American Society for Quality (ASQ)
The American Society for Quality (ASQ) description of quality -
-Quality is not a program; it is an approach to business
-Quality is defined by the customer through his or her satisfaction
-Quality is aimed at the performance excellence; anything less is an improvement opportunity
- Quality increases customer satisfaction, reduces cycle times and costs, and eliminates errors and
rework
Who is regarded as the intellectual father of total quality management (TQM)? -
Dr. W. Edward Deming
Demming's 14 point system for TQM -
1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become
competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis
by building quality into the product in the first place.
4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimise total cost. Move
towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and
productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do
a better job. Supervision of management is in need of an overhaul, as well as supervision of production
workers.
8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must
work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product
or service.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce asking for zero defects and new
levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes
of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work
force.
11. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.
