Contrasting Quality Philosophies.
Introduction.
To get a full understanding of quality management, it becomes prudent to consider the philosophies set by other specialists in the same field. This paper thus discusses the quality philosophies set forth by Dr William Edward Deming and Dr Joseph Juran. These are the management masters; whose philosophies enable us to understand the full gamut of quality. Other than the theory set by them, we are also bound to compare and contrast their individual takes on quality management. And as a result, determine their applicability to business competitiveness. Both Deming and Juran, have a few things in common, having been born in the 1900s, worked in Chicago’s Western Electric’s Hawthorne plant and later worked in Japan after the second world war. Both their practical and theoretical contributions to matters quality management are worth being appreciated (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Despite their efforts, there are certain aspects where they differ on the focus to what quality management should entail.
Deming’s Theory.
According to Plennet, G. (2011), the TQM model developed by Dr Deming, focuses on three crucial aspects. These aspects are; the quality of design, conformance and performance. Customer satisfaction remains and is noted as Deming’s pillar in handling matters quality. In his philosophy, he stresses everyone within any particular organization needs to meet and exceed the requirements and expectations of the customers. On the quality of design, he says that one must be able to what the customer defines as quality, then work to surpass the expectations. A similar thing applies to the quality of conformance where the suppliers and produces ought to exceed the expectations of the customer. Lastly, on the quality of performance, the organizations should focus on both the product performance and ways of improving it. To be able to implement all the perspectives on quality, Dr Deming introduced the fourteen points for management in his model. Deming’s theory is in agreement with the biblical doctrines when one gets saved. They ought to leave all their ways and adopt new ones (Smith & Steen, 1996).
Juran’s Theory.
In Dr Juran’s handbook, the “Quality Control handbook” he provides for two distinct meanings of quality. One is that quality is what has contained the products ability to satisfy the customers’ needs. The other definition of bases quality on its freedom of deficiencies (Juran, Gryna & Bingham, 1974). Unlike other gurus in the same field, Juran takes a slightly different and unique path. Fitness for use is his outstanding definition of quality as he says using customer satisfaction to determine quality can be extremely hard. This would thus be taken to mean “conformance to specifications” as opposed to just “meeting the customers’ needs”. The three key elements that compose of the Juran’s Trilogy are quality planning, control and improvement. The customers’ needs are requirements are thus identified, and during production, evaluations are done to ensure that the original provisions are met. Ultimately, the products become a base upon which improvements are made (Soren, 2007).
Comparing and Contrasting.
The theories by both Juran and Deming are similar in such a way that they both consider that aspect of customer’s satisfaction. There are a few differences too in their approach and take on what quality is and should be like. Deming’s approach is more revolutionary, while Juran’s is evolutionary. Also, according to Deming, statistics represent the business language, while Juran views money as the language to business.
Application to Business competitiveness.
Having a competitive business advantage is a crucial aspect and target by most investors. This is all controlled and determined by the Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM is what allows organizations to be able to meet customers’ needs while increasing their levels of competitiveness. Through the implementation of TQM, then the operational performance is equally expected to improve. Failing to meet the customer’s needs is the most likely to be the reason behind business failure (Mohamed, 2013). TQM thus has a statistical significance on the competitive advantage.
Conclusion.
In conclusion, Quality management techniques are essential and are currently being practised by many organizations globally. The discussed theories, among others, can be termed as the philosophies for managing organizations. This is achieved by putting into practice the use of the developed TQM models. The models are also employed in assessing the organization’s strengths and weaknesses as several theorists/philosophers put it.
References.
Juran, J. M., Gryna, F. M., & Bingham, R. S. (1974). Quality control handbook (Vol. 3). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bisgaard, S. (2007). Quality management and Juran’s legacy. Quality and Reliability Engineering International, 23(6), 665-677.
Zairi, M. (2013). The TQM legacy‐Gurus’ contributions and theoretical impact. The TQM Journal, 25(6), 659-676.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Smith, T. M., & Steen, T. P. (1996). Deming’s Philosophy of Transformation: Christian Criticism. Journal of Biblical Integration in Business, 2(1).