Overview

Synopsis

In "Quality Is Free", Philip Crosby describes "the art of making quality certain". The basis of his system of "Zero Defects" is defect prevention (at the source), and to avoid all the actions (and costs) of not doing things right the first time, i.e., fixes or rework.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part One. The Understanding

1. Making Quality Certain
2. "Quality May Not Be What You Think It Is"
3. The Quality Management Maturity Grid
4. Management Understanding and Attitude
5. Quality Organizational Status
6. Handling Problems
7. Cost of Quality
8. Quality Improvement Program
9. Management Style

Part Two. The Doing: The HPA Corporation Quality Improvement Program

10. History of the Project
11. The Program

Part Three. The Tools

12. Instructor's Guide for HPA Quality Improvement Program Case History
13. Make Certain

Guidelines for Browsers

Praises

The appendix, "Guidelines for Browsers", is atypical, but a welcome addition nonetheless. It is a compendium of key quotes from the rest of the book. Some are pithy (e.g., "Act now for reward later." and "Prevention is not hard to do -- it is just hard to sell."); others require some context (e.g., "Quality has much in incommon with sex." or "Quality is ballet, not hockey.") to avoid any misunderstanding.

The Quality Management Maturity Grid (pp 32-33) measures an organization's operations in six categories (i.e., "management understanding and attitude", "quality organization status", "problem handling", "cost of quality as % of sales", "quality improvement actions", and "summation of company quality posture"), revealing five stages of quality management maturity ("Uncertainty", "Awakening", "Enlightenment", "Wisdom", and "Certainty").

The 14 steps (pp 112-119):

The management style checklist (p 124):

Criticisms

Crosby's definition of quality -- conformance to requirements -- neglects customer expectations. Is a gap between requirements and expectations considered a defect, or not?

There's the suggestion ("Establish a Competent Quality Management Program in every Operation, both Manufacturing and Service", 10), but no specific examples to support the applicability of ZD to service operations. Coincidentally, "Making Quality Certain" receives separate treatment (i.e., its own chapter) with explicit emphasis on service organizations. This may lead some to conclude that ZD is limited to manufacturing operations. (See "Quality Without Tears".)

Zero Defects Day is controversial. It seems to undermine the position that ZD is not a motivational program.

Final Analysis

"Quality Is Free" describes sound fundamentals to quality management. At the same time, critics (such as Watts Humphrey) counter that quality is not free. Even the PCA has adjusted their message to be more inclusive -- recognizing the many different quality management approaches that come and go. Still, the book has influenced later approaches; for example, consider the 5 stages in the Quality Management Maturity Grid vs. the 5 levels of the Software Process Maturity Framework.

Copyright

Copyright © 2003 Anthon Pang.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".