Please Compare and contrast the 3 philosophers: Dr. W. Edward Deming’s, Dr. Philip B. Crosby, and Dr. Joseph M. Juran. 

Comparison Paper

Table of Contents

Introduction. 3

Dr. Edward Deming. 3

Definition of Quality. 4

Fundamental Principles. 4

Dr. Philip B. Crosby. 5

Definition of Quality. 5

Fundamental Principles. 5

Dr. Joseph M. Juran. 6

Definition of Quality. 6

Fundamental Principles. 6

Conclusion. 7

References. 8

 

Introduction

Total Quality Management (TQM) has become an integral part of the management cycle of almost all organizations in the last few decades. There is a focus on the principles of TQM in achieving the organizational goals of productivity, human resource development, improved quality and cost management. Dr. Philp B. Crosby, Dr. Joseph and Dr. W. Edwards Deming are the three famous philosophers who dedicated a great part of their lives to the advocate the principles of TQM. They themselves believed in the cause and knew that these principles and techniques can provide a solid foundation to any organization and serve its purpose of long and short term goals. In the following discussion I would through some light on the unique approaches the three philosophers had towards TQM. The approaches adopted by these philosophers is different but all of them believed that a sweeping change in the organizational processes is needed to attain quality (Hertzer, 1994). I will discuss three of the philosophers one by one in such a way that the comparison and contrast in their approaches towards TQM will be visible to the readers in a profound manner.

Dr. Edward Deming

Dr. Edward was an educator and an author. He has a PHD degree in Physics. He helped the Japanese economy in the fields of leadership and productivity and made it compete with the rest of the world in attaining the best quality for their products and services. He wrote many books including “The Father of the Third Wave of the Industrial Revolution” (Rafael, 1991). In the following sections I would like to state different aspects of Dr. Edward point of view regarding TQM that will act as a comparison and contrast analysis as compared to the other two philosophers.

Definition of Quality

Dr. Edward believed that customer is the one who has the authority to define quality. For him, quality did not have a specific definition, in fact it was a relative term that could have different definition as the needs of the customer changes over time. Experts have studied his work and have come up with three terms that better serve as a definition of quality in accordance to Dr. Edward’s work. Experts believe that predictability of degree of uniformity, lower costs and suitability for the customer’s market are the three terms that can be extracted as the definition of quality from his writings.

Fundamental Principles

Dr. Edwards’s concept of quality in an organization can be better understood with the following concepts.

1. System of Knowledge: Edward believed that profound knowledge about the functioning of organizational cycles cannot be replaced by experience (Lepore and Cohen, 1999). He stressed on the importance of striving to study about management and leadership concepts on a regular basis.
2. Do-Check-Act: This is a cycle that can in sure improvement on a regular basis.
3. Process improvement and prevention: He believed that quality should be ensured from the beginning by taking preventive measurements.
4. Chain reaction of quality improvement: Quality is a chain reaction. If you ensure quality at one department or at one instance of the production cycle, it will be reflected in other departments or the other parts of the production cycle.

Dr. Philip B. Crosby

Dr. Joseph was an internationally known expert on quality management. He was the one who believed in “Zero Defect” concept and advocated its advantages. He was an engineer by profession and worked as a technician in the quality management department of an engineering company at the start of his career. In the following sections I would like to state different aspects of Dr. Philip point of view regarding TQM that will act as a comparison and contrast analysis as compared to the other two philosophers.

Definition of Quality

Dr. Crosby defined Quality as “Conformance to the requirements”. Quality must be a measurable and it should be based on the targets that the organization has set. Crosby believed that there are two states of quality, either there is quality or there is no quality. He was of “zero deficit” management techniques (Goetsch and Stanley, 2014).

Fundamental Principles

Prevention was the basis of Dr. Crosby’s approach. He believed in quality with respect to the following concepts.

1. Do it right the first time: He focused on not waiting to make improvements after the product has been launched. Dr. Crosby said that thing must be done perfect on the first place.
2. Zero Defects: The products must be defect free. This is the fundamental principle of quality.
3. Quality improvement: Dr. Crosby stated that improved quality can be achieved with keeping in place a system for conformance to requirements, prevention, zero defects and price of the product.

Dr. Joseph M. Juran

Dr. Joseph had a degree in law and engineering. He held diverse working experience by working at engineering industries, government organizations and as an educationist.  He contributed to the economy of Japan after World War II in the field of TQM and is well known for his services in Japan and all over the world.  In the following sections I would like to state different aspects of Dr. Joseph point of view regarding TQM that will act as a comparison and contrast analysis as compared to the other two philosophers.

Definition of Quality

According to Dr. Joseph, quality can be defined as “fitness for use” (Juran, 1999). He thought that quality should not be strict domain in terms of having it or just not. He focused on a balance of having low deficiencies and the features of the product. For Dr. Joseph, a product was the output of the industrial cycle and it could be both in the form of quality or services.

Fundamental Principles

The concepts and principles of quality advocated by Dr. Joseph in respect to quality can be summarized to the following concepts:

1. The spiral progress of quality: There are specialized department that has its designated functions of production, marketing and distribution. These departments must perform their unique duties before a product can be introduced to the customers in the market.
2. Breakthrough Sequence: Quality improvement can be ensured by innovation or “breakthrough”.
3. Project by Project Approach: There should be a project by project approach to quality. Different teams should be assigned to different teams and they must be trained in leadership, problem solving and team work activities.
4. Juran trilogy: this is a systematic approach to manage quality. An active leadership is an essential part of this approach (Goetsch and Davis, 2014).

Conclusion

Irrespective of how the three philosophers i.e. Dr. W Edward Deming, Dr. Philip B. Crosby and Dr. Joseph M. Juran defined quality or approached the concept in depth. Their work has provided a basis to the concept of quality that has inspired many organizations over the years. All of them advocated a concept that was necessary to achieve a high level of human resource management, productivity and customer satisfaction that was unparalleled before.

 

References

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence.             pearson.

Hertzler, E. (1994). TQM in Higher Education: What Does the Literature Say?

Juran, J. M. (1999). How to think about Quality. JM Juran, AB Godfrey, RE Hoogstoel, and EG, Schilling (Eds.): Quality-Control Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Lepore, D., & Cohen, O. (1999). Deming and goldratt: The theory of constraints and the system of profound knowledge: The decalogue. North River Pr.

Rafael Aguayo. (1991). Dr. Deming: The American who taught the Japanese about quality.           Simon and Schuster.