Historical Philosophies of Quality

• Quality Gurus - Individuals who have been identified as making a significant contribution to improving the quality of goods and services.
• Historical Philosophers

  • Walter A. Shewhart • W. Edwards Deming • Joseph M. Juran • Armand Feigenbaum • Philip Crosby • Genichi Taguchi • Kaoru Ishikawa
• WALTER A. SHEWHART - Statistician at Bell Laboratories
• WALTER A. SHEWHART - Developed statistical control process methods to distinguish between random and nonrandom variation in industrial processes to keep processes under control.
• WALTER A. SHEWHART - Developed the “plan-do-check-act” (PDCA) cycle that emphasizes the need for continuous improvement.
• WALTER A. SHEWHART - Strongly influenced Deming and Juran
• W. EDWARDS DEMING– Advocated Statistical Process Control (SPC).
• W. EDWARDS DEMING– Methods which signal shifts in a process that will likely lead to products and/or services not meeting customer requirements.
• W. EDWARDS DEMING– Emphasized an overall organizational approach to managing quality.
• W. EDWARDS DEMING– Identified 14 points critical for improving quality.
• The Deming Prize - Highest award for industrial excellence in Japan.
• The Deming philosophy “A System of Profound Knowledge"
• Appreciation for a system - A system is a set of functions or activities within an organization that work together to achieve organizational goals. Management’s job is to optimize the system. (Not parts of system, but the whole!). System requires co-operation
• Psychology – The designers and implementers of decisions are people. Hence understanding their psychology is important.
• Understanding process variation – A production process contains many sources of variation. Reduction in variation improves quality. Two types of variations- common causes and special causes. Focus on the special causes. Common causes can be reduced only by change of technology
• Theory of knowledge – Management decisions should be driven by facts, dataand justifiable theories. Don’t follow the management’s fads!
• JOSEPH M. JURAN– Emphasized the importance of producing quality products through an approach focused on quality planning, control, and improvement.
• JOSEPH M. JURAN– Defined product quality as “fitness for use” as viewed by the customer in: • Quality of design • Quality of conformance • Availability • Safety • Field of use
• JOSEPH M. JURAN– Categorized the cost of quality as: • Cost of prevention • Cost of detection/appraisal • Cost of failure
• The Juran philosophy Pursue quality on two levels: 1. The mission of the firm as a whole is to achieve high product quality. 2. The mission of each individual department is to achieve high production quality.
• Quality Trilogy - Quality planning, Quality control, and Quality Improvement
• Quality planning: Process of preparing to meet quality goals. Involves understanding customer needs and developing product features.
• Quality control: Process of meeting quality goals during operations. Control parameters. Measuring the deviation and taking action.
• Quality improvement: Process for breaking through to unprecedented levels of performance. Identify areas of improvement and get the right people to bring about the change.
• Armand Feigenbaum – Proposed the concept of “total quality control,” making quality everyone’s responsibility.
• Armand Feigenbaum– • Stressed interdepartmental communication. • Emphasized careful measurement and report of quality costs
• Philip Crosby– Preached that “quality is free.”
• Philip Crosby – Believed that an organization can reduce overall costs by improving the overall quality of its processes.
• Philip Crosby - – Preached that “quality is free.”
• Genichi Taguchi– Emphasized the minimization of variation. • Concerned with the cost of quality to society. • Extended Juran’s concept of external failure.
• Kaoru Ishikawa– Developed problem-solving tools such as the cause-and-effect(fishbone) diagram.
• Kaoru Ishikawa– Called the father of quality circles
• Quality in Goods- includes Performance, Reliability, Features, Durability, Conformance, Serviceability, Aesthetics, and Perceived quality
• Quality in Service - includes Reliability,  Tangibles,  Responsiveness, Assurance, and  Empathy
• Cost of Quality– Framework for identifying quality components that are related to producing both high quality products and low-quality components, with the goal of minimizing the total cost of quality.
• Cost of Poor Quality 


  Detection/appraisal costs, Internal failure costs, External failure costs
• Prevention - Costs associated withpreventing defects
• Appraisal - Costs associated with analyzing and testing the product to ensure it conforms to specifications.
• Internal Failure - Costs associated with fixing defects found prior to release.
• External Failure - Costs associated with fixing defects found after release.