Quality is Free

Philip Crosby

1979

Amazon.com

• Quality is free– What costs money are the unquality things

• All the actions that involve not doing job right the first time

• Muda ( 大野耐一 )

• Top management’s responsibility to Quality“Top management may or may not realize what

has to be done to achieve quality”• Ex: 家長 vs. 孩子的學習

“Or worse, they may feel, mistakenly, that they do understand what has to be done. Those types can cause the most harm.”

• Quality Control– Measurement

• Go

• No-Go

• Quality = Prevention

“Why spend all this time finding and fixing and fighting when you can prevent the incident in the first place?”

• Culture make quality last forever– Firefighting would have to be replaced with

defect prevention– Quality would have to be recognized as a

genuine “first among equals”• Labor, material, money, machines, …

– The habit of doing things right the first time had to become routine

– The whole thing had to happen within the units• 所有部門皆須具備這些文化特質

Tools for quality system

• Quality control• Reliability• Quality engineering• Supplier quality• Inspection

• Product qualification• Training• Testing• Consumer affairs• Quality improvement

Fundamentals for quality system

• Management participation & attitude

• Professional quality management

• Original programs

• Recognition

1. Management participation & attitude– “Participation” rather than “support”

• Right attitude about quality

• Right understanding about quality– Ex: ISO 9000 系列

» 說一套、做一套» 經理人自己都不相信

– Erroneous “conventional wisdom”

» Quality mean Goodness

» Unmeasurable

» Error is inevitable

» People just don’t care about doing good work

– Real Life Quality

» Quality is conformance to requirement

» Precisely measurable

» Error is not required to fulfill the laws of nature

» People work just as hard now as they ever did

– ITT’s way of management participation• Conducted seminars throughout the ITT world on a

regular basis. – Those managing directors and general managers

who had participated in programs

who had learned to understand quality properly

testified to others.

working on a group-y-group, unit-by-unit basis throughout the corporation.

2. Professional quality management– Allow quality professional to form forums to

help each others• Ex: 品質學會

– Institute quality college to teach quality tools• Certification

– Ex: six sigma (Black belts, Green belts)

3. Original programs– Buck A Day (BAD)

• Cost reduction idea program

– Zero Defects – 30• 30 days programs for supervisors

– Consumer Affairs

4. Recognition– Ring of Quality

• Award presented– at formal dinner

– by corporate president

Dignity & Respect

– Cash and financial awards are not personal enough

Erroneous assumptions

• Quality means– Goodness– Luxury– Shininess

“Quality of Life”• Speakers

• Listeners

• Quality as“Conformance to requirements”

– Quality of life• Desirable income

• Health

• Population– Ex: 學校評鑑

Erroneous assumptions

• Quality is– Intangible– Not measurable

• Cost of quality– Best tool to measure quality

• Prevention, Appraisal, Failure categories

– Measurements should be displayed for all to see• Visible proof of improvement

• Recognition of achievement

Erroneous assumptions

• Economics of Quality– “Can’t afford to make it that good”

Evidence of “don’t understand quality”

It is always cheaper to do things right the first time

Erroneous assumptions

• All the problems of quality are originated by the workers

Shop floor problems are easy to spot

– Use “cost of quality” to direct attention• Prevention

• Appraisal

• Failure

Erroneous assumptions

• Quality originates in the quality department

– Root cause problems• Accounting problems

• Manufacturing problems

• Design problems

• Housekeeping problems

• Responsibility of Quality department to “problems”– Report results clearly & objectively– Lead the drive to develop a positive attitude

toward quality improvement– Use educational program to be helpful

• Zero defects

– Should NOT do the job for others

Quality Management is

• Systematic way of guaranteeing that organized activities happen the way they are planed

• Management discipline– Prevent problems from occurring– Create the attitudes and controls that make

prevention possible

Why quality management needed

• Faceless end usersSophisticated business world

– Service providers never meet end users• 教授 vs. 畢業生的雇主

– People who really control activities do so from office, laboratory, studios, and other remote places.