Philip Crosby

Philip Crosby is another major contributor to the quality movement. In 1979, he left
ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph) and wrote his book, Quality is Free, in
which he argues that dollars spent on quality and the attention paid to it always
return greater benefits than the costs expended on them. Whereas Deming and
Juran emphasized the sacrifice required for a quality commitment, Crosby takes a
less philosophical and more practical approach, asserting instead that high quality is
relatively easy and inexpensive in the long run.
Crosby is the only American quality expert without a doctorate. He is responsible for
the zero defects program, which emphasizes doing it right the first time, (DIRFT)
with 100 percent acceptable output. Unlike Deming and Juran, Crosby argues that
quality is always cost effective. Like Deming and Juran, Crosby does not place the
blame on workers, but on management.
Crosby also developed a 14point program, which is again more practical than
philosophical. It provides managers with actual concepts that can help them manage
productivity and quality. His program is built around four Absolutes of Quality
Management:
1.

Quality must be viewed as conformance to specifications. If a product meets

design specifications, then it is a highquality product.

2. Quality should be achieved through the prevention of defects rather than
inspection after the production process is complete.
3. According to Crosby, the traditional quality control approach taken by
American firms is not cost effective. Instead, production workers should be
granted the authority and responsibility to ensure that quality goods or
services are produced at every step of the process.
4. Managers need to demonstrate that a higher standard of performance can
lead to perfectionto zero defects. Crosby believed that the company goal
should be zero defects.
5.

Quality should be measured by the price of nonconformity. Crosby contends

that the costs associated with achieving quality should be part of a company's
financial system.

Philip Crosby, author of Quality is Free, founded the Quality College in

Winter Park, Florida. Crosby emphasized meeting customer requirements
by focusing on prevention rather than correction. He claimed that poor
quality costs about 20 percent of the revenue; a cost that could be
avoided by using good quality practices. He pushed for zero defects. His
"absolutes" are: (1) quality is defined as conformance to requirements,
not goodness; (2) the system for achieving quality is prevention, not

appraisal; (3) the performance standard is zero defects, not that's close
enough; and (4) the measure of quality is the price of non-conformance,
not indexes.
Crosby's method does not dwell on statistical process control and problem
solving techniques that the Deming method uses. He stated that quality is
free because prevention will always be lower than the costs of detection,
correction and failure. Like Deming, Crosby had fourteen points:
1. Manage commitment, that is, top level management must be
convinced

and

committed

and

communicated

to

the

entire

company.
2. Quality improvement team composed of department heads, oversee
improvements.
3. Quality measurement are established for every activity.
4. Cost of quality is estimated to identify areas of improvement.
5. Quality awareness is raised among all employees.
6. Corrective action is taken.
7. Zero defects is planned for.
8. Supervisor training in quality implementation.
9. Zero defects day is scheduled.
10.

Goal setting for individuals.

11.

Error causes are removed by having employees inform

management of problems.
12.

Recognition is given, but it is non-financial, to those who meet

quality goals.
13.

Quality councils meet regularly.

14.

Do it all over again (i.e., repeat steps one through thirteen).

Looking at the history of quality management, we see several stages of

development. The first was quality control, which involved setting up
product specifications and then inspect the product fore for leaves the
plant. The second state is quality assurance, which involved identifying
the quality characteristics and procedures for quantitatively evaluating
and controlling them. The next phase is the true total quality control, a
term actually coined by Feingenbaum in 1983. At this stage the quality
became a total organization effort. It effected production, profit, human
interaction and customer satisfaction. The fourth stage is total quality
management. In TQM the customer is the center and quality is an
organization-wide effort.