Quality Philosophy Evaluation Essay

Focus Paper on Quality Philosophy Evaluation Focus Paper on Quality Philosophy Evaluation Edward Deming led the quality revolution and defined it from the customer’s perspective. He argues that the customer’s definition of quality is the only one that matters (Dale & van Iwaarden, 2007). He defined quality as the extent by which the performance meets the expectations of the customer. He also argued that quality is the responsibility of management. Deming conveyed the importance of leadership in the cultivation of a culture of quality. The principles that underpin his philosophy also indicate that workers were to be trained and introduced to spirit of quality. He argued that employees should play a key role in the transformation of the organization. He proposed the 14 point philosophy of quality. 1. Create a perpetual drive towards improvement or plan for quality in the long term. 2. Embrace the new philosophy and adopt quality in the whole organization 3. Constant and perpetual improvement 4. Organizations should not rely on inspections 5. Rely on a single supplier for one item in order to ensure consistency 6. The elimination of management by objectives 7. Unclear slogans should be removed 8. The barriers which exist between departments should be broken 9. The transformation to quality should be everyone’s job 10. The removal of barriers which prevent pride of workmanship 11. The implementation of education and self improvement 12. Instill confidence and eliminate fear in job performance 13. Training should be used to remove variations 14. The organization should have quality leadership Joseph Juran Joseph Juran has also published a vast amount of literature on the topic of quality. Juran has two definitions of quality. The first defines quality as the features of products that meet the needs of the customers and which then allow for customer satisfaction (Juran, 2003). The second definition defines quality as the freedom from errors and freedom from deficiencies which necessitate the redoing of work. Juran came with a trilogy philosophy of quality management. This philosophy included: * Quality improvement-this is the process by which originations experience breakthrough in quality * Quality control-this involves the detection of the difference between actual performance and the set goals. * Quality planning-this involves developing processes and products which meet the expectations of the customer. * The above three dimensions of quality were seen as a prerogative of management by Juran. Quality control defines the standard of measure by which quality is determined. Juran saw workers as the implementers of quality. Philip Crosby Philip Crosby had a zero defects philosophy on quality management. He defined quality as being the conformance to requirements. He saw zero defects as the performance standard. He argued that everyone should do things â€Å"right the first time.† Therefore, according, to his philosophy, workers play a fundamental role in promoting quality (Oppenheim, Oppenheim & Levine, 2005). Lewis Ireland He defined quality as the totality of characteristics and features of a service or product that enable it to meet the stated or the implied needs. Lewis Ireland focused on quality in projects. In 1991, Lewis wrote Quality Management for Projects and Programs and stated the importance of integrating quality in projects (Rose, 2005). He has a project management quality philosophy. He argued that quality planning should be used to identify quality standards which are relevant for the project. Project managers have a critical role to play in managing quality. Recommendation The philosophy espoused by Edward Deming holds more water in the current competitive business environment. Deming views quality as a change management initiative which is permanently existent in the methods, systems and processes. He provides the principles which should be followed by management in order to cultivate a culture of quality. In addition, his philosophy is more comprehensive and flexible and therefore easily applied by today’s managers. References Dale, B. G., & van Iwaarden, J. (2007). Managing quality. Blackwell Publishing Juran, J. M. (2003). Juran on leadership for quality. Simon and Schuster. Oppenheim, A. J., Oppenheim, R., & Levine, D. M. (2005). Quality management (pp. 75-76). McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Rose, K. (2005). Project quality management: why, what and how. J. Ross Publishing.