|
Back
to index
|
Variation is easily defended as the most classic concept of the Quality Movement. Walter
A. Shewhart prophesied in his 1931 book that quality would improve as variation in
production is reduced. W. Edwards Deming in 1950 taught that to Japanese corporate
leadership who, in turn, made it a way of life for post World War II Japanese industrial
recovery. The logic was: Reduce waste and rework – costs decrease with fewer
mistakes and better use of time and equipment – productivity improves –
workers’ improved performance gives them pride and increases motivation - better
quality and lower prices keeps the company in business and capture the market - more jobs
created.
By the 1980s that logic had given Japan 30% of the American car
market and shocked United States leadership into adopting the same logic to compete. The
change was based in measuring variation in processes, products and services and
establishing continuing goals of reducing those variations while also raising the quality
standards of the goals. It meant that statistical theory, statistical thinking, tools and
experimentation based on probability had replaced dollars from sales as the primary
evidence of success. Documenting the reduction of the costs of processes, products and
services became the yellow brick road to continual quality improvement. Finding and
removing common and special causes of variability replaced inspection. Quality paid in
more dollars but dollars became only one of a number of different ends flowing from
quality based means.
Variation is the statistically measured and documented difference between a desired
goal and achievement of the work generated to meet the goal. Part of the quality paradigm
change was that customers increasingly dictated the goals rather than corporate or agency
leadership. Statistical thinking involves examining the process view, seeking sources of
variation, and designing and executing a sequence of experiments to identify and quantify
their contribution to inefficiency.
In 1998 Dr. Joseph Juran stated: "The 21st Century, not the 20th,
will be remembered as the century of quality. "If Juran is right an optimum
shared positive vision for the future for quality professionals could include reducing the
variance of:
1) Global waste and defective products and services;
2) Incapacity to govern by political leaders who have a narrow definition of who their customers are;
3) Goals for elimination of poverty, hunger, homelessness and hopelessness;
4) Goals for the elimination of war.
Century 21 might have a Six Sigma vision for variance from human goals that is not as
Utopian as that new sounds as we reflect on the 20th Century. The challenge for
each of us as quality professionals will be to continually move our systems in ways
consistent with six sigma variance. The most important variable for achieving that vision
will be the quality of policymaking and management in every business, in every government,
in every hospital, school and church. |
Back
to index
|
Stars have always been the benchmarks of the
universe. Invention of the sexton helped humans know where they were on our planet
and improved their chances of navigating to where they wanted to go.
Merriam-Webster defines benchmarking as: "A
point of reference from which to measure. Something that serves as a standard."
As the Quality Movement early in its development adopted Benchmarking as one
of its classics, a more technical definition emerged as: "Benchmarking is a
semi-quantitative tool for establishing position within a marketplace for all key,
competitive parameters. More simply, benchmarking is learning about other successful
systems for performance comparison with our own. It’s a continuous process of
measuring one’s products, services and practices against the best practices anywhere
in the world.
The answer to the question "What should be benchmarked?" is: every
process that describes the health, productivity and vitality of a business. What is
learned contributes to: 1) Strategic reassessment of customer needs; 2) Refocus the
business strategy; 3) Realign the organization structure; 4) Develop an unbiased
understanding of competitive position; or 5) Really understand the best-in-class.2
Make your benchmarking strategy a part of your quality plan. Make both parts of your
strategic business plan. Make it an integrated component of the job. Stop
thinking your operation is different with no suitable others to benchmark.
Benchmarking can produce leapfrog performance improvement. It will help you avoid
inadequacies and mistakes that others have made; capitalize on the successes of others;
reduce your cost of quality; raise customer satisfaction; and give you lead time for
implementing improvements you would not otherwise have discovered. Begin with the
20% of the variables that control 80% of the enterprise.
|
Back
to index
|
Dr. C.C. Crawford knew it in the 1920s. Walter Shewhart knew it in the
1930s. Edward Deming and Joseph Juran knew it in the 1940s and taught it
to the Japanese after World War II. Japanese industry integrated it into
their design and production processes in the 1960s and 1970s. By the 1980s
Japan had captured 30% of the U.S. automobile market. The principle is
simple: "Ask the people who do the work . . . they knew where the
problems lurk and usually how to fix them." It took the economic
shock of Japan’s Quality Control movement to change American corporate
leadership from top-down hierarchies to flatter organizations that
captured the know-how of workers to make continuous improvement effective.
Methods to capture employee know-how and empower them to impact the
decision making system began with Dr. C.C. Crawford’s 1926 invention of
his "Crawford Slip Method" to simultaneously capture the written
judgments, problems, concerns, ideas and recommendations of a group.
Brainstorming was invented in New York by advertiser Alex F. Osborn in
1942. Charles H. Clark, a young partner wrote the Brainstorming
book that sold millions in seven languages. In 1984 he admitted to me that
"Dr. Crawford’s method saved Brainstorming." Charlie still
consults in Ohio with a mix of Crawford Slip and traditional Brainstorming
routines. I brought Dr. Crawford back to USC in 1981 (he had retired in
1956). We set up "The USC Productivity Network" based
exclusively on teaching, consulting and writing with Crawford’s Method.
I began computer applications in 1985 which led to Ideas UnlimitedÔ
in 1996. My masters and doctoral candidates find it a powerful research
tool.
As the tempo of business, government and life continues to accelerate in
the 21st Century the Employee Involvement & Empowerment
Quality Classic will continue as one critical variable for quality
improvement. |
Back
to index
|
Process Tracking; Process Management; Process Action Teams; Process
Measurement; Statistical Process Control (SPC); and Process Variation are
terms created after Quality Management pioneers identified process
concentration and analysis to be a critical variable in achieving quality
in products and services.
Dr. W. Edwards Deming's "14
Principles for Transformation of Western Management" formed the basis
for his lessons for top management in Japan in 1950(2) and for his
teaching and consulting over 50 years until his death in 1993. His
Point #5, "Improve constantly and forever the system of
production and service," includes the theme that quality must be
built-in at the design and process stages.
(3) His 14 Points evolved into "The Deming System
of Profound Knowledge (tm)."
Dr. Joseph Juran's classic Handbook has a full
page of process subjects in the index covering process capability,
control, development, tools, industries, specifications, measurement,
automation, improvement and variables.(4)
Quality pioneer Philip B. Crosby, who died
18 August 2001, is known for his "Four Absolutes of Quality
Management." (5) His second Absolute was "The system for
causing quality is prevention, not appraisal." He amplified it
to say that the first step toward defect and error prevention is to
understand the process by which the product is produced.
Process fits our criterion for this Quality
Classics series by being a "? concept, model, tool, formula or
algorithm that has 50 years or more validated utility."
(6) Evidence supports process continuing to be an
indispensable quality variable for the next 50 years.
________________________________________________________
(1) This essay was first published
in INLAND EMPIRE QUALITY, Vol 9, Issue #3
(Jan-Feb-Mar 2001), the Newsletter of the Inland Empire
Section of the American Society for Quality (ASQ).
(2) W. Edwards Deming, OUT OF THE
CRISIS (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 1982 and 1986), p.23. See the Deming Institute Web
Site at http://www.deming.org.
(3) Ibid, pg 49-52.
(4) J.M. Juran, Editor in Chief and Frank M. Gryna,
Associate Editor, JURAN'S QUALITY CONTROL HANDBOOK, 4th
Edition (McGraw-Hill Book Company: 1988, first
published in 1951.
(5) Philip B. Crosby, QUALITY WITHOUT TEARS:
THE ART OF HASSLE-FREE MANAGEMENT," 1984 www.philipcrosby.com
.
(6) Click the QUALITY button on
the ASQ Inland Empire Section 711 web
site at http://www.asq711.org. |
Back
to index
|
