Inspection Does Not Improve Quality

Continuing the series on W. Edwards Deming’s 14 points for management to follow as covered in his book, Out of the Crisis.  Each of the points will be discussed in a separate article.

Point #3 – “Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.”

At most gas pumps across the country, you can choose diesel or unleaded gasoline to fill your tank. Although the nozzles are located right next to each other, have you ever used the wrong fuel? After hundreds or thousands of trips to the gas station, very few people have made this mistake because the fuel nozzle for diesel is larger than the unleaded nozzle, and the two nozzles are different colors. 

This is an example of building quality into the process. An alternative would be having your passenger do an “inspection” by getting out of the car and verifying you’ve selected the correct nozzle. As silly as that sounds, conducting inspections to ensure quality is a common reaction to quality issues in most organizations. Toyota makes the most reliable vehicles in the world. They’ve achieved this by building quality into their processes.

As Dr. Deming points out, “Inspection does not improve quality, nor guarantee quality. Inspection is too late. The quality, good or bad, is already in the product.” The same can also be said for services. Having a manager or supervisor “sign off” on a subordinates work does not improve quality.

The next time a service error or product defect occurs in your organization, don’t ask, “Who’s fault is it?” or “Who made the mistake?” Instead, review the process that allowed the error or defect, and develop a way to “error-proof” the process. By improving your process, you eliminate the need for inspection and your quality will improve in the long run.

Next article: Point #4 – End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone.

This article was previously published in the December, 2017 edition of VB Front Magazine. Mike Leigh is the President of OpX Solutions, LLC, a performance improvement company that specializes in helping organizations pursue operational excellence through leadership development and process improvement. Contact him at [email protected].