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Integrated lean TQM model for sustainable development

Samuel K.M. Ho
Coventry University, Coventry, UK and Hang Seng Management College, Shatin, Hong Kong
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore an integrated lean TQM model for sustainable development by synthesising the best practices of TQM in all functions of business and management. Design/methodology/approach Further to the paper Integrated lean TQM model for global sustainability and competitiveness published in The TQM Journal, Vol. 22 No. 2, 2010, the focus of this paper is to provide more practical examples with a view to developing a working model integrating ISO 9000, ISO 14001, OHSAS18001, and six-s. Furthermore, a new term called 5S is used to combine the two sets of well-proven 5-S and lean 5-S (L5S) audit checklists. The 5S approach will ensure subtanable development of most types of organizations in the contemporary business environment. Findings Since 1993, the author used the proprietary 5S audit checklists for training and consultancy in no less than ten countries with over 100,000 persons from around 8,000 organisations worldwide. Based on this rich experience, a new integrated lean TQM model for sustainable development was developed to provide a uniformed platform for organizations to implement ISO 9000, ISO 14001, OHSAS18001, and six-s more easily with good results. Research limitations/implications As the integrated lean TQM model has only been tested in Hong Kong, China, and Japan, interested academics and related parties are invited to join hands to validate this model for the sustainable development elsewhere. Practical implications The integrated lean TQM model for sustainable development proposed in this paper has shown some evidence to help organizations overcome the damages caused by the nancial tsunami via the checklists and auditing. Originality/value Riding on the successes of two proprietary 50-point checklists, a new integrated lean TQM model for sustainable development was developed in this paper. When used properly, this model can become the pivotal point for sustainable development of organisations. Keywords Total quality management, Sustainable development, ISO 9000 series, Japan, China Paper type Research paper

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Received March 2009 Revised October 2009 February 2010 Accepted June 2010

Introduction Porter (1980) advocated sustainable development as one of the most important factors for organizational successes. Over the past two decades, his 5-force model (customer, supplier, new entrant, substitute and rivalry) has been considered as the bible in explaining the competitive scenario for businesses. However, during his era, the oil crisis and the nancial tsunami were not that signicant. Since the beginning of 2008, the oil price has soared to US$148/barrel, and kept rising. This calls for the pressing need for LEAN, the most important word for any organisation in the contemporary world. By now, the oil crisis seems to have been over. Unfortunately, it has ignited the September 2008 nancial tsunami (Chan, 2008), a much bigger problem than the oil crisis, which we can live with. The US nancial crisis has sent shockwaves throughout Asia as governments, banks and corporations scramble to cope with

The TQM Journal Vol. 22 No. 6, 2010 pp. 583-593 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1754-2731 DOI 10.1108/17542731011085294

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plunging share prices, international nancial turmoil and the prospects of a serious downturn in the USA and other major economies. Further to the paper Integrated lean TQM model for global sustainability and competitiveness published in The TQM Journal, Vol. 22 No. 2, 2010, the focus of this paper is to provide more practical examples with a view to develop a working model integrating ISO 9000, 14001 and OHSAS18001. Furthermore, a new term called 5S is used to combine the two sets of well-proven 5-S and lean 5-S (L5S) audit checklists. The 5S approach will ensure the substanable development of most types of organizations in the contemporary business environment. The aim of the model is to enable companies to effectively achieve safety, hygiene, quality productivity, image, cost reduction, environmental protection and timely delivery. This will give rise to sustainable development for the company. The model is summarized in Figure 1. The 5-S is a rst step towards TQM. Over the last century, the Japanese have formalised the technique and name it as the 5S ( *) practice (Osada, 1991). Professor Sam Ho has improved and dened its terms in English and developed the worlds rst 5-S audit checklist in 1993. In 1998-2000, a US$600,000 grant was given to train 2,500 5-S lead auditors in Hong Kong. By now, over 100,000 people have been trained, with over 8,000 organisations, around half of which have been certied as the 5-S registered organisation. *As differentiated from the Japanese 5S, the one created in this paper is named as 5-S. From 5-S to TQM Research by Ho (1995) has shown that the western world seldom recognises the signicance of the 5-S practice although there are indications that some companies have included some aspects of the 5-S in their routines without being aware of its existence as a formalised technique. There are many examples of successful implementation of some principles of the 5-S, especially in the service sector organisations, such as fast-food restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, libraries, and leisure centres. During his Asian Productivity Organisation Fellowship in Japan in 1987, the author visited 24 rms, which had implemented some sort of 5S activities. The idea was crystalised in 1993 when he was invited by the Asian Development Bank as the quality

Figure 1. The integrated lean TQM model (ILTM)

expert to the Malaysian government. At the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM), he was asked to develop a ve-year national quality plan for the country. Being an ISO 9000 lead auditor, he rmly believed that the best way to acquire a quality technique is to do auditing according to the technique. So, it came to his mind that he should develop the worlds rst 5-Sw checklist, which he now nds as the most powerful tool for learning the 5-Sw. The difference between the Japanese and western approach lies mostly in the degree of employee involvement. The 5-S has become the way of doing businesses, not only to impress the customers but also to establish effective quality processes as prerequisites for good products and services. Through in-depth research in Hong Kong, Japan and the UK, the author has identied the 5-S practice as the step number one for a TQM programme (Ho and Fung, 1995). The 5-S practice in detail Reference is made to the proprietary 5-S audit checklist (see Appendix 1) developed by Ho (1995). Philosophers in the past have already emphasized the importance of self-discipline. Here are some well-known quotations:
Self-discipline and self-condence are twins. Without self-discipline, there is no self-condence (William Somerset Maugham, British play-writer, 1874-1965). The success of a person depends on his self-condence and self-discipline (El Codigo Secreto, Greek philosopher, 306BC ).

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Unfortunately, the previously mentioned philosophers and management gurus did not point out how people can be trained to have self-discipline. The answer lies in Table I. 5-S, when implemented properly, can develop the self-discipline of employees through the rst 4-S, i.e. structurise, systematise, sanitise and standardise. Moreover, with the 50-point 5-S audit checklist developed, self-discipline can be assured. Introduction to lean 5-S (L5S) After promoting 5-S for 14 years, there is some feedback from various organizations that 5-S is not focusing on measurement and sometimes lacking agility in handling dynamic situations. As a result, and with the advice from Massaki Imai, the founder of the Kaizen Institute, the author developed a second 50-point checklist know as lean 5-S (see Appendix 2) management systems. Unlike the ISO standards, each checkpoint is kept simple and concise. The rationale for this is that, if the standard itself is short, it

Japanese Seiri Seiton Seiso Seiketsu * * Shitsuke

English * Structurise Systematise Sanitise Standardise Self-discipline

50-points * 10 10 5 15 10

Typical examples (from the 50-point *) 1-is-best: one-hour meeting Everything should have a name and home Make cleaning easy Poke-Yoka or fool-proong measures Seeing-is-believing and keep it short and simple Table I. The 5-S in summary

Notes: *Created by the author in 1993 as the Quality Expert under an Asian Development Bank TQM project in Malaysia; * *Original meaning Cleanliness, has been replaced with Standardise.

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can provide wider scope for interpretation and application. Moreover, the auditor is required to write down the % increase in prot as arise from the increase in sales. For the 2 %, it is the saving arise from cost reduction. Overall, the aim is at 10 per cent increase in prot by both measures. In particular from past experience, the savings in electricity, gas and telecommunication can easily achieve 2 20 per cent. L5S has been adopted and adapted by many organizations in the HKSAR already. Ng (2008) reported in the HK Economic Daily that the Ocean Empire Group has increase sales by 40 per cent and reduced cost by over US$20,000/month by adopting the principles and practice of L5S. As for the China Light & Power Ltd., the productivity has gone up by 25 per cent. Leung (2008) also reported in the One-Magazine that through activity sampling, a restaurant has managed to cut labour costs. At the same time, through smaller packaging, the restaurant chain has managed to save over US$30,000/month by minimizing waste. She summarized her nding in that L5S is a very useful and practical tool to ight against the nancial tsunami. Similar evidence was elaborated by Wan (2009) in his article on the South China Morning Post, considered the most authoritative English newspaper in the Southeast Asian region. By now, over 8,000 organisations employing over 100,000 people in no less than 20 countries (including Australia, Canada, China, Finland, HKSAR, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK, the USA) have been using the research output in the improvement of their business by developing sound strategies and achieving signicant improvements in safety, quality, productivity, speed and image. With the previous scenario in mind, the author has established and widely promoted a profound 5-S L5S Model (see Figure 2) for the benets of organisations. In Figure 1, cost is paired with environment in order to spell out the conicting nature of these two organizational objectives. One has to balance out these two objectives and identify an optimal point. S-2 (systematised) and S-3 (sanitise) are paired, as they are both actions initiated by S-1 (structurise). Furthermore, in order to instill self-discipline, we have to implement 5-S through teamwork or quality control circle (QCC) and also conduct 5-S audit regularly.

Figure 2. The 5S ( 5-S L5S) model

5-S L5S (hereby redened as 5S ), are the foundation for other management systems, including quality, environment, safety, 6-s (Treichler et al., 2002). Through auditing according to the 5S audit checklists in Appendices 1 and 2, one can identify the deciencies of organizations easily and readily. These deciencies have to be rectied as soon as possible in order to ensure a quality environment and quality culture built into the day-to-day operations. The audit ndings are classied into non-conformances (NCs) and observations (OBs). The NCs are directly affecting the safety, hygiene, quality, productivity and image and therefore have to be improved. On the contrary, the OBs are optional for improvement. Normally, for a one-manday audit, ten NCs are allowed as the passing mark. Nevertheless, they have to be rectied before certication is granted. From 5S 1 to TQM With the aid of the ISO 9000 process model, one can integrate these management systems into one diagram. On top of this diagram, we can bring 5-S and L5S inside to come up with an integrated lean TQM model (see Figure 1). The elements are explained in greater detail in Figure 3. From Figure 3, 5-S is the foundation for ISO 9000, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and six-s. The difference is that the four standards tell the organization What to do. However, it is the nature of these standards that they are not prescriptive. In order words, they do not tell organizations How to do. The 50-point audit checklist of

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Figure 3. The ILTM in detail

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the 5-S tells exactly How to do it. On the other hand, in order to further achieve quality, cost, environment and delivery as competitive advantages, we need to look at the processes of implementation under Objectives and targets, Resource management, and Process management. Here again, the 50-point L5S are the tools to ensure that these processes are effectively conducted. Many such examples can be found at the HK 5-S Association web site (www.hk5sa.com), as the HK5SA has certied over 1,000 organisations in the HKSAR and China on 5-S and L5S over the last ten years already. Different from the Appendices 1 and 2 in The TQM Journal, Vol. 22 No. 2, 2010, the Appendices 1 and 2, Figures 1A and 2A, in this paper include mappings of the two 50-point checklists to each of the ISO 9000, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and six-s management systems. These mappings, though crude in nature, focus the major relationship of each of the points in the 5S checklists with the popular management systems. When the two checklists counts are added together, the summary (see Table II) is derived. It is seen that the spread of the mapping is quite even. This proves that the 5S checklist can provide an effective tool for the four common management systems used by many organizations. The idea of Integration can be explained by a simple process. For instance, a construction company is fabricating a high-rise building. In constructing the pre-stressed oor slab, the engineer in-charge has to ensure that the quality is meeting the specication for reinforced steel-bars, concretes mix, pre-stress loading and anchoring. While so doing, the site agent has to ensure that the concreting process is meeting the environmental requirement in terms of debris, chemical and noise pollution. The safety ofcer has to ensure that the work process is free from hazards and occupational health problems. Then, through the 5-S implementation, it helps to minimize quality errors, environmental pollution and reduce the chance of accidents and occupational health incidences. Thus, the engineer in-charge will ll in a form consisted of 5-S, ISO 9000, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and six-s. This form will eventually become the quality record of all four systems implemented and fast become a truly integrated management system (IMS) based on the ILTM. 5S 1 case studies Recently, a major construction company (PPCSB) in Malaysia has implemented the IMS based on the 5-S practice. As a result, they have received a high commendation by their clients representative, Bovis from Australia which is well-known to be stringent. The construction company had all ISO 9000, ISO 14001, OH18001 and six-s for many years and they found it hard to integrate the system and reap the benet of it. After implementing the 5-S for three months, they got the commendation by their client already! A comment made by their CEO was that 5-S changes the attitude of work of our people and sub-contractors. Arising from this success, SIRIM has made an

Table II. The 5S checklist summary mapping with other management systems

Checklists 5-S/50 L5S/50 5S /100

ISO 9000 12 9 21

ISO 14001 10 16 26

OH 18001 19 6 25

Six-s 9 19 28

announcement through the media to the construction industry in Malaysia to adopt and adapt the 5-S practice as the base of IMS. In other words, the 5S is a very good tool for integrating various management sub-systems. In fact, this experience is nothing new. In Hong Kong, under the guidance of the author, one of the HK Housing Societys building projects got the rst Best Building Award by the HK Institution of Architecture in 2004. In another case, a medium Chinese fast food chain in Hong Kong called Ocean Empire with 20 outlets have adopted 5-S since 2000. Since then, the chain has achieved over 20 awards in hygiene, quality, safety, and services. Then in 2008, the chain decided to move on to L5S. As a result, sales have increased, with the sales of one shop increased by 40 per cent. This is resulted from executing some of the L5S points (i.e. L1.1, L1.2 and L10.5). Moreover, cost has been reduced by 5-10 per cent across the board i.e. L4.1, L4.2, L4.3, L4.4, L5.1, L5.2 and L5.3). This approach was rst benchmarked from the Toyota Production System when the author visited the rst Toyota factory in Toyoda City in 1987. Then, through various consultancy experience, he has established contacts with many organisations which made use of the ILTM model to achieve signicant improvement and savings in their operations. Examples include: Tao Heung Group of restaurants (, 70 outlets in HK/China), Neway Karaoke (, 30 outlets in HK/China/Malaysia/Philippines), Tang Palace (, 10 outlets in China), HK hospital authority (, 45 public hospitals in HK), Northern Spain Health Authority (,30 hospitals), DHL Group (Asia Hub), SIRIM (promoting the ILTM in Malaysia since 1993), Productivity & Standard Board (promoting the 5-S practice in Singapore since 2000), SGS (promoting the 5-S practice in Philippines since 2007). His recent benchmarking experience was in the capacity of the China/HK partner of the Kaizen Institute (founded by Mr Masaaki Imai, the former consultant for lean management at Toyota). Conclusion Riding on the last paper Integrated Lean TQM model for global sustainability and competitiveness published in The TQM Journal, Vol. 22 No. 2, 2010, this paper pioneers the development of a practical ILTM. Through his research in Japan in 1988, the author has re-dened the name of 5S as the 5-S and developed the worlds rst 5-S audit checklist. Since 1993, he used the proprietary 5-S audit checklist for training and consultancy in no less than ten countries with over 100,000 persons from around 8,000 organisations worldwide. Recently, in the wake of the soaring oil prices, the author developed another audit checklist on lean 5-S (L5S), aiming at minimizing wastages of all sort. In this article, a new term 5S is dened to integrate the two audit checklist. The argument is that organizations need to harness the benets from both the static 5-S approach and the dynamic L5S approach. From the authors long-standing TQM experience and discussions with the relevant parties in the eld of sustainable development, an Integrated lean management system model was validated. The greatest value of this paper is therefore providing a powerful process tool (5S ) for practitioners on how to integrate the various management sub-systems. As Dr Deming always advocated Good process will drive good system. Interested academics and related parties are invited to join hands to validate this model for the sustainable development at the rm level.

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References Chan, J. (2008), The American Financial Tsunami hits Asia, World Socialist web site, available at: www.wsws.org/articles/2008/sep2008/asia-s18.shtml (accessed 8 July 2010). Ho, S.K.M. (1995), TQM: An Integrated Approach Implementing TQ through Japanese 5-S and ISO 9000, Kogan Page, London. Ho, S.K.M. and Fung, C. (1995), Developing a TQM excellence model: part 1 and 2, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 24-32. Leung, R. (2008), Flight against the nancial tsunami use L5S, One Magazine, 13 November, p. 76. Ng, D. (2008), How to boost productivity China Light and Ocean Empires new L5S journey, HK Economic Daily, 19 June. Osada, T. (1991), The 5-S: Five Keys to a Total Quality Environment, Asian Productivity Organisation, Tokyo. Porter, M.E. (1980), Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, The Free Press and Harvard Business Publishing, New York, NY and Boston, MA. Treichler, D., Carmichael, R., Kusmanoff, A., Lewis, J. and Berthiez, G. (2002), Design for six sigma: 15 lessons learned, Quality Progress, January, pp. 33-42. Wan, B. (2009), Quality programme can lead to success, South China Morning Post, 14 February. Further reading Ho, S.K.M. (1997), 5-S: The Key to Improve Your Quality and Productivity, Hong Kong Government Industry Department Workbook, HK Baptist University, Hong Kong. Ho, S.K.M. (2007), Business excellence through 5-S and six-sigma, Proceedings of the Oxford Business & Economics Conference, University of Oxford, Oxford. Ho, S.K.M. (2008), From 5-S to Business Excellence, Quest for Quality On-line Magazine, Middle East Quality Association, Middle East, available at: www.meqa.org/mag/q4q/index.htm Ho, S.K.M. (2010), Integrated lean TQM model for global sustainability and competitiveness, The TQM Journal, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 143-58. Ho, S.K.M. and Fung, C. (1994), Developing a TQM excellence model: part 1 and 2, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 6 No. 6, pp. 24-30. ISO (2004), ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System, International Standards Organization, Geneva. ISO (2008), ISO 9000:2008 Quality Management System, International Standards Organization, Geneva. OHSAS (2007), Occupational Health and Safety Standard, Consortium of Standards and Certication Bodies.

Appendix

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Figure 1A. The 5-Sw checklist mapping with other management systems

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Figure 2A. The L5STM checklist mapping with other management systems

About the authors Samuel K.M. Ho (PhD in Management, FIQA, ISO9000 Lead Auditor, EQA Assessor) is the Programme Director of the top-up honors degree from Coventry University and Hang Seng Management College, funded by the HSBC Group and HKSAR Government. He is also the Professor of Strategic and Quality Management of the International Management Centres, UK. Before then, he was the Professor of Strategy and Quality at the Luton Business School, the rst professor in that discipline in the UK. In 1987-88, he was awarded the Oshikawa fellowship by the Asian Productivity Organisation to do research in South East Asia and Japan. In 1993, he was invited, as the rst quality expert to the Malaysian Government, by the Asian Development Bank for six months. As the editor of the Managing Service Quality journal and a guest editor for four international journals on quality management, he has over 120 publications. Samuel K.M. Ho is the Director for the HK 5-S campaign funded by the HKSAR government for US$0.6million. Since 1993, he used the proprietary 5-S audit checklist for training and consultancy in no less than ten countries with over 100,000 persons from around 8,000 organisatioins worldwide. The HK 5-S association has also certied over 1,000 organisations representing around 50,000 people in HK and China. As an ex-research fellow at Cambridge, and guest speaker at Oxford, he is also Visiting Professor in Quality Management of Coventry and Paisley (UK), RMIT (Australia) and Vaxjo (Sweden) University Business Schools. Samuel K.M. Ho can be contacted at: samho@ hk5sa.com www.hk5sa.com

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