The Quality Guru's & Deming

Question 1

The Quality Guru’s

Answer 1

• A Quality Guru is someone whose concept & approach to quality within manufacturing, the service industries and life in general has made a major impact on the way we think and act.
• The experts that have contributed to our current knowledge of what quality is and has influenced US & Japanese industry since WWII are titled Guru’s. The best known are:

*W. Edwards Deming (USA)
*Joseph M. Juran (USA)
*Philip B. Crosby (USA)
*Armand V. Feigenbaum (USA)
*Kaoru Ishikawa (Japan)
*Shigeo Shingo (Japan)
Genichi Taguchi (Japan)

Question 2

W. Edwards Deming

Answer 2

Deming’s (renown as the world’s #1 Quality Guru) prominence grew from his message to the Japanese in the late 40s which was a:

• systematic, rigorous approach to quality based on statistical methods.
• Encouraged Japanese to adopt a systematic approach to problem solving which became known as the Deming or PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Action) cycle.
• Was credited with putting Japan on the road to world industrial dominance.
• His work in USA has attempted to make major major changes in the style of western management. [Management statistically based].

Question 3

Deming’s Deadly diseases & Obstacles

Answer 3

These were seen by Deming as afflicting most companies in the Western World. These diseases were:

• a lack of constancy of purpose
• emphasis on short-term profits
• evaluation of performance, merit rating, or annual review
• mobility of management
• management by use of only figures (little or no consideration of unknown variables)

Question 4

Deming’s 14 Points

Answer 4

Deming discussed an action plan aimed at staying in business while protecting investor and jobs throughout the construction of “organisation for quality.”

Deming’s 14 points:

1. Create constancy of purpose: to improve product and service.
2. Adopt a new philosophy: for the new economic age by management learning responsibilities and taking leadership for change.
3. Cease dependence on inspection: to achieve quality; eliminate the need for mass inspection by building quality into the product.
4. End awarding business on price: instead minimise total cost and move towards single suppliers for items.
5. Improve constantly & forever the system of production and service: to improve quality and productivity and decrease costs.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership: supervision should be to help to do a better job; overhaul supervision of management and production workers.
8. Drive out fear so that all may work effectively for the organisation.
9. Break down barriers between departments; research, design, sales & production must work together to foresee problems in production and use.
10. Elimiate quotas or work standards, and management by objectives or numerical goals; substitute leadership.
11. Eliminate slogans, exhortations and numerical targets for the workforce such as “such defects” or new productivity levels. Such exhortations are divisive as the bulk of the problem belong to the system and are beyond the power of the workforce.
12. Remove barriers that rob people of their right to pride of workmanship; hourly workers, management & engineering, eliminate annual or merit ratings and management by objective.
13. Institute a vigorous education & self-improvement programme.
14. Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

Question 5

Deming’s 7 Step Action Plan

Answer 5

Deming provided a seven step “Action Plan” for change;

1. Management struggles over the 14 points, Deadly Diseases & Obstacles; agrees meaning and plans direction.
2. Management takes pride & develops courage for the new direction.
3. Management explains to the organisation why change is necessary.
4. Divide every company activity into stages; identify the customer of each stage as the next stage. Continual improvement at each stage with stages working together towards quality, e.g. Kaizen.
5. Start a.s.a.p. to construct the organisation to guide continual quality improvement, e.g. Kaizen.
6. Everyone can take part in a team to improve the input and output of any stage, e.g. Quality Circles.
7. Embark on the construction of organisation for quality i.e. bring in the statisticians.

Question 6

Deming’s ‘System of Profound Knowledge.’

Answer 6

1. Appreciation for a system
2. Knowledge of statistical theory
3. Theory of knowledge
4. Knowledge of psychology