Quality Management Concepts

Quality Management Concepts are not only focused on the quality of the product or service of a company, but on the means used to achieve this quality product or service.

Quality Management Gurus

Walter Shewhart (1891 – 1967) 

was an American engineer, physicist and statistician who developed the Shewhart Cycle made famous by Dr W Edwards Deming as the PDCA Cycle

Plan – Do – Check – Act.

Dr W Edwards Deming (1900 – 1993) 

wrote about the philosophies behind Quality, Productivity and competitive position. He formulated his 14 rules of QM which had Key Quality Management Concepts such as:

• Break down barriers between functions.
• Management should understand their responsibilities and act as leaders.
• Supervisors should take on supportive roles, ensuring that manpower, machines and materials were put to effective and optimal use.
• Continuous Improvement of the systems behind the production or service
• That Education and self-improvement of staff played a key role in the success of a company.

Joseph M.Juran (104 – 2008)

Juran re-discovered Pareto and the concept of the 80:20 rule. He is widely known for his beliefs in highlighting the Human Element to Quality Mangement Concepts. He pushed the topics of Education and in-house training. He also preached on the topics of:

Supplier Integration

Cost of poor quality.

ISO9000 Principles

In the Quality Standard, ISO9000 there are eight principles of Quality Management

1. Customer Focus (Determine the needs and expectations of customers and other interested)
2. Leadership (Establish policies, objectives and a work environment necessary to motivate the organisation to satisfy these needs)
3. Improvement of People (Maintain a focus on training and self-improvement of the employees)
4. Process Approach (Design, resource and manage a system of interconnected processes necessary to implement the policy and attain the objectives)
5. System Approach to Management (Systematically address the survival of Quality management with the organisation)
6. Continual Improvement (The Organisation shall pursue the continual improvement of the system from an objective evaluation of its performance)
7. Factual Approach to Decision-Making (The Organisation shall Measure and analyse the adequacy, efficiency and effectiveness of each process in fulfilling its purpose and objectives)
8. Mutually beneficial Supplier Relationships (Forge supportive and knowledgeable interfaces to the Suppliers to the organisation)

Further Quality Management Concepts

• ISO9004:2008 provides guidelines for performance Improvement
• QFD; Quality Function Deployment
• Quality Circles
• TQM: Total Quality Management
• Shewharts Cycle or PDCA cycle
• The Kaizen approach to continual Improvement. (In Japanese  “Change for the better”)
• Six Sigma Approach and DMAIC Process of Improving a situation
• Zero Defects Program as originally created by the NEC Corporation in Japan.
• Poke Yoke or the mistake-proofing of a situation.

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