Management Case Study 1

Running head: THE BATTLE OF THE GURUS 1

THE BATTLE OF THE GURUS 2

The Battle of the Gurus

The Battle of the Gurus

Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a famous quality Guru in the United States, used his expertise and skill in the improvement of the war equipment quality. Japan also used Deming’s skills to revitalize and restore the Japanese Industry that had been broken down by the World war. He was also known to be best practitioner who device the 14 points in quality improvement. (March, 1986)

Stressing leadership’s role, Deming professed 14 points for managers to incorporate at every level of the organization. He is known for his ratio - Quality is equal to the result of work efforts over the total costs. If a company is to focus on costs, the problem is that costs rise while quality deteriorates. Deming’s quality teachings emphasized system management and quality control through the use of statistical process control charts. While Deming’s theories supported quality control, his 14 points emphasized management’s responsibility for making quality improvements. (March, 1986)

Philip Crosby is an American who promoted the phrases “zero defects” and “right first time”. Zero defects doesn’t mean mistakes never happen, rather that there is no allowable number of errors built into a product or process and that you get it right first time. (Crosby, 1989)

Crosby also identified a 14-step quality process emphasizing management commitment, his philosophy focused on creating real change in organizations. He made the point, much like Deming, that if you spend money on quality, it is money that is well spent. Crosby found that leaders had to get employees’ conviction and commitment to change first before any support for change could occur. Similar to Joseph Juran’s cost-of-quality theory, Crosby discovered that quality could be measured by nonconformance costs or defects. In summary, Crosby’s quality philosophy supported top management participating in formal quality councils and providing continuous quality training for employees. (Crosby, 1989)

Deming emphasized statistical tolls and quality control, while Crosby associated the costs of quality with zero defects.

Crosby’s system could be seen as the best for most organizations. The characteristics are people do things right routinely, growth is profitable and steady, customer needs are anticipated, change is planned and managed and people are proud to work there. Crosby’s 14 points are all about committed to quality and having zero defects day which create awareness for the employee about change. His 14 points also encourage employees to achieve company goals and individual goals. Crosby also believes in keeping the employee motivated and happy. (Crosby, 1989)

The key to successful implementation of quality principles and methods is tied to leadership. In fact, lack of management and leadership commitment is considered by Crosby to be the number one cause of quality improvement failure. (Crosby, 1989)

For Deming, quality meant providing customer-satisfying products and services at a low cost. It also meant a commitment to continual innovation and improvement that the Japanese call “kaizen”. Toyota’s management system follows the Deming principles. Crosby explains quality from an engineering perspective as the conformance to precise standards and requirements. Crosby’s philosophy would fit in with most Fortune 500 companies and even the US Military.

References

Crosby, P. B. (1989). Quality without tears. Fullerton, CA: McGraw-Hill.

Deming's Theory of Management. (n.d.). Management And Accounting Web Home Page. Retrieved from http://maaw.info/DemingMain.htm

March, A. (1986). A note on quality: The views of Deming, Juran, and Crosby. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

Suarez, J. G., Crosby, P. B., Deming, W. E., Juran, J. M., & United States. (1992). Three experts on quality management: Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran. Arlington, VA: Dept. of the Navy TQL Office.

Zero Defects. (n.d.). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Defects