Comparison of Quality Philosophies - Research Paper Example

Quality involves meeting or exceeding customers’ expectations in products and provision of services. Generally, quality management is the process of directing the whole production process towards producing excellent and quality products and services that meet or exceed customers’ expectations. There are various quality philosophies that have been developed by various individuals and institutions (Hoyer and Hoyer, 2001). This focus paper will compare the quality philosophies of W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Moses Juran, Philip Bayard Crosby, and the Project Management Institute.

Edwards Deming Philosophy Edwards Deming philosophy on quality asserted that quality is a process that uses statistical control techniques and that managers should intervene in the production process towards achieving the desired quality. His philosophy holds that quality should go beyond statistical quality control and that building quality of a product should be done at all stages. Apart from the role of management in promoting quality, Deming emphasized on the role of workers in improving quality by stating that workers should be proud and satisfied in order to meet the desired quality. . Joseph Juran, his is considered as a total departure from Deming’s; Deming’s approach emphasizes on adopting new philosophy and throwing out the old system, but Juran’s approach emphasizes on working to improve the current system.

Juran’s quality philosophy expressed the need to concentrate more on the “vital few” problems’ sources rather than be distracted by problems that are less important (Ross and Perry, 1999). In regard to approach to quality, performance standard, and quality measurement, Juran developed a trilogy that involves: quality improvement through infrastructure development and implementation of projects; quality control through performance assessment; and quality planning through determination of customer needs.

He believed that management had a bigger role in quality compared to workers and that technical and management methods were more important than worker satisfaction (Mouradian, 2002). Philip Crosby Philosophy Quality philosophy of Philip Crosby emphasized that quality that meets customer requirements focuses more on prevention rather than correction. He believed that poor quality costs nearly 20 percent of the revenue; a cost that could be avoided if good quality practices is used. Crosby established the Absolutes of Quality Management which includes the only performance standard which makes sense are Zero Defects (Rose, 2005).

His approach to quality and quality measurement involved defining quality as conformance to requirements, not goodness. His philosophy also states that prevention rather than appraisal as a system to achieve quality. The measure of quality according to this philosophy is the price of non-conformance, and not indexes. He acknowledged that both the management and workers have a role to play in improving