basic philosophies of Deming, Crosby, and Juran; comparison of Six-Sigma methodology

The Study of Related Literature

The article is a study of related literature that looks at numerous topics. The essential ideas of Deming, Crosby, and Juran are briefly discussed, as are the Six-Sigma technique, ISO 9000, and lean manufacturing. The fishbone diagram, the house of quality, requirements analysis, and FMEA are all described. The study concludes by defining the terms SERVQUAL and decision tree or table.

Quality Management

A crucial component of any firm is quality management. Deming advocated for a statistical quality control by acting on user requirements. He defined the class as having no defects or decreased variability. Quality was described by Juran as being fit for use in terms of accessibility, design, safety, conformity, and field application. He emphasized on planning by management, measurement and control, and improvement.

Crosby’s Philosophy

Crosby’s philosophy has four pillars namely the zero defects on performance standards, quality, the system of quality as the prevention, and the measurement is reporting quality (Jacobs & Chase, 2014). According to Crosby, quality is free, i.e. high quality is due to low cost of correcting defects afterward, and then perfection increases productivity (Jacobs & Chase, 2014).

Six-Sigma

Six-Sigma focuses on helping organizations to achieve close-to-perfect production by reducing variation using statistical methods. The methods lower defect rates to less than 3.4 defects per million products (Gopalakrishnan, 2013).

ISO 9000

ISO 9000 are international standards identifying the minimum required activities a company should perform to maintain quality.

Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing involves activities and techniques that improve speed of processes through elimination and reduction of non-value adding.

Fishbone Diagram

Fishbone diagram is a way of identifying the causes of a given problem and its effect. The head of the fish represents the biggest problem. A horizontal line is drawn from the head, and the vertical lines represent the possible roots of the major issue. A team of professionals discusses the reason of the stated causes as they branch of the upper stem. It is complete when professionals cannot add any other branch (Lighter & Douglas, 2000).

House of Quality

House of quality is an analysis tool of the voice of customers to translate their wants. The tool represents the steps an organization should take to satisfy customers’ preferences. It has competitive section, roof, ceiling, design features and left side (Lighter & Douglas, 2000).

Needs Analysis or Needs Assessment

The other concept is Needs Analysis or Needs Assessment which identifies and evaluates the needs of individuals or community through steps for example identification.

FMEA

FMEA is a series of steps to discover the shortcomings in the product or process. It’s made up of failure, modes, effects and impact analysis.(Tagues, 2005).

SERVQUAL

SERVQUAL is a research tool which has many dimensions all aimed at getting the customers’ expectations and perceptions. Its five dimensions include tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy.

Decision Tree

The last phrase defined is a Decision Tree, which is the type of a tree graph that uses the branching method to show outcomes or consequences of any decision made. They are mostly used in research operations to make judgments in an organization.

Conclusion

The description of various concepts has brought clear insights on their essence in organizations. A deep understanding of the terms and phrases will enable an individual cope well in an organization. In any production system, various means polish the quality of products and services. Such quality management is possible through identifying existing problems using the above-discussed ways and looking for their solutions.

References

Gopalakrishnan, N. ( 2013). Simplified Six Sigma: Methodology, tools, and implementation. Delhi: PHI Learning.

Jacobs, F.R., & Chase, R.B. (2014). Operations and supply chain management(Mcgraw-Hill / Irwin) (14thed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Lighter, D.E., & Douglas, C.F. (2000). Quality management in health care: Principles and Methods (2nd ed.). Gaithersburg, Md: Aspen Publishers.

Tagues, N.R. (2005).The quality toolbox (2nd ed.). United States: ASQ Quality Press.