The Quality Champion

Basic Fundamentals of Quality

The champion is not a blue-sky dreamer, nor an intellectual giant. The champion might even be an idea thief. But above all, he’s the pragmatic one who grabs onto someone else’s theoretical construct if necessary and bullheadedly pushes it to fruition . . .

Champions are pioneers, and pioneers get shot at. The companies that get the most from champions, therefore, are those that have rich support networks so that their pioneers will flourish. this point is so important it’s hard to overstress.

No support system, no champions. No champions, no innovation.

Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman, Jr. In Search of Excellence

What is Total Quality Management?

The term was first used by the Naval Air Systems Command in 1985 to describe its Japanese-style management approach to quality improvement. (Quality Glossary compiled by Karen Bemowski, Quality Progress, February 1992, pg. 28)

“TQM is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. TQM is based on the participation of all members of an organization in improving processes, products, services and the culture they work in.” (Quality Glossary compiled by Karen Bemowski, Quality Progress, February 1992, pg. 28)

“Quality is judged by customers. Thus, quality must take into account all product and service features and characteristics that contribute value to customers and lead to customer satisfaction, preference, and retention.” (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award 1998 Criteria for Performance Excellence, U.S, Department of Commerce, pg. 40)

 William F. Pflanz (2001) Basic Fundamentals of Quality

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --Western Union internal memo, 1876.

A Brief History of Quality

The earliest quality engineer was probably the first Homo Sapien to smooth a wheel or sharpen a tool to free it from blemishes thereby improving its rolling ability or increasing is its cutting power. These skills were practiced and then taught to future generations. Unfortunately, these quality efforts were before written history. The first known attempts at quality management can be traced to Sun-Tzu, Aesop and Socrates.

Sun-Tzu lived in China sometime during 480-221 B.C. and documented the politics and war of that period. In his translated work The Art of War ( Translated by ----), Sun-Tzu documented the political and leadership disciplines that were needed to survive, grow and improve in a warring state. These same principles used in war could also be cast in business and strategic terms applicable to current quality management philosophy. Sun-Tzu’s book has 13 sections which are summarized below in business terms.

1. If the goal is reasonable and worthwhile then the time to act is now. It is necessary to understand your own strengths and that of your competitor. 2. Understand the cost and the alternatives then commit to action with no looking back. 3. Plan your attack depending on the final objective. 4. A supportive environment is required to achieve success. Remove elements that allow backsliding. 5. Identify your competitors, make plans that include them, enlist the help of others. 6. The competitor must not be allowed to gain an advantage. Remain strong and avoid weaknesses. 7. Indirect actions such as logistics lead to success. Competition within your own forces is dangerous. The focus must be on the competitors and tomorrow’s customers. 8. Avoid being overtly cautious, reckless or attached to the status quo. 9. Self-control and discipline develop from determination. 10. Only challenge when success is certain. 11. Be aware of current conditions and the actions required. 12. Enlist help from the outside, make every action count. 13. Use information to create success and avoid defeat.

Aesop lived in Greece around the 6th century B.C. His parables provide insight into people’s conduct and their morals are related to many current quality

 William F. Pflanz (2001) Basic Fundamentals of Quality management beliefs. For example:

United we stand, divided we fall - Describes the need for a shared vision and appeals to the use of self-directed work teams, quality circles and other team concepts.

You may share the labor of the great, but not the spoils - Rewards must be fair and given on a regular basis. It must be understood how one can achieve the rewards.

Please all, and you please none - There must be a vision with a defined scope that is attainable. Understand the customer’s requirements and only offer what can be delivered.

The Greek philosopher Socrates lived from 470 BC to 399 BC. His works include various quality management concepts. For example:

1. Repetitive questioning of Why? until the root cause is obtained. 2. Through democracy all voices are heard and this empowerment leads to continual improvement. 3. Development of a technique of walking around and asking questions until both the teacher (management) and the student (employee) learn answers.

(Quality Management, Bruce and M. Suzanne Brocka, Homewood, Ill. Richard Dl Irwin, Inc. 1992)

In the Middle Ages, weapons of war - armor, swords, shields - were made by highly trained craftsman. Medieval guilds were formed to provide training for apprentices to learn the techniques to become master craftsman. The training was long and demanding. The apprentices had to demonstrate evidence of their ability to create high quality products. The products were custom fitted for each buyer. The better the fit and the higher the quality of materials, the more likely it was for a craftsman to increase business.

Quality control had its beginning with the dawn of manufacturing of products and the ensuing competition to obtain business. With competition, consumers could choose to purchase the best product. When a manufacturer improved its product, the consumer preferentially chose to purchase from that supplier. Procedures were taught to apprentices to maintain quality and improve the process.

The modern era of quality movement has occurred in three waves of Industrial Revolution. The first wave occurred in the early 19th century with simple automation; the second wave occurred with assembly concepts in the late 19th century, and the third wave is occurring with the information revolution. Statistical quality control is relatively new. It had its roots in the science of

 William F. Pflanz (2001) Basic Fundamentals of Quality statistics which began a few centuries ago in the areas of physics, biology and social sciences. When sampling theory was developed in the 1920’s, statistical theory was applied to quality control resulting in the birth of the current methodology for quality control.

Paradigm Pioneers

Does the future belong to only those people who create the next paradigm? No, . . . if you understand the role of a special group of people who are crucial in driving the new paradigm from rough concept into practical application. Paradigm shifters . . . need this group of people - a group of people so important that, without them, the new paradigm will emerge slowly if at all, a group of people willing to accept high risk in order to open the new way . . . I call them paradigm pioneers.

Joel A, Barker The Paradigm Pioneers

The Leaders in Quality

A number of key quality leaders were responsible for the evolution of the modern quality era.

Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915)

Frederick W. Taylor began the revolution for quality control after the Civil War when manufacturing moved from local trades into factories making steel, glass, textiles and other industrial goods. Trained as an engineer, Taylor proposed that the methods for doing work should be based on scientific study. The standards for a day’s work, selection and training of workers, and piecework payment should be based on scientific studies and were developed by specialists in industrial engineering. The responsibility for the execution of the plans and the control to meet the standards belonged to the foreman and workers. Time studies were done to determine daily production quotas at which the workers would be paid incentives to reach those goals.

Since the workers of that day lacked technological literacy, the new Taylor management system achieved significant improvements in productivity and was widely adopted by American industry. Piecework was common and the incentives were used to maximize production. Today, workers are better- educated and less reliant on piecework. With the rise of labor unions, workers obtained more control through collective bargaining on the issues of pay and work conditions. Although Taylor laid the foundation for quality management, some of the negative aspects of his methods continue today since it lacked the benefits of worker participation in improving processes. By removing the worker from responsibility for quality and improvement, the standards set previously by skilled craftsman were lost in the new industries.

(Joseph M. Juran, The Taylor System and Quality Control, Selected Papers,

The Taylor System • Separation of planning from execution • Great increases in productivity • Negative effect on quality • Negative effect on human relations • Emergence of inspection departments • Done because of technological illiteracy of workforce • Now education levels have been raised, employees are underutilized asset • Now need worker participation and teamwork (From Juran Seminar “ A Day with ....)

A control chart is a decision-making device that gives the user information about the quality of product resulting from a manufacturing process. – Walter A. Shewhart, Bell Labs, May 16, 1924.

Walter A. Shewhart (1891-1967)

The modern quality movement is considered to have started on May 16, 1924 when Walter A. Shewhart wrote a one page memo that included a drawing of what was probably the first control chart. The memo described a method for using statistics to improve quality in telephone manufacturing. Shewhart worked for Bell Labs, a division of Western Electric, at that time. At West Electric’s Hawthorne Works, Shewhart used and taught statistical methods. His techniques taught when a process should be left alone and when action should be taken. The concept of random variation was defined to set limits on when intervention should occur. The development of the control chart allowed workers to monitor their work and predict when an action was needed to control quality. Shewhart continued to improve the statistical methods and in 1931 he published his statistical quality control book Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product.

W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993)

W. Edwards Deming is widely regarded as one of the founding members of the modern quality movement. Deming graduated from the University of Wyoming with a BS in physics and from Yale with a Ph.D. in mathematical physics in 1928. Deming was familiar with Shewhart’s work in sampling and control charts and began using them in understanding quality improvement. During and after World War II, he worked for the U.S. Census Bureau. In 1950, Deming went to Japan to conduct a population census and lectured top business leaders on statistical quality control. Throughout the 1950’s Deming traveled to Japan to promote quality for the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) who established Japan’s highest honored quality award - the Deming Prize - in his honor. (Quality Management: Implementing the Best Ideas of the Masters, Bruce Brocka and M. Suzanne Brocka, Irwin Professional Publishing,

New York)

Deming was extremely critical of U. S. management for the continued use of Taylor’s management style. One of his first steps for improving quality is for management to remove the barriers that rob the workers of their right to do a good job. Inspection of incoming or outgoing goods and service is too late, ineffective, and costly. Inspection neither improves quality nor guarantees it. In Deming’s celebrated book Out of the Crisis, his Fourteen Points are explained in detail. He also lists the Seven Deadly Diseases that are harming U. S. industry and the Twelve Obstacles that prevent it from improving. His book on The New Economics provides guidance on the transformation into a new style of management through the application of profound knowledge.

Profound knowledge is composed of four parts:

• Appreciation for a system • Knowledge about variation • Theory of knowledge • Psychology of individuals, society, and change

From Deming Seminar Cleveland Ohio:

• Customers do not ask for improvement and better quality. • Customers did not ask for electric lights, they had gaslights; they did not ask for better electric lights as they were improved • Carburetors became better and better but were replaced by the electronic ignition; the manufacturers should not have been in the business of making carburetors but should have been in the fuel/air mixture injection business • Businesses should not worry about their share of the market but expanding the market • The person responsible for quality is in the boardroom not operators or inspectors • To improve quality, you need to develop good systems • “Knowledge comes from outside” and one should “learn from the masters”

Examples of new and improved services • ATM machines • Meals on Wheels • Leasing of automobiles is an example of a financial service that did not exist years ago • email and messenger services replacing the failed services of the US Post Office

In a seminar in Philadelphia in October 1996, Deming introduced a demonstration of the funnel experiment with the following: Off We Go to the Milky Way

- Author Unknown Tamper, tamper in the game, Try to make it all the same. Squeak and tweak it every day, Off we go to the Milky Way.

The lesson to be learned is if you have a stable process and you change your aim at the target by applying Rules 2, 3, or 4, you are tampering. By tampering you are making things worse.

Following quotes from Obligations of Management in the New Economic Age, WE Deming paper, Washington DC, Date Unknown

• Fear must be removed through the company. Training, retraining, and supervision must be improved with the aid of statistical methods • It is not enough for everyone to do his best. Everyone is already doing his best. Efforts, to be effective, must go in the right direction. • Only top management can bring the changes required • The only acceptable proof of quality and cost is statistical evidence of process control. Quality by inspection is outmoded. • It is possible and in fact fairly easy for an organization to go broke making the wrong product or offering the wrong type of service, even though everyone in the organization performs with devotion, employing statistical methods and every other aid that can boost efficiency. • Management must constantly improve the system. The obligation never ceases. • A man once hired and trained, and in statistical control of his own work, whether it be satisfactory or not, can do no better. Further training can not help him. • Drive out fear. Most workers, and even people in management positions, do not understand what the job is, nor what is right or wrong. • Eliminate posters and slogans in the factory that try to push people into new levels of productivity without showing them how. Posters and slogans like these do not help anyone to do a better job. • Institute a vigorous program for retraining people in new skills, to keep up with changes in model, style, materials, methods, and -- at times, if advantageous - new machinery.

COMPONENTS OF SYSTEM OF PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE

Profound knowledge is knowledge from outside-a new way of looking at things.

Appreciation for a system - A system is a series of functions or activities...within an organization that works together for the aim of the organization. It is a network of people, materials, methods, equipment, all working together so all benefit. When every part is working in support of every other part there is optimization.

Understanding of variation - Statistical theory - There will always be variation. The goal is to minimize loss from random variation and special causes using control charts.

Theory of knowledge - "Experience teaches nothing without theory" - Knowledge is prediction and knowledge comes from theory. Decisions are prediction. - Copying does not work unless you understand theory. - Real benefits are from unknowable.

Psychology - People are born with intrinsic motivation. - Right of all people to have "joy in their work". - Pride of workmanship. - Eliminate work standards, competition destroys. - Substitute leadership - Lack of fear - Break down barriers

W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics, Mass.: Center for Advanced Engineering Study, MIT Press, 1993.

Books & Articles by Deming:

Deming is the author of several books and over 170 papers

Out of the Crisis, Cambridge, Mass.: Center for Advanced Engineering Study, MIT Press, 1986. The New Economics, Mass.: Center for Advanced Engineering Study, MIT Press, 1993.

Books & Articles about Deming: Scherkenbach, William, The Deming Route to Quality and Productivity: Road Maps and Roadblocks, Washington D.C.: CeePress, George Washington University, 1986. Scherkenbach, William W., Deming’s Road to Continual Improvement, Knoxville, Tenn. : SPC Press, 1991. Walton, Mary, The Deming Management Method, New York: Putnam, 1986.

Joseph M. Juran (b. 1900)

Juran’s definition of quality is “fitness for use”. Joseph M. Juran worked in Hawthorne’s inspection department and knew Shewhart. W. Edwards Deming was in the research and development department of Bell Labs but did not work directly with Shewhart until later. (Quality or Else, pg. 52)

Following from “A Day with JM Juran: Managing for World Class Quality”, Total Quality Conference, Cleveland, Ohio, March 9, 1992

Quality Improvement Concepts

• All improvement tales place project by project • Quality improvement is not capital intensive • The return on investment is second to none • The backlog of needed improvements is huge • Big companies need thousands of improvements annually • Quality improvement does not come free - investment is required to diagnose the causes and to provide remedies

What are the needs of customers? • The stated needs of customers are not necessarily the real needs • The perceived needs of customers can be different from their real needs • Internal suppliers have done much damage due to lack of knowledge of the needs of internal customers • Not enough emphasis has been given to the cultural needs of internal

customers - jurisdiction rights, status symbols, etc. Methods for discovering customer’s needs • Be a customer • Communicate with customers - product dissatisfaction and product satisfaction • Study of customer behavior • Market research/critical questions • Simulate customers’ use

Measures of quality • Deficiencies/defects: countable occurrences, binary attributes • Quality = frequency of deficiencies/opportunities for deficiencies • Product features: variables, customer satisfaction

Measures of quality at the highest levels Emphasis is on: • Meeting customer needs • Meeting competition • Response to customer complaints • Continuing improvement • Reducing the cost of poor quality

Quality Improvement: Roles of Upper Managers

• Serve on the quality council • Establish quality goals • Provide resources • Review progress • Give recognition • Revise the reward system • Serve on project teams • Face up to employee apprehensions

Roles of Facilitators • Explain company intentions • Assist in team building • Assist in training • Restate experience of others • Assist in redirecting the project • Assist chairperson in attendance and human relations • Report progress

Philip B. Crosby (1926-2001)

Philip B. Crosby became his quality career as a reliability engineer for Crosley Corporation and later worked for Martin Corporation. At Martin, Crosby was in

 William F. Pflanz (2001) Basic Fundamentals of Quality charge of quality for the Pershing missile project. After working as the director of quality for ITT, he founded Crosby Associates to provide consulting services on quality.

Crosby is most closely linked to the concept of zero defects. His definition of quality is conformance to requirements, which is measured by the cost of nonconformance. Only conformance or nonconformance is important not high or poor quality. With this definition of quality, the performance goal is zero defects. Since quality management is related to prevention then nonpreventive activities such as inspection and testing are not relevant. (Quality Management: Implementing the Best Ideas of the Masters, Bruce Brocka and M. Suzanne Brocka, Irwin Professional Publishing, New York)

Crosby has 14 Steps to Quality Improvement and 4 Absolutes of Quality Management as his cornerstones for quality.

Crosby’s 14 Steps to Quality Improvement

1. Make it clear that management is committed to quality. 2. Form quality improvement teams with representatives from each department. 3. Determine how to measure where current and potential quality problems lie. 4. Evaluate the cost of quality and explain its use as a management tool. 5. Raise the quality awareness and personal concern of all employees. 6. Take formal actions to correct problems identified through previous steps. 7. Establish a committee for the zero defects program. 8. Train all employees to actively carry out their part of the quality improvement program. 9. Hold a “zero defects day” to let all employees realize that there has been a change. 10. Encourage individuals to establish improvement goals for themselves and their groups. 11. Encourage employees to communicate to management the obstacles they face in attaining their improvement goals. 12. Recognize and appreciate those who participate. 13. Establish quality councils to communicate on a regular basis. 14. Do it all over again to emphasize that the quality improvement program never ends.

Crosby’s Absolutes of Quality Management

1. Quality means conformance to requirements. If you intend to do it right the first time, everyone must know what it is. 2. Quality comes from prevention. Vaccination is the way to prevent

organizational disease. Prevention comes from training, discipline, example, leadership, and more. 3. Quality performance standard is zero defects (or defect-free). Err should not be tolerated. Errors are not tolerated in financial management; why should they be in manufacturing? 4. Quality measurement is the price of nonconformance.

Books & Articles by Crosby:

Quality is Free, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979. Quality without Tears, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984. The Eternally Successful Organization, New York: McGraw-Hill, 19?.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

The Evolution of Quality Japan’s Quality Movement

• Upper management personally took charge of quality • They trained all managers in how to manage for quality • They made quality improvements at a revolutionary rate • They trained and empowered the workforce to participate in the quality revolution • They put quality goals into the annual business plans (From JM Juran seminar A Day with ...)

Six Sigma Lean Manufacturing Quality Circles and Quality Teams ISO 9000 Quality Standards Malcolm Baldrige Award

 William F. Pflanz (2001)