The Evolution of Quality

Quality management can be traced back to the very beginnings of modern civilizations. The concept of product quality was used in the building of structures in Babylonia and by the Egyptian pharaohs. In China, markings were used early on to identify the provider of goods and services.

Quality Control existed in medieval Europe in the 13th century. Craftsmen guilds developed strict product quality standards. Goods meeting these standards were marked with a special symbol by inspection committees. Similar quality control techniques have remained in place over the years.

In 1913 Ford Motor Company, FMC, created the assembly line in their newly opened factory in Highland Park, Michigan due to the influence of the scientific management of Frederick W. Taylor. Ford increased manufacturing volume and the assembly line was copied by many manufacturing companies. Work instructions were also written for the assembly operations. (SOP’s) Quality was mainly focused on conformance to specifications through inspection. However, the concept of “Standardized Work” was born.

Quality management systems as they are today originated in the 1920’s with Walter Walter Shewhart introducing statistical sampling techniques. To achieve a high level of quality, companies had resorted to 100% inspection methods which were costly due to the labor, equipment and overhead needed. Walter Shewhart created the control chart, which he pioneered at Bell Laboratories working as a quality control engineer. He proposed sampling inspection rather than 100% inspection to enhance effectiveness and reduce overall costs.

Shewhart’s work was later developed by Deming and the early work of Shewhart, Deming, Dodge and Romig constitutes much of what today comprises the theory of statistical process control (SPC). However, there was little use of these techniques in manufacturing companies until the late 1940’s.

In 1951 Juran published the “Quality Control Handbook” which identified the concept of “quality costs”. Juran divided the quality costs into prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and external failure costs. Juran identified that the costs of quality failures (internal and external defects) far outweigh the costs of delivering high quality (prevention and appraisal). Later, Yang added hidden costs to the quality costs.

Feigenbaum emphasized that quality assurance could not be achieved by placing the control just on production processes. Thus, the concept of total quality control, TQC, was introduced in 1959. TQC emphasizes that product quality needs to be implemented at all stages of the product life cycle. The sequence of quality activities is : product design, incoming quality approval, process quality control, product reliability, inventory, delivery, and customer service.

At that time, Japan’s industrial system was virtually destroyed, and it had a reputation for cheap imitation products and an illiterate workforce. The Japanese recognised these problems and set about solving them with the help of some notable quality gurus – Juran, Deming and Feigenbaum.

The concepts and approaches of SPC, TQC, and “costs of quality” were introduced in Japan during 1960 by Deming and Juran. The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), which was formed in 1946, synthesized the concepts, principles, and approaches of statistical process control and total quality control.

While Japanese industries adopted the TQC practices, they emphasized the education and training of quality for all employees and the cultivation of a quality culture. Therefore, the implementation of TQC in Japanese industries was very different from the original TQC.

The emerging of the Japanese company‐wide quality control, CWQC Actually, the Japanese TQC possessed several critical characteristics listed as follows: customer‐focused and quality‐first as the quality policies, full participation and teamwork, education and training of quality for all employees, realization of “do the right thing first time,” concept and materialization of a “zero defect” culture, ”continuous improvement” as the key quality activity, everyone is responsible for achieving high quality levels, emphasizing on the prevention activities and quality assurance, cultivating a quality culture environment.

Based on aforementioned critical characteristics, the Japanese TQC was acknowledged as company‐wide quality control (CWQC). The Japanese competition caused American and western industries to implement benchmarking projections by studying Japanese CWQC performances. In doing so, they adopted the principles of Japanese quality management. Based on the critical characteristics listed above, western professionals further developed and refined CWQC to become a total quality management (TQM) system. Its fundamental principles are listed as follows: “customer‐focused” management, “continuous improvement” as the key quality activity, top management’s promise persistence for pursuing quality, full participation and teamwork, education and training of quality for employees, employees’ good quality concept, quality leadership, long‐term supplier relationship, implementation of quality management system, cultivation of quality culture.

TQM was well developed and suitable for western organizations. Thus, it was widely adopted by industries and nonprofit organizations around the world. TQM is now part of a much wider concept that addresses overall organizational performance and recognizes the importance of processes. There is also extensive research evidence that demonstrates the benefits from the approach

Evolution of Quality Management Certification Systems

The following is a timeline of key dates and events in the evolutionary process of quality management certification systems.

1959: U.S. Dept. Defense MIL-Q 9858 Standard is established.
1969: MIL-Q 9858 is revised into the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) AQAP (Allied Quality Assurance Publications) series of standards for quality assurance systems.
1974: BSI (British Standards Institution) publishes the BS 5179 “Guidelines for Quality Assurance.” 1979: BSI publishes the BS 5750 series of standards.
1987: ISO – the International Organization for Standardization – publishes the ISO 9001 standards, based on the BS 5750 series.
1994: ISO releases the first revision of the ISO 9001 standards.
2000: ISO releases a second revision and merges ISO 9002/3 into 9001. 2008: The third revision of ISO 9001 is released. 2015: ISO 9001:2015 is released and becomes a guideline for organization-level quality management systems, and closer to a TQM model.

The Founders of Quality Management Today

Deming – William Edwards Deming is recognized as the leading management thinker in the field of quality. His philosophy espouses cooperation, and continual improvement for both individuals and organizations. An essential element is that it avoids apportioning blame, but instead recognizes mistakes as opportunities for improvement.

Juran – Dr. Juran has a well-deserved reputation as the founder of a range of quality management techniques. His quality management approach is based on three key principles: the Pareto principle; quality management principles; and the Juran Trilogy – quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement.

Feigenbaum – Armand V. Feigenbaum is known for his work on total quality control, and quality costs. He is the originator of the concept of the “hidden plant,” the assertion that a proportion of the capacity of every factory is wasted due to not getting things right first time.

Shewhart – Walter A Shewhart honed his skills while working at Bell Telephone, where his work focused on reducing variation in a manufacturing process. He was recognized as the originator of statistical quality control (SQC) and also created the “Shewhart cycle”, or “Plan-Do-Check-Act” (PDCA).

Shingo – Shigeo Shingo was a frontrunner in continuous process improvement and operational excellence. He developed the concept of the Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED), aimed at cutting waste in manufacturing processes. His ideas have impacted Lean Six Sigma principles such as increasing operational efficiency, and nurturing a culture of continuous process improvement.

Crosby – Philip Crosby found fame on publication of his book Quality is Free, in 1979. In addition to that, he is known for the principle of “doing it right the first time” (DIRFT) and the Four Absolutes of Quality. (The performance standard of “Zero Defects” is the third absolute.)

Taguchi – Genichi Taguchi’s methodology pushes the concepts of quality and reliability back to the design stage. It constitutes an efficient technique for designing product tests prior to the commencement of manufacturing, so ensuring quality, not defect, is designed in. In 1960 he was awarded the Deming Application prize.

Ishikawa – Kaoru Ishikawa introduced the concept of quality circles and was a fervent believer in the need for quality to be company-wide. He is arguably best-known for the Ishikawa Diagram – also known as the fishbone or cause and effect diagram – used to identify the root cause of an event and commonly employed in quality defect prevention initiatives.