3.1 Wilfredo Pareto

One of the earliest economists (1848–1923), Wilfredo Pareto has indirectly contributed to the vital TQM concept of selective control which is one of the best utilized concepts in inventory control. During his studies on the distribution of wealth, he found that very few people possessed a major portion of the country’s wealth, while the combined wealth of a majority of people was a small fraction. He called this vital few and trivial many, and illustrated this study by arranging the individuals in order of their wealth, and drawing a graph called the Pareto Diagram, indicating the individual wealth against the individual which is shown in Fig. 3.1.

This has become the principle behind the selective control in Materials anagement called ABC analysis, where the A items form 10% of the items by number, but 70% by value are given a high level of planning and control with close monitoring in parameters such as lead time, purchase lot quantities, inviting sealed tenders, and price fixation, etc., whereas, items of C category where procurement costs are higher compared to their annual value. Hence, they are procured in larger quantities with little consumption control.

In quality control, this ABC system of control can also be applied. It helps in investigating the vital few processes which result in major defects, both in number and extent. These processes require closer control, whereas the many other processes resulting in trivial defect occurrence do not require such close control. This helps us in selecting processes that require closer control from those that require general control.

3.2 Walter A. Shewhart

Walter Shewhart is perhaps the oldest known quality guru after Wilfredo Pareto. Born around 1890, he received his doctorate in physics in 1917 and taught at the Universities of Illinois and California. He later worked with Western Electric (1918–1924) and Bell Laboratories of AT&T (1925–1956).

He is the originator of the statistical process control and control chart theory.

He also propounded the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle for improvements in the process. This was later modified as PDCA cycle by Deming.

In 1931, he published a book Economic control of Quality of Manufactured Product, which is still considered a complete and thorough exposition of the basic principles of quality control.

3.3 Edwards Deming

W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993) is perhaps the most acknowledged quality guru of the world. The whole quality revolution in Japan during the post-war era is accredited to him, and he is generally called The Father of Japanese Quality. Born in 1900, he got his PhD at the age of 28. He was an ardent student of Walter Shewhart. After the devastation of Japan during World War II, JUSE (Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers), under the leadership of K. Konayagi, invited Deming in helping with the reconstruction of Japanese industry. While his chief task was to lecture on quality control methods, he talked more on the important concepts which he referred to as the theory of systems and cooperation. He even said “the control chart is no substitute to the brain.” The Japanese realized that his teachings made sense and gave a different approach to problem-solving than what they were following.

He professed that quality is more a management responsibility than the inspector’s responsibility and developed the systematic approach, the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle in his consultancy works, as well as in TQM lectures. He named this PDCA cycle after his teacher as the Shewhart cycle. (though some authors attribute the development of PDCA cycle to Walter Shewhart, Samuel Kho states that this was, in fact, developed by Deming and and named the Shewhart cycle, as a tribute his favorite teacher.)

Subsequently, he replaced the word Check with Study. This PDSA cycle had come to be known as the Deming Cycle. In 1960, he was honored by the Japanese Emperor with the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure.

Evans and Lindsay make an interesting observation that despite Deming’s popularity in Japan, he remained virtually unknown, even in his home town of Washington until 1980. Only when NBC telecast a program called “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?”, that highlighted Deming’s contributions to Japan and his later works with Nashua Corporation, his name was often on the lips of US executives. Corporations like Ford, GM, and Proctor & Gamble invited him to work with them as a consultant and improve their quality.

After returning to the United States, he studied the management attitude of managing quality vis-a-vis the Japanese attitude, and propounded the Deming Philosophy, with 14 principles that really made all quality experts around the world orient their thinking from Total Quality Control point of view, rather than a Quality Control point of view. The Deming Philosophy focuses on continual improvement in product and service quality by reducing uncertainty and variability in design, manufacturing, and servicing processes, driven by the leadership of the top management. His thinking can be best expressed as Management by Positive Cooperation, or in other words, the quality control is not the function of quality engineers or the production department alone, but by all levels of management with their appreciation and cooperation.

In recognition of his services in developing Japan as a major industrial and economic force during the post-war period, the Japanese government, under the auspices of JUSE, instituted the Deming Awards, given to top industrial organizations of Asia that are successful in the quality movement. It may be interesting to note that the Indian Industrial Corporations have excelled among the Asian corporations coveting a majority of these awards year after year. The criteria, the parameters, and other details of the Deming Awards are discussed in detail in Chapter 14.

3.4 Joseph Juran

Joseph Juran, born in 1904 in Rumania, is well known for the Juran Trilogy, which is an approach to cross functional management that is composed of three managerial processes- planning, control, and continuous improvement. He focused on quality control as an integral part of the management control in his lectures to the Japanese in the early 1950s. He believed that quality does not happen by accident, but has to be planned and there can be no shortcuts to quality. The Quality Control handbook edited and published by him is still considered a significant reference book. He, too, went to Japan in the mid-1950s to lecture and conduct seminars to top and middle-level executives. Specializing in managing for quality, he authored hundreds of papers and 12 books. He was honored by the Japanese Emperor with the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure.

Apart from his famous Quality Trilogy as detailed in Chapter 1, Juran also proposed the following 10 steps for quality improvement.

● Build awareness of the need and opportunity to improve.

● Set goals for that improvement.

● Create plans to reach the goals.

● Provide training.

● Conduct projects to solve problems.

● Report on progress.

● Give recognition for success.

● Communicate results.

● Keep score.

● Maintain momentum.

3.5 Armand Feigenbaum

Armand Feigenbaum is the originator of the Total Quality concept. Involving not only the quality control personnel and the machine operators, but also all the employees of the organization at all levels and of all functions. He propounded this concept in his book Total Quality Control, which today is still a good reference book. In fact, his concept of Total Quality Control has been rechristened without much change in the principles later as Total Quality Management, which is today’s industrial buzz word, internationally.

Feigenbaum’s three steps to quality philosophy:

1. Modern Quality Technology: A majority of the quality problems can be solved, not by the traditional quality controlling methods, but by effective integration of office staff, production/plant engineers, as well as the shop floor operatives in the process of continually evaluating and implementing new techniques to satisfy the customers in the future. This is signified by the term “Total” in Total quality Control.

2. Organizational Commitment: The continuous training and motivation of the entire workforce, as well as the integration of quality in strategic planning and provision of the means, infrastructure, and other facilities in including it in all aspects of management. This is signified by the term “Quality” in Total Quality Control.

3. Quality Leadership: The management emphasis should be based on sound planning rather than reaction to failures. Management must maintain a constant focus on leading the quality effort. This is signified by the term “Control” in Total Quality Control.

The Japanese, especially Ishikawa, grasped this concept of total quality control as the basis for the Companywide Quality Control (CWQC).

Feigenbaum is also known for his concept of “hidden plant,” which means that in every factory a certain portion of its capacity, which may be as high as 40%, is wasted through not getting it right the first time. Many of his ideas remain embedded in the contemporary thinking and have become some important elements of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria.

3.6 Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis

Born during the last decade of the 19th century, P.C. Mahalanobis was one of the most internationally renowned statisticians of his time. In 1924, he made some important discoveries pertaining to the probable error of results in agricultural experiments. He contributed significantly in the development of experimental statistics in India. He founded the Indian Statistical Institute in 1931, which was declared by the Indian government in 1959 as an Institution of National Importance. In 1957, he became the Hony. President of the International Statistical Institute and in 1961, he was elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association. Together with Genichi Taguchi, he developed the Mahalanobis-Tagichi Strategy for multidimensional systems. Apart from several awards and honors, he received Padma Vibhushan from the President of India in 1968. He has written several books, including as a coauthor of Mahalanobis-Taguchi Strategy and Mahalanobis-Taguchi System.

3.7 Shigeo Shingo

Born in 1909, Shigeo Shingo first worked with the Taipei Railway Company in Yokohama, where he raised the productivity by 100% by his industrial engineering techniques, and then as a consultant with Toyota and Matsushita, and saw their development as integrated systems. His successful performance along with Taichi Ohno at the Toyota Motor Corporation has become an established Quality-oriented system as Toyota Production System. As a part of this system, he developed the Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED). The widening gap between Toyota and other Japanese companies opened the eyes of others in Japan and elsewhere in the world to this phenomenon of Toyota Production System and it began spreading rapidly globally.

He is also credited with the development of Poka-yoke, described more in subsequent chapters.

Along with Michael Hammer, Shingo is credited with the development of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) that has globally created a revolution in method improvement and industrial engineering techniques, concentrating more on the review of the overall organizational improvement, rather than individual operational improvements. In recognition of this, the National Convention of Industrial Engineering of 1994 in Chennai named one of its halls as Shingo Hall. The Japanese government, as a tribute to him, has instituted the Shingo award for excellence in manufacturing. He died in 1990.

Shigeo Shingo has written 14 books and over 100 papers on several fields of manufacturing.

3.8 Taichi Ohno

Taichi Ohno (1912–1990) is credited as the initiator of Toyota Production Systems, together with Shigeo Shingo especially for SMED. He is also credited with the concept of the three M’s—Muda, Muri, and Mura.

3.9 Kaoru Ishikawa

Ishikawa (1916–1989) is well known for his Cause and Effect Diagram that helps in determining the root cause of quality problems. This diagram is known as the Ishikawa diagram after him, and also as the Fishbone Diagram after its appearance. This is explained in more detail in Chapter 20. He also professed the application of the seven statistical tools namely:

● Pareto analysis

● Cause and effect diagram

● Control charts

● Stratification

● Checklist

● Histograms

● Scatter diagrams

His other achievements are:

1. Developing in 1949 the first basic quality control course for JUSE.

2. Being credited with initiating the Company-wide Quality Movement in 1962, (described in more detail in Section 3.5), by building upon Feigenbaum’s concept of Total Quality Control.

3. Contributing to the Quality Circle Movement in Japan.

4. Being awarded the honorary membership of American Society of Quality in 1986. Evans and Lindsay say that by 1986, only four persons were awarded this honorary membership by ASQ, the other three being Armand Feigenbaum, Edwards Deming, and Joseph Juran.

5. Receiving the Walter Shewart-MBNQA Medal in 1988 for his outstanding contribution to the development of quality control theory, principles, techniques, and standardization activities for both Japanese and world industry, which enhanced quality and productivity.

6. Having a National Medal named after him by ASQ in 1983, followed by a similar medal named Harrington - Ishikawa Medal instituted by the Asian Pacific Quality Organization.

7. Being honored by the Japanese Emperor with the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure.

8. Publishing more than 600 papers and 31 books including:

● Introduction to Quality Control

● What is Total Quality Control, the Japanese Way

● Guide in Quality Control

3.10 Genichi Taguchi

Born in 1924, Genichi Taguchi got his Ph.D. at the age of 18. He is known for his Quality Loss function model which explains the economic value of reducing variation as explained further in Chapter 31.

He emphasized the need for incorporating quality and reliability at the design stage, prior to production. He developed a methodology which is fundamentally a prototyping technique that enables the design and development engineer to produce a robust design that can survive repetitive manufacturing in order to deliver the functionality needed by the customer. He advocated the techniques of experimental design to identify the most important design variables in order to minimize the effects of uncontrollable factors on product variations. His approach attacked quality problems early in the design stages, rather than reacting to problems that might arise later in production. This methodology is highly adapted by industrial organizations in the United States under the name of Taguchi Methods.

These are Taguchi’s three stages of product development which are further explained in Chapter 31.

System design stage, which is the non-statistical stage for engineering, marketing, and gathering customer knowledge.

Parameter stage, which is the analysis of how the product should perform against defined parameters and a robust solution of cost-effective manufacturing, irrespective of the operating parameters. Here is where Taguchi argued that the performance requirements of the system are generally underspecified and that are given too loose tolerances to allow for the process variations, resulting in the quality loss function as described earlier.

Tolerance design stage, which involves the effect that the various parameters have on performance, resources can be focused on reducing and controlling variation in the critical few dimensions.

3.11 Phillip B. Crosby

Born in 1926, Phillip B. Crosby (1926–2001), started his career as a reliability engineer. He participated in the Martin Missile experiment that initiated his famous zero defect concept. He is also well known for his concept of Do it Right the First Time. He gave the four absolutes of quality as:

1. The definition of quality is conformance to requirements, not only conformance to specifications.

2. The system force causing quality is preventive, not appraisal.

3. The performance standard must be zero defect, not that’s close enough.

4. The measurement of quality is the price of non-conformance not indices.

Like Deming, he, too gave 14 principles as steps to quality improvement.

1. Make it clear that the management is committed to quality. This can be accomplished by:

● A corporate policy on quality needs to be issued.

● Quality should be made the first item on the agenda of regular meetings.

● The CEO and other officials need to compose clear quality speeches in their minds.

2. Form quality improvement teams with senior representatives from each department.
The purpose of the team is to guide the process. This team requires clear direction and leadership from top management. Institute leadership among employees.

3. Measure the processes to determine where current and potential quality problems lie.
Measurement is the habit of seeing how we are going along, by using simple patterns.

4. Evaluate the costs of quality and explain its use as a management tool.
Cost of quality is defined as the cost of non-conformance, or the cost of doing things wrong.

5. Raise the quality awareness and personal concern among all employees.
The expression “quality is a must” needs to be spread around. Awareness must be adapted to the culture of the company.

6. Take actions to correct problems identified through previous steps and eliminate them forever.

7. Establish progress monitoring for the improvement process.

8. Train supervisors to actively carry out their part of the quality improvement programs.
The management has to develop a quality education system that would provide a standard message, and could be taught by anyone who is trained to use it. The time and money spent in training is worth it since it will result in quantum leaps in improvement.

9. Hold a zero defect day to reaffirm management commitment.
Zero Defect Day makes the management stand and make the commitment in front of all employees. It shows everyone that the management is serious.

10. Encourage individuals to establish improvement goals for themselves and for their group. Breakdown the inter-departmental barriers.

11. Encourage employees to tell management about obstacles to improving quality:
Drive out the fear among employees and create an environment of trust so that everyone can communicate with the seniors more freely.

12. Recognize and appreciate those who participate in this quality movement. Establish awards programs.

13. Establish quality councils, meet and communicate on a regular basis.
The purpose of these quality councils is to bring the quality professionals together and let them share their experiences and learn from one another.

14. Do it all over again to emphasize that the quality improvement program is continuous and never ends.
A typical quality improvement program takes anywhere from 12 to 18 months. By that time, the changing situation and scenario might need further planning of the quality programmed with newly-defined policies.

Some of Phillip B. Crosby’s books are:

1. Quality without Tears

2. Quality is Free

3. Quality is Still Free

4. Quality and Me

5. The Art of Getting Your Own Sweet Way, More things

6. The Eternally Successful Organization and Leading

7. The Art of Becoming an Executive

3.12 Yoshio Kondo

An admirer of Kaoru Ishikawa, Yoshio Kondo has done considerable work in popularizing the Concept of CWQC. He identified that quality is more compatible with human nature than cost and productivity. He developed a four-point approach to motivate which makes it possible for work to be reborn as a creative activity.

He received the Nikkei Prize in 1967, the Deming Prize in 1971, the American Institute of Mining Award in 1971, and the Tanigwa-Harris Prize of Japan Institute of Metals in 1981. He was elected Honorary Member of ASQ in 2004. He authored several books including:

● Companywide Quality Control

● Quality in the 21st Century

3.13 Shigeru Mizuno

Shigeru Mizuno of the Tokyo Institute of Technology is credited with the development of Quality Function Deployment (QFD), together with Yoji Akao. He applied QFD at the Heavy shipbuilding industry of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1972. After 4 years of further refinement and development, it was again applied in Toyota 1977, with astounding results, with a 60% cumulative reduction in the startup COSTS. QFD, explained more in Chapter 30, is a disciplined approach to product design, engineering, and production with an objective assessment of customer requirements and company facilities, and translation of the customer requirements into product development and production process. He is also credited with the development of three TQM tools viz. relationship diagram, affinity diagram, and systematic tree diagram.

3.14 Yoji Akao

Yoji Akao is credited with the development of QFD together with Shigeru Mijuno. During the 1960s, he was exploring ways to apply powerful problem-solving algorithms to designing products. Initially using the Ishikawa diagram, his more complex analysis led to matrices to identify the design elements which would impact customer satisfaction. With the help of Shigeru Mizuno, this work led to the development of QFD in the 1970s. He is currently the chairman of the International Council for QFD.

Yoji Akao is also credited with the initiation of Hoshin Kanri, which is the annual planning and policy deployment, and literally means control or management of the way of setting direction. Hoshin Kanri was used at the Komatsu Company in 1965.

3.15 Noriaki Kano

Noriaki Kano is renowned for his Customer Satisfaction Model and the concept of the customer’s expectations of the quality of the product or service which is described more in Chapter 10.

Professor Kano is currently the Chairman of the Deming Awards Committee. As explained earlier, the Deming Awards are awarded to the top few Asian organizations successful in the quality movement. It may be interesting to note that a majority of the organizations are from India. In this connection, Professor Kano has visited India a good number of times and interacted well with quality professionals of India. As a council member of the National Institution for Quality and Reliability, which has hosted several of his lecture meetings, this author had the opportunity of interacting with him personally, especially in connection with his Customer Satisfaction Model.

He has delivered several lectures, both in Japan and abroad and has authored 2 books:

● Theory of Attractive Quality and Packaging

● TQM in Service Industries

3.16 Masaaki Imai

Masaaki Imai (born in 1930), is an exponent of Kaizen. He established the Kaizen Institute to help Western Corporations to introduce the Kaizen concept. He authored the best-selling book, Kaizen: the Key to Japan’s Competitive Success. His other book is Gemba Kaizen.

3.17 Claus Möller

Claus Möller developed the concept of personal quality, a central element of TQM. His 12 golden rules for quality improvement are:

1. Set personal quality goals.

2. Establish your own personal quality account.

3. Check how others are satisfied with your efforts.

4. Regard the next link in the customer chain as a valued customer.

5. Avoid errors.

6. Perform tasks more effectively.

7. Utilize resources optimally.

8. Be committed.

9. Learn to finish what you start.

10. Control your stresses.

11. Be ethical.

12. Demand quality.

3.18 Blanton Godfrey

Blanton Godfrey, a fellow of the American Statistical Association, has been the Chairman and Chief Executive officer of the Juran Institute. He is the co-editor of Juran Quality Control Handbook. He was involved in the creation of the MBNQAs and the US delegate for the ISO Technical committees. In 1992, he was awarded the Edwards Medal for outstanding contribution to the science and proactive of quality management. In 2001, he became the founding editor of Six Sigma Forum magazine. He also authored a book, Curing Health Care in 2002.

3.19 Clarence Irwing Lewis

Born in late 19th century, he is considered the father of modern modal logic. His writings on the relationship between information, experience, theory, and knowledge, were greatly referred to by several quality professionals, including Dr. Deming.

3.20 David Garvin

He is credited with identifying the eight dimensions of quality, as detailed in Chapter 7. He professed that the customers have a different perception of quality than that of the managers.

3.21 Dorian Shainin

Born in 1914, Dorian Shainin developed a discipline called Statistical Engineering, also known as the Dainin Technique. It is successfully used in quality improvement, product development, product reliability, analytical problem solving, etc. He became a fellow of American Society for Quality in 1949 and received the Shewhart Medal in 1989.

In recognition of his services to ASQ, The Dorain Shainin medal was instituted in 2005 for the development and application of creative or unique statistical approaches. His books are:

1. Managing Manpower in the Industrial Atmosphere

2. Tool Engineer’s Handbook

3. Quality Control Handbook

4. New decision Making Tools for Managers

5. Quality Control for Plastic Engineers

6. Manufacturing, Planning and Estimating Handbook

7. Statistics in Action

3.22 Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono, born in Maltais, is a leading authority in the field of creative thinking. He is known for his two techniques, Six Thinking Hats (STH) and Direction Attention Thinking tools (DATT) frameworks. He is the founder of the World Centre for New Thinking, which acts as a platform to make visible new thinking from any source, also called Hypothesis Development. He has written over 70 books and has been invited to lecture in about 58 countries.

3.23 Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Eliyahu Goldratt, born in Israel in 1948, is the originator of the Theory of Constrains (TOC), which provides a framework for managing enterprises with a holistic and focused approach to solve the conflicts between the local operating level decisions. A physical constraint may be like the machine capacity, where as a non-physical constraint may be like the demand of a product, a corporate procedure, or an individual’s approach to a problem. This includes a five step methodology.

1. Identify the system’s constraints.

2. Decide how to manage the constraints within the system.

3. Identify a majority of the resources that are not constraints. Arrange them in tandem with those groups identified in the first step.

4. Elevate each constraint by analyzing the logical need for the constraint. Most constraints in the industrial corporations are policy constraints, rather than physical constraints. Thus a review of the policy rules and procedures that have developed over a time would give a clue for breaking these constraints and elevating them into non-constraints.

5. After breaking the constraints, return to step 1, till all constraints are either eliminated or reduced to a minimum.

3.24 Eugene L. Grant

Eugene Grant (1897–1996), professor at Stanford University did extensive work on statistical quality control. Apart from receiving the Shewhart medal in 1952, Founders’ Award from AIIE in 1965, the Wellingon Award in 1979, etc., ASQC and AEEE honored him by instituting the annual Eugene L. Grant Awards for distinguished contribution in quality control education. As a tribute to him, Juran is quoted as saying “Eugene’s contribution to statistical methodology is more instrumental in advancing quality, much greater than that of Deming.” His books are:

1. Handbook of Industrial Engineering and Management (Co-editor with Ireson)

2. Principles of Engineering Economy

3. Statistical Quality Control

4. Depreciation

5. Basic Accounting and Cost Accounting

3.25 Bill Conway

He professed that quality management is very much linked with other functions like purchasing, manufacturing, and distribution.

He listed another set of quality improvement tools, including:

1. Human relation skills

2. Statistical surveys

3. Simple statistical techniques of seven basic tools

4. Statistical process control

5. Engineering

6. Industrial Engineering

3.26 Yasutoshi Washio

Past President of the Japanese Society for Quality Control, Yasutoshi Washio, is a globally renowned expert in TQM. He was a Deming Prize winner in 1993 and won the Indian Dronacharya award in 2004, for his expertise in world-class manufacturing through TQM practices, SQC, and SPC. He did extensive consultancy in Indian industries, especially in Sundaram Clayton, whose MD acknowledged him as the mentor for his company to strengthen the TQM processes within the company, and winning the Deming Award in 1998.

Further Reading

The website of forumqulaitygurus.com gives details of other professionals who have excelled in the field of quality.