Quality and Quality Gurus
What is quality and why is it important? This question has been asked for many decades and people have their own perceptions on this topic. Everyday people search for a better quality product/services (Czuchry et al., 1999). For a business to be competitive, they must provide the best quality to its customer. So the important thing for a company is to know how they can make and provide the best quality. There are different theories that have been proposed by the gurus for the quality improvement but till today there is no unified theory (Foster, 2004).
Armand Feigenbaum is one of the leading contributors to the Quality Theory. He argues that the quality should not only be only considered in the production line but the whole company operating work structure should be committed in improving quality and strive for continuous commitment (Huggins, 1998). Feigenbaum stresses quality to be a total life cycle consideration that cannot be achieved all of a sudden because it is a constant growing process where the managers are the quality facilitators. Other contributors to the quality theory are W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, Kaoru Ishikawa, Philip Crosby, Genichi Taguchi and Robert C. Camp (Foster, 2004).
Deming advocated the use of statistics for continual quality improvement. His philosophy is summarized in the 14 points for the management (Rosander, 1991). Juran had more strategic and planning approach which incorporates the human aspect of quality management. Juran Trilogy defined Quality control, quality improvement and quality planning to be the three basic management processes to improve quality (Juran, 1986). Ishikawa who greatly believed in training developed the basic seven tools of quality which results in continuous improvement. Quality circles, continuous training, Ishikawa diagram and quality chain; the four aspects of TQM are his best known work (Ishikawa, 1989). Crosby is well known for the zero defect approach. Taguchi’s contribution with the quality loss function, orthogonal arrays and linear graphs and robustness has made an impact in the quality improvement. From his ideas, manufacturing of superior production process even with very limited resources was possible (Taguchi, 1989).
Various companies have used different theories for gurus but their focus remained the same – quality. Computer Products Asia-Pacific Ltd, trading as Power Conversion Asia-Pacific (PCAP) of Hong Kong who follows the Deming’s quality theory was the first ISO 9001 certified company in china in 1991. PACP purchased from the supplier based on the total cost, not only the purchasing cost. The potential suppliers are identified and selected by the procurement team. The suppliers should meet the specified requirements because PCAP prefers and believes in a long term relationship. To be in the business the supplier should maintain the quality specified which also later on helps to reduce the material costs (Magnier, 1999). To provide a quality product or a service, not only the top management but everyone should know the customer’s requirement. For this purpose the Human Resource of PCAP identifies the needs of the employee, trains them and updates the records. The new employee doesn’t only receives the orientation but they also have to take a basic training package (Stratton, 1994). Not only have the training which is offered by the company, but the employees also been supported to take extra course for self improvement. Staffs of PCAP are also going for the academic course which will ultimately benefit the organization. There is no barrier in the company (Rosander, 1991). Because of the encouraging nature of the management, the staff’s moral are high and are more committed to their work. There are also various functions organized by the Employee Recreation Club (Wai-Kwok Lo, 1997).
BT, UK’s oldest communication company see’s customer as their starting and ending point. They follow Ishikawa’s points. In whatever they do, they always have customer’s requirements in their mind. From the customer feedback, they find out what the customer wants and they become determined to deliver it. BT never rates itself on how well they have done; instead they rate themselves on how the customers think about them. This has helped their staff to continuously improve. BT measures their performance with their near competitors and find out in what areas they are lacking behind, how they can improve. For improvement, BT focuses on the root cause of the customer’s problem and not the symptoms. This is carried out by the simple technique of 5 Why’s. BT employees have open and good relation with their customer’s as well as their colleagues. To achieve and deliver quality everyone working for the company gets involved. BT encourages their employee for improvement and whoever does well gets rewarded which is their strategic program. There should be a continuous improvement in the staff’s skill to meet the customer needs. If the staffs have that skill then they can work more efficiently and more competitively. For this reason BT have created their own training programme. Whenever there is a need of specialization, staffs are given training which brings quality into their work (Ishikawa, 1989; Foster, 2004).
Southern Water Services has proved to be the best when it comes to providing quality water services and they have also maintained the reputation in waste water industry. What is it that pushes them for more quality then they have been giving to their customer isn’t that hard to answer. Southern Water Services has adopted Feigenbaum Quality theory and they have strived for the continuous commitment on what they do best. When customers see the tap water, they think it is clean and safe but that water contains some minute trace of pesticides. The company invests largely to remove these impurities. Even there is improvement in the water quality, customers sees the water to be the same. Management is into the quality commitment and so are the employees who work for the company. Company also has the Quality Councils who come up with the best idea to facilitate the continuous quality improvement. The ongoing process is measured constantly with the standards set by the company and the quality standards are revised. Employees have been trained to do their jobs and there is also lunchtime workshops organized to introduce and promote the quality awareness. The company focuses on identifying the problem instead of just getting on with the solutions and they use the Statistical Process Control methods so that they can predict the problems in the future and plan some measures to prevent the potential reduction in the quality (Whitford and Bird, 1996).
Feigenbaum has made a significant contribution to the quality improvement. The old concept of quality as of decreasing the defect in a product is long gone and company has to think more about the customer satisfaction. Feigenbaum emphasis on the point that company-wide commitment to quality will help create quality work environment which is very important in present day scenario. Feigenbaum found the need for quality control for the business in long term. Quality starts with the engineering design and the quality practice should be introduced from here on. Quality assurance is the job of everyone in the company and quality should be understood in a management style (Huggins, 1998). To penetrate and grow in the new market, management method should be changed. What the company thinks about the customer need should no longer be the concept of the company. Rather it is important to know what is that the customer needs (McKinsey & Company, 2007). Company should change its method as accordance with the customer needs. Structure and process should be in place so that even if tomorrow the company grows, that want the effect the quality offered by the company (Huggins, 1998).
What if a company does not go for quality? What are the prices they pay? This should be realized by every organization. The cost increases when non-quality product or service is delivered and the rework is needed to be done. This is what is referred to as poor quality cost (Klefsjo, 1994). In 1950’s, Management thought that high quality goods and service will cost them very much and due to this thinking the company couldn’t bring their best product to the market (Harrington, 1999). But in today’s market if this is the case then there is a cost of lost opportunity. Customers will look for the best quality in a product or service and the company is looking for profit to stay in the business (Czuchry et al., 1999). If they provide a poor quality to their customers then it will not only cost them the loss in market share but also the resource that would be used to rectify it will be high. The quality awareness in any company should be high so that the total quality related cost is low (Oakland and Porter, 1994). In the public sector we see the quality costing not into effect that much as compared to the private sector. Poor quality service in such area has affected much of the public, both in terms of health and cost (Øvretveit, 2000). Ultimately the question arises that if quality investment cost less what is the need to deliver poor quality service and goods? Why bear the loss of market share and good will and again spend so much more to rebuild it? In today competitive world there is little chance of coming back if you once get the poor quality or service into the market. This is for the companies to decide for themselves.
References
Czuchry A. J., Yasin, M. M., Little, G. S. (1999) A practical, systematic approach to understanding cost of quality: a field study. Industrial Management & Data Systems. 99 (8), 362-366.
Foster, S. T. (2004) Managing Quality: An Integrative Approach. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Harrington, J. H. (1999) Performance improvement: a total poor-quality cost system. The TQM Magazine. 11 (4), 221-230.
Huggins, L. P. (1998) Total quality management and the contributions of A.V. Feigenbaum. Journal of Management History. 4 (1), 60-67.
Ishikawa, K. (1989) Introduction to Quality Control. Tokyo: JUSE Press.
Juran, J. M. (1986) The Juran Trilogy. Quality Progress. 19 (8), 19-24.
Klefsjo, B. B. B. (1994) Quality from Customers Needs to Customer Satisfaction. Sweden: Studentlitteratur Lund.
Magnier, M. (1999) Rebuilding Japan With the Help of 2 Americans [Online] Los Angeles Times Available from: http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/25/news/ss-26184 [Accessed 3rd November 2009].
McKinsey & Company (2007) Managing for Quality: An Interview with Armand V. Feigenbaum [Online] The McKinsey Quarterly Available from: http://previewchina.mckinseyquarterly.com/PDFDownload.aspx?ar=2054 [Accessed 31st October 2009]
Oakland, J. S., Porter, L. J. (1994) Cases in Total Quality Management. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd.
Øvretveit, J. (2000) The economics of quality – a practical approach. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance. 13 (5), 200-207.
Rosander, A. C. (1991) Deming’s 14 Points Applied to Services. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Stratton, B. (Ed) (1994) Gone But Never Forgotten [Online] Quality Progress. Available from: https://www.deming.org/content/gone-not-forgotten [Accessed 3rd November 2009].
Taguchi, G. (1989) Quality Engineering in Production Systems. New York: McGraw-Hill Company.
Wai- Kwok Lo (1997) Application of Deming’s principles in the management of change. The TQM Magazine. 9 (5), 336–343.
Whitford, B. And Bird, R. (1996) The Pursuit of Quality. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall.
Armand Feigenbaum is one of the leading contributors to the Quality Theory. He argues that the quality should not only be only considered in the production line but the whole company operating work structure should be committed in improving quality and strive for continuous commitment (Huggins, 1998). Feigenbaum stresses quality to be a total life cycle consideration that cannot be achieved all of a sudden because it is a constant growing process where the managers are the quality facilitators. Other contributors to the quality theory are W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, Kaoru Ishikawa, Philip Crosby, Genichi Taguchi and Robert C. Camp (Foster, 2004).
Deming advocated the use of statistics for continual quality improvement. His philosophy is summarized in the 14 points for the management (Rosander, 1991). Juran had more strategic and planning approach which incorporates the human aspect of quality management. Juran Trilogy defined Quality control, quality improvement and quality planning to be the three basic management processes to improve quality (Juran, 1986). Ishikawa who greatly believed in training developed the basic seven tools of quality which results in continuous improvement. Quality circles, continuous training, Ishikawa diagram and quality chain; the four aspects of TQM are his best known work (Ishikawa, 1989). Crosby is well known for the zero defect approach. Taguchi’s contribution with the quality loss function, orthogonal arrays and linear graphs and robustness has made an impact in the quality improvement. From his ideas, manufacturing of superior production process even with very limited resources was possible (Taguchi, 1989).
Various companies have used different theories for gurus but their focus remained the same – quality. Computer Products Asia-Pacific Ltd, trading as Power Conversion Asia-Pacific (PCAP) of Hong Kong who follows the Deming’s quality theory was the first ISO 9001 certified company in china in 1991. PACP purchased from the supplier based on the total cost, not only the purchasing cost. The potential suppliers are identified and selected by the procurement team. The suppliers should meet the specified requirements because PCAP prefers and believes in a long term relationship. To be in the business the supplier should maintain the quality specified which also later on helps to reduce the material costs (Magnier, 1999). To provide a quality product or a service, not only the top management but everyone should know the customer’s requirement. For this purpose the Human Resource of PCAP identifies the needs of the employee, trains them and updates the records. The new employee doesn’t only receives the orientation but they also have to take a basic training package (Stratton, 1994). Not only have the training which is offered by the company, but the employees also been supported to take extra course for self improvement. Staffs of PCAP are also going for the academic course which will ultimately benefit the organization. There is no barrier in the company (Rosander, 1991). Because of the encouraging nature of the management, the staff’s moral are high and are more committed to their work. There are also various functions organized by the Employee Recreation Club (Wai-Kwok Lo, 1997).
BT, UK’s oldest communication company see’s customer as their starting and ending point. They follow Ishikawa’s points. In whatever they do, they always have customer’s requirements in their mind. From the customer feedback, they find out what the customer wants and they become determined to deliver it. BT never rates itself on how well they have done; instead they rate themselves on how the customers think about them. This has helped their staff to continuously improve. BT measures their performance with their near competitors and find out in what areas they are lacking behind, how they can improve. For improvement, BT focuses on the root cause of the customer’s problem and not the symptoms. This is carried out by the simple technique of 5 Why’s. BT employees have open and good relation with their customer’s as well as their colleagues. To achieve and deliver quality everyone working for the company gets involved. BT encourages their employee for improvement and whoever does well gets rewarded which is their strategic program. There should be a continuous improvement in the staff’s skill to meet the customer needs. If the staffs have that skill then they can work more efficiently and more competitively. For this reason BT have created their own training programme. Whenever there is a need of specialization, staffs are given training which brings quality into their work (Ishikawa, 1989; Foster, 2004).
Southern Water Services has proved to be the best when it comes to providing quality water services and they have also maintained the reputation in waste water industry. What is it that pushes them for more quality then they have been giving to their customer isn’t that hard to answer. Southern Water Services has adopted Feigenbaum Quality theory and they have strived for the continuous commitment on what they do best. When customers see the tap water, they think it is clean and safe but that water contains some minute trace of pesticides. The company invests largely to remove these impurities. Even there is improvement in the water quality, customers sees the water to be the same. Management is into the quality commitment and so are the employees who work for the company. Company also has the Quality Councils who come up with the best idea to facilitate the continuous quality improvement. The ongoing process is measured constantly with the standards set by the company and the quality standards are revised. Employees have been trained to do their jobs and there is also lunchtime workshops organized to introduce and promote the quality awareness. The company focuses on identifying the problem instead of just getting on with the solutions and they use the Statistical Process Control methods so that they can predict the problems in the future and plan some measures to prevent the potential reduction in the quality (Whitford and Bird, 1996).
Feigenbaum has made a significant contribution to the quality improvement. The old concept of quality as of decreasing the defect in a product is long gone and company has to think more about the customer satisfaction. Feigenbaum emphasis on the point that company-wide commitment to quality will help create quality work environment which is very important in present day scenario. Feigenbaum found the need for quality control for the business in long term. Quality starts with the engineering design and the quality practice should be introduced from here on. Quality assurance is the job of everyone in the company and quality should be understood in a management style (Huggins, 1998). To penetrate and grow in the new market, management method should be changed. What the company thinks about the customer need should no longer be the concept of the company. Rather it is important to know what is that the customer needs (McKinsey & Company, 2007). Company should change its method as accordance with the customer needs. Structure and process should be in place so that even if tomorrow the company grows, that want the effect the quality offered by the company (Huggins, 1998).
What if a company does not go for quality? What are the prices they pay? This should be realized by every organization. The cost increases when non-quality product or service is delivered and the rework is needed to be done. This is what is referred to as poor quality cost (Klefsjo, 1994). In 1950’s, Management thought that high quality goods and service will cost them very much and due to this thinking the company couldn’t bring their best product to the market (Harrington, 1999). But in today’s market if this is the case then there is a cost of lost opportunity. Customers will look for the best quality in a product or service and the company is looking for profit to stay in the business (Czuchry et al., 1999). If they provide a poor quality to their customers then it will not only cost them the loss in market share but also the resource that would be used to rectify it will be high. The quality awareness in any company should be high so that the total quality related cost is low (Oakland and Porter, 1994). In the public sector we see the quality costing not into effect that much as compared to the private sector. Poor quality service in such area has affected much of the public, both in terms of health and cost (Øvretveit, 2000). Ultimately the question arises that if quality investment cost less what is the need to deliver poor quality service and goods? Why bear the loss of market share and good will and again spend so much more to rebuild it? In today competitive world there is little chance of coming back if you once get the poor quality or service into the market. This is for the companies to decide for themselves.
References
Czuchry A. J., Yasin, M. M., Little, G. S. (1999) A practical, systematic approach to understanding cost of quality: a field study. Industrial Management & Data Systems. 99 (8), 362-366.
Foster, S. T. (2004) Managing Quality: An Integrative Approach. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Harrington, J. H. (1999) Performance improvement: a total poor-quality cost system. The TQM Magazine. 11 (4), 221-230.
Huggins, L. P. (1998) Total quality management and the contributions of A.V. Feigenbaum. Journal of Management History. 4 (1), 60-67.
Ishikawa, K. (1989) Introduction to Quality Control. Tokyo: JUSE Press.
Juran, J. M. (1986) The Juran Trilogy. Quality Progress. 19 (8), 19-24.
Klefsjo, B. B. B. (1994) Quality from Customers Needs to Customer Satisfaction. Sweden: Studentlitteratur Lund.
Magnier, M. (1999) Rebuilding Japan With the Help of 2 Americans [Online] Los Angeles Times Available from: http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/25/news/ss-26184 [Accessed 3rd November 2009].
McKinsey & Company (2007) Managing for Quality: An Interview with Armand V. Feigenbaum [Online] The McKinsey Quarterly Available from: http://previewchina.mckinseyquarterly.com/PDFDownload.aspx?ar=2054 [Accessed 31st October 2009]
Oakland, J. S., Porter, L. J. (1994) Cases in Total Quality Management. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd.
Øvretveit, J. (2000) The economics of quality – a practical approach. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance. 13 (5), 200-207.
Rosander, A. C. (1991) Deming’s 14 Points Applied to Services. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Stratton, B. (Ed) (1994) Gone But Never Forgotten [Online] Quality Progress. Available from: https://www.deming.org/content/gone-not-forgotten [Accessed 3rd November 2009].
Taguchi, G. (1989) Quality Engineering in Production Systems. New York: McGraw-Hill Company.
Wai- Kwok Lo (1997) Application of Deming’s principles in the management of change. The TQM Magazine. 9 (5), 336–343.
Whitford, B. And Bird, R. (1996) The Pursuit of Quality. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall.
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