Is anyone performing total quality management (TQM) anymore? MIL-Q-9858A? Total cost of quality (TCQ)? Pert planning? Are there any one-minute managers around? Pareto? What about “up the organization?” Value analysis? Quality is free? They were all big things—in their day.
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We in the quality business are fickle. We change our minds a lot about the best way to manage quality. Sometimes we even change and then change back. Statistical process control (SPC) and statistical quality control had their day, but we lost interest. However, back in the 1980s—and thanks to Deming—SPC got new life and became the hottest next new thing. Now I see signs that SPC is on the wane again. When I joined the quality game, the big thing was TCQ and visibility. The quality manger had to report high enough to give the big boss visibility. TCQ and TQM came and went.
We always seem to be looking for the next big thing. Why is that?
If you are under 60 years old, the next big thing has been waiting for you for more than 40 years. It was discovered back in the very early 1960s, and was the quality management program for almost 10 years. However, slowly, quietly, it almost vanished. I say almost, because several smart and very successful companies realized its value and wouldn’t let it fade away. They still prosper from this idea. This method doesn’t require expensive training, additional people, or additional equipment. It can be implemented with very little cost in any type of organization. The results can be breathtaking. It can’t fail unless it’s completely ignored. It won’t fade away unless it’s allowed to fade away. Only the person responsible for quality can let it fail—that’s the boss. If you’re not the boss, you can print out this article and shove it under his or her door.
I am talking about zero defects. It’s a simple idea that’s easy to understand; easy to get started, and easy to sustain. When it’s understood and properly implemented, defects, errors, and goofs disappear like magic.
Strangely, zero defects has its distracters and critics, and I can’t imagine why. It’s always cheaper to do work right the first time; what’s wrong with that? However, there are critics who talk of “perfection,” and “motivation,” and “it won’t work here.” Maybe they’re just jealous, or afraid of new ideas, or protecting their turf. That’s too bad, because zero defects can never get started with that kind of negative thinking. Implementing zero defects doesn’t disturb other quality management methods—it actually supports and encourages them.
Like everything else, it starts with the boss—the big boss. The boss must develop a personal commitment to zero defects. Zero means “No.” Defects are characteristics that don’t conform to the requirement. Zero defects means that no defect is acceptable. This is easy once you understand why defects happen. Defects don’t just happen, they are caused. Once you know the cause, you’ll know how to prevent them. Zero defects is all about preventing defects, not finding them and fixing them. The defect that is prevented doesn’t need to be corrected, explained, or paid for.
Don’t you feel great when everything at work has gone well? What a great day. It can be easy and even fun to produce defect-free work. Explaining problems to the customer or the boss is what’s difficult. Running around with a pocket full of solutions to fix quality problems and keep processes moving is not a good way to spend time and creative energy. Doing that could be dangerous to your professional well being.
I once had a customer who came to me for help, because he realized that he was getting very good at solving quality problems. He told me that he realized he was solving the same problems again and again, and could whip out a solution on demand. Then, he implemented zero defects, and spread it throughout his company, and then to his suppliers. Quality problems vanished. He was a changed man, a happy man.
I can’t tell you everything about zero defects in one little column, and I don’t want to just leave you hanging there. I can tell you that zero defects starts with the boss and trickles down the organization. As long as the boss holds tight to the zero defects performance standard, error-free work will be produced. If the boss lets go—it’s over, and things will return to the old ways. I call that the “Shangri-La Syndrome”—the subject of a future article.
If you’re the boss, zero defects is your best option, it’s that simple. How about that? Now, if you’re the boss, or the quality management person, or the Six Sigma Belt person, the next big thing is here, waiting for you to use it.
Comments
Zero Defects is just "sloganeering"
see above.
Zero Defects is just "sloganeering"
With all respect to Mr. Crosby, the only probelm with Zero defects is variation, which is in every process, and as Deming says, 94% of problems are a result of the system, the process, not the people working in the system. Here's a brief excerpt of Deming's persepecitve on ZD: "In his book, Out of the Crisis (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Advanced Engineering Study, second edition, 1986), renowned quality guru W. Edwards Deming took issue with the concept of zero defects, deriding it as an example of management sloganeering with little meaning for the worker on the shop floor. Part of Deming’s argument stems from the idea that rating workers is nearly impossible--even if a bottom-line measurement such as defects is used. As proof, Deming offered his now-famous red bead experiment,..." taken from an earlier Quality Digest article: http://www.qualitydigest.com/april05/articles/05_article.shtml. It's the process, not the people!
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