Many references track the beginning of formal use of the Six
Sigma quality approach back to the mid 1990’s.
It was at this point that more formality was put around this approach to
quality, including the inception of the DMAIC method. Though the formal inception wasn’t until
approximately 1995, the focus on quality began long before. It is important to recognize some of the key
founders of Six Sigma to understand how the approach to quality that we use
regularly today was born. This is the
second blog in a series. During my first
blog, I introduced you to Dr. Walter A. Shewhart, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, and
Dr. Joseph M. Juran. I will continue
highlighting a few of the major contributors.
Philip B. Crosby
(1928-2001)
Philip Crosby can be credited with originating the concept
of zero defects, a concept used in Six Sigma.
He believed that senior managers must take responsibility for quality,
due to its significance. He recommended
changes to the financial system to include the cost of quality and believed
that quality professionals needed to be armed with necessary business knowledge
and be able to communicate in business terms.
Crosby had four basic principles:
- Quality means conformance to requirements
provided by the customer
- Quality comes from prevention, not correction
- The performance standard for quality is zero
defects
- Quality measurement is the price of
nonconformance
In addition to these four absolutes, Crosby also developed a
14 step approach to quality improvement.
Dr. Armand V.
Feigenbaum (1920- )
Dr. Feigenbaum is credited with establishing the concept of
Total Quality Control (TQC), in his book, Total
Quality Control, first published in 1951.
His concept includes three steps to quality
- Quality Leadership
- Modern quality technology
- Organizational commitment
Dr. Feigenbaum’s TQC philosophy involves all areas of the
company in the quality effort, not just the people on the shop floor. Feigenbaum identified that the quality
professional can become more than just a function specialist, but there is
opportunity for them to provide valuable business information and direction.
Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa
(1915-1989)
Dr. Ishikawa was involved in the quality movement from an
early age and continued involvement until his death. Quality was in his family, as his father,
Ichiro Ishikawa brought Deming in to speak to top Japanese executives in 1950.
One of Ishikawa’s concepts that integrated into western
management was the idea of quality circles.
Quality circles are a bottom up approach, in which members from within a
department meet to solve problems on a continuous basis.
Ishikawa also claimed conception of “next operation as a
customer,” as a key manufacturing philosophy.
Treating the next operation as the customer creates a culture of
satisfying the next actor in the process by delivering a quality contribution.
Dr. Ishikawa is known best for his creation of the fishbone
diagram, which is also called the Ishikawa diagram in his honor, as well as the
cause-and-effect diagram.
This concludes the two-part blog series on the people
behind Six Sigma. Though I highlighted a
few of the major contributors, there are many others that also added to the Six
Sigma quality movement. For additional
information, I suggest researching Dr. Genichi Taguchi, Bill Smith, Mikel
Harry, and Forrest Breyfogle III.
