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CHAPTER 1

Chapter Objectives

After completing this chapter, the reader should be able to:

• discuss the development of quality as a discipline.
• discuss the complexity of defining quality.
• compare and contrast the leading approaches to defining quality.
• discuss the differences between defining quality for manufactured goods and for
services.
• discuss the major contributors to the quality profession.
• define key quality management terms.

INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY

This book is about quality. Quality is a very important part of life today. It is important to
effectively competing in business—both manufacturing and service. It plays an important
role in assuring the safety of consumers. Quality of life is an increasingly used term
bringing the concepts of quality into our personal lives.

But quality is also a frequently misunderstood and misapplied concept. Some believe that
quality is still the responsibility of the quality department rather than being the responsibility
of everyone in the organization. Some believe that quality is simply avoiding doing things
that will dissatisfy customers. Others believe that quality is a manufacturing concept with
limited applicability to services. Still others view quality as a sort of “magic bullet” as if
nominally implementing some quality program or another will magically improve
performance without changing the culture of the organization.

From a theoretical perspective, this book is designed to further the understanding of quality
and its relationship to management systems. From a practical perspective, this book will
help the reader understand the basic fundamentals and tools of quality, the interrelationship
between quality and other functions in the organization, and how to use this knowledge to
materially improve quality and impact the performance of the organization.

Why Study Quality?

In larger organizations such as Dow Chemical, General Electric, Motorola, Bank of

America, MBNA, Mayo Clinics, it is difficult to find a job that does not require knowledge
of quality principles. Many smaller organizations such as Huntsville Memorial Hospital, El
Chico, and Gallery Furniture, also have made quality a central component of their strategic
plans and management systems. Mrs. Fields’ Cookies was founded on the basis of quality
as the source of competitive advantage. Xerox used quality as the major building block in
restructuring and revitalizing their company. Many governmental, charitable, and religious1
organizations have also embraced quality. In order to prepare for employment in the current
environment and to prepare for increasing responsibilities within modern business,

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governmental, and service organizations, knowledge of quality principles is becoming

increasingly important.

History of Quality

Quality is not a new concept. The very survival of early humanoids depended upon the
quality of the tools which they fabricated from stone and bone, and later bronze and iron.
Quality was fully integrated into the manufacturing processes which were passed along from
one generation to the next. As civilization evolved, specialization of labor began to develop.
The earliest recorded civilizations had experts in weaving, ceramics, metal working, and
other crafts who developed their techniques within various sorts of organizations such as
guilds, masters-apprenticeships, and unions. To this point in history, quality was the
responsibility of the craftsperson creating the product or rendering the service.

Beginning in the late 18th century, progressing through the Industrial Revolution and into the
early 20th century, industry moved from the craft concept to the concepts of specialization of
labor, scientific management, and mass production. The invention of interchangeable parts
which began in the 1700s made adherence to specifications vital. No longer were individual
craftspeople free to adapt designs as they saw fit to create unique products and services for
their customers. Each worker had to be sure that the parts they created were as identical as
possible to those created by other workers in the organization. With many workers
producing parts that had to fit together to form the final product, management had a need for
systems to define material quality, work methods, and specifications and to control the
processes that produced the parts. This led to the formalization of quality as a discipline.

The Definition of Quality

What is quality? This is a much more complex question than it first appears. Yet, how
do we go about studying quality, measuring quality, designing quality into products and
services, or improving quality if we do not know what it is? Quality is a much more
complicated term than it appears. One historian of ideas suggests that it was Plato who
should be credited with inventing the term quality.

The more common a word is and the simpler its meaning, the bolder very likely is
the original thought which it contains and the more intense the intellectual or
poetic effort which went into its making. Thus, the word quality is used by most
educated people every day of their lives, yet in order that we should have this
simple word Plato had to make the tremendous effort (it is perhaps the greatest
effort known to man) of turning a vague feeling into a clear thought. He invented
a new word ‘poiotes’, ‘what-ness’, as we might say, or ‘of-what-kind-ness’, and
Cicero translated it by the Latin ‘qualitas’, from ‘qualis’.2

Early debates over the definition of quality are dramatized by Plato in a number of his
dialogues, as for example, the one between Socrates and the sophist Hippias in the
Greater Hippias. In this dialogue, Socrates, after criticizing parts of an exhibition speech
by Hippias as not being fine, asks the question "what the fine is itself?". Cooper3, the

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editor of one translation of Plato, translates the Greek word kalon as fine. This word is
widely applicable as a term "of highly favorable evaluation, covering our 'beautiful',
'noble', ‘admirable', ‘excellent', and the like." What Socrates is seeking “is a general
explanation of what feature any object, or action, or person, or accomplishment of any
kind, has to have in order correctly to be characterized as highly valued or worth valuing
in this broad way (i.e. as being fine)."

The philosophical development of the idea of quality can be traced beyond Plato (circa
400 BC) through Augustine (circa 600 AD), Smith (circa 1700), Mill (circa 1800) to the
modern quality movement beginning with Shewhart (circa 1930). Among the definitions
of quality of things in The Oxford English Dictionary,4 definition 9c most expresses the
concept of quality in modern use by quality professionals: “Peculiar excellence or
superiority.” But dictionary definitions are usually inadequate in helping a quality
professional understand the concept. Quality must be defined in ways that can be
assessed and measured. Measurement of “excellence” and “superiority” is difficult
because these terms are subject to differences in perceptions among individuals.

Modern Definitions of Quality

The quality movement began in a systematic way in the United States during the late
1920’s with the work of Walter Shewhart. The first modern quality revolution occurred
in the United States during the World War II years after which it declined in this country
until the early 1970’s. The second quality revolution occurred in Japan in the 1950’s
with the work of W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, and Armand Feigenbaum and
resulted in Japan’s emergence as an economic power. The third quality revolution began
in the United States during the early 1970’s when the work of Deming, Juran,
Feigenbaum and Phillip Crosby was finally recognized and put into practice in this
country.

During each of these revolutions attention was paid to just what is this thing “quality.”
The first modern definition of quality was offered by Shewhart during the first quality
revolution. Most modern formal definitions trace back to the second quality revolution--
primarily to the work of Juran and Feigenbaum. During the third quality revolution,
David Garvin weighed in with a comprehensive analysis of the meaning of quality. The
American Society for Quality has published its definition of quality. But as we have seen
these efforts to define quality are by no means the first.

[Sidebar]
ASQ defines quality as “a subjective term for which each person has his or her
own definition. In technical usage, quality can have two meanings: 1) the
characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or
implied needs and 2) a product or service free of deficiencies.”
Source: “Quality Glossary.” Quality Progress 35(7), 2002, 56.

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Walter Shewhart (1931) was the first modern era quality expert to wrestle with the
definition of quality. Shewhart suggested that quality has two aspects. The objective
aspect refers to quality of a thing as “an objective reality independent of the existence of
man.” The subjective aspect refers to quality as “what we think, feel, or sense as a result
of the objective reality.” According to Shewart, although it is the objective aspect of
quality that we usually attempt to measure, it is the subjective aspect of quality that is of
commercial interest. Deming, in his last book, The New Economics for Industry,
Government, Education, agreed that quality is subjective and must have commercial
value. “What is quality? A product or service possesses quality if it helps somebody and
enjoys a good and sustainable market. Trade depends on quality.”

Building on Shewhart’s work, Juran defined quality as “fitness for use” and Feigenbaum
as “best for certain customer conditions.” These definitions form the basis for the
modern definition of quality.

Parasuraram and others define quality as meeting or exceeding customer expectations. In

Deming’s words “Just to have the customer satisfied is not enough…You have to do
better than that.” To operationalize the customer-focused definition, one must define
who is the customer. External customers usually come to mind first. These are the
people outside our organization who receive our goods and services. But even here there
is some confusion. If we sell our products to a wholesaler, is he our only customer?
How about the retailer and the ultimate consumer? Internal customers are often forgotten
or taken for granted. These are the people inside our organization who receive our work.
In an assembly line operation, the next station downstream from ours is an internal
customer for our work. The Purchasing Department which receives a control report from
the Accounting Department is the Accounting Department's internal customer. Every
process has a customer.

Once the customer has been defined, ways must be found to meet or exceed customer
expectations. Meeting customer expectations results in a satisfied customer. But where
is the competitive advantage in that? Have you eaten in a restaurant in the past month?
If so, did you select a restaurant that you expected would dissatisfy you? Probably not.
You selected from a list of restaurants that you expected would satisfy you. So,
satisfying customers merely keeps you in the game. Delighting customers (exceeding
customer expectations) is where competitive advantage can be found. Restaurants that
deliver larger than expected portions or lower than expected prices or better than
expected service or better than expected ambiance have a competitive advantage over
restaurants that simply satisfy customers.

Product Quality

There is widespread agreement that quality is a multidimensional construct. A number of

scholars in the quality field have developed lists of dimensions that define quality for a
product and/or a service. David Garvin5 developed a list of 8 dimensions of product
quality which are widely accepted as being applicable to most products albeit with
varying levels of importance on particular dimensions. These dimensions were proposed

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to facilitate strategic quality analysis by breaking “down the word quality into
manageable parts” so that management “can define the quality niches in which to
compete.”

Table 1.1 Garvin’s Eight Dimensions of Product Quality

Dimension Description Example for Personal Computer
Performance A product’s primary operating Clock speed; RAM; hard drive size
characteristics.
Features Characteristics that supplement basic Wireless mouse; flat-screen monitor;
functioning. DVD-RW
Reliability Probability of a product Mean time between failures
malfunctioning within a specific time
period.
Conformance The degree to which a product’s Underwriter Laboratories labeled;
design and operating characteristics mouse, monitor, keyboard included
meet established standards. with CPU.
Durability Expected product life. Time to technical obsolescence; rated
life of monitor
Serviceability Speed, courtesy, competence, and Warranty conditions; availability of
ease of repair. customer service and replacement
parts.
Aesthetics How a product looks, feels, sounds, Computer housing color scheme;
tastes, or smells. keyboard “touch.”
Perceived Quality Reputation and other indirect Brand name; advertising.
measures of quality
Source: Garvin, D. “Competing on the Eight Dimensions of Quality.” Harvard Business Review
65(6), 1987, 101-109.

The relative importance of each of these eight dimensions varies considerably. In fact,
Garvin proposed that product design often cannot simultaneously maximize each of these
eight dimensions. There are always tradeoffs to be considered. For example,
compromises might have to be made in aesthetics in order to improve access to a
computer CPU case to increase serviceability. Garvin suggests that it is the role of
strategic quality management to select the dimensions on which to compete and to
manage the tradeoffs.

Service Quality

Defining the dimensions of service quality is a more daunting task. A number of scholars
have developed lists of service quality dimensions. These consist of 5 to 10 dimensions
and are general lists which serve as good starting points. But, current research indicates
that in terms of service quality, the dimensions and the relative emphases on each are
different for different industries. So dimensions developed in one or a group of service
industries may not be directly applicable to another group of service industries.

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The SERVQUAL6 instrument is often used to assess customer satisfaction in service

industries. It measures quality by comparing customer perceptions of the quality of a
service experience to customer expectations for that experience. The instrument is based
on ten overlapping dimensions of service quality that eventually distilled down to five
dimensions. The instrument was developed in four different service industries: banking,
credit card, repair and maintenance, and long distance telephone.

Table 1.2 SERVQUAL Dimensions of Service Quality

Dimension Description Example for Bank
Tangibles Physical facilities, equipment, and ATM access; lobby layout; tellers
appearance of personnel. dressed professionally
Reliability Ability to perform the promised Promised deadlines met; reassuring
service dependably and accurately. problem resolution
Responsiveness Willingness to help customers and Respond quickly to customer
provide prompt service. requests; willingness to help
customers
Assurance Knowledge and courtesy of Trustworthiness; safe environment
employees and their ability to inspire around ATMs; polite tellers
trust and confidence.
Empathy Caring, individualized attention the Personal attention to customers;
firm provides its customers convenient hours
Source: Parasuraman, A., V. Zeithaml, & L. Berry. “SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for
Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality.” Journal of Retailing 61(1), 1988, 12-40.

While SERVQUAL has been criticized and its applicability to other service industries has
been questioned,7,8 it provides a basis for understanding service quality and its
dimensions. It would be dangerous, however, to utilize SERVQUAL or any other
instrument without first validating that it is applicable in a particular industry.
Developing a list of quality dimensions for a specific service industry requires
determining what is important to customers in that industry. Methodologies which are
appropriate for this would include focus groups and surveys. The quality dimensions for
hospitals (KQCAH Scale) were developed using focus groups conducted with recently
discharged patients and their families, and with hospital personnel.9 Knowledge of these
dimensions facilitates the measurement of patient satisfaction by hospitals. Hospitals
know that they are measuring dimensions that are important to patients. But these
dimensions are unlikely to define quality for other service industries such as restaurants,
automobile repair shops, or banks.

The foregoing discussion could lead to the following definition of quality: Quality is a
multidimensional construct the dimensions of which must be uniquely established for
each category of product or service being evaluated. While this definition might be
philosophically unsatisfying, it does provide the basis for operationalizing quality in
measurable ways.

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Table 1.3 Eight Dimensions of Hospital Service Quality

Dimension Description Example for Hospital
Respect & Caring The way in which hospital staff Staff paid attention to patient and was
interacts with the patient. reassuring; privacy was protected;
staff was friendly
Effectiveness & Transition from unit to unit or Preparations for discharge; provision
Continuity hospital to home handling. of necessary home care.
Appropriateness Physical facilities and staff Comfort and cleanliness of facilities;
professionalism lighting; staff dress and behavior
Information Keeping patient and family members Quick provision of information about
informed. condition; availability of doctors;
availability of counselors
Efficiency Billing. Understandability of bill; availability
of staff to explain bill; complaint
handling
Meals Quality and efficiency of meal Taste; timeliness; temperature
service.
First Impression First contact with hospital. Admission experience; hospital
entrance
Staff Diversity Staff composition generally Racial, gender diversity; availability
reflective of community of multilingual personnel
composition.
Source: Sower, V., J. Duffy, W. Kilbourne, G. Kohers, & P. Jones. 2001. “The Dimensions of Service
Quality for Hospitals: Development and Use of the KQCAH Scale.” Health Care Management Review
26(2): 47-59.

Different Approaches to Defining Quality

Another concept that developed during the 1990’s is the strategic concept of order
qualifiers and order winners.10 Order qualifiers are minimum characteristics that a
product or service must have in order to be considered to be of acceptable quality. A
flashlight that does not provide light would not be termed a quality item under this
definition. One might make the argument that a product or service not meeting order
qualifier standards would have no quality. In this context order qualifiers are those
dimensions necessary to produce customer satisfaction. Order winners are those
enhancements that exceed the minimum characteristics. Order winners could include
enhanced battery life, custom fit to the hand, or enhanced beam focus in the case of a
flashlight. One could conceive of order winners providing the basis for differentiating
various levels of quality in a product or service and therefore leading to customer delight.

Five Approaches to Defining Quality

David Garvin5 identified five major approaches to defining quality:

1. The Transcendent Approach. In this view “quality is synonymous with ‘innate
excellence’” and is “absolute and universally recognizable.” This is the
approach which most closely aligns with Socrates’ question “What is the
fine?” from Greater Hippias.3 This approach implies that there is a construct

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called quality that is universally applicable. This is the approach which is the
basis for philosophical debate--some say it is of little practical utility. Others
argue that the transcendent approach is “the fundamentally most important
approach to thinking about quality—particularly in the quality of design of
breakthrough products and services.”11
2. The Product-based Approach. In this view quality is “a precise and
measurable variable” which is a composite of all the attributes that describe
the degree of excellence of a product. This approach is illustrated by a draft
of the ISO 8402 standard12 which stated that “quality…is the degree to which
a…product possesses a specified set of attributes necessary to fulfill a stated
purpose.”
3. The User-based Approach. In this view quality is in the eye of the beholder—
the customer. This approach has spawned tools such as quality function
deployment (QFD). QFD is a structured approach to assure that the
customer’s voice is heard during product design. While this approach has
proven to be of practical value in the design of products based on incremental
innovations, it is of limited value in designing products based on radical
innovations. Products based on radical innovation enter a market that may not
exist and where customers may not be able to articulate their needs. In the
case of radical innovation, the transcendent approach may be of more than just
philosophical interest.

[Sidebar]
If we were to go back in time 100 years and ask a farmer what he'd like if he could have
anything, he'd probably tell us he wanted a horse that was twice as strong and ate half as
many oats. He would not tell us he wanted a tractor. Technology changes things so fast
that many people aren't sure what the best solutions to their problems might be.
Source: Quigley, P. Readers' Digest, January 2000.

4. The Manufacturing-based Approach. In this view quality is “conformance to

(engineering and manufacturing) requirements. W. Edwards Deming
criticizes this approach as “the absurdity of meeting specifications.”12
“Specifications don’t tell you what you need…Just to meet specifications—
what you think the customer requires—no. That won’t keep you in
business.”13 Taguchi argued that the manufacturing-based approach is
fundamentally flawed. He argued that simply meeting specifications is not
good enough. He developed the quadratic loss function which shows that
losses increase exponentially as a parameter deviates from its target value.
Others argue that conformance to specifications is a practical approach to
defining quality if and only if the specifications derive from customer
requirements (user-based approach). Philip Crosby14 goes so far as to say that
“we must define quality as ‘conformance to requirements’ if we are to manage
it.” Instead of thinking of quality in terms of goodness or desirability

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(transcendent approach) we are looking at it as a means of meeting

requirements…Quality means conformance. Nonquality is nonconformance.”
5. The Value-based Approach. In this approach, quality is defined “in terms of
costs and prices…A quality product is one that provides performance at an
acceptable price or conformance at an acceptable cost.” Philip Crosby14 also
endorses this approach. “Quality is precisely measured by the cost of quality
which, as we have said, is the expense of nonconformance (to requirements).”
This blends the value-based approach with the manufacturing-based approach.

It seems that every quality expert defines quality in a somewhat different way. There are
a variety of perspectives that can be taken in defining quality (e.g. customer’s
perspective, specification-based perspective). Are there commonalities among these
definitions? Is any one definition “more correct” than the others? Is one quality expert
“right” and the others “wrong”? Quality professionals constantly debate this question.
More than 2400 years after Plato’s time we find ourselves still asking the question “What
is quality?”

Major Contributors to Our Understanding of Quality

http://www.pathmaker.com/resources/leaders/shewart.asp

Walter Shewhart is considered by many to be the founder of the modern quality movement
and an innovator in the application of statistics to quality. His seminal contributions were
based on his work at Bell Telephone Laboratories and were published in two books:
Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product in 1931 and Statistical Method from
the Viewpoint of Quality Control in 1939. Interestingly, W. Edwards Deming authored the
forward in the 1939 book. Shewhart wrestled with the definition of quality and proposed
that quality has both an objective and a subjective side. While acknowledging that the
subjective side is of great commercial interest, he focuses his attention on the objective side
of quality. He stressed the need for operational definitions that are easily communicable.

Besides contributing his thoughts on the definition of quality, Shewhart provided great
insight into the collection, analysis, and presentation of data in the quality discipline. He
recognized that processes are subject to variation from two sources: chance causes that are
inherent in the system, and assignable causes that are signs of trouble in the system. He
developed control charts that provide a statistical basis for separating these two types of
variation. He defined the state of statistical control as a state of predictability that exists
when there are is no special cause variation in a process.

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He also was an advocate of a systems approach to quality control. Shewhart recognized that
the focus on the consumer was central and that all parts of the production process from raw
materials, to methods, to inspection practices were crucial to producing quality products and
was an advocate of continual improvement. He developed the Shewhart cycle for continual
improvement: Plan – Do – Check – Act. “The application of statistical methods in mass
production makes possible the most efficient use of raw materials and manufacturing
processes, and makes possible the highest economic standards of quality for the
manufactured goods used by all of us.”15

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Figure 1.

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http://www.pathmaker.com/resources/leaders/deming.asp

W. Edwards Deming invited Walter Shewhart to present a series of lectures before the
Graduate School of the Department of Agriculture that eventually developed into
Shewhart’s 1939 book. Deming is best known for helping to lead the Japanese
manufacturing sector out of the ruins of World War II to becoming a major presence in
the world market. The highest quality award in Japan, The Deming Prize, is named in his
honor. He is also known for his 14 points (a new philosophy for competing on the basis
of quality), for the Deming Chain Reaction, and for the Theory of Profound Knowledge.
(For an excellent summary of the Theory of Profound Knowledge, go to
http://www.maaw.info/DemingExhibit.htm). He also modified the Shewhart cycle (Plan,
Do, Check, Act) to what is now referred to as the Deming Cycle (Plan, Do, Study, Act).

Deming advocated improving the system rather than criticizing the workers. He believed
that workers were already doing their best with the systems that management provided to
them. But doing one’s best without direction results in poor results. It is the
responsibility of management to provide the direction that workers need. And this cannot
be done by the use of management by objectives (which Deming referred to as
management by fear) or annual performance reviews (which he condemned). The plan
he proposed for management is embodied in his 14 points which must be implemented in
its entirety in order to be effective. To skip one point will inhibit the effectiveness of the
other 13 according to Deming.

Figure 2. Deming’s 14 Points for Management

1. Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product & service.

2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependency on mass inspection.
4. End the practice of awarding business on price tag alone.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production & service.
6. Institute training.
7. Institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between staff areas.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas.
12. Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education & retraining.
14. Take action to accomplish the transformation.

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[Sidebar]

Mattress Mack, Gallery Furniture, and W. Edwards Deming

One advocate of the Deming approach to management is Jim “Mattress

Mack” McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture in Houston, Texas—the
biggest single retail store in America. Gallery thrived during the early
1980’s, but began to feel the effect of the decline in the local economy in
the late 1980’s. After attending a Philip Crosby quality seminar, Mack
was convinced that he should reinvent Gallery around quality. One thing
bothered Mack about the Crosby approach—the idea of Zero Defects.
That didn’t seem reasonable in the retail environment. After hearing of
W. Edwards Deming and attending two Deming seminars Mack took what
he referred to as a “hop of faith” and implemented some of Deming’s
points. It wasn’t until he attended additional Deming seminars that he
decided to take the leap of faith of implementing all 14 points.

Prior to implementing the Deming philosophy, Gallery operated on the

traditional furniture retail model. Salespersons were on commission and
were ranked each month using an appraisal system Mack characterizes as
an “adult report card.” Early on, Mack decided to fire the salesperson who
had the lowest sales each month. In this environment customers
sometimes felt as if they were walking into a flock of vultures when they
entered Gallery Furniture. Each salesperson competed with all the others
for each customer. The incentive was to sell the customer the highest
priced merchandise in order to maximize sales. Mack would rant and yell
at employees who brought him bad news creating an environment of fear.

After taking his leap of faith, Mac did away with commissions and the
appraisal system. Mack found that managing by walking around—talking,
listening, and watching employees and customers—was more effective.
Rather than reacting negatively to bad news, Mack learned to thrive on it.
He recognized that employees who are properly trained and empowered
can bring problems to light early and assist in using bad news to fix and
adjust the system. The result was a Gallery Furniture that was focused on
customer delight not on rating their employees. Gallery Furniture’s
single-site store sells more furniture per square foot than any other store in
the world. It is the most productive furniture store in the world.

Sources: McIngvale, J. Always Think Big.” Chicago, IL: Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2002.
Various public speeches made by Mattress Mack.

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The Deming chain reaction was first presented in 1950--early in Deming’s time in Japan
after World War Two. It illustrated Shewhart’s concept that productivity improves as
variation is reduced and quality is improved. According to Deming this became a way of
life in Japanese industry.

Figure 3. The Deming Chain Reaction

Improve Costs decrease because

quality of less rework, fewer mistakes, Productivity
Fewer delays, snags, better use improves
of machine time and materials

Capture the market Stay in Provide jobs

with better quality business and more jobs
and lower price

Source: Deming, W. Out of the Crisis. Cambridge, MA:

MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study, 1982.

Deming’s Theory of Profound Knowledge says that a production system is composed of

many interacting subsystems. Management’s job is to set the purpose for the system and
to optimize the system. Variation is an inherent part of any system. Common causes of
variation account for 80-90% of the total variation; assignable causes account for
the rest, and only management can address common causes of variation. Knowledge is
not possible without theory. Experience alone does not establish a theory. Copying an
example of someone else’s success without understanding it with theory can lead to
disaster.

Beginning in the early 1980s Deming finally came to prominence in the United States
and played a major role in quality becoming a major competitive issue in American
industry. His book, Out of the Crisis (1982), is considered a quality classic. Read more
about Dr. Deming and his philosophy at the W. Edwards Deming Institute Home Page
(http://www.deming.org/).

Figure 3. PDCA and PDSA

Act Act

Check Plan Study Plan

Do Do

The Shewhart Cycle The Deming Cycle

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http://www.pathmaker.com/resources/leaders/juran.asp

Joseph Juran also assisted the Japanese in their reconstruction after World War II. Juran
first became well known in the quality field in the U.S. as the editor of the Quality
Control Handbook (1951) and later for his paper introducing the quality trilogy: Quality
Planning, Quality Control, and Quality Improvement (See Table 1.4). Quality Planning
provides a system that is capable of meeting quality standards. Quality Control is used to
determine when corrective action is required. Quality Improvement seeks better ways of
doing things. Questioning which of the quality trilogy is most important is similar to
asking which leg of a stool is most important. Without all three, the stool (and the quality
system) cannot function effectively.

Figure 4. Juran’s Quality Trilogy

While Deming's approach is revolutionary in nature (i.e. throw out your old system and
"adopt the new philosophy" of his 14 points), Juran's approach is more evolutionary (i.e.
we can work to improve your current system). Deming refers to statistics as being the
language of business while Juran says that money is the language of business and quality
efforts must be communicated to management in their language. Juran agrees with
Deming that more than 80 percent of defects are caused by the system rather than the
workers and listed motivation of workers as a non-solution to quality problems. Read
more about Dr. Juran and his philosophy at the Juran Institute web site
(http://www.juran.com/).

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Table 1.4 Juran’s Basic Quality Processes

Quality Planning
Identify internal and external customers.
Determine customer needs.
Develop product and service features that respond to customer needs.
Establish quality goals that meet the needs of customers and suppliers at a minimum
combined cost.
Develop a process that can produce the needed product/service features.
Prove process capability—that the process can meet the quality goals under operating
conditions.

Quality Control
Choose what to control.
Choose units of measurement.
Establish measurement.
Establish standards for performance.
Measure actual performance.
Interpret the difference between actual and standard.
Take action on the difference.

Quality Improvement
Prove the need for improvement.
Identify specific projects for improvement.
Organize for discovery of causes.
Diagnose to find the causes.
Provide remedies.
Prove that the remedies are effective under operating conditions.
Provide for control to hold the gains.

Source: Adapted from Juran, J. “The Quality Trilogy.” Quality Progress 9(8), 1986: 19-24.

http://www.asq.org/join/about/history/feigen.html

Armand Feigenbaum is credited with the creation of the idea of total quality control in
his 1951 book, Quality Control--Principles, Practice, and Administration and in his 1956

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article, "Total Quality Control." The Japanese version of this concept is called Company-
Wide Quality Control, while it is called Total Quality Management (TQM) in the U.S.
and elsewhere. He was also the first to classify quality costs into costs of prevention,
appraisal, and internal and external failure.

http://www.pathmaker.com/resources/leaders/crosby.asp

Philip Crosby came to national prominence with the publication of his book, Quality is
Free (1979). He established the Absolutes of Quality Management which includes "the
only performance standard (that makes any sense) is Zero Defects," and the Basic
Elements of Improvement.

While Crosby, like Deming and Juran, stresses the importance of management
commitment and error cause removal, some aspects of Crosby’s approach to quality are
quite different from Deming’s. Zero Defects, central to Crosby’s philosophy, was
criticized by Deming as being directed at the wrong people (workers) and generating
worker frustration and resentment. Goal setting, central to Crosby, leads to negative
accomplishment according to Deming. The reality is that Deming was probably reacting
to the inappropriate uses of slogans and goals. Deming may not have condemned them
were they always used properly within the Crosby system.

Read more about Philip Crosby at the Phillip Crosby Associates II web site
(http://www.philipcrosby.com/pca/index.html).

http://www.pathmaker.com/resources/leaders/ishikawa.asp

Kaoru Ishikawa is credited with developing the idea of Company-Wide Quality Control in
Japan. He pioneered the use of quality circles and championed the use of quality tools to

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understand the root causes of problems. He developed one of those tools, the cause and
effect diagram, which is also referred to as the Ishikawa diagram or the fishbone diagram.

Figure 3. Ishikawa Diagram

Machines Methods

Effect

Manpower Materials

http://www.pathmaker.com/resources/leaders/taguchi.asp

Genichi Taguchi developed approaches to assess the outside influences (which he

referred to as noise) on processes which he used to establish the signal-to-noise ratio as a
measure of the quality of a process. He devised a quadratic function, referred to as the
Taguchi Loss Function, which quantified the loss to society of the variation in processes
which result in products not being produced exactly at the target values. He developed
Taguchi Methods, an approach using orthogonal arrays and linear graphs, to understand
and to optimize the performance of processes. He also developed the idea of robustness
which is the ability of a process or product to perform even in the face of uncontrollable
outside influences (noise).

Summary

Quality is a difficult term to define. There is no single, simple definition that will suffice
for all products, services, and situations. Perhaps the best modern definition that comes
closest to universality is quality is meeting or exceeding customer expectations.
Customer expectations are often represented as dimensions of quality. The dimensions
that matter most for specific products and services vary. This makes more difficult the
process of defining quality in a way that facilitates assessment and improvement.

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Many individuals have contributed to the body of knowledge that we characterize as

quality management. Among the most prominent are Shewhart, Deming, Juran, Crosby,
Feigenbaum, Ishikawa and Taguchi. While each of these “gurus” have contributed
distinct parts to the body of knowledge, there are many consistencies in their
contributions and ideas. The fingerprints of each of these “gurus” may be found
throughout this book.

Quality Definitions

Different terms are used to describe approaches to quality. Often these terms are
misunderstood and used incorrectly. It is important in an introductory chapter of a
quality book to define some of the key terms used in modern quality control.

Strategic quality management (SQM) is a “systematic approach for setting and meeting
quality goals throughout the company…with upper management participation in
managing for quality to an unprecedented degree.”16 SQM involves the complete
integration of quality into the strategic management process.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is “a management approach to long-term success

through customer satisfaction. It is based on the participation of all members of an
organization in improving processes, products, services, and the culture they work in.”17

Quality management is the totality of functions involved in the determination and

achievement of quality (includes quality assurance and quality control). [Source: ASQ
Statistics Division, Glossary & Tables for Statistical Quality Control, 1983].

Quality assurance (QA) is a broad concept that focuses on the entire quality system
including suppliers and ultimate consumers of the product or service. It includes all
activities designed to produce products and services of appropriate quality.

According to ASQ, quality assurance includes all those planned or systematic actions
necessary to provide adequate confidence that a product or service will satisfy given
needs. [Source: ASQ Statistics Division, Glossary & Tables for Statistical Quality Control, 1983].

Quality control (QC) has a narrower focus than quality assurance. Quality control
focuses on the process of producing the product or service with the intent of eliminating
problems that might result in defects.

According to ASQ, QC includes the operational techniques and the activities which
sustain a quality of product or service that will satisfy given needs; also the use of such
techniques and activities. [Source: ASQ Statistics Division, Glossary & Tables for Statistical Quality
Control, 1983].

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Briefly discuss why it is important to study quality.

2. Why might a dictionary definition of quality be inadequate for a quality
professional? Which of the definitions discussed in this chapter do you feel is best?
Why?
3. Explain the difference between internal and external customers.
4. List Garvin’s 8 dimensions of product quality. Would these dimensions be equally
applicable to services? Explain.
5. List SERVQUAL’s 5 dimensions of service quality.
6. Discuss which of Garvin’s 5 approaches to defining quality makes the most sense to
you.
7. What might be some of the dangers of relying solely on customer input when
designing or improving a product or service? What other inputs should be taken into
account?
8. Compare and contrast Deming’s, Juran’s, and Crosby’s philosophies about quality.
9. Discuss potential sources of resistance to the implementation of Deming’s 14 Points
for Management.
10. What is the difference between quality control and quality assurance?

Case Study 1.1

THE BATTLE OF THE GURUS
©
2006 Victor E. Sower, Ph.D., C.Q.E.

The voices from the conference room were loud and animated. Everyone on the first
floor could tell that a heated debate was underway. Knowing that Bill Reyes and
George Hales were in there, no one was surprised. They were like oil and water. If one
claimed the sky is blue, the other would hotly debate the claim.

The debate concerned the direction that the company’s quality system would take. Bill,
the Operations Manager, had just read The Deming Management Method and was
convinced that Deming’s way was the only way. George had recently read Quality is
Free and felt equally strongly that Crosby’s was the right path.

Finally, the Division VP had heard enough. She turns to you and says, “Obviously we
need a neutral party to sort this out. You learn all you can about the Deming and Crosby
systems and tell me which is best. I want your report next week. Next agenda item!”

1. Prepare a report summarizing the two quality systems and showing where they are
similar and where they differ.

2. Is there a “best” system for all organizations? Discuss.

3. What types of organizational cultures would favor each of the two approaches?

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EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES

1. Propose your own definition of quality. Compare and contrast your definition
with other definitions of quality discussed in this chapter. Purchase three brands
of low cost, disposable, medium point, black ink ball point pens. Use your
definition of quality to determine which of these three pens is of the highest
quality. Summarize your findings in a short paper.
2. Determine who are the customers for the following and classify the customers as
internal or external:
a. Manufactured goods which are sold to a wholesaler.
b. Higher education.
c. Financial statements prepared by the Accounting Department for use by
company management.
d. Applications for student housing filled out in the University Admissions
Office and sent to Resident Life.
e. Orders taken in a restaurant by a server and which are transmitted to the
kitchen staff for preparation.
3. Consider your purchase of a hamburger at a fast food restaurant. What combination
of Garvin’s dimensions of product quality and the SERVQUAL dimensions of
service quality would be applicable in assessing the quality of your experience?
4. Select two participants to play the roles of workers in two different departments.
Have them sit at opposite ends of a table. Place a barrier in the center of the table
that prevents the workers from seeing what the other is doing.

Worker #1: Provide the first worker with a black marker and a ruler and instruct
the worker to draw two 1-inch squares on a 3” x 5” card. When the worker
completes the task, drop the card over the barrier.

Worker #2: Provide the second worker with a bottle of White-Out® and a red
marker. Instruct the second worker to use the White-Out® to cover the black line
forming the right side of the squares and to replace the black lines with red lines.

Allow the work to proceed for several minutes. Then inform each worker
individually that you are instituting a process of continuous improvement and that
you want them to think of ways they can increase their productivity. Implement
their ideas and tally the results of their improvement efforts. An example of an idea
for Worker #1 would be replacing the ruler with a square template to enable
drawing the squares faster and more accurately (higher quality).

Then remove the barrier and allow the workers to interact and to see what the other
is doing. Inform them that they are to work as a team to improve their processes.
Implement their ideas and tally the results. An example of an idea here would be to
have Worker #1 omit the black right hand line so that Worker #2 does not have to
use the White-Out® to cover it before drawing the red line.

Debrief the exercise using Deming’s Point Number 9 as a basis.

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SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Crosby, P. 1979. Quality is Free. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Deming, W. 1982. Out of the Crisis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Center for Advanced
Engineering Study.

Deming, W. 1982. “Improvement of Quality and Productivity through Action by

Management.” National Productivity Review 1(1) (1981-1982): 12-22. Reprinted in
Sower, V.E., J. Motwani, & M.J. Savoie. Classic Readings in Operations Management,
Ft. Worth, TX: Dryden, 1995, pp. 231-247.

Feigenbaum, A.V. "Total Quality Control." Harvard Business Review 34:6

(1956): 93-101. Reprinted in Sower, V., J. Motwani, & M. Savoie. Classic Readings in
Operations Management. Ft. Worth, TX, 1995, pp. 307-321.

Garvin, D.G. "Competing on the Eight Dimensions of Quality." Harvard

Business Review 65:6 (1987): 101-109. Reprinted in Sower, V.E., J. Motwani, & M.J.
Savoie. Classic Readings in Operations Management, Ft. Worth, TX: Dryden, 1995, pp.
323-339.

Juran, J.M. "The Quality Trilogy." Quality Progress 9:8 (1986): 19-24.
Reprinted in Sower, V., J. Motwani, & M. Savoie. Classic Readings in Operations
Management. Ft. Worth, TX, 1995, pp. 277-287.

Parasuraman, A., V. Zeithaml, & L. Berry. “SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for

Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality.” Journal of Retailing 61(1), 1988,
12-40.

“Quality Glossary.” Quality Progress 35(7), 2002, 43-61.

Shewhart, W. 1931. Economic Control of Manufactured Product. New York: D. Van

Nostrand Co., Inc. Republished in 1980 as a 50th Anniversary Commemorative Reissue
by ASQ Quality Press, Milwaukee, WI.

Shewhart, W. 1939. Statistical Method from the Standpoint of Quality

Control.Washington, D.C.: Graduate School of the Department of Agriculture.
Republished in 1980 by General Publishing Company, Toronto, CA.

Sower, V., J. Duffy, W. Kilbourne, G. Kohers, & P. Jones. "The Dimensions

of Service Quality for Hospitals: Development of the KQCAH Scale." Health Care
Management Review, vol. 26, no. 2, Spring 2001, 47-59.

Sower, V., & F. Fair. “There is More to Quality than Continuous Improvement:
Listening to Plato.” Quality Management Journal 12(1), 2005, 8-20.

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Taguchi, G., & Y. Wu. 1980. Introduction to Off-Line Quality Control. Nagoya, Japan:
Central Japan Quality Control Association.

REFERENCES
1
Boggs, W. “TQM and Organizational Culture: A Case Study.” Quality Management
Journal 11(2): 2004, 42-52.
2
Barfield , Owen. History in English Words. Great Barrington, MA: Inner
Traditions/Lindisfarne Press, 1988. Reprint of original 1953 edition, Faber & Faber,
London.
3
Cooper, J. (ed.). Plato: Complete Works. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co.,
Inc., 1997, 898-921.
4
Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989. Available on line at oed.com.
5
Garvin, D. “What Does Product Quality Really Mean?” Sloan Management Review
26(1): 1984, 25-43.
6
Parasuraman, A., V. Zeithaml, & L. Berry. “SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for
Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality.” Journal of Retailing 61(1), 1988,
12-40.
7
Babacus, E. & G. Boller. “An Empirical Assessment of the SERVQUAL Scale.”
Journal of Business Research 24, 1992, 253-268.
8
Cronin, J. & S. Taylor. “Measuring Service Quality: A Reexamination and Extension.”
Journal of Marketing 56(3), 1992, 55-68.
9
Sower, V., J. Duffy, W. Kilbourne, G. Kohers, & P. Jones. “The Dimensions of Service
Quality for Hospitals: Development and Use of the KQCAH Scale.” Health Care
Management Review 26(2): 2001, 47-59.
10
Hill, T. Manufacturing Strategy: Text and Cases. Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin/McGraw-
Hill, 2000.
11
Sower, V., & F. Fair. “There is More to Quality than Continuous Improvement:
Listening to Plato.” Quality Management Journal 12(1), 2005, 8-20.
12
ISO 8402. International Standard ISO/CD 8402-1, Quality Concepts and
Terminology—Part 1: Generic Terms and Definitions. Geneva, Switzerland:
International Organization for Standardization, 1990.
13
Walton, M. The Deming Management Method, Perigee Books, New York, 1986.

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14
Crosby, P. 1979. Quality is Free. New York: McGraw-Hill.
15
Shewhart, W. Statistical Method from the Standpoint of Quality Control, Graduate
School of the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 1939.
16
Juran, J. Juran on Planning for Quality. The Free Press, New York, 1988, pp. 176-179.
17
“Quality Glossary.” Quality Progress 35(7), July 2002, 60.

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