"Quality Classics Introduction"

"Quality Classics" is a project of the ASQ Inland Empire Section 0711.   All Section members are encouraged to submit their own Quality Classic essay for inclusion in the data base. When we have reached a critical mass of contributions we will seek publication. Submissions accepted may also be published in one of our quarterly INLAND EMPIRE QUALITY Newsletters.  The guidelines for submitting a Quality Classic are:

1.  It must be a concept, model, tool, formula or algorithm that has 50 years or more validated utility. 

2.  The originator need not necessarily have been an acknowledged Quality Pioneer, but the selected quality classic must have made a sustained and generally recognized positive contribution to the improvement of quality. 

3. The essay should be no longer than one single-spaced page.

4.  Submissions should be sent to:

Quality Classics CD  

The above 32 Classics have been complied onto a beautiful CD by ASQ Section 711! 

This compilation was developed by Dr. Bob Krone, PhD, a Fellow of ASQ and a Provost of the Kepler Space University.

Price: $20 (Postage Paid)
Contact JC Schulz at: jcsgunner@aol.com

Few experiments in the world of work have proven as valid over time as the Western Electric Company experiment to determine the effect on production output of illumination on work conducted by Elton Mayo (the "Father of Human Relations") in 1929.

On major lesson learned, that "The more workers are observed the better will be their performance" has remained a solid finding throughout the 20^th Century.  Other findings of those studies, such as "Management must be concerned with the organization of teamwork and the development of cooperation among employees" have also been fully validated over time.  The story is well documented: A competent group of Western Electric engineers conducted a scientific experiment comparing a normal work environment with an experiment control room where changes in the working environment could be introduced one at a time while holding all other conditions constant. The results were perplexing to the engineers at the time - performance went up on both the working environments equally.  It was the attention paid to the workers, not the changes in work environment, that drove productivity improvement.

"The Pareto Optimum"

The life’s work of Vilfredo Pareto (1848 - 1923), Italian scientist, sociologist and economist, influenced the direction of economic, management and sociological theory.  Oversimplifying his contribution there are two concepts that are perpetuated in management as classics.  The first is the Pareto Formula which states that 80% of system results flow from the efforts of 20% of the participants or inputs.  Quality sciences uses Pareto Charts which more often than not continue to validate the 20% - 80% findings represented by the formula.  The Pareto Formula was intended to be descriptive of what happens in organizations, not necessarily what should happen.

The Pareto Optimum is a normative, or prescriptive, concept - one which should be adopted and has more powerful implications than Pareto’s Formula.  A Pareto Optimum is achieved when a policy, intervention, plan, or program results in making many people better off, and none worse off.  I consistently present the Pareto Optimum to students and clients as a "golden strategic rule" for policymaking.  The Pareto Optimum is very difficult to achieve in any public, private or non-profit organization.  The greatest majority of policies require change that helps some and hurts others.  But that does not negate the value of keeping it in your sights during policy formulation, and Vilfredo Pareto, realizing that "optimum" characteristic, advised leadership to pursue the Pareto Optimum only as long as it was economically feasible to do so.

To the degree that the quality of your policymaking or strategic planning approaches a Pareto Optimum you will achieve the following benefits for your organization:

1.    The feasibility of acceptance of your recommendations will rise, because:

2.    With many benefiting, consensus for approval of the policy is high; and

3.    With no, or few, people perceiving themselves as worse off, the numbers objecting to the policy, or undermining its implementation, will be small or zero.

Philosophically, sociologically, politically, and even theologically, the Pareto Optimum is consistent with some long-held views of preferable communities and societies.  Many people being better off matches the political theory of "The General Good.  " Philosophically and sociologically it matches with the values of inclusion, of anti-discrimination, and of Community in Diversity.  And the vision of heaven (or perfection) in most religions is of a place of peace, harmony, love, and happiness where there is consensus that everyone is better off than they were suffering the uncertainties, injustices, sins, and pain of life on earth as it has so often been for so many to date.

"The Shewhart Cycle"