BUS300: Operations Management

CROSBY

To Crosby, quality means "conformance to requirements" (Crosby, 1979). Quality must be defined in measurable and dearly stated terms to help the organization take action based on tangible targets, rather than on hunch, experience, or opinions.

To Crosby, quality is either present or not present. There is no such thing as differing levels of quality. Management must measure quality by continually tracking the cost of doing things wrong. Crosby refers to this as die "price of nooconformance". To aid managers in tracking the cost of doing things wrong, be developed the following formula; Cost of Quality (COQ) * Price of Conformance (POC)+Price of Nooconformance (PONC). The POC refers to the cost of getting things done right the first time. PONC provides management with information regarding the wasted cost and a "visible" indication of progress as the organization improves.

DEMING

Deming does not define quality in a single phrase. He asserts that the quality of any product or service can only be defined by the customer. Quality is a relative term that will change in meaning depending on the customer's needs. To meet or exceed the customer's needs, managers must understand the importance of consumer research, statistical theory, statistical thinking, and the application of statistical methods to processes. Definitions extracted from his writings reflect this emphasis on quantitative methods, the application of which results in products having (1) a predictable degree of uniformity resulting from reduced variability, (2) lower cost, and (3) suitability for the market. In Out of the Crisis, 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, so that a product can be designed and turned out to give satisfaction at a price that the user will pay".

JURAN

Juran defines quality as "fitness for use". He stresses a balance between product features and products free from deficiencies. As used by Juran, the word "product" refers to the output of any process, and that includes goods as well as services.

By features, he does not mean luxury items (e.g., power windows) but technological properties of a product (e.g., fuel consumption of a vehicle) designed to meet the customer's needs. Service organizations also-possess features, such as promptness of delivery or courtesy extended.

The second element of Juran's definition of quality addresses products free from deficiencies (e.g., errors in invoices, factory scrap, late deliveries). According to Juran, these failures make trouble for the customers and, as a consequence, they become dissatisfied.

Juran's definition of quality reflects his strong orientation to meeting customer's expectations. Anyone affected by the product is considered a customer, according to Juran. This group includes those who deal with the product during its developmental stages, the internal customers, and those who deal with the finished product, the external customers.