Quality Essay ⋆ Business Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Quality as defined by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) and the American Society for Quality (ASQ) is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. Quality is a subjective term for which each person has his or her own definition. Quality can be also understood as a product or service free of deficiencies. Quality matters to any customer, future employee, or manager and it affects the entire organization from supplier to customer.

All processes in an organization are affected by quality, from locating a facility, designing products and services, planning production and service processes, designing jobs and work activities, and managing the supply chain, to planning and scheduling the flow of products or flow of customers through the system. Quality is a competitive strategic issue, because it leads to increased productivity, lower rework and scrap costs, lower warranty costs, lower production costs, increased profits, improved company reputation, higher customer satisfaction, and expanded markets. Poor quality can be very costly to businesses and investors in the form of product recalls and lost customers. Numerous recalls of cars by General Motors in 2005 (more than 300,000 car recalls) and Chinese toy recalls in 2007 provide examples of serious quality issues. Poor-quality products and services result not only in higher costs but also lead to injuries, deaths, lawsuits, and more government regulations.

20th-Century Developments

During the last century, many leaders contributed to the field of quality and quality management. Walter Shewhart, who in 1931 introduced statistical process control (SPC) charts, noted that price has no meaning without quality. Dr. W. Edwards Deming (1900–93), a famous quality guru, insisted that managers accept responsibility for building good systems. He recognized the importance of viewing management process statistically and as a system. During World War II, he taught quality courses to the U.S. military, and after the war, he was invited to Japan to help the country take a census. Deming’s teaching was instrumental in improving Japanese industry. He received Japan’s highest honor, the Royal Order of the Sacred Treasure, from the emperor, and the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) established the Deming Application Prize to recognize companies that had a high level of achievement in quality practices.

Deming synthesized his approach to quality in 14 Management Points, known as “A System of Profound Knowledge,” which consists of four interrelated parts: appreciation for a system, understanding variation, theory of knowledge, and psychology. Deming identified two primary sources of process improvement: eliminating special causes of quality problems, such as specific equipment or an operator, and reducing common causes, such as poor product design or insufficient employee training. According to Deming, workers are responsible for 10 to 20 percent of the quality problems, and the remaining 80 to 90 percent are under management’s control. He was against the use of final product inspection as a waste of time and resources. He advocated continuous improvement, and he is known for developing a Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle, originally formulated by Walter Shewhart.

PDCA cycle is a four-step process for continuous improvement. Continuous improvement refers to both incremental changes and large and rapid improvements. These improvements may take many forms, such as enhancing value to the customer through new and improved products and services, reducing errors and defects, increasing productivity and effectiveness, and reducing customers’ complaints. In the United States, Deming’s teaching was ignored for many years, until in 1980 NBC aired the program, “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?” This was the beginning of Deming’s recognition in the United States.

Another leader in quality was Joseph M. Juran (1904–2008), who believed strongly in top management commitment, support, and involvement in quality efforts. His definition of quality was fitness for use, not necessarily the written specifications. Juran created a “quality spiral” that shows that each element of the business process and each function— not just the final product or service—is important for the customer. Juran included quality in the strategic planning process. He proposed a “quality trilogy process” composed of quality planning (developing the products and processes required to meet customer needs), quality control (meeting product and process goals), and quality improvement (exceeding customer satisfaction levels of performance).

Philip B. Crosby (1926–2001) created the term zero defects and stated that there is absolutely no reason for having errors or defects in any product or service. According to him, “quality is conformance to requirements or specifications.” In his book Quality Is Free, he emphasized that the cost of poor quality is understated and leads to a large loss in profits. He said that concentrating on making quality certain would increase profit by any amount from 5 to 10 percent of sales. Crosby introduced a quality management grid, which is divided into five stages of maturity and six measurement categories of evaluating process. This grid serves as the evaluation tool for operations that have potential for improvement.

In the 1980s Armand V. Feigenbaum introduced the total quality control term to reflect total commitment of management and employees throughout an organization to improve quality. In Japan this concept is called companywide management. The Toyota production system (TPS) and Japanese scientists contributed significantly to the current quality improvements. Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa (1915–89) promoted quality circles and quality improvement teams. They were very successful in Japan, where more than 20 million Japanese workers and supervisors have participated in quality circles and several million projects have been undertaken since 1960. Quality circles in the United States did not achieve the same popularity as in Japan. However, many leading American firms, such as General Electric, Ford, Coors, and Westinghouse were able to establish successful quality circles and process improvement teams. Many firms have an “employee suggestion box,” for individual suggestions for quality improvement. Ishikawa created a cause-and-effect (or fish-bone) diagram that is instrumental in finding causes of poor quality.

Another Japanese engineer, Genichi Taguchi, contributed significantly to current quality topics. He explained the economic value of reducing variation, and he is known for “Taguchi loss function.” His loss function is a quadratic function that is used to determine the loss to society when quality moves away from the target. The quality loss function is expressed in monetary units.

New Approaches

A new approach to quality is to build quality into the product and into the service. Interdisciplinary teams are created to improve quality in the design stage of a product or service. Managing processes to achieve maximum customer satisfaction at the lowest overall cost to the organization, while still maintaining process improvement, is called quality management. Planned and systematic activities implemented within the quality system that can be demonstrated to provide high confidence that a product or service will fulfill requirements for quality are called quality assurance. A systematic and independent examination or review whether quality activities comply with planned procedures and if they are effectively implemented to achieve objectives is called a quality audit. Quality audits can be performed by internal or external teams.

The global implications of quality are so important that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) developed ISO 9000 standards, which were revised in 2000 into more of a quality management system. For companies doing business in Europe and globally, it is critical to be ISO 9000 certified. Also, many countries established national quality awards. The United States established the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1987 to stimulate U.S. companies to improve quality and set as examples those companies that were successful in improving quality.

Among international quality awards there are the European Quality Award, the Canadian Quality Award, the Australian Business Excellence Award, and the Deming Prize in Japan. The American Society for Quality sponsors a number of individual awards, including the Armand V. Feigenbaum Medal, the Deming Medal, the E. Jack Lancaster Medal, the Edwards Medal, the Shewhart Medal, and the Ishikawa Medal. The George M. Low trophy is NASA’s Quality and Excellence Award to contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers for excellence in quality and productivity. Many states have created various quality awards and excellence awards to recognize high-quality achievements in organizations.

Bibliography:

Philip Crosby, Quality Is Free (McGrawHill, 1979);
Edwards Deming, The New Economies for Industry, Government (MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study, 1993);
Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis (MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study, 1993);
James R. Evans and William M. Lindsay, The Management and Control of Quality (Thomson South-Western, 2008);
Emi Osono, Norihiko Shimizu, and Hirotaka Takeuchi, Extreme Toyota: Radical Contradictions That Drive Success at the World’s Best Manufacturer (John Wiley & Sons, 2008);
Daniel I. Prajogo, Peggy McDermott, and Mark Goh, “Impact of Value Chain Activities on Quality and Innovation,” International Journal of Operations and Production Management (v.28/7–8, 2008);
Walter A. Shewhart, Economic Control of Quality of a Manufactured Product (Van Nostrand, 1931);
Deb Stewart and Dianne Waddell, “Knowledge Management: The Fundamental Component for Delivery of Quality,” Total Quality Management & Business Excellence (v.19/9, 2008);
Mohamed Zairi and Mohamed Zairi, Deming & Juran: Gift to the World: Total Quality Management (Spire City, 2007);
Xingxing Zu, Lawrence D. Fredendall, and Thomas J. Douglas, “The Evolving Theory of Quality Management: The Role of Six Sigma,” Journal of Operations Management (v.26/5, 2008).

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