Quality Gurus and their Key Contributions

 

Philip Crosby:

 

 

Philip Bayard "Phil" Crosby, (June 18, 1926 – August 18, 2001) was a businessman and author who contributed to management theory and quality management practices.

 

Crosby initiated the Zero Defects program at the Martin Company.[5] As the quality control manager of the Pershing missile program, Crosby was credited with a 25 percent reduction in the overall rejection rate and a 30 percent reduction in scrap costs.

 

 

 The Four Absolutes of Quality Management:

1.      Quality is conformance to requirements

2.      Quality prevention is preferable to quality inspection

3.      Zero defects is the quality performance standard

4.      Quality is measured in monetary terms – the price of non-conformance

 

14 Steps to Quality Improvement:

1.     Management is committed to quality – and this is clear to all

2.     Create quality improvement teams – with (senior) representatives from all departments.

3.     Measure processes to determine current and potential quality issues.

4.     Calculate the cost of (poor) quality

5.     Raise quality awareness of all employees

6.     Take action to correct quality issues

7.     Monitor progress of quality improvement – establish a zero defects committee.

8.     Train employees in quality improvement

9.     Hold “zero defects” days

10.   Encourage employees to create their own quality improvement goals

11.   Encourage employee communication with management about obstacles to quality

12.   Recognize participants’ effort

13.   Create quality councils

14.   Do it all over again – quality improvement does not end

 

Dr. Edwards Deming

 

 

William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant.

 

Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, he helped develop the sampling techniques still used by the U.S. Department of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

15.    

Deming’s Fourteen Obligations of Top Management

1.     Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service. Allocate resources to provide for long range needs rather than only short term profitability

2.     Adopt the new philosophy. We can no longer live with commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes, defective materials, and defective workmanship.

3.     Cease dependency on mass inspection to achieve quality. Quality is achieved by building quality into the product in the first place.

4.     End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone. The aim is to minimize total cost, not merely initial cost. Establish long term relationship with suppliers to develop loyalty and trust.

5.     Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production, and service. It is management’s job to work continually on improving total system.

6.     Institute training on the job for all, including management, to make better use of every employee. New skills are required to keep up with changes in products and processes.

7.     Adopt and institute leadership aimed at helping people do a better job. Management must ensure that immediate action taken on issues that are detrimental to quality.

8.     Drive out fear so that everybody may work effectively and more productively for the company.

9.     Break down barriers between departments and staff areas. Everyone must work together to tackle problems that may be encountered with products or service.

10.            Eliminate slogans and exhortations for the work force as they create adversarial relationships. Also, bulk of the causes of low quality & productivity belong to the system and lie beyond the power of the work force.

11.            Eliminate arbitrary numerical targets for the workforce and management. Substitute aids and helpful leadership in order to achieve continual improvement.

12.            Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship. This includes the annual appraisal of performance and Management by Objective.

13.            Encourage education. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone

14.            Clearly define top management’s permanent commitment to ever improving quality and productivity. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. Support is not enough, action is required.

 

 Dr. Armand Feigenbaum

 

 

 

Armand Vallin Feigenbaum (April 6, 1920[1] – November 13, 2014) was an American quality control expert and businessman.[2] He devised the concept of Total Quality Control which inspired Total Quality Management.

 

·        Developed Total Quality Control (TQC) philosophy

·        Quote: “Quality is everybody’s job, but because it is everybody’s job, it can become nobody’s job without the proper leadership and organization.”

Steps to quality:

 

·        Quality leadership

·        Modern quality technology

·        Organizational commitment