Page 192 - DMGT501_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Operations Management

Notes In his book Quality Control – Principles, Practices and Administration, Feigenbaum strove to
move away from the then primary concern with technical methods of quality control, to quality
control as a business method. Thus he emphasized the administrative viewpoint and considered
human relations as a basic issue in quality control activities. Individual methods, such as statistics
or preventive maintenance, are seen as only segments of a comprehensive quality control
program.
Quality control itself is defined as: “An effective system for coordinating the quality maintenance
and quality improvement efforts of the various groups in an organization so as to enable
production at the most economical levels which allow for full customer satisfaction”. He stresses
that quality does not mean “best” but “best for the customer use and selling price”. The word
“control” in quality control represents a management tool with four steps: Setting quality
standards, Appraising conformance to these standards, acting when standards are exceeded and
Planning for improvements in the standards.

Quality control is seen as entering into all phases of the industrial production process, from
customer specification and sale through design, engineering and assembly, and ending with
shipment of product to a customer who is happy with it. Effective control over the factors
affecting product quality is regarded as requiring controls at all important stages of the production
process. These controls or jobs of quality control can be classified as:
1. New-design control,
2. Incoming material control,
3. Product control,

4. Special process studies.
Feigenbaum argues that statistical methods are used in an overall quality control program
whenever and wherever they may be useful. However such methods are only part of the overall
administrative quality control system, they are not the system itself. The statistical point of
view, however, is seen as having a profound effect upon Modern Quality Control at the concept
level. Particularly, there is the recognition that variation in product quality must be constantly
studied within batches of product, on processing equipment and between different lots of the
same article by monitoring and critical quality characteristics.
Modern Quality Control is seen by Feigenbaum as stimulating and building up operator
responsibility and interest in quality. The need for quality-mindedness throughout all levels is
emphasized, as is the need to “sell” the program to the entire plant organization and the need
for the complete support of top management. Management must recognize that it is not a
temporary quality cost-reduction activity. From the human relations point of view, the quality
control organization is seen as both:
1. A channel for communication for product-quality information,
2. A means of participation in the overall plant quality program.
Finally, Feigenbaum argues that the program should be allowed to develop gradually within a
given plant or company. Feigenbaums preface to the third edition of Total Quality Control in
1983 emphasizes the increased importance of buyer’s perceptions of variation in quality between
companies and also the variation in effectiveness between the quality programs of companies.
Quality is seen as having become the single most important force leading to organizational
success and company growth in national and international markets. Further, it is argued that:
“Quality is in its essence a way of managing the organization” and that, like finance and marketing,
quality has now become an essential element of modern management.

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