Gurus of Total Quality Management

Shewhart 
Walter A. Shewhart, PhD, spent his professional career at Western Electric and Bell
Telephone Laboratories, both divisions of AT&T. He developed control chart theory with
control limits, assignable and chance causes of variation, and rational subgroups. In 1931, he
authored Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product, which is regarded as a
complete and thorough work of the basic principles of quality control. He also developed the
PDCA (PLAN, DO ACT, CHECK) cycle for learning and improvement. 
Ronald Fisher 
In the conventional sense, Fisher is not known as a quality guru. However, he created a
solid foundation of statistical methods, such as design of experiments (DOE) and analysis of
variance (ANOVA) in the 1930s. DOE is one of the most powerful tools used by many
organizations in problem solving and process improvements. Analysis of variance became
widely known after being included in his book Statistical Methods for Research Workers in
1925. Fisher also published The Design of Experiments in 1935 and Statistical Tables in
1947.1 

Deming 
W. Edwards Deming, PhD, was a protégé (STUDENT) of Shewhart. In 1950, he
taught statistical process control and the importance of quality to the leading CEOs of
Japanese industry. He is credited with providing the foundation for the Japanese quality
miracle and resurgence as an economic power. Deming is the best-known quality
expert in the world. His 14 points provide a theory for management to improve quality,
productivity, and competitive position. He has authored a number of books including
Out of the Crisis and Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position as well as 161
scholarly studies. 

Juran 
Joseph M. Juran, PhD worked at Western Electric from 1924 to 1941. There he was
exposed to the concepts of Shewhart. Juran traveled to Japan in 1954 to teach quality
management. He emphasized the necessity for management at all levels to be committed to
the quality effort with hands-on involvement. He recommended project improvements based
on return on investment to achieve breakthrough results. The Juran Trilogy for managing
quality is carried out by the three interrelated processes of planning, control, and
improvement. In 1951, the first edition of Juran’s Quality Control Handbook was published.

Feigenbaum 
Armand V. Feigenbaum, PhD, argues that total quality control 2 is necessary to
achieve productivity, market penetration, and competitive advantage. Quality begins by
identifying the customer’s requirements and ends with a product or service in the hands
 of a satisfied customer. In addition to customer satisfaction, some of Feigenbaum’s
quality principles are genuine management involvement, employee involvement, first-
line supervision leadership, and company-wide quality control. In 1951, he authored
Total Quality Control. 

Ishikawa 
Kaoru Ishikawa, PhD, studied under Deming, Juran, and Feigenbaum. He
borrowed the total quality control concept and adapted it for the Japanese. In addition,
he authored SPC texts in Japanese and in English. Ishikawa is best known for the
development of the cause and effect diagram (see Chapter 15), which is sometimes
called an Ishikawa diagram. He developed the quality circle concept (see Chapter 4) in
Japan, whereby work groups, including their supervisor, were trained in SPC concepts.
The groups then met to identify and solve quality problems in their work environment.

Crosby 
Phillip B. Crosby authored his first book, Quality is Free, in 1979, which was translated
into 15 languages. It sold 1.5 million copies and changed the way management looked at
quality. He argued that “doing it right the first time” is less expensive than the costs of
detecting and correcting nonconformities. In 1984, he authored Quality Without Tears,
which contained his four absolutes of quality management. These absolutes are: quality is
conformance to requirements, prevention of nonconformance is the objective not appraisal,
the performance standard is zero defects not “that’s close enough,” and the measurement of
quality is the cost of nonconformance.

Taguchi 
Genichi Taguchi, PhD, developed his loss function concept that combines cost,
target, and variation into one metric. Because the loss function is reactive, he
developed the signal to noise ratio as a proactive equivalent. The cornerstone of
Taguchi’s philosophy is the robust design of parameters and tolerances. It is built on
the simplification and use of traditional design of experiments. These concepts are
described in Chapter 16.

Benchmarking

Information Technology

Quality Management Systems

Environmental Management System

Quality Function Deployment

Quality by Design
Quality by design principles are changing the way managers think and conduct business.
Loosely defined, quality by design is the practice of using a multidisciplinary team to conduct
conceptual thinking, product design, and production planning all at one time. It is also known as
concurrent engineering, simultaneous engineering, or parallel engineering. The team is
composed of specialists from business, engineering, production, and the customer base.
Suppliers of process equipment, purchased parts, and services are also

included on the team at appropriate times. Quality by design has recently encouraged changes
in management
structures. Some managers claim to have used it informally before it became popular.
In the past, the major functions within an organization would complete their task by “throwing
it over the

wall” to the next department in the sequence and would not be concerned with any internal
customer prob-
lems that might arise. Hence, the term sequential engineering was used to describe the
process. Quality by

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design, or concurrent engineering, requires the major functions to be performed at the same
time. This sys-
tem provides immediate feedback, which prevents problems with quality and productivity from
occurring.

A broad definition of quality by design is a team of specialists who simultaneously design and
develop a
product to ensure ease of producibility and customer satisfaction. Figure 11-1 shows flow
diagrams for both
sequential (or traditional) engineering on the left and quality by design or concurrent
engineering on the right.
In quality by design, engineering (such as mechanical, electrical, structural, quality, material),
production, and
business (such as purchasing, marketing, finance) as well as suppliers and customers brainstorm
together to

develop a product that considers all facets of its functionality as well as its costs. When each of
the special-
ists has early input to the product definition and specifications, cost is minimized and
performance is maxi-
mized. Thus, better-quality products are manufactured for less cost with shorter time to
market.

Failure Mode & Effect Analysis

Products & Service Liability

Total Productive Maintenance

Management Tools

Statistical Process Control

Experimental Design

Taguchi's Quality Engineering