Quality tools and application

THE EVOLUTION OF QUALITY

 Introduction

Over the past few decades, writers such as Deming, Crosby, Juran, Feigenbaum, Ishikawa, Taguchi and others have
developed certain propositions in the area of quality management. Their insights into quality management provide a
good understanding of quality management principles. An example of one such proposition is: quality is a
responsibility of the whole organization, rather than of the quality department.

(Aole and Gorantiwar 2013)

Quality Gurus
THE EVOLUTION OF QUALITY

• Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a statistician learned statistical process control from

Shewhart and taught it to engineers and statisticians in the early 1940s.
• He became frustrated that managers did not understand the benefits of these
methods and therefore did not support them.
• After World War II, he went to Japan to advise on census issues and in the early
1950s was invited to lecture to the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers
(JUSE) on quality control. At the time, “Made in Japan” was a synonym for low-
quality junk
• Deming taught Japanese industrialists statistical and managerial concepts and told
them that by applying these concepts, they could have the world asking for their
products.
Dr. Joseph M. Juran
• Dr. Joseph M. Juran was an electrical engineer trained in industrial statistics at
Western Electric. Like Deming, he applied his knowledge in Washington,
D.C., during World War II. Like Deming, he was invited to lecture to the
JUSE, focusing on planning and management’s responsibilities for quality.
Drs. Deming and Juran were both decorated by Emperor Hirohito.
• By the 1970s, American auto and electronics industries were reeling from Japanese high-quality competition.
• In 1980, a TV documentary titled, “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?” got the attention of American companies.
• Teams went to Japan to study what Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and others were doing, and Drs. Deming and Juran were suddenly in demand as consultants
to American CEOs.
• Major corporations, including the Big Three automakers Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler began programs of quality management and statistical quality
control.
• The new quality philosophy taught that the quality of incoming materials was important, so these companies pressed their suppliers to begin quality efforts
as well.
Philip B. Crosby

• Philip B. Crosby started his career in quality later than Deming and Juran. His
corporate background includes 14 years as director of quality at ITT
Corporation (1965–1979).
• He left ITT in 1979 to form Philip Crosby Associates, an international
consulting firm on quality improvement, which he ran until 1992, when he
retired as CEO to devote his time to lecturing on quality-related issues.
• Crosby had once again entered the business arena as a quality consultant until
his death in 2001.
• Crosby defines quality as a means "conformance to requirements"
Kaoru Ishikawa
• Kaoru Ishikawa (1916-1989)
• He received his doctorate of philosophy in chemical engineering in
1939 from the University of Tokyo
• He wrote 647 articles and 31 books, including two that were
translated into English: Introduction to Quality Control and What Is
Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way.
• known as the Ishikawa or cause and effect diagram, used to
improve the performance of teams in determining potential root
causes of their quality problems.
What is quality ?
How will you judge the
quality of the restaurant?
How will you
Service

judge the quality Response time

of the restaurant? Food preparation

Most people apply Environment or atmosphere

such criteria as the
following: Price

Selection
What is quality

Standards Measurement Specifications

 Fred Smith, CEO of Federal Express, defines
quality as “performance to the standard expected
by the customer

Company’s Boeing defines quality as “providing our

customers with products and services that
definitions consistently meet their needs and expectations

Others define it as “meeting the customer’s needs

the first time and every time”
Common elements of quality definitions
• Quality involves meeting or exceeding customer expectations.
• Quality applies to products, services, people, processes, and environments.
• Quality for improvement. (What is considered quality today may not be good enough to be
considered quality tomorrow)
• Ishikawa defines quality as follows:
(1) quality and customer satisfaction are the same thing

(2) quality is a broad concept that goes beyond just product quality to also include the quality
of people, processes, and every other aspect of the organization.
So, we can define quality as

• A dynamic state associated with products, services, people, processes, and

environments that meets or exceeds expectations and helps produce superior value.
 Quality and total quality
• Quality is obviously one of the key elements in providing superior value. But total quality is even more than that.
• Total quality is a broad-based approach that encompasses all three of the elements of superior value. Continually improving the quality of
products, processes, services, and costs is what total quality is all about—hence the name total quality.
• Organizations that effectively apply the total quality approach to management are the ones most likely to achieve organizational excellence.
 Total quality

• Total quality consists of the continual improvement of people, processes, products (including services), and
environments.
• With total quality anything and everything that affects quality is a target for continual improvement.
• When the total quality concept is effectively applied, the end results can include organizational excellence, superior
value, and global competitiveness.
To understand total quality
• An easy way to understand the concept of total quality is to consider the analogy of a three-legged stool
• Each of the three legs is a broad element of the total quality philosophy (i.e., measures, people, and processes).
• The “measures” leg of the stool makes the point that quality can and must be measured.
• The “people” leg of the stool makes the point that quality cannot be inspected into a product or service. Rather, it
must be built in by people who are empowered to do their jobs the right way.
• The “processes” leg of the stool makes the point that processes must be improved, continually and forever. What is
considered excellent today may be just mediocre tomorrow.
Consequently, “good enough” is never good enough.
Total Quality Management (TQM)
The definition of Total quality management TQM
• Listening to Deming and Juran and observing the methods that had yielded such success in Japan, American
quality programs emphasized far more than just statistics.
• Approaches that embraced the entire organization, not just the production area, and that included a change in
management style, not just statistical tools, came to be called Total Quality Management (TQM).
• TQM was the name used in 1985 by the Naval Air Systems Command for its program.
• Since then, the term has been widely adopted and does not refer to a specific program or system.
• Practitioners of TQM might follow a program based primarily on Deming’s fourteen management points, the
Juran Trilogy (quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement), Philip Crosby’s Four Absolutes of
Quality Management, or some customized composite.
• TQM programs include three components: management philosophy, an improvement process or model, and a
set of tools that include the seven quality control (QC) tools.
• All of the quality gurus agree that a fundamental cause of quality problems in any organization is management.
• the leaders of organizations adopting TQM usually need to make fundamental changes in their management
philosophy and methods.
• Common elements of any TQM program include senior management leadership of quality, employee involvement
and empowerment, customer-defined quality and a focus on customer satisfaction, a view of work as process, and
continuous improvement.
Total quality
good enough” is never good enough
KEY ELEMENTS OF TOTAL
QUALITY
KEY ELEMENTS OF TOTAL QUALITY

1. Strategically Based
2. Customer Focus
3. Obsession with Quality
4. Scientific Approach
5. Long-Term Commitment
6. Teamwork
7. Continual Process Improvement
8. Education and Training
9. Freedom Through Control
10. Unity of Purpose
11. Employee Involvement and Empowerment
Strategically Based

• Total quality organizations have a comprehensive strategic plan

that contains at least the following elements: vision, mission,
broad objectives, and activities that must be completed to
accomplish the broad objectives.
 In a total quality setting, the customer is the
driver. This point applies to both internal and
external customers.

Customer Focus External customers define the quality of the

product or service delivered.

Internal customers help define the quality of the

people, processes, and environments associated
with the products or services.
Obsession with Quality

How can we do this better?” When an organization is

obsessed with quality, “good enough” is never good
enough.
Scientific Approach

• An important part of the use of the scientific approach in structuring work

and in making decisions and solving problems that relate to the work. This
means that hard data are used in establishing benchmarks, monitoring
performance, and making improvements.
Long-Term Commitment

• Depends on long strategies rather than short strategies

Teamwork

Healthy relationship inside the organization

Continual Process Improvement

keep improvement
 Education and Training

Education and training are fundamental to total quality because they

represent the best way to improve people on a continual basis. It is through
education and training that people who know how to work hard learn how to
also work smart.
Freedom
Through • Involving and empowering employees

Control
Unity of purpose

collaboration should be the norm

Employees should feel more involved and empowered in a total quality setting than in a traditionally
managed situation,

Unity of purpose does not necessarily mean that labor and management will always agree on wages, benefits,
and working conditions, but it does mean that all employees work toward the common goal.
Employee Involvement and Empowerment

The basis for involving employees is twofold. First, it increases the likelihood of a good decision, a better plan, or a
more effective improvement by bringing more minds to bear on the situation—not just any minds but the minds of the
people who are closest to the work in question. Second, it pro- motes ownership of decisions by involving the people
who will have to implement them.

Listening to employees
References
• The Quality Toolbox, Second Edition, Nancy R. Tague

• Quality management for organizational excellence. Seventh edition