Quality Gurus

Good quality is important for any business. Over the years, several experts have shared their ideas on how to achieve this. In this article, we'll look at the main ideas of six of these experts: Joseph Juran, Kaoru Ishikawa, Philip Crosby, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Edward W. Deming, and Genichi Taguchi. Each of them has given us tools and tips that can help businesses improve. By understanding their ideas, we can learn how to make better products and services.

Joseph Juran

1. Juran's Trilogy: Juran conceptualized quality management in terms of three core processes: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement.
2. Pareto Principle in Quality: While Vilfredo Pareto discovered the 80/20 rule, Juran applied it to quality, emphasizing that 80% of quality problems are usually due to 20% of causes.
3. Quality by Design: He believed that quality should be designed into the product or process and not inspected. For this, the needs of external and internal customers should be translated into measurable characteristics.

Kaoru Ishikawa

1. Cause and Effect Diagram: Often called the "Ishikawa" or "fishbone" diagram, it's a tool to identify potential causes for a particular problem.
2. Promotion of Company-Wide Quality Control (CWQC): He stressed that quality doesn't only concern the quality department but everyone at every level in an organization.
3. Seven Basic Quality Tools: Ishikawa believed that 95% of quality-related problems could be solved with seven fundamental quantitative tools, which include tools like the histogram, Pareto chart, and control charts.

Philip Crosby

1. Zero Defects: Crosby emphasized that the only acceptable quality level is zero defects, advocating prevention over inspection.
2. Quality is Free: He argued that it's cheaper to do it right the first time than to correct it later. The cost of poor quality (COPQ) often exceeds the investment needed to produce quality products.
3. Four Absolutes of Quality: Crosby defined quality through four principles, including "Quality means conformance to requirements" and "The system for achieving quality is prevention, not appraisal".

Armand V. Feigenbaum

1. Total Quality Control (TQC): Feigenbaum's comprehensive approach to quality, encompasses the entire organization, from supplier to customer.
2. Three Steps to Quality: These are quality leadership, modern quality technology, and organizational commitment.
3. Hidden Plant Theory: He pointed out that within every organization, there's a 'hidden plant' representing the part of the company that, due to inefficiencies, works counter to the effective plant.

Edward W. Deming

1. 14 Points for Management: Deming's comprehensive set of principles for organizational excellence, including "Drive out fear" and "Break down barriers between departments".
2. Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle: A systematic series of steps for continuous improvement of processes and products.
3. System of Profound Knowledge: Deming's philosophy combines four areas: appreciation for a system, knowledge about variation, theory of knowledge, and psychology.

Genichi Taguchi

1. Taguchi Methods: Techniques for optimizing processes and improving quality, particularly focused on robust design and minimizing variation.
2. Loss Function: An approach to understanding the economic impact of quality variation. It presents the idea that any deviation from the target, whether it's above or below, results in a loss to society.
3. Orthogonal Arrays: Experimental designs that allow for the study of multiple factors in an efficient manner, optimizing products and processes.

Each of these gurus has contributed in profound ways to the understanding and practice of quality management. Their philosophies and tools are foundational in many modern industries and organizations worldwide.

Juran, J.J. (1988). Title of the work. Publisher. Location.

Ishikawa, K. (1985). Title of the work. Publisher. Location.

Crosby, P.B. (1979). Title of the work. Publisher. Location.

Feigenbaum, A.V. (1983). Title of the work. Publisher. Location.

Deming, E.W. (1986). Title of the work. Publisher. Location.

Taguchi, G. (1987). Title of the work. Publisher. Location.