someone

behaves irrationally beyond the accepted norm, we admonish him by saying that

he has crossed the limit. The foregoing simple examples from daily life is referred

to explain that all activities whether in profession, or daily life develop a rhythm

210 MACRO STRATEGY