EBE 503: QUALITY CONTROL METHODS

Quality
Quality can be defined as a degree of excellence, or as conformance to set requirements.
In food products, quality can be defined as fitness of use, healthy and safe for human
consumption.
Quality can also be defined as fitness of purpose, or lack of defects, or freedom from defects,
or simply, no defects.
The ability of a product to satisfy customers’ needs, or in other words, a product that is
delightful to targeted customers.

Objective of maintaining the quality of products/output of maintaining quality;

 Ensure safety to customers
 Maintain competitive edge in the market/remain competitive
 To enhance quality assurance
 To keep customers satisfied
 Comply with government regulations
In engineering, quality ensures reliability by achieving quality standards. This means that the
level of quality produces its equivalent reliability.
Reliability is the probability that the item will function correctly when needed for the period
required in the specified environment. This product will satisfy a need for a certain duration of
time in some defined environment.
Quality is valuable because when you have it, it brings success to the customer and
consequently to the business the customer buys from.

Quality management
Quality management is cross-functional in nature and involves the entire organization.
Operations in an organization have a special responsibility to produce a quality product for the
customer. This requires the cooperation of the entire organization and careful attention to the
management and control of quality. Quality is composed of four components;
 Quality planning
 Quality assurance
 Quality control
 Quality improvement
Quality management is focused not only on product and service quality but also on the means
to achieving it.
Quality management therefore uses quality assurance in control of processes as well as
products to achieve more consistent quality.

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Statistical Quality Control (SQC)
Statistics means that good amount of data is obtained to give reliable results. The science of
statistics handles this data in order to draw certain conclusions. The techniques of statistics has
got an extensive application in quality control, production planning and control, linear
programming, etc.
Control is a system of measuring or checking, or inspecting features of a product or service. It
suggests when to inspect, how often to inspect, how much to inspect. Controls ascertains
quality characteristics of an item, compares the same with prescribed quality standards and
separates defective items from non-defective ones.
The SQC is a term used to describe a set of statistical tools used by quality professionals. SQC
is used to analyze the quality problems and solve them. SQC refers to the use of these statistical
methods in monitoring and maintaining quality of products and services.
There are two ways of approaching problem-solving. These are the emergency measures
and preventive measures. For example, when company — A lodges a claim, we will
immediately apologize — emergency measures. In this instance the measures taken are of great
importance. However, it is also important that we make certain that preventive measures are
taken against the cause of the claim. The problems (theme) at the workplace are, for example,
defective goods, occurrence of accidents, transitional production plans and sales plans,
deformities and abnormalities.

Objectives of statistical quality control

Quality control is very important for every company. It includes service given to customer,
company management leadership, continuous improvement, employee participation and
quality driven culture.
The main objectives of quality control module are to control material reception, internal
rejections, clients, claims, providers and evaluations of corrective actions.
It is a scientific interpretation of the quality status of a product or service.
The development and use of performance indicators is linked directly or indirectly to customer
requirements and satisfaction and to the management.

Benefits of statistical quality control

i. It provides a means of detecting errors at inspection.
ii. It leads to more uniform quality of production.
iii. It improves relationships with customers because when the customer is given the
statistical results of the analysis, he develops confidence in the product or the company.
iv. It reduces inspection costs.
v. It reduces the number of rejects and saves the cost of material.
vi. It provides the basis of attainable specifications.
vii. It points out the bottlenecks and trouble spots.
viii. It provides the means of determining the capability of manufacturing process.

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ix. It promotes the understanding and appreciation of quality control.

Methods and tools of statistical quality control

All tools of SQC are helpful in evaluating the quality of services. SQC uses different methods
to analyze quality problem.
1. Descriptive statistics: It involves describing quality characteristics and relationships.
such as the mean, range, and variance.
2. Statistical process control: Statistical process control (SPC) involves inspecting a
random sample of output from a process and deciding whether the process in producing
products with characteristics that fall within preset specifications.
3. Acceptance sampling: Acceptance sampling involves batch sampling by inspection in
order to decide whether to accept or reject the entire lot.
The major tools used for statistical quality control includes the following;
i. Histogram – utilizes bar graphs. is a bar graph which shows the frequency distribution
of the data of a group about the central value. The histogram is an important diagnostic
tool because it gives a ‘‘Birds’s-eye-view’’ of the variation in a data set. A histogram can
be used for
a) Comparisons of process distribution before and after the improvement action
(production, vendor performance, administration, purchase, inspection, etc.)
b) Comparison of different groups (production, vendor to vendor difference etc.)
c) Relationship with specification limits.
ii. Pareto chart – utilizes dots to show cluster. The primary purpose and use of pareto
diagrams is to focus improvement efforts on the most important causes by identifying the
vital few and trivial many causes.
The Pareto Chart Indicates the following :
a) What are the problems,
b) Which problem needs to be tackled on priority.
c) What percentage (%) of the total does each problem present.
iii. Cause and effect diagram – more like the fall-tree analysis. A cause and effect diagram
in a pictorial representation of all possible causes which are supposed to influence an
‘‘effect’’ which is under consideration.
For every effect there are likely to be several causes. They can be classified under men,
methods, materials, machines, policies, procedures, plant etc. These categories are only
suggestions. You may use any category that emerges or helps people think creatively.
iv. Check Sheet is a data gathering format prepared in such a way that the data collection is
simplified.
The check sheet preparation considers the representatives of the information to be
recorded and simplifies the data that is to be actually recorded everytime to a mere check
work. Check sheets are simply an easy to understand form used to answer the question
‘‘how often certain events are happening’’ ? It starts the process of translating into facts.
v. Control chart – is a chart to examine whether a process is in stable condition or to
ensure that process is maintained in stable condition.

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The control limits are indicated by two line viz. Upper control limit and lower control
limit. If the points are within the control limit lines, then the process is in stable
condition. The fluctuation of the points within the control limit line results from common
causes built into the process. However points outside the limits come from a special
cause.

vi. Stratification is the technique of obtaining data in different groups based on segregated
causes.
In general the poor quality is resulted due to the influence of multiple causes. To identify
the principle cause of poor quality it is necessary to collect the data in different groups
according to the different causes.
Areas of Application
 Raw Material — Supplier wise stratification Batch wise stratification
 Production — Machine wise stratification operator wise stratification shift wise
 Finance — Stratification of income and expenditure as per different categories.
 Safety etc., — Accident type wise stratification.
vii. Scatter Diagram
Scatter diagram is a simple statistical tool to understand in a better way the relationship
between two variables. It makes clear whether a relationship exists between two variables
and the strength of that relationship.

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Statistical quality control involves using statistical techniques to measure and analyze
variation in processes.
a. Statistical process control (SPC)

The intention of SPC is to monitor process quality and maintain processes to fixed targets.
It is used to monitor the consistency of process, used to manufacture a product as designed.

It aims to get and keep processes under control no matter how good or bad the design.

SPC can ensure that the product or service is being produced as designed and intended.

Thus SPC will not improve a poor product reliability, but can be used to maintain the
consistency of how the product is made and therefore of the manufactured product itself
and its designed reliability.

The primary tool used for SPC is the control chart which is a graphical representation of
certain descriptive statistics for specific qualitative measurements of the manufacturing
process.

These descriptive statistics are displayed in the control chart in comparison to their control
sampling distributions.

The comparison detects any unusual variation in the manufacturing process which indicate
the problem with the process.

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Several different discrete statistics can be used in control charts and there are several
different types of control charts that can test for different causes such as how quickly major
versus minor sheets in process means are detected.

Control charts are used with product measurements to analyze process capability and for
continuous process improvement efforts.

b. Acceptance sampling

This refers to the process of randomly inspecting certain number of items from a lot or a batch
in order to decide whether to accept or decline the entire batch. What makes acceptance
sampling control different from statistical quality control is that it is performed either before
or after the process, rather than during the process.

Acceptance handling before the process involves sampling materials received from the supplier
that will be used in the machine shop. Sampling after the process involves sampling finished
items that are to be shipped ether to a customer or to a distribution Centre; for example one can
randomly test a certain number of computers from a batch to make sure they meet operational
requirements and randomly inspecting their components to make sure that they are not
defective.

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Variations

Variations in production process leads to quality defects and lack of product consistency. No
two products are exactly alike because of slight differences in materials, workers, machines,
tools and other factors. These are called common or random causes of variation.

Common causes of variation are based on random causes that we cannot identify. These types
of variation are unavoidable and are due to slight differences in processing.

The second type of variation that can be observed involves variation where the causes are
precisely identified and eliminated. These are called assignable causes of variation. Examples
of this type of variations are; Poor quality in raw material, an employee who needs more
training, or a machine in need of repair.

In each of these examples the problem can be identified and corrected. Also if the problem is
allowed to persist, it will continue to create the problem in the quality of the product.

c. Descriptive statistics
Descriptive statistics are helpful in describing certain characteristics of a product. The most
important descriptive statistics are measures of central tendencies such as the mean, measures
of variability such as standard deviation and range and measures of distributions of data.

To compute the mean, we simply sum all the observations then divide the obtained value by
the total number of observations. This can be expressed mathematically as;

The range and standard deviation

The information obtained from this statistics provide us with the amount of variability of data.
It tells us how spread out the data is around the mean. The range is the difference between the

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largest and the smallest observations, while the standard deviation measures the amount of
data dispersion around the mean.

Where;
 sigma is the standard deviation of the sample
 And x bar is the mean
 Xi is the observation
 n is the number of observations in the sample

Small values of the range and standard deviation means that the observations are closely
clustered around the mean while large values of the range and standard deviation means that
the observations are spread out around the mean.

In the first distribution, the standard deviation is large and the data is spread out far around the
mean, while in the second distribution, the standard deviation is small and the data is clustered
close to the mean.

Distribution of data

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The third descriptive statistic used to measure quality characteristic is the shape of the
distribution of the observed data.

When the distribution is symmetric there are the same number of observations below and
above the mean. This is what we commonly find when only normal variation is present in the
data.

When a disproportionate number of observations are either above or below the mean, we say
that the data has a skewed distribution as in the figure above.

Development of control charts

Using statistical process control, we want to determine the amount of variation that is
common/normal. Then we monitor the production process to make sure production stays within
this normal range. I.e. we want to make sure that the process is in a state of control.
Control chart is a common tool used for monitoring production process. There are different
types of control charts i.e.
 X bar charts
 R-charts
 P-charts
 C-chart

The control chart is a graph that shows whether a sample of data falls within the
common/normal range of variation.

A control chart has got upper and lower control limits that separate common from assignable
causes of variation.

The common range of variation

Is defined by the use of control chats limits. The process is out of control when a plotted data
reveals that one or more samples, falls outside the control limits.

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In the figure above, the y axis represents the quality characteristics that is being monitored, the
Centre line CL, is the mean of average of the quality characteristic that is being measured.

The upper control limit UCL is the maximum acceptable variation from the mean for a
process that is in a state of control.

The lower control limit LCL is the minimum acceptable variation from the mean for a process
that is in a state of control.

The upper & lower control limits on a control chart are usually set at plus or minus 3 deviations
from the mean.

If we assume that the data exhibit normal distribution, then the control limit will capture
99.74% of the normal variations.

Control variations can be set at +2 or – 2 standard deviations from the mean. In that case control
limits will capture 95.44% of the values.

The shaded area reflects variations due to assignable causes.

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There is a small probability that the value that falls outside the limits is still due to normal
variation. This is called type one error with the error being the chance of concluding that there
are assignable causes of variation when only one variation exists.

Alfa risk where alpha refers to the sum of the probabilities in both tails of the distribution that
falls outside the confidence limits. The chance of this happening is given by the percentage or
probability represented by the shaded areas.

The above are the probabilities of type one error.

Types of control charts

The different characteristics that can be measured by control charts can be divided into two
groups;

 Variables and
 attributes

A control chart for variables is used to monitor characteristics that can be measured and have
continuous values such as height, weight, volume.

A control chart for attributes is used to monitor characteristics that have discreet values and
can be counted. They can be evaluated with a simple yes or no decision. Examples include
color, taste, smell etc.

Statistical process control is used to monitor different types of variables and attributes. One of
them is;

Mean (x-bar) charts.

This chart is used to monitor changes in the mean of a process. To construct the mean chart we
first need to construct the centerline of the chart.

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To do this we take multiple samples and compute their means, usually these samples are small
with about four or five observations. Each sample has its own mean x bar; so the centerline of
the chart is then computed as the mean of all K sample means where K is the number of
samples.
To construct the UCL and LCL of chart we use the following formulae;

Where
 x double bar is the average of the sample means and
 Z is the standard normal variable (2 for 99.44% confidence) 3 for 99.74 % confidence,
 Sigma x bar is the standard deviation of the distribution of sample means which is
computed as;

 Sigma alone is the population standard deviation and

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 n is the sample size (number of observations per sample)
Example
The quality control inspector in a company has taken five samples with four observations each.
The data and the computed means are shown below. If the standard deviation of this operation
is 0.14, use this information to develop control limits of three standard deviations for this
operation;

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Another way to construct a control limit is to use the sample range as an estimate of variability
of the process. Remember that the range is the difference between the largest and the smallest
values in the sample. The spread of the range can tell us about the variability of the data. Then;

A2 is a factor that includes three standard deviations of the ranges and is dependent in the
sample size being considered.
An illustration; if;

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Range (R) charts

R chart is another type of control chart for variables whereas x bar charts measure shift in the
central tendency of the process.

The range charts monitor the dispersion or the variability of the process. The method for
developing or using R charts is the same as that for x bar charts.

The centerline of the control chart is the average range i.e R bar, and the upper and lower
control limits are computed as follows;

You can use the mean and range charts to monitor different variables since both variables are
important, it makes sense to monitor the process using both mean and the range charts. It is
possible to have a shift in the mean for the product but not change in the dispersion.

The dispersion should be the same and a shift could be detected by x bar chart but not by Range
chart. This is shown in the figure a above.

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However, the dispersion of the product may have increased and such a condition may be
detected by the range chart but not by xbar chart because a shift in either the mean or the range
means that the process is out of control, and it is important to use both charts to monitor the
process.
CONTROL CHARTS FOR ATTRIBUTES

Control charts are used to measure quality characteristics that are counted rather than measured.
Attributes are discrete in nature and entail simple yes or no decisions. For example these could
be the no functioning light bulbs.

We have two types of these control charts;

 The P-charts and

 C – Charts.

P-charts are used to measure the proportion of items in a sample that are defective. Each chart
is appropriate when both the number of defective measured and the size of the total sample can
be counted.

The proportion can then be computed and used as the statistic of measurement.

C-charts count the actual number of defects; for example we can count the number of
complaints from customers in a period of time. However, we cannot compute the proportion
of complaints from customers.

P-charts

The computation of the centerline of a p-chart as well as the upper and lower control limit is
similar to the previous charts. The centerline is computed as the average proportion defective
in the population.

This is obtained by taking a number of samples of observations randomly and completing the
average value of P across all samples.

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 Z is the standard normal variable
 P bar the sample proportion effective
 Sigma P is the standard deviation of the average proportion deffective
Just like other charts, Z is selected to be either two or three standard deviations depending on
the amount of data we wish to capture in our control units. The standard deviation is equal to;

Example;
The production manager at the tire manufacturing plant has inspected the number of defective
tires in five random samples with 20 observations each. Construct a 3-sigma control charts with
this information.

NB: Since LCL is a –ve, it is rounded up to zero because we cannot have a –ve control limit.

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C-Charts

C-charts are used to monitor the number of defects per unit, for example the number of trucks that
exceed their weight limit in a month. Note that the type of units of measurement we are considering are
the period of time, surface area or the volume of a given liquid.

The average number of defects C bar is the centerline of the control chart. The upper and lower control
limits are;

Example
The number of weekly customer complaints are monitored at the large hotel using c chart.
Complaints have been recorded for the past 20 weeks.

PROCESS CAPABILITY

A critical aspect of statistical quality control is evaluating the ability of a production process to
meet or exceed preset specifications. This is called process capability. Product specifications
are also called tolerance which are preset ranges of acceptable quality characteristics.

For a product to be considered acceptable, its characteristics must fall within preset range.
These specifications are usually established by design engineers or product design specialists.
To be capable of producing an acceptable product, the process variation cannot exceed the
preset specifications.

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Process capability thus involves evaluating process variability relative to preset product
specifications in order to determine whether the process is capable of producing an acceptable
product.

Measuring process capability;

To produce an acceptable product, the process must be capable and in control before production
begins. Refer to the sketches below;

In the figure a above, the process produces 99.74% (3.sigma) of the product with dimensions
between x and y. We can see that the process variability closely matches the preset
specifications. Almost all the outputs fall within the preset specification range.

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While in figure b above, the process produces 99.74% (3.sigma) of the product with the same
dimensions of x and y. The process variability is outside the preset specifications, therefore a
large percentage of the product will fall outside the specified limit.

This means that the process is not capable of producing the product within the preset
specifications.

The production process produces the same 99.74% (3.sigma) of the product with the dimension
AB. In this case the process variability is within specifications and the process exceeds the
minimum capability.

The process capability is measured by the process capability index (Cp) which is the ratio of
the specification width to the width of the process.

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The process width is computed as 6 standard deviation of the process being monitored because
most of the process measurement (99.74%) falls within 3 standard deviations 5 giving a total
of six standard deviations.

The following are the interpretations of Cp

Cp=1 means that the process variability just meets the specifications so the process is
minimally capable

Means that the process variability is outside the range of specifications, hence the process is
not capable of producing within specification and the process must be improved.

Means that the process is tighter than specifications and the process exceeds minimal
capability.

Example;
The standard deviations of machines A, B and C are 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2. If the specifications are
set between 15.8 and 16.2 units, determine which of the machines are capable of producing
within specifications.

The above process has got one shortcoming, i.e. it assumes that the process variability is
centered on the specification range. Unfortunately, this is not always the case
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From the above we can see that the process variation is not centered and its mean is different
from the mean of specification width. This means that a certain proportion of products will fall
outside the specification range.
If we use the previous method then we are most likely to get errors in Cp, hence we use the
following method;

To use this measure, the process capability of each curve of the normal distribution is computed
and the minimum of the two is used.

Example;
Compute the Cpk measure of process capability for the following machine and interpret the
findings. What value could you have obtained from the Cp measure?
USL = 110, LSL = 60, Process sigma = 8 and process mue = 60

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Significance of process capability
 Management or regulations set acceptable levels of variation in order to determine if a
product is defective or not. For example, a product is not defective if it is filled to 16 ounces
plus or minus one ounce. For this product, the upper specification limit would be 17 ounces,
while the lower specification limit would be 15 ounces.
 Process capability tells us whether or not the process itself is capable of manufacturing
product that has a high probability of falling within the specification limits (is not
defective).
 Process capability is measured by comparing the specifications to the actual variation in
the process. The process capability index is the width of the specifications divided by the
width of the process variation. If the process capability index is less than one, then the
process is not capable of producing within specifications. The higher the index, the more
capable the process. The index can be used to determine how many defects are produced
on average.

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Tables:

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QUALITY INSPECTION

Inspection is the most common method of attaining standardisation, uniformity and quality of
workmanship. It is the cost art of controlling the product quality after comparison with the
established standards and specifications. It is the function of quality control. If the said item
does not fall within the zone of acceptability it will be rejected and corrective measure will be
applied to see that the items in future conform to specified standards.
Inspection is an indispensable tool of modern manufacturing process. It helps to control
quality, reduces manufacturing costs, eliminate scrap losses and assignable causes of defective
work.

Objectives of Inspection
i. To collect information regarding the performance of the product with established
standards for the use of engineering production, purchasing and quality control etc.
ii. To sort out poor quality of manufactured product and thus to maintain standards.
iii. To establish and increase the reputation by protecting customers from receiving poor
quality products.
iv. Detect source of weakness and failure in the finished products and thus check the work
of designer.

Purpose of Inspection
1. To distinguish good lots from bad lots
2. To distinguish good pieces from bad pieces.
3. To determine if the process is changing.
4. To determine if the process is approaching the specification limits.
5. To rate quality of product.
6. To rate accuracy of inspectors.
7. To measure the precision of the measuring instrument.
8. To secure products – design information.
9. To measure process capability.

Stages of Inspection
1. Inspection of incoming material
2. Inspection of production process
3. Inspection of finished goods

Inspection of incoming materials. It is also called receiving inspection. It consists of

inspecting and checking of all the purchased raw materials and parts that are supplied before
they are taken on to stock or used in actual manufacturing. Inspection may take place either at
supplier’s end or at manufacturer’s gate. If the incoming materials are large in quantity and
involve huge transportation cost it is economical to inspect them at the place of vendor or
supplier.
Inspection of production process. The work of inspection is done while the production
process is simultaneously going on. Inspection is done at various work centres of men and
machines and at the critical production points. This had the advantage of preventing wastage
of time and money on defective units and preventing delays in assembly.

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Inspection of finished goods. This is the last stage when finished goods are inspected and
carried out before marketing to see that poor quality product may be either rejected or sold at
reduced price.

Inspection Procedures
There are three ways of doing inspection. They are Floor inspection, Centralised inspection
and Combined inspection.

Floor Inspection
It suggests the checking of materials in process at the machine or in the production time by
patrolling inspectors. These inspectors moves from machine to machine and from one to the
other work centres. Inspectors have to be highly skilled. This method of inspection minimise
the material handling, does not disrupt the line layout of machinery and quickly locate the
defect and readily offers field and correction.
Advantages
1. Encourage co-operation of inspector and foreman.
2. Random checking may be more successful than batch checking.
3. Does not delay in production.
4. Saves time and expense of having to more batches of work for inspection.
5. Inspectors may see and be able to report on reason of faculty work.
Disadvantages
1. Difficult in inspection due to vibration.
2. Possibility of biased inspection because of worker.
3. Pressure on inspector.
4. High cost of inspection because of numerous sets of inspections and skilled inspectors.

Suitability
 Heavy products are produced.
 Different work centres are integrated in continuous line layout.

Centralised Inspection
Materials in process may be inspected and checked at centralised inspection centre
which are located at one or more places in the manufacturing industry.

Advantages
1. Better quality checkup.
2. Closed supervision.
3. Absence of workers pressure.
4. Orderly production flow and low inspection cost.
Disadvantages
1. More material handling.
2. Delays of inspection room causes wastage of time.
3. Work of production control increases.
4. Due to non-detection of machining errors in time, there may be more spoilage of work.

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Suitability
 Incoming materials inspection.
 Finished product inspection.
 Departmental inspection.
 High precision products of delicate products.
 Small and less expensive products.

Combined Inspection
Combination of two methods what ever may be the method of inspection, whether floor or
central. The main objective is to locate and prevent defect which may not repeat itself in
subsequent operation to see whether any corrective measure is required and finally to maintain
quality economically.

Methods of Inspection
There are two methods of inspection. They are 100% inspection and Sampling inspection.

100% Inspection
This type will involve careful inspection in detail of quality at each strategic point or stage of
manufacture where the test involved is non-destructive and every piece is separately inspected.
It requires more number of inspectors and hence it is a costly method.
There is no sampling error. This is subjected to inspection error arising out of fatigue,
negligence, difficulty of supervision etc. Hence complete accuracy of influence is seldomly
attained.
It is suitable only when a small number of pieces are there or a very high degree of quality is
required. Example : Jet engines, Aircraft, Medical and Scientific equipment.

Sampling Inspection
In this method randomly selected samples are inspected. Samples taken from different batches
of products are representatives. If the sample prove defective. The entire concerned is to be
rejected or recovered. Sampling inspection is cheaper and quicker. It requires less number of
Inspectors. Its subjected to sampling errors but the magnitude of sampling error can be
estimated. In the case of destructive test, random or sampling inspection is desirable. This type
of inspection governs wide currency due to the introduction of automatic machines or
equipments which are less susceptible to chance variable and hence require less inspection,
suitable for inspection of products which have less precision importance and are less costly.
Example : Electrical bulbs, radio bulbs, washing machine etc.
Destructive tests conducted for the products whose endurance or ultimate strength properties
are required.
Example : Flexible strength, resistance capacity, compressibility etc.

Drawbacks of Inspection
 Inspection adds to the cost of the product but not for its value.
 It is partially subjective, often the inspector has to judge whether a product passes or not.

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Example : Inspector discovering a slight burnish on a surface must decide whether it is bad
enough to justify rejection even with micrometers a tight or loose fit change measurement by
say 0.0006 inches. The inspectors design is important as he enforces quality standards.

 Fatigue and Monotony may affect any inspection judgement.

 Inspection merely separates good and bad items. It is no way to prevent the production of
bad items.

QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS
Quality of Design
Quality design is a technical term. It can be regarded as a composite of 3 separate terms or
steps in a common progression of activities.
i. Identification of what constitutes fitness for use to the user (Quality of market research).
ii. Choice of concept of product or service to be responsible to the identified needs of the user
(Quality of concept).
iii. Translation of the chosen product concept into a detailed set of specifications which is
faithfully executed, will then meet the user’s need (Quality of specification).
The total progression composed of these three activities is called ‘‘Quality of Design’’ and it
may be said to consist of Quality of market research; Quality of concept and Quality of
specification.
Example : All automobiles provide the user with the service of transportation. The various
models differ as to size, comfort, appearance, performance, economy, status conferred etc.
These differences are in turn the results of intended or designed differences in the size, styling,
materials, tolerances, test programs etc. Higher quality of design can be attained only at an
increase in costs.

Quality of Comformance
The design must reflect the needs of fitness for use, and the products must also confirm to the
design. The extent to which the product does confirm to the design is called ‘‘Quality of
conformance’’. This extent of conformance is determined by variables as :
i. Choice of process i.e., whether they are able to hold the tolerances.
ii. Training of the supervision and the work force.
iii. Degree of adherence to the program of inspect, test, audit etc. motivation for quality.
Higher quality of conformance can be attained with an accompanying reduction in cost.
Example : Two scooters both are produced at the same level of time but one may be 100%
according to the drawing and specification of the same design; the second scooter may be 90%
according to the drawing and specification and probably a few dimensions may be different
from those of drawing. Therefore quality of conformance of 1st scooter is better than the 2nd
scooter even though both are of same design.

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Quality Costs
Quality costs are the incurring in introducing quality and benefits. This is done by identifying
and defining the following categories of costs which are associated with making, finding,
repairing or avoiding (preventing) defects.

Hierarchy of quality cost and breakdown of quality cost

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Evolution of Quality

The requirement for Quality Control dates back to the time when human race wanted to
replicate an object. The desire to control quality is as old as human’s ability to produce things
the forerunning attempts to control quality resulted in rather crude replicas of original objects.
These replicas were produced in a way that could easily be discerned by the naked eye. As time
passed, human’s developed the competence to duplicate objects so that they become
indistinguishable from one another. The drawback for this was that the assembly with any
alternation or adjustment was not possible.

Eli Whitney conceived the idea of perfect interchangeability of parts. He emphasized that if
proper raw material, methods and equipment are used and if workmen exercised the right
amount of course, items can be produced somewhat in an identical manner. In 1799, he
contracted to supply rifles to the army. Mr. Whitney was partially successful in getting each
workman to make one part of the exact specification he could still do only selective assembly.
But did establish the fact that production time can be reduced.

It was not until the early 1800s that man began to realise the necessity of tolerance in parts.
The interchangeability in industrial activity resulted in many problems on measurements. A
Swedish engineer named Johansson conceived the idea of a hard metal block that could be
machined and polished to exact dimension, which can be used as points of reference. These
blocks were referred to as ‘Jo’ blocks.

In the middle of the 17th century, Pascal, the French philosopher and mathematician become
quite talker by the games of chance. He formulated that theory of probability in association
with Pierre Fermat. During the 1800s, considerable progress was made in the development of
the sampling theory.

Modern quality control or statistical quality control (SQC) as we know it today started with
invention of quality control chart by Walter A Shewhart of Bell Telephone Labs, USA in 1930s.
Dr. Shewhart proposed the statistical methods could be effectively used for examining whether

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the items produced by any process were of uniform quality or not. The real impetus for the
application of these methods on a massive scale resulted from the economic pressure for more
efficient utilization of equipment and resources during World War II Dr. Shewhart wrote a
book economic control of quality of manufactured products, which was published in 1931. The
objective explicitly put-forth in the title was ‘‘Economic Control’’.

British Standards
England also developed quality control at relatively early date, the application of which was
evident in the adoption of British Standards 600 in 1935 on E.S. Pearson’s statistical work.
Later US Z-1 standards were adopted in there entirely as British standard were used in England
during the time of war. These standards stimulated technological advances in terms of
production quantity, quality and cost. It would be an exaggeration to say that World War II was
won by sing statistical quality control methods. Some of the statistical methods researched and
utilized by the allied power were so effective that they were regarded as military secrets until
the surrender of Nazi Germany.

The Japanese knew about the British standards 600 in the pre-war year and translated them
into Japanese during the War Japanese effort in modern statistics was expressed in
mathematical language which was difficult to understand. Quality was controlled by inspection
and not every product was sufficiently inspected. Hence, Japan had to compete with price and
not with quality. It was literally the age of ‘‘Cheap and poor’’ products from Japan. Learning
from US Having faced defeat in World War II Japan lost all that it had and could not even feed
people with food, clothing and shelter. They realized that if you make poor quality products
then the troops so, it was a matter of life and death. It was at his critical juncture that the US
occupational (USOF) having landed in Japan; ordered the Japanese telecommunication
industry to learn the use of modern quality control and took steps to educate the industry. This
was the beginning of SQC in Japan in 1946. Quality control methods taught by the USOF were
not modified for the Japanese. Though this created some problems the methods reached beyond
the telecom industry. Japanese could really make tremendous progress by making heavy
investments and by inviting great scholars like Dr. Deming in 1950 and Dr. Juran in 1954 the
huge investment made in education and training at the crucial time paid very rich dividends in
Japan.

The development of quality activities has spanned the entire of 20th century curiously
significant changes in the approach to quality activities have occurred every 20 years. Quality
activities have traversed a long path from operator Inspection (1900s) to verification of quality
by supervisors (1920s) to establishment if quality control departments and 100% inspection
(1940s) to statistical quality control (1960s) to TQC with statistical control (1980’s) TQM and
statistical problem solving (1990s).

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Total Quality Management (TQM) is an enhancement to the traditional way of doing
business. It is a proven technique to guarantee survival in world-class competition. Only by
changing the actions of management will the culture and actions of an entire organization be
transformed. TQM is for the most part common sense. Analyzing these words.
Total — made up of the whole
Quality — Degree of Excellence a Product or Service provides
Management — Act, art or manner of handling, controlling, directing etc.

Basic TQM Concepts

TQM requires six basic concepts :
1. A committed and involved management to provide long-term top-to-bottom
organizational support.
2. An unwavering focus on the customer, both internally and externally.
3. Effective involvement and utilization of the entire work force.
4. Continuous improvement of the business and production process.
5. Treating suppliers as partners.
6. Establish performance measures for the processes.
There concepts outline an excellent way to run an organization as explained below.
1. Management must participate in the quality program. A quality council must be
established to develop a clear vision, set long-term goals and direct the program.
Managers participate on quality improvement teams and also as coaches to other teams.
TQM is a continual activity that must be entrenched in the culture it is not just a one-
shot program. TQM must be communicated to all people.
2. The key to an effective TQM program is its focus on the customer. An excellent place
to start is by satisfying internal customers. We must listen to the ‘‘Voice of the
customer’’ and emphasize design quality and defect prevention.
3. TQM is an organization–wide challenge that is everyone’s responsibility. All personnel
must be trained in TQM, statistical process control (SPC) and other appropriate quality
improvement skills so they can effectively participate on project teams. People must
come to work not only to do their jobs, but also to think about how to improve their
jobs, people must be empowered at the lowest possible level to perform processes in an
optimum manner.
4. There must be a continued striving to improve all business and production processes.
Quality improvement projects, such as on-time delivery, order-entry efficiency, billing
error rate, customer satisfaction, cycle time, scrap reduction and supplier management
are good places to begin.
5. On the average 40% of the sales is purchased product or service, therefore, the supplier
quality must be outstanding. The focus should be on quality and life cycle costs rather
than price. Suppliers should be few in number so that true partnering can occur.
6. Performance measures such as uptime, percent non-conforming, absentecism and
customer satisfaction should be determined for each functional area.

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Traditional Vs Modern Quality Management
In this view, the way to ensure that customers receive quality products and services is to have
a rigorous system of inspection. The idea is that if there is enough inspection, the defective
product will be identified and discarded, leaving only good products to be shipped to
customers. In this approach, the main decision is how many products to inspect so that the total
quality control costs are minimised by an optimal trade-off between the cost of scrap, rework
and detecting defects and the cost of defective products to customers.

What is fundamentally wrong in this approach is that it implies quality can be inspected into
products. But what is true is that superior product quality is not attained through mere
inspection. The manufacturers must have a look at the production and make fundamental
changes in the way they design and produce products and do it right the first time. This will
shift the inspection's job from discarding bad products to preventing defects and providing
feedback on how production can continue to improve product quality.

Modern Quality Management

The modern approach to quality is reflected by the idea that quality drives the productivity
machine. The modern era of quality management was heralded by a few new thinkers known
as Quality Gurus. Among them Deming, Crosby, Feigenbaum, Ishikawa, Juran and Taguchi
are noteworthy.
 W. Edwards Deming was a statistician and consultant. He was known as the father of
quality control in Japan. He taught the Japanese that higher quality means lower cost. He
was well known for his fourteen management principles for a business to remain
competitive in providing goods and services that will have a market. He emphasised the
role that the management should take in quality improvement and defined quality as
continuous improvement of a stable system.
 Philip B. Crosby who wrote "Quality is Free" in 1979, contended that any level of defects
is too high and companies should work continuously towards the goal of zero defects.
 Armand V. Feigenbaum developed the concept of total quality control (TQC). He
contended that the responsibility for quality must rest with the person who does the work.
This concept is known as quality at the source and means that every employee must be
responsible for performing his or her work with perfect quality. In TQC, where product
quality is more important than production rate, workers are given the authority to stop
production whenever quali.ty problems occur.
 Kaoru Ishikawa is credited with the concept of quality circles. He also suggested the use
of fishbone diagrams (also known as Ishikawa diagrams) which are used to trace back
customer complaints about quality problems to the responsible production operations.
 Joseph M. Juran played an important and early role in teaching Japanese manufacturers
how to improve product quality. He advocated top management commitment to improve
product quality, quality planning, statistics to identify discrepancies and continuous
improvement of every aspect of product quality. He originated the idea of the quality
triology: planning, control and improvement of quality.

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 Genichi Taguchi was consultant for US companies such as Ford and IBM to assist them in
developing improved statistical control of their production processes. He contended that
products should be designed so that they are robust enough to function satisfactorily,
despite variations on the production line or in the field.

Differences between the traditional view of quality and the total quality perspective

 Productivity versus quality. The traditional view is that productivity and quality are always
in conflict. You cannot have both. The total quality view is that lasting productivity gains
are made only as a result of quality improvements.
 How quality is defined. The traditional view is that quality is defined solely as meeting
customer specifications. The total quality view is that quality means satisfying customer
needs and exceeding customer expectations.
 How quality is measured. The traditional view is that quality is measured by establishing
an acceptable level of non-conformance and measuring against that benchmark. The total
quality view is that quality is measured by establishing high-performance benchmarks for
customer satisfaction and then continually improving performance.
 How quality is achieved. The traditional view is that quality is inspected into the product.
The total quality view is that quality is determined by product and process design and
achieved by effective control techniques.
 Attitude toward defects. The traditional view is that defects are an expected part of
producing a product. Measuring defects per hundred is an acceptable standard. The total
quality view is that defects are to be prevented using effective control systems and should
be measured in defects per million (Six Sigma).
 Quality as a function. The traditional view is that quality is a separate function. The total
quality view is that quality should be fully integrated throughout the organization—it
should be everybody’s responsibility.
 Responsibility for quality. The traditional view is that employees are blamed for poor
quality. The total quality view is that at least 85% of quality problems are management’s
fault.
 Supplier relationships. The traditional view is that supplier relationships are short term and
cost driven. The total quality view is that supplier relationships are long term and quality
oriented.

THE DEMING’S PHILOSOPHY

Dr. Deming is credited with providing the foundations of the Japanese quality miracle and
resurgence as an economic power. He developed the following 14 points as a theory for
management for improvement of quality, productivity and competitive position.

1. Create and publish the Aims and Purposes of the Organization

Management must demonstrate constantly their commitments to this statement. It must include
investors, customers, suppliers, employees, the community and a quality philosophy.
Organization must develop a long-term view of at least 10 years and plan to stay in business
by setting long-range goals. Resources must be allocated for research, training and continuing

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education to achieve the goals. A family organizational philosophy is developed to send the
message that every one is part of the organization.
2. Learn the New Philosophy
Top management and every one must learn the new philosophy. Organizations must seek never
ending improvement and refuse to accept non conformance customer satisfaction is the number
one priority, because dissatisfied customers will not continue to purchase non confirming
products and service. Every one in the organization, including the union, must be involved in
the quality journey and change his or her attitude about quality.
3. Understand the Purpose of Inspection
Management must understand that the purpose of inspection is to improve the process and
reduce it’s cost. Statistical evidence is required of self and supplier every effort should be made
to reduce and then eliminate acceptance sampling.
4. Stop Awarding Business based on Price Alone
The organization must stop awarding business based on the low bid, because price has no-
meaning without quality. The goal is to have single suppliers for each item to develop a long-
term relationship of loyalty and trust thereby providing improved products and service.
5. Improve Constantly and forever the System
Management must take more responsibility for problems by actively finding and correcting.
Problems so that quality and productivity are continually and permanently improved and costs
are reduced. The focus is on preventing problems before they happen variation is expected but
these must be a continual striving for its reduction using control charts.
6. Institute Training
Each employee must be oriented to the organization philosophy of commitment to never-
ending improvements management must allocate resources to train employees to perform their
jobs in the best manner possible.
7. Teach and Institute Leadership
Improving supervision is management’s responsibility. They must provide supervision with
training in statistical methods and these 14 points so the new philosophy can be implemented.
Instead of focusing on a negative. Fault-finding atmosphere, supervisors should create a
positive, supportive one where pride in workmanship can flourish.
8. Drive out fear, Create Trust, and Creat a Climate for Innovation
Management must encourage open, effective communication and teamwork. Fear is caused by
a general feeling of being powerless to control important aspects of one’s life. It is caused by
a lack of Job security, possible physical harm, performance appraisals, ignorance of
organization goals, poor supervision and not knowing the job. Driving fear out of the work
place involves managing for success. When people are treated with density, fear can be
eliminated and people will work for the general good of the organization. In this climate, they
will provide ideas for improvement.
9. Optimize the Efforts of Teams, Groups and Staff Areas
Management must optmize the efforts of teams, work groups and staff areas to achieve the
aims and pusposes of the organization. Barriers exist internally among levels of management,
among departments, within departments and among shifts. To break down the barriers,
management will need a long-term perspective. All the different areas must work together.

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Attitudes need to be changed ; communication channels opened project teams organized and
training in team work implemented.
10. Eliminate Exhortations for the Work Forces
Exhortations that ask for increased productivity without providing specific improvement
methods can handicap an organizations. They do nothing but express managements desires.
They do not produce a better product or service, because the workers are limited by the system.
11. (a) Eliminate Numerical Quotas for the Work Force
Instead of quotas, management must learn and Institute methods for improvement. Quotas and
work standards focus on quantity rather than quality. They encourage poor workman ship in
order to meet their Quotas. Quotas should be replaced with statistical methods of process
control.
11. (b) Eliminate Management by Objective
Instead of management by objective, management must learn the capabilities of the process
and how to improve them. Internal goals set by management, without a method are a burlesque.
12. Remove Barriers that Rob People of Pride of Workmanship
Loss of pride in workmanship exists throughout organizations because
(1) Workers do not know how to relate to the organizations mission.
(2) They are being blamed for system problems.
(3) Poor designing leads to the production of ‘‘Junk’’.
(4) Inadequate training is provided.
(5) Punitive supervision exists.
(6) Inadequate or ineffective equipment is provided for performing the required work.
Restoring pride will require a long term commitment by management. When workers are proud
of their work, they will grow to the fullest of their job. By restoring pride, everyone in the
organization will be working for the common good. A barrier for people on salary is the annual
rating of performance.
13. Encourage Education and Self-himprovement for Everyone
What an organization needs is people who are improving with education. A longterm
commitment to continuously train and educate people must be made by management Deming’s
14 points and the organization’s mission should be the foundation of the education program.
14. Take Action to Accomplish the Transformation
Management has to accept the primary responsibility for the never-ending improvement of the
process, it has to create a corporate structure to implement the philosophy. A cultural change
is required from the previous ‘‘business as usual’’ attitude. Management must be committed,
involved and accessible if the organization is to succeed in implementing the new philosophy.

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TQM PYRAMID
TQM pyramid is a new management pyramid on which one live up to the vision and the
challenges associated with TQM. The pyramid has the foundation and four sides.

Under this pyramid, the TQM is characterized by five principles;

i. Management commitment / leadership.

ii. Focus on the customer and the employee.
iii. Focus on facts.
iv. Continuous improvements (Kaizen)
v. Everybody’s participation.

A vital task for any management is to outline quality goals, quality policies and quality plans
in accordance with the four sides of the TQM pyramid.
These goals and policies should be clear and meaningful to all employees in the firm. It is
extremely important that the firm’s quality goals signal to employees that the firm’s principal
task is to satisfy its external customers and that this can only be achieved if the firm is able to
exceed customers’ expectations.
The firm’s quality goals give all employees a clear indication of what is going to be achieved
concerning quality. The firm’s quality policies, on the other hand, describe in more detail how
employees are to achieve that goal. The firm’s quality policies must also conform to the four
sides of the TQM pyramid.
Quality goals and quality policies must be followed by meaningful action plan.

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The firm should concentrate on short term plans, say one year plans, and long term plans of
say around three years which are revised annually in connection with an annual quality audit.

The annual quality audit is an essential part of TQM vision only through active participation in
the quality audit can top management acquire the necessary insight in the problems the firm
has had in realizing the quality plan.

The annual quality audit gives top management the opportunity to put a number of important
questions to departmental managers.

Apart from the usual quality problems and defects, they should include the following questions;
i. How have customers been identified?
ii. How have customers’ requirements and expectations been identified?
iii. How have managers and employees tried to satisfy customers?
iv. What do customers think about our products and or services?
v. How has this information been collected?

In the run up to action plan, management must answer the following questions;
i. Where are we now?
ii. Where do we want to be?
iii. How do we get there?

Questions ii & iii can be answered by means of benchmarking method which is a continuous
process, the purpose of which is to measure services, products and procedures against the
toughest competitors or leading procedures in a given market. The idea being to procure the
information necessary for a firm to become the best of the best.

There are four main types of benchmarking that can be used;

i. Internal benchmarking - means comparing yourself with departments and divisions in
the same organization. This is normally the simplest form of benchmarking because data
will always be available for the comparison.
ii. Competitor based benchmarking - where the firm compares itself with its direct
competitors. In this case, data can be difficult to come by and must often be acquired by
indirect means.
iii. Functional benchmarking - is based on the functions which the firm concerned is
especially noted for, the idea being that the firm compares itself with the leading firm in
these functions (e.g. the use of robots, automization of the assembly lines, etc.).
iv. Generic benchmarking - includes procedures which are common on all types of
companies, such as order-taking, the payment of wages, word processing and the like.
Benchmarking is a useful management tool in that the gap it reveals between internal and
external practice in itself creates the need for change. In addition, an understanding of the ‘best
practice’ has the virtue of identifying areas in need of change and gives an idea of what the
department or company will look like after the change.

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Implementation of TQM

There are seven points for implementing TQM.

1. Management must agree about the goals, conditions, and obstacles to the introduction of
TQM.
2. Management must have the courage to break with tradition.
3. In building up a new quality organization, management must appoint a manager for quality
improvements who has a direct access to top management.
4. Management must as quickly as possible build up an organization to advice on carrying out
of continuous improvements throughout the firm.
5. Management must explain to employees why changes are necessary and that they’ll involve
everybody in the company.
6. Management must explain that every activity and every job has its own customers and
suppliers.
7. Management must ensure that every employee in the company participates actively in the
team (work team or quality cycle)

Measurement of customer satisfaction;

Total quality as experienced by customers consists of a large number of different elements.

It can be seen from the above that the customer’s experience of the quality of a product or
service is the result of a large number of stimuli relating to both the product itself, the services
and the circumstances under which it is delivered to the customer. The customer’s satisfaction
must therefore be measured in many different dimensions (quality parameters) if it is to form
the basis of quality improvements.
When measuring customer’s satisfaction, it is important to realize that the importance of
different quality parameters varies. We assume therefore that the customers evaluate the firm
on n different dimensions or sub areas both as regards to quality of individual areas and the
importance of these areas.

When measuring customers’ satisfaction it is important to realize that the importance of the
different quality parameters varies. We assume, therefore, that the customers evaluate the firm
on n different dimensions or sub-areas, both as regards the quality of individual areas and the
importance of these areas. We let the resulting evaluation for the ith subarea be Ci and the
associated importance Wi. Overall customer satisfaction – the Customer Satisfaction Index,
or CSI – can then be calculated as a simple weighted average:
CSI = W1C1 + W2C2 + … + WnCn

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The main use of this index is to provide the company with an instrument to choose the vital
dimensions of customer satisfaction and to allocate resources to these areas.

TQM Implementation Process (Deming’s Cycle)

We believe that, among other things, two of the most common driving forces behind
implementation of TQM within an organization are competition and the need to keep the
customer happy. The below four-stage process of implementing TQM in an organization is
applied:
1. identification and preparation;
2. management understanding and commitment;
3. scheme for improvement;
4. critical analysis.
At the critical analysis stage the output is Deming’s cycle, i.e. Plan-Do-Check-Act. However,
the above four stages of implementation can be modelled according to Deming’s PDCA cycle
as follows:

PLAN
Identifying and collecting information about the organisation in the prime areas where
improvement will have most impact on the organisation’s performance. Preparing the detailed
basic work for the improvement of all organisation’s activities (Policy Deployment).
DO
Making sure that the management understands the objective and methodology of TQM and are
prepared to adopt them all the time.

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CHECK
By a process of involvement of management and supervision in a proper scheme of training
and communication, identifying quality issues and effecting a resolution of them by
management led improvement activities.
ACT
Starting a new initiative with new targets and taking the complete improvement process to
everybody indicating supplier and customer links in the quality chain. Obtaining information
about progress and consolidating success.

Fig: Deming’s Cycle (PDCA model for implementation)

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
In a production setup we continuously improve by
 Viewing all work as a process, it is associated with production or business activities,
 Making all our processes effective, efficient and adaptable,
 Maintaining constructive dissatisfaction with the present level of performance,
 Eliminating waste and rework wherever it occurs.
 Eliminating non conformities in all phases of every one’s work, even if the increment
of improvement is small.
 Using bench marking to improve competitive advantage
 Innovating to achieve break through
 Holding gains so there is no regression
 Incorporating lessons learned into future activities.
 Using technical tools such as statistical process control (SPC), experimented design,
bench marking, quality function deployment (QFD). etc.

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ISO 9000 Quality systems
Since the dawn of civilization the survival of communities has depended on trade. As
communities grow they become more dependent on others providing goods and services they
are unable to provide from their own resources. Trade continues to this day on the strength of
the customer–supplier relationship. The relationship survives through trust and confidence.
Areputation for delivering a product or a service to an agreed specification, at an agreed price
on an agreed date is hard to win and organizations will protect their reputation against external
threat at all costs. But reputations are often damaged not by those outside but by those inside
the organization. Broken promises, whatever the cause, harm reputation and promises are
broken when an organization does not do what it committed itself to do. This can arise either
because the organization accepted a commitment it did not have the capability to meet or it
had the capability but failed to manage it effectively. This is what the ISO 9000 family of
standards is all about. It is a set of criteria that, when applied correctly, will help organizations
develop the capability to create and retain satisfied customers.
Customers need confidence that their suppliers can meet their quality, cost and delivery requirements
and have a choice as to how they acquire this confidence.
They can select their suppliers:

1. Purely on the basis of past performance, reputation or recommendation

2. By assessing the capability of potential suppliers themselves
3. On the basis of an assessment of capability performed by a third party

Trading organizations need to create and retain satisfied customers to survive. This depends on
their capability to:
1. Identify customer needs and expectations
2. Convert customer needs and expectations into products and services that will satisfy
them
3. Attract customers to the organization
4. Supply the products and services that meet customer requirements

Anatomy of the standards

There are three standards in the ISO 9000 family:
1. ISO 9000 Quality management systems – Fundamentals and vocabulary
2. ISO 9001 Quality management systems – Requirements
3. ISO 9004 Quality management systems – Guidelines for performance improvements
These standards provide a vehicle for consolidating and communicating concepts in the field
of quality management that have been approved by an international committee of
representatives from national standards bodies. It is not their purpose to fuel the certification,
consulting, training and publishing industries. The primary users of the standards are intended
to be organizations acting as either customers or suppliers.
Each of the standards has a different purpose, intent, scope and applicability as summarized in
table below.

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Table: Overview of the ISO 9000 family of standards

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Quality Management Principles by ISO 9000:2015

A quality management principle is defined by ISO 9000:2015 as a comprehensive and

fundamental rule or belief, for leading and operating an organization, aimed at continually
improving performance over the long term by focusing on customers while addressing the
needs of all other interested parties.
The quality management principles can be summarized as follows:
 Customer focus - Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should
understand current and future customer needs, meet customer requirements and strive to
exceed customer expectations.
 Leadership - Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction for the organization. They
should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully
involved in achieving the organization’s objectives.
 Engagement of people - People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their
full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization’s benefit.
 Process approach - A desired result is achieved more efficiently when related resources
and activities are managed as a process.
 System approach - Identifying, understanding and managing interrelated processes as a
system contributes to the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its
objectives.
 Continuous improvement - Continual improvement of the organization’s overall
performance should be a permanent objective of the organization.
 Evidence-based decision making - Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data
and information.
 Relationship management - An organization and its suppliers are interdependent and a
mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both to create value.

Figure: The eight quality management principles

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