What is Quality Management?

Quality management is the act of overseeing different activities and

tasks within an organization to ensure that products and services
offered, as well as the means used to achieve them, are consistent. It
helps to achieve and maintain a desired level of quality within the
organization.
Quality management consists of four key components, which include:

 Quality Planning – The process of identifying the quality

standards relevant to the project and deciding how to meet them.
 Quality Improvement – The purposeful change of a process to
improve the confidence or reliability of the outcome.
 Quality Control – The continuing effort to uphold a process’s
integrity and reliability in achieving an outcome.
 Quality Assurance – The systematic or the planned actions
necessary to offer sufficient reliability that a particular service or
product will meet the specified requirements.

The aim of quality management is to ensure that all the

organization’s stakeholders work together to improve the company’s
processes, products, services, and culture to achieve the long-term
success that stems from customer satisfaction.

The process of quality management involves a collection of guidelines

that are developed by a team to ensure that the products and services
that they produce are of the right standards or fit for purpose.

 The process starts when the organization sets quality targets to

be met and which are agreed upon with the customer.
 The organization then defines how the targets will be measured.
It then takes the actions that are required to measure the quality.
They then identify any quality issues that arise and initiate
improvements.
  The final step involves reporting the overall level of the quality
achieved.

The process ensures that the products and services produced by the
team match the customers’ expectations.

The quality improvement methods comprise three components:

product improvement, process improvement, and people-based
improvement. There are numerous methods of quality management
and techniques that can be utilized. They include Kaizen, Zero Defect
Programs, Six Sigma, Quality Circle, Taguchi Methods, the Toyota
Production System, Kansei Engineering, TRIZ, BPR, OQRM, ISO, and
Top Down & Bottom Up approaches among others.

A model example of great quality management is the implementation of

the Kanban system by Toyota Corporation. Kanban is an inventory
control system that was developed by Taiichi Ohno to create visibility
for both the suppliers and buyers to help limit the upsurge of
excess inventory on the production line at any given point in time.
Toyota used the concept to execute its Just-in-time (JIT) system, which
helps align raw material orders from suppliers directly with the
production schedules. Toyota’s assembly line rose in efficiency and the
company received enough inventories at hand to meet customer
orders as they were being generated.
Principles of Quality Management

There are several principles of quality management that the

International Standard for Quality Management adopts. These
principles are used by top management to guide an organization’s
processes towards improved performance. They include:

1. Customer Focus

The primary focus of any organization should be to meet and exceed

the customers’ expectations and needs. When an organization can
understand the customers’ current and future needs and cater to them,
it results in customer loyalty, which in turn increases revenue. The
business is also able to get new customer opportunities and satisfy
them. When business processes are more efficient, quality is higher
and more customers can be satisfied.

2. Leadership

Good leadership results in an organization’s success. Great leadership

establishes unity and purpose among the workforce and shareholders.
Creating a thriving company culture provides an internal environment
that allows employees to fully utilize their potential and get actively
involved in achieving its objectives. The leaders should involve the
employees in setting clear organizational goals and objectives. It
motivates employees, who can significantly improve their productivity
and loyalty.

3. Engagement of People

Staff involvement is another fundamental principle. The management

engages staff in creating and delivering value whether they are full-
time, part-time, outsourced, or in-house. An organization should
encourage the employees to constantly improve their skills and
maintain consistency. This principle also involves empowering the
employees, involving them in decision making and recognizing their
achievements. When people are valued, they work to their best
potential because it boosts their confidence and motivation. When
employees are wholly involved, it makes them feel empowered and
accountable for their actions.

4. Process Approach

The performance of an organization is crucial according to the process

approach principle. The approach emphasizes on achieving efficiency
and effectiveness in the organizational processes. The approach
entails an understanding that good processes result in improved
consistency, quicker activities, reduced costs, waste removal, and
continuous improvement. An organization is enhanced when leaders
can manage and control the inputs an0.d the outputs of an
organization, as well as the processes used to produce the outputs.

5. Continuous Improvement

Every organization should come up with an objective to be actively

involved in continuous improvement. Businesses that improve
continually experience improved performance, organizational flexibility
and increased ability to embrace new opportunities. Businesses should
be able to create new processes continually and adapt to new market
situations.

6. Evidence-based Decision Making

Businesses should adopt a factual approach to decision-making.

Businesses that make decisions based on verified and analyzed data
have an improved understanding of the marketplace. They are able to
perform tasks that produce desired results and even justify their past
decisions. Factual decision making is vital to help understand the
cause-and-effect relationships of different things and even explain
potential unintended results and consequences.
7. Relationship Management

Relationship management is about creating mutually beneficial

relations with suppliers and retailers. Different interested parties can
impact the company’s performance. The organization should manage
the supply chain process well and promote the relationship between
the organization and its suppliers to optimize their impact on the
company’s performance. When an organization manages its
relationship with interested parties well, it is more likely to achieve
sustained business collaboration.
Benefits of Quality Management

 It helps an organization achieve greater consistency in tasks and

activities that are involved in the production of products and
services.
 It increases efficiency in processes, reduces wastage, and
improves the use of time and other resources.
 It helps improve customer satisfaction.
 It enables businesses to market their business effectively and
exploit new markets.
 It makes it easier for businesses to integrate new employees,
and thus helps businesses manage growth more seamlessly.
 It enables a business to continuously improve their products,
processes, and systems.

Bottom Line

Quality management in businesses is vital to ensure consistency in its

processes, as well as its products and services. In business, customer
satisfaction is key. As a customer’s main concern is the quality of the
products or services they purchase, the supplier’s main goal should
always be to ensure that what they produce is of consistent and fine
quality.
MAIN CURRENTS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Deming's 14-Point Philosophy

A Recipe for Total Quality

Find the right balance between quality and speed.

The concept of quality is at the core of many of our ideas about

effective management and leadership, and programs like Total Quality
Management and Six Sigma have been at the heart of many
companies' success.
We know now that quality needs to be built into every level of a
company, and become part of everything the organization does. From
answering the phone to assembling products and serving the end
customer, quality is key to organizational success.

This idea is very much a part of modern management philosophy. But

where did this idea originate? Before things like globalization and
technological advances became so important, competitive pressures
were typically much lower, and companies were usually satisfied with
focusing their quality efforts on the production process alone. Now,
quality is often thought to start and end with the customer, and all
points leading to and from the customer must aim for high-quality
service and interaction.

A New Business Philosophy

We owe this transformative thinking to Dr. W. Edwards Deming. A
statistician who went to Japan to help with the census after World War
II, Deming also taught statistical process control to leaders of
prominent Japanese businesses. His message was this: By improving
quality, companies will decrease expenses as well as increase
productivity and market share.

After applying Deming's techniques, Japanese businesses like Toyota,

Fuji, and Sony saw great success. Their quality was far superior to that
of their global competitors, and their costs were lower. The demand for
Japanese products soared – and by the 1970s, many of these
companies dominated the global market. American and European
companies realized that they could no longer ignore the quality
revolution.

So the business world developed a new appreciation for the effect of

quality on production and price. Although Deming didn't create the
name Total Quality Management, he's credited with starting the
movement. He didn't receive much recognition for his work until 1982,
when he wrote the book now titled "Out of the Crisis." This book
summarized his famous 14-point management philosophy.

There's much to learn from these 14 points. Study after study of highly
successful companies shows that following the philosophy leads to
significant improvements. That's why these 14 points have become a
standard reference for quality transformation.

Note:

Deming's points apply to any type and size of business. Service

companies need to control quality just as much as manufacturing
companies. And the philosophy applies equally to large multinational
corporations, different divisions or departments within a company, and
one-man operations.
The 14 Points
1. Create a constant purpose toward improvement.
 Plan for quality in the long term.

 Resist reacting with short-term solutions.

 Don't just do the same things better – find better things to do.

 Predict and prepare for future challenges, and always have the
goal of getting better.

2. Adopt the new philosophy.

 Embrace quality throughout the organization.

 Put your customers' needs first, rather than react to competitive

pressure – and design products and services to meet those
needs.

 Be prepared for a major change in the way business is done. It's

about leading, not simply managing.

 Create your quality vision, and implement it.

3. Stop depending on inspections.

 Inspections are costly and unreliable – and they don't improve
quality, they merely find a lack of quality.

 Build quality into the process from start to finish.

 Don't just find what you did wrong – eliminate the "wrongs"
altogether.
  Use statistical control methods – not physical inspections alone –
to prove that the process is working.

4. Use a single supplier for any one item.

 Quality relies on consistency – the less variation you have in the
input, the less variation you'll have in the output.

 Look at suppliers as your partners in quality. Encourage them to

spend time improving their own quality – they shouldn't compete
for your business based on price alone.

 Analyze the total cost to you, not just the initial cost of the
product.

 Use quality statistics to ensure that suppliers meet your quality

standards.

5. Improve constantly and forever.

 Continuously improve your systems and processes. Deming
promoted the Plan-Do-Check-Act approach to process analysis
and improvement.
 Emphasize training and education so everyone can do their jobs
better.

 Use kaizen as a model to reduce waste and to improve

productivity, effectiveness, and safety.
6. Use training on the job.
 Train for consistency to help reduce variation.
  Build a foundation of common knowledge.

 Allow workers to understand their roles in the "big picture."

 Encourage staff to learn from one another, and provide a culture

and environment for effective teamwork.

7. Implement leadership.
 Expect your supervisors and managers to understand their
workers and the processes they use.

 Don't simply supervise – provide support and resources so that

each staff member can do his or her best. Be a coach instead of
a policeman.

 Figure out what each person actually needs to do his or her best.

 Emphasize the importance of participative management and

transformational leadership.

 Find ways to reach full potential, and don't just focus on meeting
targets and quotas.

8. Eliminate fear.
 Allow people to perform at their best by ensuring that they're not
afraid to express ideas or concerns.

 Let everyone know that the goal is to achieve high quality by

doing more things right – and that you're not interested in blaming
people when mistakes happen.

 Make workers feel valued, and encourage them to look for better
ways to do things.
  Ensure that your leaders are approachable and that they work
with teams to act in the company's best interests.

 Use open and honest communication to remove fear from the

organization.

9. Break down barriers between departments.

 Build the "internal customer" concept – recognize that each
department or function serves other departments that use their
output.

 Build a shared vision.

 Use cross-functional teamwork to build understanding and reduce

adversarial relationships.

 Focus on collaboration and consensus instead of compromise.

10. Get rid of unclear slogans.

 Let people know exactly what you want – don't make them guess.
"Excellence in service" is short and memorable, but what does it
mean? How is it achieved? The message is clearer in a slogan
like "You can do better if you try."

 Don't let words and nice-sounding phrases replace effective

leadership. Outline your expectations, and then praise people
face-to-face for doing good work.

11. Eliminate management by objectives.

  Look at how the process is carried out, not just numerical targets.
Deming said that production targets encourage high output and
low quality.

 Provide support and resources so that production levels and

quality are high and achievable.

 Measure the process rather than the people behind the process.

Tip:

There are situations in which approaches like Management By

Objectives are appropriate, for example, in motivating sales-people.
As Deming points out, however, there are many situations where a
focus on objectives can lead people to cut corners with quality. You'll
need to decide for yourself whether or not to use these approaches. If
you do, make sure that you think through the behaviors that your
objectives will motivate.

12. Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.

 Allow everyone to take pride in their work without being rated or
compared.

 Treat workers the same, and don't make them compete with other
workers for monetary or other rewards. Over time, the quality
system will naturally raise the level of everyone's work to an
equally high level.

13. Implement education and self-improvement.

 Improve the current skills of workers.
  Encourage people to learn new skills to prepare for future
changes and challenges.

 Build skills to make your workforce more adaptable to change,

and better able to find and achieve improvements.

14. Make "transformation" everyone's job.

 Improve your overall organization by having each person take a
step toward quality.

 Analyze each small step, and understand how it fits into the larger
picture.

 Use effective change management principles to introduce the

new philosophy and ideas in Deming's 14 points.

Key Points

Deming's 14 points have had far-reaching effects on the business

world.

While they don't really tell us exactly how to implement the changes he
recommends, they do give us enough information about what to
change. The challenge for all of us is to apply Deming's points to our
companies, departments, and teams. Taken as a whole, the 14 points
are a guide to the importance of building customer awareness,
reducing variation, and fostering constant continuous change and
improvement throughout organizations.

From Deming, W. Edwards, Out of the Crisis, 14 Points, pages 23-24, © 2000
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by permission of The MIT Press.
 Kauro Ishikawa

Kaoru Ishikawa is considered the Father of Japanese Quality. He

invented the Fishbone diagram (aka 4M/5M or cause and effect
diagram) and CWQC – Company Wide Quality Control. He also
sponsored the concept of “next operation (process step) as the client”
to avoid workplace politics.

Kaoru Ishikawa Biography

The oldest of eight sons Kaoru was born in 1915. He went to the
University of Tokyo and received an engineering degree in applied
chemistry. After working at Nissan until 1947, Kaoru started as an
associate professor at the university where he went to school. Then in
1978 he assumed the presidency of the Musashi Institute of
Technology. He is considered to be instrumental in the developing of
quality initiatives in Japan notably of which is the quality circle. He is
also known for the Ishikawa (fishbone diagram) which is used in the
analysis of industrial processes.

He spent his life trying to make people think differently about the way
they work. He always tried to get management not to become
complacent with just improving a products quality. He always said that
you can take those improvements and go one step further. He had a
belief that you should service your customers even after they have
bought the products.

Kaoru Ishikawa noticed that a lack of internal coordination in the

operations affected a customer’s needs. Improved cooperation led to
better quality & process efficiency. His policy of “the next process is
your customer” refers to a desire for better cooperation among a
company’s internal departments. “Do it right”, “zero defects”, and
process efficiency are all parts of that statement.

He was a strong believer in the fact that top level personnel had to give
support to all the team under their control, all the time. He felt that if top
level management did not take quality control courses those programs
would not succeed.

Dr. Ishikawa followed other quality control believers as well. One of

those was W. Edwards Deming the creator of Plan-Do-Check-Act
model. As a matter of fact he expanded that into a 6 step plan from a 4:

 Determine goals and targets

 Determine methods of reaching those goals
 Engage in education and training
  Implement the work
 Chuck the effects of implementation
 Take appropriate action

He has received many awards and among them are

the Shewhart Medal for outstanding technical leadership in the field of
modern quality control and the Order of the Sacred Treasure (Japan)
for outstanding technical leadership in the field of modern quality
control. He also has been recognized by the ASQ. He has been
awarded the Industrial Standardization Prize for writings on quality
control, the Nihon Keizai Press Prize and the Grant Award from the
American Society for quality control for his education program on
quality control.

Dr. Ishikawa is widely recognized as one of the leading authority in

quality control techniques and training. His methods have been utilized
by Komatsu, Bridgestone and IBM just to name a few. He has shown
them how to manufacture better quality products at a lower cost factor.
“What is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way” his book from
Prentice Hall, Inc. was a best seller in the business sector.

Dr. Ishikawa highly believed in the strength of six quality

tools:
1. Control chart
2. Histogram
3. Flow chart
4. Run chart
5. Scatter diagram
6. Pareto chart
Dr. Ishikawa’s Timeline:
1915 – Born on July 13th.

1939 – Graduated in applied chemistry from the University of Tokyo

Worked in coal liquefaction where he got experience in design,

construction, operations and research.

1939-1941 – Naval Tech Officer overseeing 600 workers to construct a

factory which he said was invaluable in his QC career later in life.

1947 – Became a researcher at the University of Tokyo where he

began studying statistical methods.

1949 – Joined JUSE QC research where he became an instructor.

1952 – Became the Chemical Society of Japan’s Director.

1960 – Received his promotion to professor and his Doctorate of

Engineering at the Musashi Institute of Technology.

1969 – Became a member of the ISO, Japan.

1970 – Began having quality control training seminars. Worked with

Ford, American Society for Quality Control and thousands of other
companies.

1977 – Chairman of ISO, Japan.

1981 – Executive member of ISO and published ”What is Total Quality
Control? The Japanese Way”, first edition.

1989 – Died on April 16.

Ishikawa and Quality Control

Dr. Ishikawa believed that company-wide quality control did not just
mean the quality of the product being sold. It also included the quality
of the management, the company itself, after sales service to the
customer, and the human beings involved. He strongly believed that if
all these things came together the following would happen:

1. Cost is reduced
2. Wasteful rework is reduced
3. Reliability of goods is improved
4. Production is increased
5. Sales market is increased
6. False data and reports are decreased
7. Product quality & defects are reduced
8. Better relationships between departments
9. Human relations are improved
10. Meetings run more smoothly
11. Techniques are established
12. Testing and inspection costs drop
13. Vendor and vendee contracts better
14. More democratic discussions
15. Fewer equipment repairs and installs done
Dr. Ishikawa was a tireless leader who saw opportunities to make
things better and went after them. He had a full life and he has helped
many companies around the globe have a better work force who can
and do accomplish more than they ever thought possible.

Cause-effect Diagram
Joseph M. Juran

Who Was He?

Born in 1904, Joseph Juran was a Romanian-born American engineer

and management consultant of the 20th century, and a missionary for
quality and quality management. Like Deming, Juran's philosophy also
took root in Japan. He stressed on the importance of a broad,
organizational-level approach to quality – stating that total quality
management begins from the highest position in the management, and
continues all the way to the bottom.

Influence of the Pareto Principle

In 1941, Juran was introduced to the work of Vilfredo Pareto. He

studied the Pareto principle (the 80-20 law), which states that, for many
events, roughly 80% of the effects follow from 20% of the causes, and
applied the concept to quality issues. Thus, according to Juran, 80% of
the problems in an organization are caused by 20% of the causes. This
is also known as the rule of the "Vital Few and the Trivial Many". Juran,
in his later years, preferred "the Vital Few and the Useful Many"
suggesting that the remaining 80% of the causes must not be
completely ignored.

What Was Juran’s Philosophy?

The primary focus of every business, during Juran's time, was the
quality of the end product, which is what Deming stressed upon. Juran
shifted track to focus instead on the human dimension of Quality
management. He laid emphasis on the importance of educating and
training managers. For Juran, the root cause of quality issues was the
resistance to change, and human relations problems.

His approach to quality management drew one outside the walls of a

factory and into the non-manufacturing processes of the organization,
especially those that were service-related.

The Juran Quality Trilogy

One of the first to write about the cost of poor quality, Juran developed
an approach for cross-functional management that comprises three
legislative processes:
1. Quality Planning:

This is a process that involves creating awareness of the necessity

to improve, setting certain goals and planning ways to reach those
goals. This process has its roots in the management's commitment
to planned change that requires trained and qualified staff.
2. Quality Control:

This is a process to develop the methods to test the products for

their quality. Deviation from the standard will require change and
improvement.
3. Quality Improvement:

This is a process that involves the constant drive to perfection.

Quality improvements need to be continuously introduced. Problems
must be diagnosed to the root causes to develop solutions. The
Management must analyze the processes and the systems and
report back with recognition and praise when things are done right.
 Three Steps to Progress

Juran also introduced the Three Basic Steps to Progress, which, in his
opinion, companies must implement if they are to achieve high quality.

1. Accomplish improvements that are structured on a regular basis

with commitment and a sense of urgency.

2. Build an extensive training program.

3. Cultivate commitment and leadership at the higher echelons of

management.

Ten Steps to Quality

Juran devised ten steps for organizations to follow to attain better

quality.

1. Establish awareness for the need to improve and the opportunities

for improvement.

2. Set goals for improvement.

3. Organize to meet the goals that have been set.

4. Provide training.

5. Implement projects aimed at solving problems.

6. Report progress.

7. Give recognition.

8. Communicate results.

9. Keep score.
10. Maintain momentum by building improvement into the company's
regular systems.

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Philip Crosby

Born in 1926, Philip B. Crosby was an author and businessman who

contributed to management theory and quality management practices.
He started his career in quality much later than Deming and Juran. He
founded Philip Crosby and Associates, which was an international
consulting firm on quality improvement.

His Philosophy/Theory

Crosby's principle, Doing It Right the First Time, was his answer to the
quality crisis. He defined quality as full and perfect conformance to the
customers' requirements. The essence of his philosophy is expressed
in what he called the Absolutes of Quality Management and the Basic
Elements of Improvement.

The Absolutes of Quality Management

Crosby defined Four Absolutes of Quality Management, which are

1. The First Absolute: The definition of quality is conformance to

requirements

2. The Next Absolute: The system of quality is prevention

3. The Third Absolute: The performance standard is zero defects

4. The Final Absolute: The measurement of quality is the price of non-

conformance

Zero Defects

Crosby's Zero Defects is a performance method and standard that

states that people should commit themselves too closely monitoring
details and avoid errors. By doing this, they move closer to the zero
defects goal. According to Crosby, zero defects was not just a
manufacturing principle but was an all-pervading philosophy that ought
to influence every decision that we make. Managerial notions of
defects being unacceptable and everyone doing ‘things right the first
time’ are reinforced.

The Fourteen Steps to Quality Improvement

1. Make it clear that management is committed to quality for the long

term.

2. Form cross-departmental quality teams.

3. Identify where current and potential problems exist.

4. Assess the cost of quality and explain how it is used as a

management tool.

5. Improve the quality awareness and personal commitment of all

employees.

6. Take immediate action to correct the problems identified.

7. Establish a zero-defect program.

8. Train supervisors to carry out their responsibilities in the quality

program.

9. Hold a Zero Defects Day to ensure all employees are aware there is
a new direction.
10. Encourage individuals and teams to establish both personal and
team improvements.

11. Encourage employees to tell management about obstacles they

face in trying to meet quality goals.

12. Recognize employees who participate.

13. Implement quality controls to promote continual communication.

14. Repeat everything to illustrate that quality improvement is a

never-ending process.

The Quality Vaccine

Crosby explained that this vaccination was the medicine for

organizations to prevent poor quality.

1. Integrity: Quality must be taken seriously throughout the entire

organization, from the highest levels to the lowest. The company's
future will be judged by the quality it delivers.

2. Systems: The right measures and systems are necessary for

quality costs, performance, education, improvement, review, and
customer satisfaction.

3. Communication: Communication is a very important factor in an

organization. It is required to communicate the specifications,
requirements and improvement opportunities of the organization.
 Listening to customers and operatives intently and incorporating
feedback will give the organization an edge over the competition.

4. Operations: a culture of improvement should be the norm in any

organization, and the process should be solid.

5. Policies: policies that are implemented should be consistent and

clear throughout the organization.
Remembering Walter A. Shewhart's Contribution to
the Quality World

Walter Shewhart was a giant among giants in the quality movement

during the first half of the 20th century. His mentoring of other
engineers at Western Electric and his groundbreaking work with control
charts arguably led a quality revolution and launched the quality
profession.

Background

Walter Andrew Shewhart was born to Anton and Esta Barney

Shewhart on March 18, 1891, in New Canton, IL. Shewhart died on
March 11, 1967, in Troy Hills, NJ. He attended the University of Illinois
receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees. In 1914, he married Edna
Hart and moved to California where he earned his doctoral degree in
physics while studying as a Whiting Fellow at the University of
California, Berkeley, in 1917.

He had brief stints of teaching at University of Illinois, University of

California at Berkeley, and La Crosse State Teachers College
(renamed Wisconsin State University), but his academic career was
short-lived.

Related Reading

 Defining Variability
 Missing the Point: Gage Variability and Operational Definitions
 Seven Ways Gage Management Improves Product Quality and
Enables Growth

In 1918, Shewhart joined the inspection engineering department of the

Western Electric Co. in Hawthorne, IL. Western Electric manufactured
telephone hardware for Bell Telephone Co. Although no one could
have realized it at the time, Shewhart would alter the course of
industrial history.

Shewhart was part of a group of people who were all destined to

become famous in their time. This group included Harold Dodge and
Harry Romig, known for their work on product sampling plans. George
D. Edwards, who became the first president of the American Society
for Quality Control (renamed American Society for Quality in 1997),
was Shewhart’s supervisor.
Shewhart mentored many during his tenure, including Joseph M.
Juran. During the summers of 1925 and 1926, W. Edwards Deming
worked as an intern at the Hawthorne, IL, plant where he became
interested in Shewhart’s work.

Shewhart's Contribution

Engineers at Bell Telephone had been working to improve the reliability

of their transmissions systems. Business dictated a need to reduce the
frequency of failures and repairs to their amplifiers, connectors and
other equipment that were buried underground. Bell Telephone had
already realized that reducing variation in manufacturing processes
would have a positive impact on repair costs. At the same time the
company determined that continual adjustments in process parameters
reacting to non-conformances resulted in increased variation and a
degradation of quality.

Bell Telephone’s discoveries in product variation resulted in the

institution of an inspection program, ensuring specification and quality
standards to avoid sending defective products to customers. Even
though this program was somewhat effective, it was very costly to deal
with inspecting and sorting of finished goods.

By 1924, Shewhart determined the problem of variability in terms of

assignable cause and chance cause (Deming referred to this as
common cause). On May 16, 1924, Shewhart prepared a
memorandum of less than one page in length and forwarded it to his
manager, George Edwards. About 1/3 of the page was devoted to a
simple diagram that we would today recognize as a control chart. This
memorandum set forth the essential principles and considerations that
became known as process quality control.

Shewhart’s principle was that bringing a process into a state of

statistical control would allow the distinction between assignable and
chance cause variations. By keeping the process in control, it would be
possible to predict future output and to economically manage
processes. This was the birth of the modern scientific study of process
control.

SPC Moves Mainstream

At its creation in 1925, Shewhart moved to the Bell Telephone

Laboratories working to advance his theories and to bring together the
disciplines of statistics, engineering and economics.

In 1931 he published a book, “Economic Control of Quality of

Manufactured Product.” It challenged the inspection-based approach to
quality and introduced the modern era of quality management. Up until
this time, statistical process control was largely a Bell Telephone
quality tool. Shewhart’s book popularized statistical control and its use
then spread throughout industry.

From the 1930s forward, Shewhart’s interests expanded from industrial

quality to wider concerns in science and statistical inference. In 1934,
W. Edwards Deming and another physicist, Raymond T. Birge,
published a paper on measurement error in science. However, after
collaboration with Shewhart, they recast their approach and launched a
long collaboration between Shewhart and Deming.

Shewhart’s charts were adopted by the American Society for Testing

Materials (ASTM) in 1933. Shewhart and Deming impacted the
improvement of production material during World War II in American
War Standards Z1.1-1941, Z1.2-1941 and Z1.3-1942. Frequently, he
was called upon as a consultant to the U.S. War Department, the
United Nations and the government of India.

Deming continued to champion Shewhart’s ideas, methodologies and

theories throughout his career. While working with Japan, Deming
further developed some of Shewhart’s methodological proposals of
scientific interference, which had been named the Shewhart Cycle and
was represented by the plan-do-check-act elements.

Shewhart lectured extensively on the subjects of quality control and

applied statistics in India, at the University of London, at Stevens
Institute of Technology and at the graduate schools of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. He also was a member of many societies
and governmental agencies.

During the 1990s Shewhart’s work was rediscovered by a third

generation of industrial engineers and managers, and this time it was
repackaged and incorporated into the Six Sigma approach.

Shewhart received many honors and awards that include:

 Holley Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

  ASQ’s 1st Honorary Member
 Founding Member and Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics
 Fellow of the American Statistical Association
 Fellow of the International Statistical Institute
 Fellow of the Royal Society of Mechanical Engineers

Shewhart believed that statistical theory should serve the needs of

industry and society as a whole. He challenged the norms of his day
and showed manufacturers the better way that revolutionized industry.

Upon his death in 1967, there were a multitude of commentaries from

many contributors who were themselves important figures in the
development of the quality field. An excerpt from a speech by the
chairman of the committee that awarded the first ASQ Shewhart Medal
captured Shewhart’s character in the following:

“Shewhart’s legacy lives in mementos of him-a simple bowl and some

numbered chips, a bronze medal, some books and writings. It lives in
the succession of other prominent individuals he influenced, and it lives
in the society of professionals who carry on the work he started.”