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Quest for zero defect
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THE QUEST FOR DEFECT(Originally written for our organisation's internal magazine) Here is an interesting and thought provoking passage that I found in a book by Philip B Crosby called "Quality Without Tears". It makes me realise that we must not just accept second best as a way of life, but rather we must really strive to deliver a zero defect service. Our organisation's Vision Statement begins and ends with quality statements such as "pursuit towards excellence" and "world class standard" (as do most other organisations). It is up to each of us to realise this Vision and not let it just be a poster on the wall. If this becomes a way of life for us, quality will not be an effort, but rather a time and cost saver. You may be familiar with the phrase "Quest for Zero Defect" as it is associated today with a popular and successful Japanese company. It is no secret that Japanese companies are very successful in the Quality Assurance arena. Thirty years ago Japanese products were regarded as cheap and of second grade quality. Today "Made in Japan" is synonymous with good quality. The reason for this is that they have formulated and applied numerous of the successful concepts such as the Zero Defect concept. The Zero Defect concept itself was actually devised by Phillip Crosby. Mr Crosby was a line quality manager for a missile manufacturing company. His company's missiles went to Cape Canaveral for testing. One day they started receiving telexes from Cape Canaveral saying that they found up to eleven defects per missile. Some were minor like scratched paintwork, others were more serious such as uncaged gyro's. The defects were repaired but it was costing time and money and the customer was not happy. The general manager called Mr Crosby in. Mr Crosby explained that there were over 50 000 parts in each missile and allowing for six possible errors that gave a potential of 300 000 possible errors. He explained further that statistically the normal distribution curve showed that 99.73 percent of related things fall under the curve. Therefore, statistically these errors were acceptable. The GM smiled and told Mr Crosby that he was pleased with his efforts but that he knew that somewhere in the world there was a quality manager who could get products and services with no problems in them. Then he said to Mr Cosby that he really hoped that that manager would be Mr Crosby himself and not someone else. Mr Crosby suddenly realised that they were talking about his survival, and not the niceties of quality. He realised that he had conditioned himself and others to accept that errors were inevitable and therefore acceptable. And there and then the concept of Zero Defect was borne. Note that this concept or performance standard is specific (zero defects) and not 99% or "that's close enough". Zero Defects concept (Quoted from pages 82-83 in his book): People are carefully conditioned throughout their private life to accept that people are not perfect and that they do make mistakes. And people do make mistakes, especially those that expect to make some every day, and they do not become upset about it. You might say that they have accepted a standard that requires a few mistakes in order to be perceived as human. The question must arise as to whether humans have a built in defect ratio. Do they make the same percentage of errors in everything they do? Like cashing in their pay cheques, will they forget to pay their income tax 5% of the time, will they go home to the wrong house several times each month? If these assumptions are wrong, then errors must be a function of the importance a person places on specific things. People are more careful about one act than another. They have learnt that it is alright to make mistakes at work, but it is not permissible to defraud the government. In short a dual attitude has developed. Mistakes are caused by two factors: Lack of knowledge and lack of attention. Knowledge can be measured and deficiencies corrected through tried and tested means. Lack of attention must be corrected by the person himself or herself, through an acute reappraisal of his/her moral values. This is an attitude problem. The person who commits himself/herself to watch each detail and carefully avoid error, takes the giant step toward setting a goal of Zero Defects in all things. |