I
couldn't believe what I was seeing when I opened the
Quality Digest Web site and saw a light-hearted
request for readers to send in their personal
definitions of "quality." Can you imagine Accounting
Digest asking for a definition of accounting? How about
Orthodontist's Magazine, or Industrial Engineering
Weekly?
The problem with the quality
business has always been the lurking impression that
we're talking about varying degrees of "goodness." In
the secular world, people refer to "high-quality"
restaurants and "low-quality" products and everyone
pretends to know what that means. It's OK for anyone to
use words any way they wish. That's their privilege.
But those of us who have to make
quality happen must have a definition that's manageable
and measurable. "Goodness" is neither.
I have always defined quality as
"conformance to requirements"; the ISO 9000 procedures
use that definition also. This lets us measure the price
of nonconformance (PONC) and place quality management on
the same level as everything else that's measured
financially. Then we can see progress or lack of it; we
can see where the problems originate and can contribute
to the organization's financial success.
At PCA II we use the PONC with all
of our clients and have developed an interactive CD-ROM
that lets individuals, or organizations, learn how to
understand and implement this measurement. But it's not
based on feeling good or knowing quality when you see it
or exceeding customer's expectations or being excellent.
None of those have meaning that can be communicated, and
they aren't measurable.
This is not some intellectual
exercise. This is about real life and being useful as a
quality professional. Very few organizations do their
work properly. Unless they know the value of integrity
(conforming to requirements) and can measure it in real
money, they'll never care enough to do things right the
first time.
About the
author
Philip B. Crosby, a popular
speaker and founder of Philip Crosby Associates--now PCA
II--is also the author of several books, including
Quality and Me: Lessons from an Evolving Life
(Jossey-Bass, 1999). To order "To Be an Executive by
Choice," visit his Web site at www.philipcrosby.com
or call (800) 223-3932. E-mail him at [email protected]
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