1. Introduction to Quality
Chapter 1
Introduction to
Quality

2. Modern Importance of Quality
“The first job we have is to turn out quality merchandise that consumers will buy and keep on buying. If we produce it efficiently and economically, we will earn a profit, in which you will share.”
- William Cooper Procter
Quality, productivity, and cost remain imperatives for modern organizations.

3. Key Idea
Building—and maintaining—quality into an organization’s goods and services, and more importantly, into the infrastructure of the organization itself, is not an easy task.

4. Quality Assurance
...is any planned and systematic activity directed toward providing customers with goods and services of appropriate quality, along with the confidence that products meet consumers’ requirements.

5. History of Quality Assurance (1 of 3)
Skilled craftsmanship during Middle Ages
Industrial Revolution: rise of inspection and separate quality departments
Early 20th Century: statistical methods at Bell System
Quality control during World War II
Post-war Japan: evolution of quality management as promoted by Deming and Juran

6. History of Quality Assurance (2 of 3)
US quality crisis around 1980; growth of product quality awareness in manufacturing industries
Quality as a management discipline: from “Little Q” to “Big Q” – emergence of Total Quality Management
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (1987)
Disappointments and criticism

7. History of Quality Assurance (3 of 3)
Emergence of quality management in service industries, government, health care, and education
Evolution of quality to the broader concept of performance excellence
Growth and adoption of Six Sigma
Current and future challenge: continue to apply the principles of quality and performance excellence. Quality is “a race without a finish line.”

8. Key Idea
Although quality initiatives can lead to business success, they cannot guarantee it, and one must not infer that business failures or stock price dives are the result of poor quality.

9. Contemporary Influences on Quality
Globalization
Social responsibility
New dimensions of quality
Aging population
Health care
Environmental concerns
21st century technology

10. Defining Quality Perfection Fast delivery
Providing a good, usable product
Consistency
Eliminating waste
Doing it right the first time
Delighting or pleasing customers
Total customer service and satisfaction
Compliance with policies and procedures

11. Formal Definitions of Quality
Transcendent definition: excellence
Product-based definition: quantities of product attributes
User-based definition: fitness for intended use
Value-based definition: quality vs. price
Manufacturing-based definition: conformance to specifications

12. Quality Perspectives transcendent & product-based user-based
needs
Marketing
Customer
value-based
Design
products
and
services
manufacturing-
based
Manufacturing
Distribution
Information flow
Product flow

13. Key Idea
Because individuals in different business functions speak different “languages,” the need for different views of what constitutes quality at different points inside and outside an organization is necessary to create products of true quality that will satisfy customers’ needs.

14. Customer-Driven Quality
“Meeting or exceeding customer expectations”
Customers can be...
Consumers
External customers
Internal customers

15. Total Quality Principles – foundation of the philosophy
Practices – activities by which principles are implemented
Techniques – tools and approaches to make practices effective

16. Principles of Total Quality
Customer and stakeholder focus
Employee engagement and teamwork
Process focus supported by continuous improvement and learning

17. Customer and Stakeholder Focus
Customer is principal judge of quality
Organizations must first understand customers’ needs and expectations in order to meet and exceed them
Organizations must build relationships with customers
Customers include employees and society at large

18. Key Idea
To meet or exceed customer expectations, organizations must fully understand all product and service attributes that contribute to customer value and lead to satisfaction and loyalty.

19. Employee Engagement and Teamwork
Employees know their jobs best and therefore, how to improve them
Management must develop the systems and procedures that foster participation
Empowerment better serves customers, and creates trust and motivation
Teamwork and partnerships must exist both horizontally and vertically

20. Key Idea
In any organization, the person who best understands his or her job and how to improve both the product and the process is the one performing it.

21. Process Focus and Continuous Improvement
A process is how work creates value for customers
Processes transform inputs (facilities, materials, capital, equipment, people, and energy) into outputs (goods and services)
Most processes are cross-functional

22. Key Idea
A process is a sequence of activities that is intended to achieve some result

23. Process Versus Function

24. Continuous Improvement
Incremental changes as well as larger, rapid improvements.
Examples:
Enhancing value through new products and services
Reducing errors, defects, waste, and costs
Increasing productivity and effectiveness
Improving responsiveness and cycle time performance

25. Key Idea
Major improvements in response time may require significant simplification of work processes and often drive simultaneous improvements in quality and productivity.

26. Deming’s View of a Production System
Suppliers of
materials and
equipment
Design and
Redesign
Consumer
research
Receipt and test
of materials
Consumers A B C D
Production, assembly
inspection
Distribution
Tests of processes, machines, methods
INPUTS PROCESSES OUTPUTS
Feedback

27. Learning
The foundation for improvement … Understanding why changes are successful through feedback between practices and results, which leads to new goals and approaches
Learning cycle:
Planning
Execution of plans
Assessment of progress
Revision of plans based on assessment findings

28. TQ Practices
Strategic planning and design of organizational and work systems
Customer engagement and knowledge acquisition
Workforce management
Process management
Information and knowledge management
Leadership

29. TQ Techniques Statistical methods
Visual aids for problem solving, such as flowcharts
Techniques specific to quality assurance activities, such as control charts, measurement systems analysis, reliability models, and so on.

30. Competitive Advantage
Is driven by customer wants and needs
Makes significant contribution to business success
Matches organization’s unique resources with opportunities
Is durable and lasting
Provides basis for further improvement
Provides direction and motivation
Quality supports each of these characteristics

31. Quality and Profitability
Improved quality of design
Improved quality of conformance
Higher perceived value
Higher prices
Lower manufacturing and service costs
Increased market share
Increased revenues
Higher profitability

32. Key Idea
Considerable evidence exists that quality initiatives positively impact bottom-line results.

33. Quality and Business Results Studies
General Accounting Office study of Baldrige Award applicants
Hendricks and Singhal study of quality award winners
Performance results of Baldrige Award recipients

34. Key Idea
An organization that is committed to total quality must apply it at three levels: the organizational level, the process level, and the performer/job level.

35. Three Levels of Quality
Organizational level: meeting external customer requirements
Process level: linking external and internal customer requirements
Performer/job level: meeting internal customer requirements

36. Quality and Personal Values
Personal initiative has a positive impact on business success
Quality-focused individuals often exceed customer expectations
Quality begins with personal attitudes
Attitudes can be changed through awareness and effort (e.g., personal quality checklists)

37. Key Idea
Unless quality is internalized at the personal level, it will never become rooted in the culture of an organization. Thus, quality must begin at a personal level (and that means you!).

38. Key Idea
In the daily attempt to bring about change in the individual parts of the organizational universe, managers, employees, professors, and students can find that personal quality is the key to unlock the door to a wider understanding of what the concept really is all about.