Module

For
Operations Management and TQM
Part 3 (Part 3)

Gurus of Total Quality Management

OBJECTIVES:

After reading this chapter, the student should be able to:

 Identify the different quality gurus in quality management.

 Recognize contributions of quality gurus in quality management

In order to fully understand the TQM movement, there are philosophies of notable individuals who
have shaped the evolution of TQM. Their qualitative and quantitative contributions have been critical in
the emergence and development of contemporary knowledge regarding quality. Their common thrust is
towards the concept of continuous improvement of every output, whether a product or service by
removing unwanted variation and improving underlying work processes. Their philosophies and
teachings have contributed to the knowledge and understanding of quality.

DR. WILLIAM EDWARDS DEMING (14th October, 1900-20th December 1993)

Dr. William Edwards Deming is often referred to as the "Father of Quality Control." Deming is
best known for initiating a transformation in the Japanese manufacturing sector in the after eftects of
World War II, which enabled it to become a big player in the world market. The Deming Prize, the
highest award for quality in Japan, is named in his honor. He is also known for his 14 points, for the
Deming Chain Reaction and for the Theory of Profound Knowledge. He also modified the Shewhart PDSA
(plan, do, study, act) cycle to what is now referred to as Deming Cycle (plan, do check, act).

Deming does not define quality in a distinct phrase. He said that only the customer can define
the quality of any product or service Quality is a relative term that will adjust in meaning based on the
customer's needs Deming approach to TQM is mainly concentrated on the creation of an organizational
system that is based on cooperation and learning for facilitating the implementation of process
management practices, which in turn, leads to continuous improvement of processes, products, and
services as well as to employee fulfillment, both of which are critical to customer satisfaction, and
ultimately, to firm survival.

Deming stressed the responsibilities of top management to be the leader in changing processes
and systems. He said that leadership plays an important role in ascertaining the success of quality
management. It is the top management's responsibility to create and communicate a vision to move the
firm toward continuous improvement Top management is in charge for most quality problems. Top
management should give employees clear standards for what is considered acceptable work, and
provide the methods to achieve it. These methods include an appropriate working environment.

Deming also emphasized the importance of identification and measurement of customer

requirements, creation of supplier partnership, use of functional teams to identify and solve quality
problems, enhancement of employee skills, participation of employees, and pursuit of continuous
improvement. He is cautious in defining quality and characterizes the difficulty of achieving it. "The
difficulty in defining quality is to translate future needs of the user into measurable characteristics by
using statistical approach, so that a product can be designed and turned out to give satisfaction at a
price that the user will have to pay".

Deming's 14 Point Methodology

1. Constancy of purpose-Create firmness of purpose for continual improvement of products and service
and distribute resources to accommodate long term needs rather than short-term profitability with a
plan to become competitive, stay in business and provide job

2. The new philosophy - Espouse the new philosophy for one can no longer allow delays, mistakes and
faulty workmanship Transformation of the Western management style is necessary to bring to an end
the continued decline in the industry.

3. Cease dependence on inspection - Remove the need for mass inspection as a technique to attain
quality by building quality into the product in the first place. Insist statistical evidence of built-in quality
in both manufacturing and purchasing functions

4. End lowest tender contracts - Reduce total cost Many companies and organizations grant contracts to
the lowest bidder as long as they meet certain requirements. However, low bids do not promise quality.
Unless the quality aspect is carefully thought of the effective price per unit that a company pays its
vendors may be understated and in Some cases indefinite Deming advised businesses to utilize single
sourcing for long term relationships with a few suppliers leading to loyalty and opportunities for shared
improvement.

Using several suppliers has been long acceptable for reasons like providing protection against strikes or
natural disasters or making the suppliers compete Pnst each other on cost. However, this approach has
overlooked hidden costs like increased travel to visit suppliers, loss of volume discounts, increased set-
up charges resulting in higher unit costs, and increased inventory and administrative expenses. In
addition always changing suppliers only on the base of price increases the deviation in the material
supplied to production, since each supplier's process is different.

5. Improve every process - Management's job is to constantly make better the system with contribution
from workers and management: Deming was a follower of Walter A. Shewhart, the developer of control
charts and the continuous cycle of process improvement known as the Shewhart cycle. Deming
popularized the Shewhart Cycle as the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) or Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle.
Therefore, it is also often referred to as the Deming cycle. In the planning stage, chances for
improvement are acknowledged and operationally defined. The theory and course of action developed
in the earlier stage is tested in the doing stage, on a small range through performing trial runs in a
laboratory or prototype setting. The results of the testing phase are examined in the check/study stage
using statistical methods. In the action stage, a decision is prepared about the implementation of the
proposed plan. If the results were encouraging in the pilot stage, then the plan will be implemented. Or
else alternative plans are developed. After complete scale implementation customer and process
feedback will once more be taken and the process of continuous improvement continues.
6. Institute training on the job - Introduce up to date methods of training on the job, incorporating
management to make greatest use of all employees. Fresh skills are essential to sustain changes in
materials, methods, product design machinery, techniques and service.

7. Institute leadership - Espouse and introduce leadership, aimed at helping people carry out a better
job. The responsibility of managers and supervisors must be altered to highlight on quality rather than
quantity. This will automatically increase productivity. The management has to make sure that urgent
action is taken on reports of inherited defects, maintenance requirements, poor tools, fussy operational
definitions and other conditions damaging to quality.

8. Drive out fear-Build a fear-free environment where everyone can contribute and work effectively.
There is a financial loss related with fear in an organization Employees strive to satisfy their superiors
because they believe that they might lose their jobs. They are cautious to ask questions about their jobs,
production methods, and process parameters. If a supervisor or manager reflects the feeling that asking
such questions is a squander of time, then employees will be more focused about satisfying their
supervisors than meeting long term goals of the organization. For that reason, creating an environment
of trust is a significant task of management.

9. Break down barriers - People should work cooperatively with reciprocal trust, respect, and
appreciation for the needs of others in their work. Internal and external organizational barriers hamper
the flow of information, put off entities from perceiving organizational goals, and encourage the quest of
subunit goals that are not essentially align with the organizational goals. Barriers between organizational
levels and departments are internal barriers. External barriers are between the company and its
suppliers, customers, investors, and community. Barriers can be removed using better communication,
cross functional teams, and changing attitudes and cultures.

10. Eliminate exhortations - Do away with use of slogans, posters and exhortations demanding zero
defects and new level of productivity from the workforce, with no commensurate methods provided.
Such exhortations only form adversarial relationships. The volume of the cases of low quality and low
productivity belong to the system; thus, lie outside the power of the workforce.

11. Eliminate arbitrary numerical targets - Remove work standards that stipulate numerical quotas for
the workforce and the numerical goals for people in the management. Replace these with aids and
useful supervision and employ statistical methods for continual improvement of quality and
productivity.

12. Permit pride of workmanship - Eliminate the barriers that steal from hourly workers and people in
the management of their rights to pride of workmanship, This implies the eradication of the annual
merit rating and management by objectives. Again the responsibility of managers, supervisors and
foremen must be changed from absolute numbers of quality

13. Encourage education -Deming's philosophy is founded on long-term, continuous process

improvement that cannot be carried out without properly trained and motivated employees. This point
tackles the need for ongoing and continuous education and self-improvement for the whole
organization. This educational investment serves the following objectives:

a. it leads to better motivated employees;

b. it communicates the company goals to the employees;
c. it keeps the employees up-to-date on the latest techniques and supports teamwork
d. training and retraining offers a mechanism to ensure enough performance
as the job responsibilities change and through increasing job loyalty, it lessens the number of people
who "job- hop”.

14. Top management's commitment. A clearly defined commitment by the top management to
constantly improve quality and productivity and strengthening of obligations to put into practice all
these principles is always advantageous to the workforce and the organization. Form a structure in the
top management whose main task will be to push these 13 points continually and take action in order to
achieve the change

Deming's 7 Deadly Diseases

Deming's seven deadly diseases recap the factors that he believes can slow down the transformation
that the fourteen points can bring about. The seven deadly diseases are:

1. Lack of constancy of purpose to plan products and services that have a market sufficient to keep the
company in business and provide jobs.
2. Stress on short-term profit; short-term thinking that is driven by a fear of unfriendly takeover
attempts and pressure from bankers and shareholders to generate dividends.
3. Personal review systems for managers and management by objectives with no methods or resources
provided to achieve objectives, includes performance evaluations, merit rating, and annual appraisals.
4. Job-hopping by managers.
5. Using only evident data and information in decision making with little or no consideration given to
what is unknown or cannot be known.
6 Extreme medical costs.
7. Too much costs of liability driven up by lawyers who work on contingency fees.

PHILIP CROSBY (18th June, 1926 18th August, 2001)

Philip Crosby came to national prominence with the publication of his book Quality is Free in 1979.
Heestablished the absolutes of quality management which states that the only performance standard is
zero defects and the basic elements of improvement.

While Crosby, like Deming and Juran stresses on the importance of the management's
commitment and error-cause removal, some aspects of Crosby's approach to quality are quite different
from Deming's. Zero defects, the heart to Crosby's philosophy, was censured by Deming as being
directed at the wrong people and forming worker frustration and bitterness. Goal setting, vital to
Crosby's theory was also scorned for leading to unhelpful accomplishment. The truth is that Deming was
most likely reacting to the wrong use of slogans and goals. Deming may not have censured them if they
had always been used correctly within the Crosby system.

The essence of Crosby's teachings is contained in what he calls the four absolutes of quality."

1. The definition - Quality is conformance to requirements, not goodness.

2. The system - Prevention, not appraisal.
 3. The performance standard – Zero defects.

4. The measurement - The price of non-conformance to requirements, not quality circles.

Crosby defines quality as a means "conformance to requirements" Quality must be defined in

quantifiable and clearly stated terms to aid the organization take action based on feasible targets, rather
than experience, or opinions. For Crosby, quality is either present or not present. There is no such thing
as varying levels of quality.
Management must assess quality by continually tracking the cost of doing things erroneously.
Crosby calls this as the "price of nonconformance."

The requirements of a product need to be defined and specified clearly so that they are
correctly known. He emphasized that higher quality lessens costs and increases profits. Quality is
measured by the quality cost. His categories of quality costs are identical to those of Juran which are
prevention, appraisal and failure. This needs an accent on prevention rather than after-the-fact
inspection.

Crosby also presents the quality management maturity grid which contains five stages which are
uncertainty, awakening, enlightenment, wisdom, and certainty. These stages can be employed to
appraise progress in management understanding and attitude, the standing of quality in the
organization, problem treatment, cost of quality as a fraction of sales, quality improvement actions.

Based on these premises, he developed a 14-step methodology:

1. Management commitment -To make clear the management's position on quality

2. Quality improvement team - To carry out the quality improvement program
3. Quality measurement - To exhibit existing and possible non-conformance problems in the way
that permits objective evaluation and remedial action.
4. Cost quality - To identify the components of the cost of quality, and give details on its
application as a management tool.
5. Quality awareness - To give a method of elevating individual concern among the personnel in
the company towards the conformance of the product and service, and the status of the
company on the subject of quality.
6. Corrective action - To offer a systematic method of deciding the problems recognized through
actions taken in the past.
7. Zero defects planning - To study the different activities that must be performed as groundwork for
officially initiating the zero defects program.
8. Supervisor training - To name the type of training that supervisors require to energetically
perform their roles with regard to the quality improvement program
9.Zero defects day - To produce an event that will allow all employee appreciate, through a personal
experience, that there has been change.
10. Geral setting - To twist promises and commitments into action by persuading individuals to set
up improvement goals for themselves and their groups.
11. Error-cause removal To offer individual employees a way of communicating to the management
the situations that make it not easy for employees to fulfill the promise to improve.
12. Recognition - To be thankful for those who contribute.
13. Quality councils - To bring collectively professionals in the realm of quality for planned
communication on a customary basis with the workforce and management alike.
 14. Do it over again - To accentuate that the quality improvement program never ends.

Crosby claims "mistakes are caused by two factors: lack of knowledge and lack of attention
Education and training can eradicate the first cause, and a personal commitment to excellence (zero
detects) and attention to detail will cure the second

DR. JOSEPH MOSES JURAN (24th December, 1904 -28th February, 2008).

Dr. Joseph Juran assisted the Japanese in their reconstruction processes after World War II Juran
first became well-known in the US as the editor of the Quality Control Handbook (1951) and alter for his
paper introducing the quality trilogies which are quality planning quality control and quality
improvement.

1. Quality planning - This involves identifying the customers' needs and expectations, proposing
products and services, setting goals, giving training, implementation of projects, reporting, recognizing,
and communicating outcome and improvements in systems.

2. Quality control - This concerns creating standards, naming measurements and methods thereof,
contrasting results with actual standards and construing the differences and taking action on
differences.

3. Quality improvement - This is about the use of structured annual improvements projects and plans,
need of improvement, organizing to guide the projects, detecting the causes giving and verifying
remedies and establishing control to keep up gains made

Questioning which aspect of the quality trilogy is most vital is like asking "Which leg of a stool is
the most important?** The stool cannot function effectively without all three: Juran defined quality as
"fitness for use" and also developed the idea of cost of quality

While Deming's approach is radical in nature, Juran's approach is more evolutionary. For Deming
statistics is the language of business while Juran says that money is the language of business and quality
efforts must be communicated to the management in their language. Juran concurs with Deming that
more than 80% of defects are caused by the system rather than the workers and lists motivation of
workers as a solution to quality problems.

Juran propounded the following message on quality:

1. Quality control must be essential part of management

2 Quality is no mistake 3. Quality must be planned

4. There are no shortcuts to quality 5. Make use of problems as sources of improvement

Juran's formula consists of:

1. Create an awareness about the need and propose opportunity for improvement
2. Set goals for improvements

3. Systematize paths to attain the goals (begin a quality council, identify problems, choose projects,
assign teams, delegate facilitators and so on)

4. Give training

5. Do projects to resolve problems

6. Inform progress

7. Provide recognition

8. Communicate outcome

9. Keep score

10. Uphold thrust by making yearly improvements component of the regular systems and processes of
the company

In his view, the approach to managing for quality consists of:

1. The irregular problem is detected and acted upon by the process of quality control

2. The constant problem needs a special process, namely quality improvement;

3. Such constant problems are traceable to a poor quality planning process.

Like Deming Juran believes most quality problems are due to management, not employees. He
also states that the distinction between constant and irregular problems is essential because there are
two different approaches to handling the problems. Constant problems require the principle of
"breakthrough, while irregular problems require the principle of "control".

He further elaborates the sequence of activities required for "breakthrough" and "control".
Breakthrough activities or quality improvement include:

1. Breakthrough in attitudes - persuading those responsible that a change in quality level is

advantageous and practical,

2. Discovery of the vital few projects - determining which quality problem areas are essential;

3. Organizing for breakthrough in knowledge - defining the organizational system for attaining the
knowledge for accomplishing a breakthrough

4. Formation of a steering arm - defining and staffing a system for directing the study for quality
improvement:

5. Formation of an investigative arm - defining and staffing a system for executing the technical inquiry
6. Diagnosis - collecting and examining the facts necessary and proposing the action desirable

7. Breakthrough in cultural pattern - determining the effect of a anticipated change on the people
involved and looking for ways to rise above opposition to change

8. Breakthrough in performance - getting agreement to take action;

9. Transition to the new level - implement the change.

"Control" activities include:

1. Choosing the control subject which is choosing what is intended to regulate;

2. Choosing a unit of measure;

3. Setting a goal for the control subject:

4. Creating a sensor which can measure the control subject in terms of the unit of measure;

5. Measuring real performance,

6. Interpreting the difference between actual performance and the goal; 7. Taking action (if any) on the
difference

"Planning" activities include:

1. Establish the quality goal

2. Identify customers

3. Discover customer needs

4. Develop product features 5. Develop process features

6. Establish process controls and transfer to operations

DR. WALTER ANDREW SHEHART (18th March 1891 – 11th March 1967)

Dr. Walter Shewhart the "Grandfather of Quality Control wasu gunt 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.

Walter Andrew Shewhart was bom to Anton and Esta Barney Shewhart on March 18, 1891, in
New Canton, IL. Shewhart died on March 11, 1967 in Troy Hills, New Jersey: He received from the
University of Illinois both 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 short stints of teaching at University of Illinois, University of California at Berkeley, and
La Crosse State Teachers College (rénamed Wisconsin State University), but his academic career was
brief.
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 several during his tenure, including Joseph M. Juran During the summer of
1925 and 1926, W. Edwards Deming worked as an intern at the Hawthome. IL, plant where he became
interested in Shewhart's work.

By 1924 Shewhart determined the problem of variability in terms of assignable cause and
chance cause (Deming named this as common cause). On May 16, 1924. Shewhart prepared a message
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 plain diagram that people 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 permit
the distinction between assignable (such as unskilled workers or equipment not being calibrated) and
chance cause variations. Through keeping the process in control, it would be likely to forecast future
output and to cheaply manage processes. This was the birth of the modern scientific study of process
control.

Shewhart developed what came to be known as the Shewhart cycle: Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA)
or Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) to manage the effects of variations. He stressed that eliminating variability
improved quality. His work created the foundation for statistical process control measures used today.

DR. ARMAND FEIGENBAUM (Born in 1922)

Armand Feigenbaum is given the credit to the formation of the idea of total quality control in his
book Quality control-Principles, Practice and Administration (1961) and in his article Total Quality
Control (1956). The Japanese version of this concept is called Company-wide Quality Control, while it is
termed Total Quality Management (TQM) in the United States and elsewhere. He was also the first to
classify quality costs as costs of prevention appraisal and internal and external lures Feigenbaum
philosophy is summed up in his Three Steps to Quality which has been described as follows:

1. Quality leadership - This is apparent when the management stresses on sound planning
rather than reacting to failures. The management must maintain a constant focus and lead the
quality effort.
 2. Modern quality technology - The traditional quality development processes cannot
resolve 80%-90% of quality problems. This task involves integration of office staff, engineers as
well as the shop-floor workers who continually assess and apply latest techniques to satisfy
customers in the future.
3. Organizational commitment - Continuous training and motivation of the whole
workforce as well as a combination of quality in business planning stage indicates the
significance of quality and offers the means for including it in all respects of the organization's
activities.

Feigenbaum 10 points on TQM include:

1. Quality is consciousness programmed not only a technical function

2 Quality is not what an engineer or marketer says but it is that what the customer speaks of

3. Quality and cost are a sum not differences.

4. Quality must be organized to identify everybody's job in the organization

5. Quality is a technique of managing an organization. Good management means continuous stress on

the quality

6. The quality improvement highlighting must take place all through all activities of the organization.

7. Quality is realized through assistance and contribution of each and every

person related to the organization. It is also an ethic

8. Continuous quality improvement needs extensive range of new and existing quality technology of
information applications.

9. Total quality program approach leads to productivity and is most effective and less capital intensive.

10. Quality comes, if it is clear, customer oriented effective and structured.

Feigenbaum defines quality as the total composite product and service characteristics of
marketing, engineering, manufacture and maintenance through which the product and service in use
will meet the expectations of the customer He states that total quality management covers the
complete scope of the product and service lite cycle" from product conception through production and
customer service. The quality chain, he argues, begins with the recognition of all customers'
requirements and ends only when the product delivered or service is rendered to the customer who
stays satisfied. Thus, all functional activities, such as marketing design, engineering purchasing
manufacturing, inspection, shipping accounting installation and service, and the rests, are involved in
and mince the attainment of quality. Effective total quality control needs, therefore, a high degree of
functional integration. Furthermore, it guides the synchronized actions of people machines and
information to attain quality goals. He highlights a system approach to quality.
 The stress is on the prevention of poor quality rather than detecting it after the event. He argues
that quality is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the line, staff and operatives of an organization.
It cannot be effectively separated from other activities undertaken by employees and any attempt to do
so more would than likely result in substandard quality. He, like most other gurus, considers effective
staff training and education to be an essential component of TOM. He states that education and training
should address the three vital areas of quality attitudes quality knowledge, and quality skills.

One of the more well known concepts developed by Feigenbaum was that of the "hidden plant".
He maintained that within every company or factory a proportion of the capacity was wasted by not
getting it right first time.
Quality control underlining that human relation was a fundamental issue in quality control
activities, and such things as statistics and preventive measures were only a fraction of the whole
equation.

Quality is what fits the customer at the right price for both the provider and customer and a
common sense approach to quality standards, conformance, corrective actions, and planning for
improvement is the control necessary to achieve that quality. Through inspiring and pushing everybody
in an organization to realize their responsibilities and potential effects on the quality of a product or
service.

PROF. KRORU ISHIRAWA (13th July, 1915 - 16th April, 1989)

Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa is the "Father of Quality Circles" for his role in launching Japan's quality
movement in 1960s. He is recognized with developing the idea of company-wide quality control in
Japan. He established the use of quality circles and championed the use of quality tools to know the root
causes of problems. He developed one of those tools, the cause-and-effect diagram, which is also known
as the Ishikawa diagram or the fishbone diagram.

For Ishikawa quality is the development, design, production and service of a product that is
most efficient, most helpful and constantly acceptable to the consumer". He argues that quality control
extends further than the product and includes after sales service, the quality of management the quality
of individuals and the company itself. He advocates employee contribution as the input to the successful
implementation of TOM Quality circles he believes, are an essential medium to achieve this. In his work,
like all other gurus, he emphasizes the value of education. He states that quality starts and culminates
with education in his hook What is Total Quality Control?" Ishikawa d that the seven basic tools were
indispensable for quality control" These tools are:

1. Process flow chart

2. Check sheet
3. Histogram
4.Pareto chart
5. Cause effect diagram (Ishikawa diagram)
6. Scatter diagram
7. Control chart

Ishikawa believed that with these tools managers and staff could deal with and solve the quality
problems facing them. Ishikawa was the first quality guru to accentuate the importance of the internal
customer the next person in the production process
 Ishikawa emphasized on quality as a way of management. He influenced the development of
participative, bottom-up view of quality which became the trademark of the Japanese approach to
quality management. Some of the key elements are:

1. Quality starts with education and culminates with education

2. The first step in quality is to know the customers' requirements.

3. The perfect state of quality control happens when inspection is no longer compulsory

4. Take out the root cause, not the symptoms.

5. Quality control is the duty of all workers and all divisions.

6. Do not mistake means with the objectives.

7. Set quality first and set your sights on long-term profits.

8. Market is the entry and way out of quality

9. Top management must not demonstrate annoyance when facts are presented by subordinates.
company can be resolved with easy tools for analysis

10. 99% of problems in a and problem-solving

11. Data without dispersion information (variability) are fake data.

Ishikawa's concept of total quality control contains six fundamental principles:

1. Quality first - not short-term profits first

2. Customer orientation - not producer orientation
3. The next step is your customer - breaking down the fence of sectionalism
4. Using facts and data to make presentations - use of statistical methods
5. Reverence for humanity as a management philosophy, full participatory management
6. Cross functional management.

GENICHI TAGUCHI (1st January, 1924 –2nd June, 2012)

Dr. Taguchi was born in Japan and completed his graduation in the subject of Mechanical
Engineering and obtained Ph.D. in the year 1962. He is a Japanese quality expert known for his work in
the area of product design. He estimated that S0% of all defective items are caused by poor product
design. Taguchi stressed that companies needed to center their quality efforts on the design stage, as it
was much less expensive and easier to make changes during this stage later in the production process.

Taguchi underlines an engineering approach to quality. Taguchi defines quality as the "loss
imparted to the society from the time a product is shipped" Examples of loss include failure to reach
ideal performance, failure to meet the customer's requirements, breakdowns, and harmful side-effects
caused by products. This simply means that the smaller the loss, the more desirable the product. The
key elements of Taguchi's quality concepts are briefly stated below:

1. Quality improvement should focus on reducing the variation of the product's key performance
characteristics about their target values.

2. The loss suffered by a customer due to a product's performance variation is often just about
proportional to the square of the deviation of the performance characteristics from its target value

3. The ultimate quality and cost of manufactured products are determined to a great extent by the
engineering design of the product and the manufacturing process.

4. A product's or process's performance variation can be lessened by exploiting the non-linear effects of
the product or process parameters on the performance characteristics.

5. Statistically planned experiments can be used to name the settings of product/ process parameters
that reduce performance variation.

Taguchi is known for applying a concept called design of experiments to product design. This
method is an engineering approach that focuses on developing robust design that enables products to
perform under varying conditions. He believed that it was more difficult to control the environmental
conditions. Taguchi's approach focuses on a statistical method that zeros in rapidly on the variations in a
product that distinguish the bad parts from the good. He advocated that all factors that can hamper
uniformity between products and their long-term stable performance must be studied, and safeguards
must be built in the product design stage itself. He called it the concept of robust design. Robust design
results in a product that can perform over a wide range of conditions.

Taguchi's eight-point approach

1. Determine the main functions side effects and loss modes. 2 Determine the noise factors and the
testing conditions for evaluating failure of quality

3. Determine the quality characteristics to be observed and the objective functions to be optimized

4. Determine the control factors and their alternate levels.

5. Blueprint the matrix requirements and define the data analysis procedure

6. Carry out the matrix.

7. Examine the data, identify optimum levels for the control factors and foresee performance under
these levels.

8. Perform the confirmation experiment and prepare future actions.

DR. SHINGO SHIGEO

 Dr. Shingo Shigeo is the greatest contributor to modern manufacturing practices. While his
name has modest recognition in the western hemisphere, his teachings and principles have formed the
backbone of efficient engineering practices. In applying his experience and expertise in the field of
industrial engineering Dr. Shigeo was able to give a better way of life for both the operators and the
companies. His policies have earned reputation through outcome in manufacturing among the
companies that have implemented these teachings. In view his contributions, Utah State University
founded the Shingo prize for excellence in manufacturing in 1988. This prize encourages world-class
manufacturing and distinguishes companies that accomplish superior customer satisfaction and business
results, and has been matched up to a Noble Prize for manufacturing

Dr. Shigeo was one of the greatest influences on Japanese quality control and his contributions to
quality improvement transformed the Japanese industrial actor and accordingly influenced the
industries in the west. Dr. Shingo Shigeo's teachings can be classified into the three concepts listed as
follows:

I. just In Time (JIT) - The JIT manufacturing concept was originated in part due to the contribution of Dr.
Shingo Shigeo and Taichii Ohno of Toyota Motor Corporation from 1949 to 1975. During this period Dr.
Shigeo took responsibility of industrial engineering and factory improvement training at Toyota Motor
Corporation. This is commonly referred to as JIT or the Toyota Production System. The essential element
in developing JIT was the use of the Ford System along with the consciousness that factory workers had
more to contribute than just muscle power. JIT is about supplying customers with what they want when
they want it. The aim of JIT is to diminish inventories by producing only what is necessary when it is
necessary. Orders are "pulled" through the system when prompted by customer orders, not pushed
through tite system in order to attain economies of scale with the production of larger batches.

2. Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED)- It is a system for speedy changeovers between products. The
target is to make simpler material machine processes and skills to significantly decrease changeover
times from hours to minutes. As a consequence products could be produced in small batches or even
single units with negligible disturbance.

3. Zero Quality Control (ZQC) - The ZQC concepts are based on the theoretical ideal scenario. However,
quality improvement can be made using these principles and concepts. Dr. Shigeo basic idea was to
implement error prone devices in the assembly line to abolish the likelihood of flawed operations In
addition, his accent was on targeting the root cause of defectabenever added took place, thereby
almost abolishing the requirement for statistical pres control. The famous equation in the spirit of Zero
Quality Control Concepts formulate by the Japanese quality guru, Dr. Shigeo Shingo is:

Poka-Yoke Techniques to Correct Defects + Source Inspection to Prevent Defects = Zero Quality
Control

This technique by Dr. Shigeo makes use of the following engineering principles:

a. 100% inspections done at the starting place instead of sampling inspections

b. Instant feedback from consecutive quality checks and sell-checks

c. Poka-yoke designed manufacturing devices-Poka yoke relates go shopping processes as soon as a

defect happens searching the detect source and avoiding it from occurring once more so that there will
be reduced reliance on statistical quality inspections and the production process will have zero detects.
For example, Binney and Smith, maker of Crayola Crayons, uses light sensors to verify if each crayon is
present in each box of crayons they produce. If a crayon is missing the machines will discontinue
automatically Producing complete boxes of crayons right the first time is the preferred outcome.

Using his key teachings, many modern day manufacturing companies have realized substantial profits.

MASARI IMAI

Masaki Imai is the Founder and President of Kaizen Institute who threw the word Kaizen Kaizen
refers to continuous or on-going improvement" in Japanese. Kaizen was originally introduced to the
West by Masaaki Imai in his book Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success in 1986. Today Kaizen
is acknowledged globally as an essential pillar of an organization's long-term competitive strategy.
Kaizen is continuous improvement that is based on certain guiding principles:

1. Good processes carry good results

2. Go see for yourself to grab the present situation
3. Speak with data, direct by facts
4. Take action to contain and remedy root causes of problems
5. Work as a team
6. Kaizen is everyone's business

Kaizen is an inseparable aspect of TOM which is mandatory in all activities of the organization.
Kaizen has to essentially carry out with small step-by step continuous improvement Smaller and
continuous improvements are more realizable predictable controllable and acceptable Kaizen
philosophy believes that people at all levels together with the lowermost levels in the organizational
hierarchy, can add to improvements. This is possible because Kaizen asks for simply little improvements

In order to carry on in an increasingly competitive world, top management must adopt a just-in-time
(JIT) approach and drive change down the hierarchy without yielding to opposition. The key ideas
associated with IT were developed at the Toyota Motor Company under the leadership of founder Eiji
Toyoto whose father had founded the successful Toyota Spinning and weaving company. JIT is the
management philosophy that endeavors to get rid of sources of manufacturing waste and producing the
right part in the right place at the right time.