Quality Gurus

Kaoru Ishikawa is known as “the ‘Father of Quality Circles’ and as a founder of the Japanese quality movement”. (Beckford, John. Quality: A Critical Introduction) Ishikawa was also a pioneer in Total Quality Management. He believed in working for the customer before, during, and after product and/or services were delivered. Ishikawa was a Chemist, held a doctorate in Engineering, and was Professor at Tokyo University

However, if the cost of “perfection” is so expensive that the company cannot be profitable, it is not realistic to spend too much on a zero defect mindset. Instead the company must first identify what an acceptable percentage of defects is and where the defect could have been prevented. Then the company can further quantify which cost of quality is presenting the greatest risk and put procedures and policies in place in an attempt to minimize defects. Since prevention costs many times are considered the least expensive and can have the biggest affect on non-conforming products most companies will focus its initial and largest efforts into prevention. The next initiative would be appraisal and last would be identifying

Senior leadership must determine and direct the level of quality that is acceptable within the organization. Leadership should prioritize areas of quality and use data based on benchmarks from other facilities. (Dlugacz, 2006). In addition the author states there are some important areas that must be monitored for quality. Compliance must be followed by leaders and all

Leaders that are committed to quality improvement will positively identify the need for improvement, achieve buy-in from employees and other staff members, and develop the appropriate oversight of quality improvement initiatives. All stakeholders should be involved in the quality improvement process to include managers, consumers, and supporting government agencies and consultants. Managers and leaders in healthcare develop standards of performance and quality while consumers provide valuable feedback by completing customer satisfaction surveys. Providers and other health professional are evaluated on their performance which is measured against local, state, and national standards of performance. Providers and other health professional also play critical part of establishing quality related councils and committees, the empowerment of nurses and other health professionals, and investment of new technology an infrastructure that facilitate quality

References1.David A. Grarin, 1987 Competing on the eight Dimensions of Quality, Harvard Business school Review, Nov-Dec, Pp.101-109.

According to Manning & Curtis (2012), continuous quality improvement is an essential ingredient in the quality movement (P. 167). My company takes quality very seriously. We do not make a physical product but we provide care for people who are in need. It is very important to ensure that we are doing this to the best of our ability and saving the state as much money as possible while providing the member what they need and

The evolution of quality management first evolved through the works of six philosophers; Shewhart (1924), Feigenbaum (1951), Crosby (1979), Ishikawa (1972), Deming (1982), and Juran (1986). Shewhart was most known for his invention the control chart. Feigenbaum is known for having introduced the concept of total quality control. Ishikawa best known for associating quality circles as a way to achieve continuous improvement and using cause and effect diagrams to solve problems. Crosby is known for defining the 14 steps for quality improvement and introducing the plan-do-check-action cycle. Juran is best known for identifying the three basic functions of the quality management process: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement.

Yasin and Alavi (1999) conducted a quantitative study to determine if Total Quality Management (TQM) can produce quality improvement

Philip B. Crosby stated that: There has never been a case where the cost of repairing a bad product was cheaper than doing it right the first time. He established Philip Crosby Associates in 1979 to develop and offer training programmes and published his first book 'Quality is Free', which sold about one million copies.

The President Ralph Larsen has realized that Wengart has some major problems with the quality however he is focusing on the profitability instead of the longevity of the company. He needs to have the team focus on improving the quality problem or the company’s profits will continue to decrease. Larsen in the effort to improve the quality has decided to seek out help from an OD practitioner who suggests to Ralph to implement Top Quality Management (TQM). Larsen feels that this should be easy to implement and hands it off to Kent Kelly the Vice President. He feels that the TQM program was a matter of common sense (Brown, 2011, p. 365).

Further proving the point, a study titled “Best Practices in Quality Monitoring and Coaching” by Dr. Jon Anton and Anita Rockwell (free download from Benchmark Portal) noted the most common negative feelings expressed by agents regarding their quality evaluation program:

The Technique of quality control and management developed and evolved during the entire twentieth century. In early 1900s, Fredrick W. Taylor also known as the ‘father of scientific management ' presented the quality concepts. In 1913, JC Penney introduced the fundamentals of total quality management to the management side of business.

As noted in the Kerzner textbook, many people have been responsible for the quality movement with the leading contributors W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, and Philip B. Crosby. Compare and Contrast the three primary quality gurus and select one of these leaders and describe why you feel his work has definitely contributed to project quality management. Build on the items presented in the textbook in terms of their contributions and the comparison of the expert 's work. Discuss the highlights of the quality Guru 's contribution. Note what you believe are the advantages and disadvantages of this individual 's contributions. In your paper, describe why you selected this particular expert over the other two since all three have been so

Implementation of excellent quality comes with a cost. The company must decide if it is really worth compromising the quality for revenue. If the quality costs exceeds the expected revenue of the company then the company must abandon implementing quality control mechanism. If otherwise, the quality would contribute to the product value and hence the revenue.

Quality is never an accident it is always the results of high intention, sincere efforts, intelligent directions and skillful execution, it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.