Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

Lecture 1. Quality Basic Concepts:

Definitions & Terminology
Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

Lecture 1. Quality Basic Concepts:

Definitions & Terminology

CONTENTS Page
1.1 The Quality Function. 3

1.2 Products and Services. 5

1.3 Quality of Design Distinguished & Quality of Conformance. 6

1.4 Quality, Price, and Delivery. 6

1.5 Sporadic and chronic defects. 7

1.6 Quality Improvement. 7

1.7 The Concept or Self-control. 8

1.8 The Factual Approach. 10

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Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

1.1 The Quality Function:

• All human institutions (industrial companies, schools, hospitals,
governments) exist to provide products or services to human beings.
• An essential aspect of these products or services is that they be fit for
use.
• This phrase "fitness for use" is the basic meaning of the word
"quality".
• The company operators through a number of systems or functions
(e.g., finance, marketing, personnel).
• This list of company functions includes a function concerned with
quality, or achieving fitness for use. This is a major function.
• The company's survival depends on the income it gets from selling its
products and services, and the ability to sell is based on fitness for use.
• The quality function is carried out through a wide variety of company
activities. Figure 1-1 depicts how these activities are related to each
other.
- Through its field contacts with users, a company determines
what qualities are needed by those users.
- Research and development specialists then create a product
concept which can meet these quality needs of the users.
- Design engineers prepare product and material specifications
embodying these needed qualities.
- Other engineers specify processes and instruments capable of
fabricating and measuring these qualities.
- Purchasing specialists buy materials and component possessing
appropriate qualities, which in turn brings the vendors quality
activities into the spiral.
- Shop operators are trained to use the processes and instruments
to put the specified qualities into the product.
- Inspectors determine whether the resulting product in fact
possesses the needed qualities.
- The sales force, through the distribution chain, urges customers
to buy the products possessing these qualities.
- Customers use the qualities.
- The experience of use suggest how the product might be
improved, thus starting a new turn of the upward spiral.
• The quality spiral (Figure 1-1) is concerned with activities, not with
company departments.
• In small companies the entire collection of activities shown on the
spiral is conducted by one or a few men, with little specialization.

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Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

• However, in large companies, the activities around the spiral are

commonly assigned to specialized departments.
- Each one of specialized departments is responsible for carrying
out the activities enhancement in that specialty, including the
quality activities.
- For example, a purchasing department has responsibility for
buying materials and components from the right vendors, at the
right time, at the right price, at the right terms, and of the right
quality.
- Under such specialization, no single department is "responsible"
for the broad quality function.
- All departments have a role to play however in some companies,
a specialized department may be assigned a major role for planning
and coordinating all activities which relate to the quality function.
• The spiral emphasizes the broad scope of functions involved in
achieving "fitness for use" quality.
• This is unusually different from the narrower scope of inspection
functions or even conventional "quality control programs" which have
generally emphasized adherence to specifications.
• The shorthand label for the collection of activities relating to quality
is "quality function".
• The quality function is define as that "collection of activities through
which fitness for use is achieved".

Figure 1-1 The quality spiral

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Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

1.2 Products and Services

The subject matter of commerce includes:
(1) products, e.g., shoes, automobiles, milk, and
(2) services, e.g. electric power, haircuts, bus rides, education.
Human beings acquire products mainly to secure the functional uses
which the qualities inherent in these products can provide, e.g.,
transportation from automobiles, electrical energy from batteries.

Some products are fully consumed during first usage or during a short
period of use, e.g., food, soap.
Other products may last for months or years before becoming unfit for
use, e.g., clothing, automobiles, cooking stoves, industrial machinery,
houses. For such longer-life products the user need not necessarily buy the
product in order to utilize its qualities. He may, instead, buy only the
services. While ownership of the product rests with someone else, e.g.,
telephone service, office space, computer time.
There are numerous and ingenious degrees of ownership of products
aimed to provide users with optimal services. Automobile tires or batteries
are sold based on the number of miles or months of service they provide.
Aircraft engines follow a similar arrangement.
Some products are sold with a guarantee provision to protect the buyer
against losses due to unfitness for use. Other products are now being leased
rather than sold outright. For leased products or products sold outright with
formal or informal guarantees of dependability, the manufacturer is really
selling a service rather than a product. This has broad implications because
the manufacturer is responsible for the "fitness for use" of the product
throughout its full life (not just through a limited warranty period).

While economists properly distinguish between the manufacturing and

service industries, the quality problems have much in common. For
example, the schools are an industry supplying a service (education). Yet
these schools start with raw material (level of knowledge of students), apply
a process (teaching), and turn out a finished product (level of knowledge
graduates), though with some rejects. There are raw material specifications
(minimum entrance requirements) and incoming inspection (entrance
examinations). There is a process specification (curriculum, course
outlines); process facilities (faculty, laboratories, textbooks); process
controls (reports, quizzes); final product testing (examinations).

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Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

1.3 Quality or Design Distinguished from Quality of Conformance

A difference in specification for the same functional use is a difference in
quality of design, often called "grade". The Cadillac and the Chevrolet
automobiles serve the same basic functional use. However, they differ in
many features of design and are therefore different in quality of design. This
results in separate design specifications.

Quality of Conformance, on the other hand, relates to the fidelity with

which the product conforms to the design specification. A Chevrolet which
can run and a Chevrolet which cannot run have the same quality of design,
but they differ in quality of conformance. Further, both Chevrolet and
Cadillac have problems in quality of conformance.
A program for achieving fitness for use quality requires consideration of
both quality of design and quality of conformance.
One implication of this is the fact that information on quality of design is
heavily external to the company while information on quality of
conformance is mostly internal. This scope is emphasized by the spiral of
quality.

1.4 Quality, Price, and Delivery

There are optimum levels of both quality of design and quality of
conformance. These optimums are with respect to cost.
To the manager, quality is basically a business problem and, as with all
business problems, the decisions of the management involve "tradeoffs" among
cost, schedule, and quality.
A poor quality program will result in excessive costs and/or late delivers.
A good quality program may cost more initially but will more than pay its way
in reducing quality losses and late deliveries due to poor quality. Many of the
day-to-day decisions that management must make to resolve a problem require
that either cost, schedule, or quality be compromised.
A quality program must try to detect quality problems early enough to
permit action to be taken in most cases without requiring a compromise in cost,
schedule, or quality. Such a superior objective is stated to emphasize that the
business nature of the quality problem necessitates a stress on prevention rather
than just correction of quality problems.

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Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

1.5 Sporadic and chronic defects:

The difference between sporadic and chronic defects is best understood
by reference to Figure 1-2.
A sporadic condition is a sudden adverse change in the status quo,
requiring remedy through restoring the status quo (e.g., changing a worn
cutting tool).
A chronic condition is a long-standing adverse situation, requiring
remedy through changing the status quo (e.g., revising a set of unrealistic
tolerances).

Figure 1-2 Sporadic and chronic quality troubles.

The difference between chronic and sporadic problems is essential
because there are two different approaches for handling the problems.
Chronic problems require the use of principles of "breakthrough" while
sporadic problems require the principles of "control".

1.6 Quality Improvement:

Considerable industrial effort is devoted to improving quality. Much of
this improvement has historically taken place in quality of design. Dramatic
evidence of this is seen in the modern apparatus for transport or
communication as contrasted with the apparatus used in centuries past. But
improvement also takes place in quality of conformance. The latter
improvements are accomplished by what is unclearly called "defect
prevention," but which actually consists of several different kinds of
activities:

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Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

1. The elimination of sporadic causes of departure from historic

levels of performance.
2. The elimination of chronic causes of difference between historic
levels of performance and optimum levels, through quality
improvement programs.
3. The avoidance of such chronic causes as part of the original
planning.

1.7 The Concept of Self-control:

Control has been defined as the cycle of activities by means of which a
goal is achieved. An important part of the cycle is the activity of measuring
results against the goal and taking action on the difference (this is often called
"controlling"). This is the basis for self-regulation or self-control.
In automated control systems, the process is made self-regulating
through built-in instrumentation which:
- Senses what is going on,
- Compares the measurements with the standard (specification), and
- Energize a corrective system when the difference exceeds the
predetermined tolerance.
These automated systems, though highly publicized, control only a
minority of processes.
The majority is regulated by human beings; i.e., part or all of the
feedback loop is closed by human sensing and action. The result is an
enormous amount of human control effort, which is costly even when well
done, and shockingly wasteful when badly done.
It should come as no surprise that industrial managers have devoted
extensive study to the problem of making all this control work serve as an
effective, reliable regulator of industrial activity, whether on the factory floor,
in the laboratory, the office, or elsewhere.
Out of this analysis of human control effort has evolved the concept of
self-control the idea that control must be delegated down to the work level,
where the action takes place. Failing this, the supervisors, engineers, and
managers, though badly needed for planning and breakthrough activities,
become swamp down in an endless succession of control crises.
By creating the conditions of sell-control at the bottom, the management
hierarchy is liberated from the great majority of control tasks and can devote
themselves to creative work as well as to the residue of control work which the
people at the work level cannot handle.

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Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

Creating a state of self-control for a human being requires that several

essential criteria should be meeting. The man must be provided with the means
for:
1. Knowing what he is supposed to do.
2. Knowing what he is actually doing.
3. Taking regulatory action.
If all these criteria have been met, a state of self-control has been created.
(The fact that a state of self-control has been created does not by itself ensure
that the control will be gotten. It still requires that the man possess the
personal competence and state of mind, i.e., that he be able and willing, to put
these capableness to effective use.

The concept of self-control is not limited to control of quality. The

concept is universal. It applies with equal force to control of cost, delivery,
safety, anything.
Further, as applied to quality, the concept is not limited to operators in
manufacturing. It applies to everyone whose work influences quality. Table1-1
summarizes the concept of self-control as it applies to people in product
design, manufacturing, and field service.

Table 1-1 The Application of the concept of self-control

Table1-1 summarizes the concept of self-control as it applies to people in

product design, manufacturing, and field service.

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Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

1.8 The Factual Approach

Anyone who advocates an "improvement" should realize that he is really
trying to introduce two very different kinds of change:
(1) A change in technology, i.e., a change in the machine, material, tool,
tolerance, etc., and
(2) Change in the cultural pattern of the people affected by the change in
technology, i.e., their habits, beliefs, status, etc.
Normally the advocate of change cannot get his case across by opinion—
by saying "I think we should…".The burden of proof is on him,as it should be.
In advocacy of a change in the cultural pattern, he is well advised to use
the tools of the behavioral scientists.
In advocacy of a change in technology, he is well advised to use ,the
factual approach.
In the quality function there is a continuing sequence of questions
requiring answers:
Does this lot of product conform to the specification?
Can this process hold the tolerance?
Does this specification reflect consumer needs?
Not only do these questions need answers; the answers should be based
on "fact," not "opinion". To illustrate, look in on a conference such as has been
held numerous times in industry. The scene is the office of the works manager.
WORKS MANAGER: I've called this conference to see what we can do
about reducing our rejects on the shafts.
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Last month's rejects were 10 percent,
which is no different than it's ever been. The machines never could hold those
tolerances. And the tolerances have always been too tight.
DESIGN ENGINEER: Whenever we relax tolerances, you fellows just
cut down on your controls and slop over the new tolerances. It's happened
again and again.
MANUFACTURING ENGINEER: If the machines can't hold the
tolerances, how is it that 90 percent of the product is good? You must be doing
something different on the other 10 percent.
MACHINE DESIGNER: Our competitors are using the same type of
machines and seem to be making out OK. What we need is a real job of
maintaining the machines.
CHIEF INSPECTOR: If the operators would check the product more

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Quality Systems Lecture 1: Quality Basic Concepts: Definitions & Terminology

often and make the adjustments, it would cut the rejections.

PRODUCTION MANAGER: The checks they make would be enough,
if the machines weren't so erratic and if the gages were more reliable.
SALES MANAGER: Our customers arc talking about tightening the
tolerances.
Attempts at absolute foolproof definitions of what is fact and what is
opinion are foiled by the limitations of language. Instead, we must regard fact
and opinion as the limiting points at opposite ends of a broad spectrum.

The distinguishing features of a "fact" are:

1- It is sensed from an impersonal source— a unit of product, a machine, a
material.
2- The inherent error of the sensing device is negligible in relation to the
phenomenon being sensed.
3- It requires no human interpretation or evaluation.
4- It undergoes no transmission between human beings except in terms of
the unit of measure.
These requirements are never met 100 percent, and it can be argued
philosophically that there is no such thing as a pure fact. However, the
foregoing requirements are often met to a degree which satisfies practical men
and which is adequate for sound decision.
Now we can return to the question "Can the machine hold the tolerance?"
A quality control specialist arms himself with a precise gage and measures a
series of pieces as they emerge from the machine. He records these
measurements and then charts them, in the sequence in which they were made.
When these measurements are compared with the tolerance, the matter is
settled once and for all.
——————————————— End of Lecture1

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