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Introduction to Six Sigma

Quality Gurus and Their Contribution to Quality

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

Introduction
‘Quality must be managed; it does not just happen’ (John S.
Oakland). There have been a lot of theoretical studies about how
to improve quality. Quality gurus like Deming, Juran, Crosby,
Ishikawa, and Taguchi present different theories of quality
management.
Philip Bayard Crosby (June 1926 – August 2001)
• Philip Bayard Crosby was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, USA.
He was instrumental in popularizing the concept of ‘Zero
Defects’. He established Philip Crosby Associates in 1979 to
teach the significance of “zero defects” quality and the need for
building processes which do things right the first time.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
• Four absolutes of quality management
Four absolutes of quality management are:
• Crosby’s definition of quality as conformance to
requirements.
• The system for making quality is prevention.
• The only standard of performance must be “zero defects” –
anything less is unacceptable.
• The only measurement of quality is the cost of
nonconformance.
• Crosby’s 14 steps
In 1979, Crosby developed a fourteen step approach in order to
improve quality. The fourteen steps are:
• Management commitment
• The quality improvement team

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

• Quality measurement
• The cost of quality
• Quality awareness
• Corrective action
• Zero defects planning
• Supervisor training
• Zero defects day
• Goal setting
• Error cause removal
• Recognition
• Quality councils
• Do it over again

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

Dr. W. Edwards Deming (Oct 1900 – Dec 1993)


• William Edwards Deming was born in Sioux City, Iowa, USA. He
had a B.Sc in electrical engineering from the University of
Wyoming and M.S. from the University of Colorado. In 1965 he
received his doctorate from Yale University. The Japanese Union
of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) founded the Deming Prize to
commemorate his contribution to the development of quality
control in Japan.
• The PDCA cycle
Deming elaborated Walter A. Shewhart’s concept of PLAN, DO,
and SEE. The PDCA cycle, also known as the Deming cycle,
consists of four steps : Plan, Do, Check, and Act. This cycle aims
at achieving continuous quality improvement.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
Statistical process control (SPC)
Edwards Deming used the statistical process control approach in the U.S. during
World War II. After the war, he applied SPC methods in Japan. This method is
effective in examining a process with the help of control charts.
Deming’s 14 points for management
Deming’s 14 key points for management, first presented in his book Out of the
Crisis, are used as management guidelines. These points help to create a better
workplace and increase productivity and profits.
• Deming’s 14 points excerpted from his book Out of Crisis are as follows:
• Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service
with the aim to become competitive, to stay in business, and to provide jobs.
• Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western
management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities,
and take on leadership for change.
• Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for
inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first
place.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
• End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead,
minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a
long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
• Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to
improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
• Institute training on the job.
• Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people
and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of
management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production
workers.
• Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
• Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design,
sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of
production and in use that may be encountered with the product or
service.
Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

• Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force, asking for zero
defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial
relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong
to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
• Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.
• Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers,
numerical goals. Substitute leadership.
• Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship.
The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
• Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right
to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or
merit rating and of management by objective.
• Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
• Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The
transformation is everybody’s job.
Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
Dr. Armand V. Feigenbaum
• Dr. Armand V. Feigenbaum is an American quality control guru. He did his
master’s degree and Ph. D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT). Feigenbaum now serves as the president and CEO of General Systems
Co.
• He developed the concept of Total Quality Control, which was later referred to as
Total Quality Management (TQM). His two famous books are Quality Control:
Principles, Practice, and Administration and Total Quality Control.
• According to him, ‘Total quality control is an effective system for integrating the
quality development, quality maintenance, and quality improvement efforts of the
various groups in an organization so as to enable production and service at the
most economical levels which allow full customer satisfaction’.
• To him, the word ‘control’ includes four steps:
• Establishing quality criteria
• Evaluating conformance to standards
• Acting when standards are not fulfilled
• Planning to make improvements in the criteria

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
• Feigenbaum’s ten benchmarks
Feigenbaum, in his book Total Quality Control, points out ten important
benchmarks for total quality control. They are as follows:
• Quality is an organization-wide process.
• Quality is what the customer says it is.
• Quality and cost are a sum, not a difference.
• Quality needs both individual and team work.
• Quality is a means of managing.
• Both quality and innovation depend on each other.
• Quality is an ethic.
• Quality requires continuous improvement.
• Quality is most cost-effective.
• Quality is implemented with a total system connected with
customers and suppliers.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa (1915 – April 1983)
• Kaoru Ishikawa was born in Tokyo. Ishikawa received the Deming Prize and the
Nihon Kezai Press Prize. He did his Ph.D in engineering and is considered as the
father of quality circles. He is well known for his cause-and- effect diagrams, also
known as Ishikawa or Fishbone diagrams. These diagrams are used to find out
the root causes of any particular problem under study. He also expanded
Deming’s PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) model.
• Company Wide Quality Control (CWQC)
Ishikawa, in his book What is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way,
explained the concept of Company Wide Quality Control (CWQC). All the
individuals involved in the processes of the organization should be included in the
quality program. According to Ishikawa, CWQC includes:
• All department involvement
• All employee involvement
• Integrated process control
This approach is intended to achieve total quality by constantly improving all
processes.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

• Quality circles
Ishikawa developed the concept of ‘Quality Circles’ in 1962,
which is widely used in Japan. A quality circle is a volunteer
group which consists of employees who, under the leadership of
their team manager are prepared to recognize and evaluate
work-related issues, and provide their suggestions for the better
performance of the company.
• 7QC tools
Although ‘Seven Tools of Quality’ is the term used by Ishikawa,
all these tools are not developed by him. The seven tools such
as Pareto diagram, cause-and-effect diagram, stratification,
check sheet, histogram, scatter diagram, graphs and control
charts are very simple and can be used to solve more than 90
percent of the problems.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

Dr. Joseph M. Juran (December 1904 - February 2008)


• Joseph Moses Juran was born in Romania. When he was 8
years old, he immigrated to the US with his family. Juran had a
bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of
Minnesota. He is renowned for his contributions in the realm of
quality management. His classic book, The Quality Control
Handbook, is really valuable for quality managers. Besides, he
wrote Quality Planning & Analysis for Enterprise Quality and
Juran on Leadership for Quality.
• According to him, quality is a ‘fitness for use’. ‘A greater number
of characteristics to meet customer requirements’ is a significant
constituent in Juran’s definition of quality.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

• Juran’s most important ideas are:


• Top management involvement
• The Pareto principle
• The need for widespread training in quality
• The definition of quality as fitness for use
• The project-by-project approach to quality improvement
• Juran’s quality trilogy
The three steps of Juran’s trilogy are:
1.Quality planning: The quality planning step concentrates on
developing products and processes to meet customers'
requirements. It deals with establishing the objectives and
ways essential to achieve those objectives.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
• The following are the steps in the quality planning process:
• Set quality goals and ways to achieve those goals.
• Identify the customers - both internal and external.
• Determine those customers’ requirements and tools (e.g. direct discussions
or interviews, surveys, focus groups, customer specifications, observation,
warranty data, field reports, etc.) to collect information on customer
requirements.
• Interpret those requirements and convert into company’s language.
• Develop a product meeting those requirements.
• Develop processes to optimize the product characteristics in order to meet
the company’s and customers’ requirements .
• Prove whether the process is capable of fulfilling the quality goals under
operating conditions with minimal inspection.
• Convert the process into operating forces.
Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
2. Quality control: The quality control step focuses on implementing the plans. It is
important to monitor the operations so that differences between actual
performance and objectives can be identified. This phase contains three steps:
• Describe the control. Juran defines quality control as ‘the regulatory process
through which we measure actual quality performance, compare it with
quality goals, and act on the difference’ (Juran,1988).
• Identify different units of measurement, for example, hours spent, fuel
efficiency, and the number of defects.
• Evaluate actual performance of the operation. There are various sensors to
gather data. They are human sensors (e.g. inspectors) and machine sensors
(e.g. recorders).
• Weigh actual performance against objectives. Control charts, trend analysis,
correlation analysis, control wastes are some of the tools to compare actual
performance with goals.
• Take steps to eliminate the difference.
Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
3. Quality improvement: The quality improvement step aims at achieving
improvement in quality performance by changing the process. Gibbons describes
quality improvement as the organized creation of beneficial change; the
attainment of unprecedented levels of performance. It contains several steps.
• Prove that improvement in the product or process is required.
• Form a quality council which consists of upper management and discuss the
areas such as policies, measures of performance, project and team
selection, resources, follow-up, and recognition and rewards.
• Develop specific projects for improvement.
• Choose a suitable project team.
• Analyze the project team’s performance.
• Recognize team performance and reward for quality and quality
improvement.
• Continue with quality improvements.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

Walter Andrew Shewhart (March 1891 – March 1967)


• Walter Andrew Shewhart, the first honorary member of the
American Society for Quality (ASQ), was an American physicist,
engineer, and a statistician. He was born in New Canton in
1891and received his doctorate in physics from the University of
California, Berkeley in 1917.
• Shewhart succeeded in effectively bringing together different
knowledge areas such as statistics, engineering, and economics.
He is sometimes known as the father of Statistical Quality
Control (SQC).
• Shewhart, in his book Economic Control of Quality of
Manufactured Product, explains the fundamental points of SQC.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

• Control chart
The control chart, also referred to as Shewhart chart or process-
behavior chart, was developed by Shewhart in the 1920s. It is
the most important tool employed in statistical process control to
determine whether a process is under statistical control or not.
Shewhart invented this tool to distinguish between common and
special causes of variation.
• PDCA cycle
PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle is sometimes referred to as the
Shewhart Cycle or Deming Cycle. Walter A. Shewhart developed
the concept of PLAN, DO, and SEE. Later Deming elaborated
this and made it popular.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
Dr. Genichi Taguchi
• Genichi Taguchi was born in Takamachi, Japan in January 1924 and
studied technical engineering at Kiryu Technical College. He earned his
doctorate in science from Kyushu University in 1962. In 1960, he
received Japan’s Deming Prize. He was also awarded the Indigo Ribbon
in 1986.
• He became an honorary member of the Japanese Society of Quality
Control in 1995. Many consider him as instrumental in the emergence of
Japan as a manufacturing power.
• Taguchi believed in the statistical techniques to identify and eliminate
quality problems.
• He invented a methodology referred to as ‘Taguchi Methods’ with the
objective to improve quality and decrease costs. His concept of ‘Robust
Design’ is intended to optimize quality at the design phase.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

• Taguchi quality loss function


• According to him, ‘the quality of a product is the (minimum)
loss imparted by the product to society from the time the
product is shipped’.
• Taguchi quality loss function, an important tenet of Taguchi’s
quality philosophy, is established to measure financial loss to
society because of poor quality. It is used to evaluate the
financial impact on account of a process deviation from the
target.
• Design of experiments
• Taguchi made numerous innovations in the design of
experiments. Design of experiments (DOE) is a methodology
to describe the relation between input variables (Xs)
influencing a process and the outputs of the process (Y).

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality
Shingo Shigeo (1909 – 1990)
• Shingo Shigeo was born in Saga City, Japan in 1909. He was one of the
industrial engineers at Toyota and is known for his important concept of
Poka-yoke. Shingo wrote numerous books. Some of them are A Study
of the Toyota Production System, Revolution in Manufacturing: the
SMED System, and Zero Quality Control: Source Inspection and the
Poka-yoke System.
• Shingo Shigeo’s concepts such as SMED, Poka-yoke or mistake-
proofing, and zero quality control are applied not only in the area of
manufacturing but also in the area of sales process engineering.
• Poka-yoke is an important part of zero quality control (ZQC) developed
by Shigeo Shingo. Zero quality control aims at producing zero defective
products. Poka-yoke is a mistake-proofing or error proofing mechanism
to identify and prevent incorrect components from being made or
brought together.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

John S. Oakland
• John S. Oakland is a British quality expert. He served as head of
the European Centre for Total Quality Management at the
University of Bradford Management Centre in Britain. His
contribution to the development of quality in Britain is noteworthy.
• According to him, ‘quality is meeting the customer’s
requirements’ and ‘quality starts at the top’. He considers the
pursuit of quality as the basis for the success of any company.
• Oakland opines that quality has emerged as the most significant
competitive weapon and total quality management (TQM) is a
means of managing for the future.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

• Oakland describes seven principal features of TQM. They are as


follows:
• Quality is fulfilling the customer’s needs.
• Most quality problems are among departments.
• Quality control is monitoring, finding, and eliminating causes
of quality problems.
• Quality assurance rests on prevention, management
systems, effective audit, and review.
• Quality must be managed; it does not just happen.
• Focus on prevention, not cure.
• Reliability is an extension of quality and enables us to ‘delight
the customer’.

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Quality Gurus and Their Contribution
to Quality

Conclusion
• Philip B. Crosby
• Dr. W. Edwards Deming
• Dr. Armand V. Feigenbaum
• Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa
• Dr. Joseph M. Juran
• Walter Andrew Shewhart
• Dr. Genichi Taguchi
• Shingo Shigeo
• John S. Oakland

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