Please read through this and summarise what you have learned.

The Three Approaches Similarities:

Crosby, Deming, and Juran agree that it is management's responsibility to establish an organizational culture in which commitment to quality is the main focus. The mission of the organization must be clear to everyone, and every management action must lead to fulfilment of that mission. This culture should be characterized by commitment from the top of the organization. They agree that continuous education and training at all levels is necessary to foster a common language of quality and to develop employee skills and knowledge. Effective communication, cooperation, and teamwork throughout the organization are essential.

These experts agree that more than 85 percent of all problems associated with quality can be attributed to management policy or action. This means that management action is required to achieve improvements.

They also agree that the pursuit of customer-focused quality is a long-term process that will not produce results overnight. The improvements will be evident over time in terms of reduced costs, but, more importantly, organizations will eventually be able to anticipate and prevent problems.

They do not view improvements in terms of final products and agree that current inspection methods to achieve quality are not effective in producing a quality product at an affordable price. They say that there are some processes where inspection will always be required (e.g., for reasons of safety such as flying an airplane after conducting an overhaul), but that it is important to eliminate inspection as a means to achieving quality. They agree that cost and quality are not in competition with one another.

The three experts distinguish clearly between internal and external customers, and all support the practice of involving the suppliers in the quality effort. It is impossible to achieve quality when products or services provided by suppliers are inferior. These approaches also require the use of measurement and problem-solving techniques, but the emphasis on their use varies.

The approaches of Crosby, Derning, and Juran do not represent "programs" in the usual sense of the word; they do not have starting and ending dates. These are management philosophies aimed at long-term improvements through adoption of strategic planning for quality.

These three philosophies have been implemented over the years in various organizations in different countries. As philosophies they go beyond the economic concerns ofan organization and addressan organization's employees as well. They give high priority to pride in workmanship, education, and the work environment as well as to team building, teamwork, cooperation, and participation, all essential to cultural change. Points below are all similarities in list form.

Similarities

Similarities between the approaches of Crosby. Deming, and Juran.

Top management support and commitment are essential.

Education and training must be continuous.

Measurement is critical. "

Improvements are not viewed in terms of final products. "

Most problems associated with quality can be attributed to management policy or action. Implementation is applicable to any organization.

Post-production inspection needs to be minimized. "

Effective communication and teamwork at all levels are essential. "

Managers need to provide workers with the means to do good job. "

There are no shortcuts to quality.

Suppliers must be involved in the quality effort.

The pursuit of quality must be a continuous effort.

There are a number of differences between the three approaches. Differences affecting use of measurement, goal setting, supplier relationships, and leadership activities are discussed here.

USE OF MEASUREMENT

Crosby, Deming, and Juran recognize measurement as important to quality improvement efforts, but they use it in different ways. Both Crosby and Juran view the cost of quality as the focus of measurement. Cost is measurable in terms of dollars, and, for them, money is the language of management. Success of quality efforts is ultimately measured by meeting customer requirements, but Crosby and Juran use the reduction in cost as an indicator of the effectiveness and efficiency of the process used to meet customer requirements. Juran considers that the cost of poor quality is a key factor because it represents how much the organization is losing and how much it is spending on scrap and rework. Nevertheless, he acknowledges the fact that the rear other equally important factors to measure, such as how the organization compares with the competition and how customers perceive quality. Deming does not use the cost of quality as a focus of measurement. He considers that the "unknown" costs, such as the impact of the loss of a customer, are far more important than "visible" ones-To Deming, measuring and meeting customer needs and "expectations" about a product or service are paramount to implementing quality improvements.

Deming gives greater emphasis than do his counterparts to quantitative method and statistical methods as a means of analyzing and improving the production process. He uses measurements of process variation to determine whether processes are stable and capable.

GOAL SETTING

To Crosby, the ultimate goal should be "defect-free" products and services, but he stresses that intermediate goals should be set as well to help organizations focus their efforts on becoming "defect-free." To him a quality product or service results when the process has consistently produced something that falls within specification limits. Deming, on the other hand, considers that being within specifications is just the first step to continuous process improvement (Figure 13). He advocates reducing process variation on a continuing basis to improve quality. Conforming to specifications is not enough, he says; worse, yet, it ensures the status quo.

Figure 14 summarizes all of the important differences between the approaches of Crosby, Deming, and Juran.

Deming also opposes the use of numerical goals and quotas to manage work. He thinks that individual goals are necessary to help people in their personal and professional lives, but numerical goals imposed from top management can have negative effects on both quality of products and individual and team morale--a certainty if there is no plan to achieve the goals or tools by which to reach them.

Juran sees a need for written objectives for employees, with a plan for reaching them. He addresses quality-related goals and company-wide objectives, but more important to him is the deployment of goals throughout the organization. Strategic goals need to be deployed to all divisions and sections of the organization, and more specific goals need to be deployed to people so that they know what to do.

SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS

The three advocates view the role of suppliers differently. Deming favors the practice of working with a single supplier, where feasible, to reduce variability of incoming materials, and states that this practice should be built on a long-term relationship of trust and understanding between supplier and purchaser. In this way, suppliers can produce materials that do better job of fulfilling the needs of the organization. To maintain long-term contracts, suppliers will be more likely to improve their own processes to provide better products or services. Crosby and Juran recognize some of the advantages of sing me suppliers, but they take a more conservative view and simply advocate reducing the number of suppliers. Crosby and Juran consider it important to have different suppliers for the same product when the product is a critical one. That way, the organization will not suffer because of strikes, accidents, or other problems beset by suppliers. Deming recognizes the possibilities of strikes, but admits that customers can receive products and services from alternative suppliers in such cases (Walton, 1986).

LEADERSHIP COMMITMENT

Although Crosby, Deming, and Juran acknowledge and agree that top management support, involvement, and commitment are essential for carrying out any quality focused efforts, each emphasizes leader participation differently.

Crosby describes the "Zero Defects Day" as the time when management reaffirms its commitment to quality and communicates it to all employees. Similarly, Juran has a vehicle for involving top management. Juran's annual quality program is used by managers to communicate to all employees management's commitment to quality improvement. Managers' decisions and actions must be oriented to establishing a quality council, deploying goals, providing resources, and serving on quality councils and quality improvement teams.

Although Deming acknowledges that top management commitment is imperative, he does not describe a program for accomplishing it. What works in one organization might not work in another. He affirms the need for management's commitment, but it is the responsibility of top management to show its commitment through leader ship. Deming is specific, however, about the leaders' roles and responsibilities. As described by Deming, the aim of leadership is not to point fingers at individuals or to keep records of failures. To him, the leader's new job is to remove barriers and create culture that values helping others to do better job and to feel pride in workmanship (Deming, 1986). Leaders must lead by example, not by cheerleading. They must be coaches who help to improve the system of which they and their employees are a part.