Mục lục

QUALITY GURUS

Quality Gurus 168

Photo by: filmfoto

The Quality Gurus—Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Joseph Juran, Philip
Crosby, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Dr. H. James Harrington, Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa,
Dr. Walter A. Shewhart, Shigeo Shingo, Frederick Taylor, and Dr. Genichi
Taguchi—have made a significant impact on the world through their
contributions to improving not only businesses, but all organizations
including state and national governments, military organizations,
educational institutions, healthcare organizations, and many other
establishments and organizations.

DR. W. EDWARDS DEMING (1900–1993)

Dr. W. Edward Deming is best known for reminding management that most
problems are systemic and that it is management’s responsibility to
improve the systems so that workers (management and non-management) can do
their jobs more effectively. Deming argued that higher quality leads to
higher productivity, which, in turn, leads to long-term competitive
strength. The theory is that improvements in quality lead to lower costs
and higher productivity because they result in less rework, fewer
mistakes, fewer delays, and better use of time and materials. With better
quality and lower prices, a firm can achieve a greater market share and
thus stay in business, providing more and more jobs.

When he died in December 1993 at the age of ninety-three, Deming had
taught quality and productivity improvement for more than fifty years. His
Fourteen Points, System of Profound Knowledge, and teachings on
statistical control and process variability are studied by people all over
the world. His books include:

Out of the Crisis

(1986),

The New Economics

(1993), and

Statistical Adjustment of Data

(1943).

In emphasizing management’s responsibility, Deming noted that
workers are responsible for 10 to 20 percent of the quality problems in a
factory, and that the remaining 80 to 90 percent is under
management’s control. Workers are responsible for communicating to
management the information they possess regarding the system.
Deming’s approach requires an organization-wide cultural
transformation.

Deming’s philosophy is summarized in his famous fourteen points,
and it serves as a framework for quality and productivity improvement.
Instead of relying on inspection at the end of the process to find flaws,
Deming advocated a statistical analysis of the manufacturing process and
emphasized cooperation of workers and management to achieve high-quality
products.

Deming’s quality methods centered on systematically tallying
product defects, analyzing their causes, correcting the causes, and
recording the effects of the corrections on subsequent product quality as
defects were prevented. He taught that it is less costly in the long-run
to get things done right the first time then fix them later.

THE RISE OF DEMING’S INFLUENCE

The son of a small-town lawyer, Deming (a teacher and consultant in
statistical studies) attended the University of Wyoming, University of
Colorado, and Yale University, where he earned his Ph.D. in mathematical
physics. He then taught physics at several universities, worked as a
mathematical physicist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was a
statistical adviser for the U.S. Census Bureau.

From 1946 to 1993 he was a professor of statistics at New York
University’s graduate school of business administration, and he
taught at Columbia University. Deming became interested in the use of
statistical analysis to achieve better quality control in industry in the
1930s.

In 1950 Deming began teaching and consulting with Japanese industrialists
through the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). In 1960, he
received the Second Order Medal of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor of
Japan for improvement of quality and the Japanese economy. In 1987 he
received the National Medal of Technology from U. S. President Ronald
Reagan because of his impact on quality in the United States.

From 1946 to 1993, he was an international teacher and consultant in the
area of quality improvement based on statistics, leadership, and customer
satisfaction. The Deming Prize for quality was established in 1951 in
Japan by JUSE and in 1980 in the United States by the Metropolitan Section
of the American Society for Quality.

American companies ignored Deming’s teachings for years. In 1980,
NBC aired the program “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?,”
highlighting Deming’s contributions in Japan and American companies
began to discover Deming. His ideas were used by major U.S. corporations
as they sought to compete more effectively against foreign manufacturers.

As a consultant, Deming continued to conduct Quality Management seminars
until just days before his death in 1993.

DEMING’S SYSTEM

OF PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE

One of Deming’s essential theories is his System of Profound
Knowledge, which includes appreciation for a system, knowledge about
variation (statistics), theory of knowledge, and psychology (of
individuals, groups, society, and change). Although the Fourteen Points
are probably the most widely known of Dr. Deming’s theories, he
actually taught them as a part of his System of Profound Knowledge. His
knowledge system consists of four interrelated parts: (1) Theory of
Optimization; (2) Theory of Variation; (3) Theory of Knowledge; and (4)
Theory of Psychology.

THEORY OF OPTIMIZATION.

The objective of an organization is the optimization of the total system
and not the optimization of the individual subsystems. The total system
consists of all constituents—customers, employees, suppliers,
shareholders, the community, and the environment. A company’s
long-term objective is to create a win-win situation for all of its
constituents.

Subsystem optimization works against this objective and can lead to a
suboptimal total system. According to Deming, it is poor management, for
example, to purchase materials or service at the lowest price or to
minimize the cost of manufacturing if it is at the expense of the system.
Inexpensive materials may be of such inferior quality that they will cause
excessive costs in adjustment and repair during manufacturing and
assembly.

THEORY OF VARIATION.

Deming’s philosophy focuses on improving the product and service
uncertainty and variability in design and manufacturing processes. Deming
believed that variation is a major cause of poor quality. In mechanical
assemblies, for example, variations from specifications for part
dimensions lead to inconsistent performance and premature wear and
failure. Likewise, inconsistencies in service frustrate customers and hurt
companies’ reputations. Deming taught Statistical Process Control
and used control charts to demonstrate variation in processes and how to
determine if a process is in statistical control.

There is a variation in every process. Even with the same inputs, a
production process can produce different results because it contains many
sources of variation, for example the materials may not be always be
exactly the same; the tools wear out over time and they are subjected to
vibration heat or cold; or the operators may make mistakes. Variation due
to any of these individual sources appears at random; however, their
combined effect is stable and usually can be predicted statistically.
These factors that are present as a natural part of a process are referred
to as common (or system) causes of variation.

Common causes are due to the inherent design and structure of the system.
It is management’s responsibility to reduce or eliminate common
causes. Special causes are external to the system, and it is the
responsibility of operating personnel to eliminate such causes. Common
causes of variation generally account for about 80 to 90 percent of the
observed variation in a production process. The remaining 10 to 20 percent
are the result of special causes of variation, often called assignable
causes. Factors such as bad material from a supplier, a poorly trained
operator or excessive tool wear are examples of special causes. If no
operators are trained, that is system problem, not a special cause. The
system has to be changed.

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE.

Deming emphasized that knowledge is not possible without theory, and
experience alone does not establish a theory. Experience only
describes—it cannot be tested or validated—and alone is no
help for management. Theory, on the other hand, shows a cause-and-effect
relationship that can be used for prediction. There is a lesson here for
the widespread benchmarking practices: copying only an example of success,
without understanding it in theory, may not lead to success, but could
lead to disaster.

THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGY.

Psychology helps to understand people, interactions between people and
circumstances, interactions between leaders and employees, and any system
of management. Consequently, managing people requires knowledge of
psychology. Also required is knowledge of what motivates people. Job
satisfaction and the motivation to excel are intrinsic. Reward and
recognition are extrinsic. Management needs to create the right mix of
intrinsic and extrinsic factors to motivate employees.

DEMING’S SEVEN DEADLY DISEASES

Deming believed that traditional management practices, such as the Seven
Deadly Diseases listed below, significantly contributed to the American
quality crisis.

Lack of constancy of purpose to plan and deliver products and services
that will help a company survive in the long term.
Emphasis on short-term profits caused by short-term thinking (which is
just the opposite of constancy of purpose), fear of takeovers, worry
about quarterly dividends, and other types of reactive management.
Performance appraisals (i.e., annual reviews, merit ratings) that
promote fear and stimulate unnecessary competition among employees.
Mobility of management (i.e., job hopping), which promotes short-term
thinking.
Management by use of visible figures without concern about other data,
such as the effect of happy and unhappy customers on sales, and the
increase in overall quality and productivity that comes from quality
improvement upstream.
Excessive medical costs, which now have been acknowledged as excessive
by federal and state governments, as well as industries themselves.
Excessive costs of liability further increased by lawyers working on
contingency fees.

DEMING’S FOURTEEN POINTS

Deming formulated the following Fourteen Points to cure (eliminate) the
Seven Deadly Diseases and help organizations to survive and flourish in
the long term:

Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service.
Develop a plan to be competitive and stay in business. Everyone in the
organization, from top management to shop floor workers, should learn
the new philosophy.
Adopt the new philosophy. Commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes,
defective materials, and defective workmanship are now intolerable. We
must prevent mistakes.
Cease dependence on mass inspection. Instead, design and build in
quality. The purpose of inspection is not to send the product for rework
because it does not add value. Instead of leaving the problems for
someone else down the production line, workers must take responsibility
for their work. Quality has to be designed and built into the product;
it cannot be inspected into it. Inspection should be used as an
information-gathering device, not as a means of “assuring”
quality or blaming workers.
Don’t award business on price tag alone (but also on quality,
value, speed and long term relationship). Minimize total cost. Many
companies and organizations award contracts to the lowest bidder as long
as they meet certain requirements. However, low bids do not guarantee
quality; and unless the quality aspect is considered, the effective
price per unit that a company pays its vendors may be understated and,
in some cases, unknown. Deming urged businesses to move toward
single-sourcing, to establish long-term relationships with a few
suppliers (one supplier per purchased part, for example) leading to
loyalty and opportunities for mutual improvement. Using multiple
suppliers has been long justified for reasons such as providing
protection against strikes or natural disasters or making the suppliers
compete against each other on cost. However, this approach has ignored
“hidden” costs such as increased travel to visit
suppliers, loss of volume discounts, increased set-up charges resulting
in higher unit costs, and increased inventory and administrative
expenses. Also constantly changing suppliers solely on the base of price
increases the variation in the material supplied to production, since
each supplier’s process is different.
Continuously improve the system of production and service.
Management’s job is to continuously improve the system with input
from workers and management. Deming was a disciple of Walter A.
Shewhart, the developer of control charts and the continuous cycle of
process improvement known as the Shewhart cycle. Deming popularized the
Shewhart Cycle as the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) or Plan-Do-Study-Act
(PDSA) cycle; therefore, it is also often referred to as the Deming
cycle.
In the planning stage, opportunities for improvement are recognized and
operationally defined. In the doing stage, the theory and course of
action developed in the previous stage is tested on a small scale
through conducting trial runs in a laboratory or prototype setting. The
results of the testing phase are analyzed in the check/study stage using
statistical methods. In the action stage, a decision is made regarding
the implementation of the proposed plan. If the results were positive in
the pilot stage, then the plan will be implemented. Otherwise
alternative plans are developed. After full scale implementation,
customer and process feedback will again be obtained and the process of
continuous improvement continues.
Institute training on the job. When training is an integral part of the
system, operators are better able to prevent defects. Deming understood
that employees are the fundamental asset of every company, and they must
know and buy into a company’s goals. Training enables employees
to understand their responsibilities in meeting customers’ needs.
Institute leadership (modern methods of supervision). The best
supervisors are leaders and coaches, not dictators. Deming high-lighted
the key role of supervisors who serve as a vital link between managers
and workers. Supervisors first have to be trained in the quality
management before they can communicate management’s commitment to
quality improvement and serve as role models and leaders.
Drive out fear. Create a fear-free environment where everyone can
contribute and work effectively. There is an economic loss associated
with fear in an organization. Employees try to please their superiors.
Also, because they feel that they might lose their jobs, they are
hesitant to ask questions about their jobs, production methods, and
process parameters. If a supervisor or manager gives the impression that
asking such questions is a waste of time, then employees will be more
concerned about pleasing their supervisors than meeting long-term goals
of the organization. Therefore, creating an environment of trust is a
key task of management.
Break down barriers between areas. People should work cooperatively with
mutual trust, respect, and appreciation for the needs of others in their
work. Internal and external organizational barriers impede the flow of
information, prevent entities from perceiving organizational goals, and
foster the pursuit of subunit goals that are not necessarily consistent
with the organizational goals. Barriers between organizational levels
and departments are internal barriers. External barriers are between the
company and its suppliers, customers, investors, and community. Barriers
can be eliminated through better communication, cross-functional teams,
and changing attitudes and cultures.
Eliminate slogans aimed solely at the work force. Most problems are
system-related and require managerial involvement to rectify or change.
Slogans don’t help. Deming believed that people want to do work
right the first time. It is the system that 80 to 90 percent of the time
prevents people from doing their work right the first time.
Eliminate numerical goals, work standards, and quotas. Objectives set
for others can force sub-optimization or defective output in order to
achieve them. Instead, learn the capabilities of processes and how to
improve them. Numerical goals set arbitrarily by management, especially
if they are not accompanied by feasible courses of action, have a
demoralizing effect. Goals should be set in a participative style
together with methods for accomplishment. Deming argued that the quota
or work standard system is a short-term solution and that quotas
emphasize quantity over quality. They do not provide data about the
process that can be used to meet the quota, and they fail to distinguish
between special and common causes when seeking improvements to the
process.
Remove barriers that hinder workers (and hinder pride in workmanship).
The direct effect of pride in workmanship is increased motivation and a
greater ability for employees to see themselves as part of the same
team. This pride can be diminished by several factors: (1) management
may be insensitive to workers’ problems; (2) they may not
communicate the company’s goals to all levels; and (3) they may
blame employees for failing to meet company goals when the real fault
lies with the management.
Institute a vigorous program of education and self improvement.
Deming’s philosophy is based on long-term, continuous process
improvement that cannot be carried out without properly trained and
motivated employees. This point addresses the need for ongoing and
continuous education and self-improvement for the entire organization.
This educational investment serves the following objectives: (1) it
leads to better motivated employees; (2) it communicates the company
goals to the employees; (3) it keeps the employees up-to-date on the
latest techniques and promotes teamwork; (4) training and retraining
provides a mechanism to ensure adequate performance as the job
responsibilities change; and (5) through increasing job loyalty, it
reduces the number of people who “job-hop.”
Take action to accomplish the transformation. Create a structure in top
management that will promote the previous thirteen points. It is the top
management’s responsibility to create and maintain a structure
for the dissemination of the concepts outlined in the first thirteen
points. Deming felt that people at all levels in the organization should
learn and apply his Fourteen Points if statistical process control is to
be a successful approach to process improvement and if organizations are
to be transformed. However, he encouraged top management to learn them
first. He believed that these points represent an all-or-nothing
commitment and that they cannot be implemented selectively.

THE DEMING CYCLE

Known as the Deming Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle, this concept was
invented by Shewhart and popularized by Deming. This approach is a cyclic
process for planning and testing improvement activities prior to
full-scale implementation and/or prior to formalizing the improvement.
When an improvement idea is identified, it is often wise to test it on a
small scale prior to full implementation to validate its benefit.
Additionally, by introducing a change on a small scale, employees have
time to accept it and are more likely to support it. The Deming PDCA Cycle
provides opportunities for continuous evaluation and improvement.

The steps in the Deming PDCA or PDSA Cycle as shown in Figure 1 are as
follows:

Plan a change or test (P).
Do it (D). Carry out the change or test, preferably on a small scale.
Check it (C). Observe the effects of the change or test. Study it (S).
Act on what was learned (A).
Repeat Step 1, with new knowledge.
Repeat Step 2, and onward. Continuously evaluate and improve.

Figure 1 Demings PDCA Cycle

Deming was trained as a mathematical physicist, and he utilized
mathematical concepts and tools (Statistical Process Control) to reduce
variation and prevent defects. However, one of his greatest contributions
might have been in recognizing the importance of organizational culture
and employee attitudes in creating a successful organization. In many
ways, his philosophies paralleled the development of the resource-based
view of organizations that emphasized that employee knowledge and skills
and organizational culture are very difficult to imitate or replicate, and
they can serve as a basis of sustainable competitive advantage.

DR. JOSEPH JURAN (B. 1904)

Dr. Juran was born on December 24, 1904 in Braila, Romania. He moved to
the United States in 1912 at the age of 8. Juran’s teaching and
consulting career spanned more than seventy years, known as one of the
foremost experts on quality in the world.

A quality professional from the beginning of his career, Juran joined the
inspection branch of the Hawthorne Co. of Western Electric (a Bell
manufacturing company) in 1924, after completing his B.S. in Electrical
Engineering. In 1934, he became a quality manager. He worked with the U.
S. government during World War II and afterward became a quality
consultant. In 1952, Dr. Juran was invited to Japan. Dr. Edward Deming
helped arrange the meeting that led to this invitation and his many years
of work with Japanese companies.

Juran founded the Juran Center for Quality Improvement at the University
of Minnesota and the Juran Institute. His third book,

Juran’s Quality Control Handbook,

published in 1951, was translated into Japanese. Other books include

Juran on Planning for Quality

(1988),

Juran on Leadership for Quality

(1989),

Juran on Quality by Design

(1992),

Quality Planning and Analysis

(1993), and

A History of Managing for Quality

(1995).

Architect of Quality

(2004) is his autobiography.

SELECTED JURAN QUALITY THEORIES

Juran’s concepts can be used to establish a traditional quality
system, as well as to support Strategic Quality Management. Among other
things, Juran’s philosophy includes the Quality Trilogy and the
Quality Planning Roadmap.

JURAN’S QUALITY TRILOGY.

The Quality Trilogy emphasizes the roles of quality planning, quality
control, and quality improvement. Quality planning’s purpose is to
provide operators with the ability to produce goods and services that can
meet customers’ needs. In the quality planning stage, an
organization must determine who the customers are and what they need,
develop the product or service features that meet customers’ needs,
develop processes which are able to deliver those products and services,
and transfer the plans to the operating forces. If quality planning is
deficient, then chronic waste occurs.

Quality control is used to prevent things from getting worse. Quality
control is the inspection part of the Quality Trilogy where operators
compare actual performance with plans and resolve the differences. Chronic
waste should be considered an opportunity for quality improvement, the
third element of the Trilogy. Quality improvement encompasses improvement
of fitness-for-use and error reduction, seeks a new level of performance
that is superior to any previous level, and is attained by applying
breakthrough thinking.

While up-front quality planning is what organizations should be doing, it
is normal for organizations to focus their first quality efforts on
quality control. In this aspect of the Quality Trilogy, activities include
inspection to determine percent defective (or first pass yield) and
deviations from quality standards. Activities can then focus on another
part of the trilogy, quality improvement, and make it an integral part of
daily work for individuals and teams.

Quality planning must be integrated into every aspect of the
organization’s work, such as strategic plans; product, service and
process designs; operations; and delivery to the customer. The Quality
Trilogy is depicted below in Figure 2.

JURAN’S QUALITY PLANNING ROAD MAP.

Juran’s Quality Planning Road Map can be used by individuals and
teams throughout the world as a checklist for understanding customer
requirements, establishing measurements based on customer needs,
optimizing

Figure 2 Quality Trilogy Source: J.M. Juran, Juran on Planning for Quality, The Free Press, New York, pp. 11-12.

product design, and developing a process that is capable of meeting customer requirements. The Quality Planning Roadmap is used for Product and Process Development and is shown in Figure 3.

Juran’s Quality Trilogy and Quality Roadmap are not enough. An
infrastructure for Quality must be

Figure 3 Dr. Jurans Quality Planning Roadmap Source: J. M. Juran, Juran on Planning for Quality, The Free Press, NY, 1988, pp.14-15.

developed, and teams must work on improvement projects. The infrastructure should include a quality steering team with top management leading the effort, quality should become an integral part of the strategic plan, and all people should be involved. As people identify areas with improvement potential, they should team together to improve processes and produce quality products and services.

Under the “Big Q” concept, all people and departments are
responsible for quality. In the old era under the concept of
“little q,” the quality department was responsible for
quality. Big “Q” allows workers to regain pride in
workmanship by assuming responsibility for quality.

PHILIP CROSBY (1926–2001)

Philip Bayard Crosby was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1926. After
Crosby graduated from high school, he joined the Navy and became a
hospital corpsman. In 1946 Crosby entered the Ohio College of Podiatric
Medicine in Cleveland. After graduation he returned to Wheeling and
practiced podiatry with his father. He was recalled to military service
during the Korean conflict, this time he served as a Marine Medical
Corpsman.

In 1952 Crosby went to work for the Crosley Corp. in Richmond, Indiana, as
a junior electronic test technician. He joined the American Society for
Quality, where his early concepts concerning Quality began to form. In
1955, he went to work for Bendix Corp. as a reliability technician and
quality engineer. He investigated defects found by the test people and
inspectors.

In 1957 he became a senior quality engineer with Martin Marietta Co. in
Orlando, Florida. During his eight years with Martin Marietta, Crosby
developed his “Zero Defects” concepts, began writing
articles for various journals, and started his speaking career.

In 1965 International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) hired Crosby as vice
president in charge of corporate quality. During his fourteen years with
ITT, Crosby worked with many of the world’s largest industrial and
service companies, implementing his pragmatic management philosophy, and
found that it worked.

After a number of years in industry, Crosby established the Crosby Quality
College in Winter Park, Florida. He is well known as an author and
consultant and has written many articles and books. He is probably best
known for his book

Quality is Free

(1979) and concepts such as his

Absolutes of Quality Management, Zero Defects, Quality Management
Maturity Grid, 14 Quality Improvement Steps, Cost of Quality,

and

Cost of Nonconformance.

Other books he has written include

Quality Without Tears

(1984) and

Completeness

(1994).

Attention to customer requirements and preventing defects is evident in
Crosby’s definitions of quality and “non-quality” as
follows: “Quality is conformance to requirements; non-quality is
nonconformance.”

CROSBY’S COST OF QUALITY.

In his book

Quality Is Free,

Crosby makes the point that it costs money to achieve quality, but it
costs more money when quality is not achieved. When an organization
designs and builds an item right the first time (or provides a service
without errors), quality is free. It does not cost anything above what
would have already been spent. When an organization has to rework or scrap
an item because of poor quality, it costs more. Crosby discusses Cost of
Quality and Cost of Nonconformance or Cost of Nonquality. The intention is
spend more money on preventing defects and less on inspection and rework.

CROSBY’S FOUR ABSOLUTES OF QUALITY.

Crosby espoused his basic theories about quality in four Absolutes of
Quality Management as follows:

Quality means conformance to requirements, not goodness.
The system for causing quality is prevention, not appraisal.
The performance standard must be zero defects, not “that’s
close enough.”
The measurement of quality is the price of nonconformance, not indexes.

To support his Four Absolutes of Quality Management, Crosby developed the
Quality Management Maturity Grid and Fourteen Steps of Quality
Improvement. Crosby sees the Quality Management Maturity Grid as a first
step in moving an organization towards quality management. After a company
has located its position on the grid, it implements a quality improvement
system based on Crosby’s Fourteen Steps of Quality Improvement as
shown in Figure 4.

Crosby’s Absolutes of Quality Management are further delineated in
his Fourteen Steps of Quality Improvement as shown below:

Step 1. Management Commitment

Step 2. Quality Improvement Teams

Step 3. Quality Measurement

Step 4. Cost of Quality Evaluation

Step 5. Quality Awareness

Step 6. Corrective Action

Figure 4 Crosbys Quality Management Maturity Grid Source: Philip B. Crosby, Quality Is Free, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1979, pp. 38-39.

Step 7. Zero-Defects Planning

Step 8. Supervisory Training

Step 9. Zero Defects

Step 10. Goal Setting

Step 11. Error Cause Removal

Step 12. Recognition

Step 13. Quality Councils

Step 14. Do It All Over Again

ARMAND V. FEIGENBAUM

Feigenbaum was still a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology when he completed the first edition of

Total Quality Control

(1951).
An engineer at General Electric during World War II, Feigenbaum used
statistical techniques to determine what was wrong with early jet airplane
engines. For ten years he served as manager of worldwide manufacturing
operations and quality control at GE. Feigenbaum serves as president of
General Systems Company, Inc., Pittsfield, Massachusetts, an international
engineering firm that designs and installs integrated operational systems
for major corporations in the United States and abroad.

Feigenbaum was the founding chairman of the International Academy for
Quality and is a past president of the American Society for Quality
Control, which presented him its Edwards Medal and Lancaster Award for his
contributions to quality and productivity. His Total Quality Control
concepts have had a very positive impact on quality and productivity for
many organizations throughout the industrialized world.

DR. H. JAMES HARRINGTON

An author and consultant in the area of process improvement, Harrington
spent forty years with IBM. His career included serving as Senior Engineer
and Project Manager of Quality Assurance for IBM, San Jose, California. He
was President of Harrington, Hurd and Reicker, a well-known performance
improvement consulting firm until Ernst & Young bought the
organization. He is the international quality advisor for Ernst and Young
and on the board of directors of various national and international
companies.

Harrington served as president and chairman of the American Society for
Quality and the International Academy for Quality. In addition, he has
been elected as an honorary member of six quality associations outside of
North America and was selected for the Singapore Hall of Fame. His books
include

The Improvement Process, Business Process Improvement, Total Improvement
Management, ISO 9000 and Beyond, Area Activity Analysis, The Creativity
Toolkit, Statistical Analysis Simplified, The Quality/Profit Connection,

and

High Performance Benchmarking.

DR. KAORU ISHIKAWA (1915–1989)

A professor of engineering at the University of Tokyo and a student of Dr.
W. Edwards Deming, Ishikawa was active in the quality movement in Japan,
and was a member of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers. He was
awarded the Deming Prize, the Nihon Keizai Press Prize, and the Industrial
Standardization Prize for his writings on quality control, and the Grant
Award from the American Society for Quality Control for his educational
program on quality control.

Ishikawa’s book,

Guide to Quality Control

(1982), is considered a classic because of its in-depth explanations of
quality tools and related statistics. The tool for which he is best known
is the cause and effect diagram. Ishikawa is considered the Father of the
Quality Circle Movement. Letters of praise from representatives of
companies for which he was a consultant were published in his book

What Is Total Quality Control?

(1985). Those companies include IBM, Ford, Bridgestone, Komatsu
Manufacturing, and Cummins Engine Co.

Ishikawa believed that quality improvement initiatives must be
organization-wide in order to be successful and sustainable over the long
term. He promoted the use of Quality Circles to: (1) Support improvement;
(2) Respect human relations in the workplace; (3) Increase job
satisfaction; and (4) More fully recognize employee capabilities and
utilize their ideas. Quality Circles are effective when management
understands statistical techniques and act on recommendations from members
of the Quality Circles.

DR. WALTER A. SHEWHART (1891–1967)

A statistician who worked at Western Electric, Bell Laboratories, Dr.
Walter A. Shewhart used statistics to explain process variability. It was
Dr. W. Edward Deming who publicized the usefulness of control charts, as
well as the Shewhart Cycle. However, Deming rightfully credited Shewhart
with the development of theories of process control as well as the
Shewhart transformation process on which the Deming PDCA (Plan-Do-Check or
Study-Act) Cycle is based. Shewhart’s theories were first published
in his book

Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product

(1931).

SHIGEO SHINGO (1919–1990)

One of the world’s leading experts on improving the manufacturing
process, Shigeo Shingo created, with Taiichi Ohno, many of the features of
just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing methods, systems, and processes, which
constitute the Toyota Production System. He has written many books
including

A Study of the Toyota Production System From An Industrial Engineering
Viewpoint

(1989),

Revolution in Manufacturing: The SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die)
System

(1985), and

Zero Quality Control: Source Inspection and the Poka Yoke System

(1986).

Shingo’s greatness seems to be based on his ability to understand
exactly why products are manufactured the way they are, and then transform
that understanding into a workable system for low-cost, high quality
production. Established in 1988, the Shingo Prize is the premier
manufacturing award in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In
partnership with the National Association of Manufacturers, Utah State
University administers the Shingo Prize for
Excellence in Manufacturing, which promotes world class manufacturing and
recognizes companies that excel in productivity and process improvement,
quality enhancement, and customer satisfaction.

Rather than focusing on theory, Shingo focused on practical concepts that
made an immediate difference. Specific concepts attributed to Shingo are:

Poka Yoke requires stopping processes as soon as a defect occurs,
identifying the source of the defect, and preventing it from happening
again.
Mistake Proofing is a component of Poka Yoke. Literally, this means
making it impossible to make mistakes (i.e., preventing errors at the
source).
SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) is a system for quick changeovers
between products. The intent is to simplify materials, machinery,
processes and skills in order to dramatically reduce changeover times
from hours to minutes. As a result products could be produced in small
batches or even single units with minimal disruption.
Just-in-Time (JIT) Production is about supplying customers with what
they want when they want it. The aim of JIT is to minimize inventories
by producing only what is required when it is required. Orders are
“pulled” through the system when triggered by customer
orders, not pushed through the system in order to achieve economies of
scale with the production of larger batches.

FREDERICK TAYLOR (1856–1915)

An industrial (efficiency) engineer, manager, and consultant, Frederick
Taylor is known as the Father of Scientific Management. In 1911, he
published

The Principles of Scientific Management.

Taylor believed in task specialization and is noted for his time and
motion studies. Some of his ideas are the predecessors for modern
industrial engineering tools and concepts that are used in cycle time
reduction.

While quality experts would agree that Taylor’s concepts increase
productivity, some argue that his concepts are focused on productivity,
not process improvement and as a result could cause less emphasis on
quality. Dr. Joseph Juran said that Taylor’s concepts made the
United States the world leader in productivity. However, the Taylor system
required separation of planning work from executing the work. This
separation was based on the idea that engineers should do the planning
because supervisors and workers were not educated. Today, the emphasis is
on transferring planning to the people doing the work.

DR. GENICHI TAGUCHI (B. 1924)

Dr. Genichi Taguchi was a Japanese engineer and statistician who defined
what product specification means and how this can be translated into cost
effective production. He worked in the Japanese Ministry of Public Health
and Welfare, Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Ministry of Education.
He also worked with the Electrical Communications Laboratory of the Nippon
Telephone and Telegraph Co. to increase the productivity of the R&D
activities.

In the mid 1950s Taguchi was Indian Statistical Institute visiting
professor, where he met Walter Shewhart. He was a Visiting Research
Associate at Princeton University in 1962, the same year he received his
Ph.D. from Kyushu University. He was a Professor at Tokyo’s Aoyama
Gakuin University and Director of the Japanese Academy of Quality.

Taguchi was awarded the Deming Application prize (1960), Deming awards for
literature on quality (1951, 1953, and 1984), Willard F. Rockwell Medal by
the International Technologies Institute (1986).

Taguchi’s contributions are in robust design in the area of product
development. The Taguchi Loss Function, The Taguchi Method (Design of
Experiments), and other methodologies have made major contributions in the
reduction of variation and greatly improved engineering quality and
productivity. By consciously considering the noise factors (environmental
variation during the product’s usage, manufacturing variation, and
component deterioration) and the cost of failure in the field, Taguchi
methodologies help ensure customer satisfaction.

Robust Design focuses on improving the fundamental function of the product
or process, thus facilitating flexible designs and concurrent engineering.
Taguchi product development includes three stages: (1) system design (the
non-statistical stage for engineering, marketing, customer and other
knowledge); (2) parameter stage (determining how the product should
perform against defined parameters; and (3) tolerance design (finding the
balance between manufacturing cost and loss).

SEE ALSO:

Quality and Total Quality Management

Mildred

Golden

Pryor

Quality Gurus – strategy, organization, levels, system, style, examples, manager, school, company, workplace

QUALITY GURUS

DR. W. EDWARDS DEMING (1900–1993)

THE RISE OF DEMING’S INFLUENCE