Central Engineering and Research Department - Essay Example

Crosby believes that the only performance measurement is the cost of quality. Here, Crosby believes that the cost of quality is always a measurable item, for example rework, warranty costs, rejects, and that this is the only basis on which to measure performance. As a practical measurement of quality this might generally be considered to be useful although it cannot be seen as the only measure of business performance, rather the only measure of quality. Juran's work also focuses very clearly on measurement and specific objectives.

Again, the validity of this approach must be questioned. Many aspects of quality are difficult to accurately and reliably quantify. In contrary, Deming believes in a management approach with a long-term orientation. Deming gives explicit recognition to the need to satisfy shareholder expectations, but points out that these expectations often go beyond immediate return on capital to consider the future. Deming criticizes failure to recognize and evaluate the intangible aspects of the organization, for example, the additional sales generated through satisfied customers, the benefits to productivity and quality derived from people feeling part of a success story.

Deming (1986: 123) considers that managers who believe that everything can be measured are deluding themselves and suggests that they should know before they start that they will be able to quantify only 'a trivial part of the gain'. This should be seen as a belief in intangible, invisible benefits arising from good management practice. It does however conflict with his espousal of statistical methods since the reliable measurement of intangibles is notoriously difficult (Beckford, 1998). The new distribution facility should be evaluated using Deming's approach to quality management.

The short-term costs may be greater than the benefits, but in the long-term, it may lead to increased customer satisfaction and sales. The same thing applies to recommendations regarding customer service not being implemented due to budgetary constraints. The method to achieving quality proposed by Crosby entails forming quality improvement teams. Crosby specifically requires multi-disciplinary teams. Juran's approach has the same weakness. Management and organizational cybernetics and human relations theory has been largely ignored (Beckford, 1998).

However, each department in Canbide is responsible for developing and implementing the quality program through the corporate wide Excellence through Quality (EQ) program. Drawing on the work of the statistician Walter Schewhart-his tutor-Deming urged a management focus on causes of variability in manufacturing processes. Deming believed in the use of Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts as the key method for identifying special and common causes and assisting diagnosis of quality problems.

His aim was to remove 'outliers', that is, quality problems relating to the special causes of failure. This was achieved through training, improved machinery and equipment and so on. SPC enabled the production process to be brought 'under control'. Remaining quality problems were considered to be related to common causes, that is, they were inherent in the design of the production pr