History and Development of Quality Science
The roots of the quality movement can be traced back to medieval Europe, where craftsmen began organizing into guilds in the late 13th century. These guilds were responsible for developing strict rules for product and service quality. Inspection committees enforced the rules by placing a special mark or symbol on defect-free goods.
The craftsmen themselves often placed a second mark on the goods they produced. Initially, this mark was used to trace the origin of defective items. Over time, the mark came to represent the craftsman good reputation. Inspection marks and marks of prominent craftsmen were a sign of quality to customers throughout medieval Europe. This approach to manufacturing quality was prevalent until the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century.
Quality in the Industrial Revolution
Until the early 19th century, manufacturing in the industrialized world tended to follow this craft model. The factory system, focused on product inspection, began in Great Britain in the mid-1750s and evolved into the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century.
Shifts in dominant production techniques influenced the development of American quality practices in the 19th century.
Factory System
The factory system, a product of the European Industrial Revolution, began to divide Craftsmen’s Occupations into specialized tasks. This forced craftsmen to become factory workers and shopkeepers to become production supervisors, and employees’ sense of empowerment and autonomy in the workplace was initially reduced. Workers’ skills, supplemented by inspections, ensured factory system quality. Defective products were remanufactured or discarded.
Taylor System
In the late 19th century, the United States departed from European traditions and adopted a new management approach developed by Frederick W. Taylor. Taylor’s goal was to increase productivity without increasing the number of skilled craftsmen. He achieved this by assigning specialized engineers to plan the factory and using craftsmen and supervisors as inspectors and managers who carried out the engineers’ plans.
Taylor’s approach led to significant increases in productivity, but the new emphasis on productivity hurt quality. To address the deterioration in quality, factory managers created inspection departments to prevent defective products from reaching customers.
Quality in the Early 20th Century
The early 20th century was marked by the entrance of “processes” into quality practices. A “process” is a set of activities that take an input, add value, and provide an output. The focus on process control began in the mid-1920s, making quality relevant to the final product and the processes that make the product.
It was realized that industrial processes generate data, which could be analyzed using statistical techniques to determine whether the process was stable and controlled.
Quality in World War II
After entering World War II, the United States enacted legislation to help shift the civilian economy toward military production. Quality became a critical component of the war effort and a major national security issue. Unsafe military equipment was a serious problem and the U.S. military inspected virtually every unit produced to ensure it was safe to operate. This practice required large numbers of inspectors and created issues in recruiting and retaining competent inspection personnel.
To mitigate problems without compromising product safety, the U.S. Department of Defense began sampling instead of unit-by-unit inspection. With the help of industry consultants, they developed sampling schedules and published them in military standards.
The military also helped suppliers improve quality by sponsoring training courses in statistical quality control techniques.
Japan’s Quality Revolution
After World War II, major Japanese manufacturers shifted from military to civilian goods. Initially, Japan had a poor reputation for its exports, and international markets shunned its goods. This led Japanese organizations to explore new ways of thinking about quality.
Deming, Juran, and Japan
The Japanese welcomed foreign companies and lecturers, including two American quality experts:
Edwards Deming was frustrated with American managers when most statistical quality control programs were discontinued by the end of war and government contracts.
Joseph Juran predicted that the quality of Japanese goods would surpass that of goods produced in the United States by the mid-1970s because of Japan’s revolutionary quality improvement rate.
Japan’s strategies represented a new “total quality” approach. Instead of relying solely on product inspection, Japanese manufacturers focused on improving all organizational processes. As a result, Japan was able to produce high-quality exports at low prices, benefiting consumers around the world.
Total Quality Management in America
At first, American manufacturers held to their assumption that Japanese success was linked to price, so reacting to Japanese competition with strategies aimed at lowering domestic production costs and restricting imports. This, of course, did nothing to improve American competitiveness in quality.
Over the years, price competition declined while quality competition continued. Eventually, American organizations and companies embraced the TQM methodology.
Many other quality initiatives followed this development. The quality management standards series such as ISO 9001 was published.
In 2000
The ISO 9001 series of quality management standards was revised to increase the focus on customer satisfaction.
More recently in 2015
The ISO 9001 standard was revised to increase the focus on risk management.
Special and specialized versions of the ISO 9001 series of quality management standards have been developed for industrial sectors such as automotive (QS-9000 and ISO/TS 16949), space (AS9000), and telecommunications (TL 9000).
Quality has moved beyond manufacturing to service, healthcare, education, and government.