Question

Quality gurus like Deming, Juran and Crosby each advocated an approach consisting of a series of Points or Steps on how Quality Management could be carried out in an organisation. Deming came up with his "14 Points" while Juran and Crosby both came up with their own respective "10 Steps."

If you are given the authority to implement Quality Management in your organisation, recommend one (1) of the three guru’s advocated approach. Describe why you think that your recommended guru’s approach is better than the other 2 gurus’ approaches which you have not chosen.

(B) Philip B Crosby listed 4 Absolutes on Quality Management:

a.Quality means conformance to requirements

b• Quality is achieved by prevention, not by appraisal

c• Quality has a performance standard of Zero Defects

d• Quality is measured by the price of nonconformance

Assume you are managing a fast food burger restaurant and you need to educate your employees who are taking orders and managing monetary transactions or who are making burgers for customers on the 4 Absolutes of Quality Management. Explain and differentiate each of the above Crosby’s Absolutes. Then discuss an example on how the employees could comply to each of the 4 absolutes while taking orders and managing monetary transactions, or making burgers for customers. [note, maximum word count: 600] (50 marks)

Answer 1

I recommend W. Edwards Deming's "14 Points" over the approaches of Juran and Crosby for Quality Management because it emphasizes systemic change and proactive quality culture. Deming's approach is collaborative and continuous in improvement, aligning with modern organizational dynamics. Philip Crosby's 4 Absolutes focus on conformance to requirements, prevention of errors, aiming for zero defects, and understanding the costs of nonconformance, which can be applied in a fast food burger restaurant through checklists, preventative measures, striving for error-free work, and analyzing mistakes for cost impacts.

Step-by-step explanation:

When it comes to implementing Quality Management in an organization, I would recommend W. Edwards Deming's "14 Points."

Deming's push for a transformative view of management where the responsibility for quality is not solely on the workforce, but shared by management, aligns well with modern workplace dynamics that emphasize collaboration and continuous improvement.

His points include driving out fear, breaking down barriers between departments, and instituting a rigorous education and training program, all of which foster a proactive quality culture over the reactive approaches from Crosby's absolutes or Juran's steps.

Philip B. Crosby's 4 Absolutes of Quality Management

Quality means conformance to requirements: Employees taking orders must ensure that each order precisely matches what the customer has requested, without mistakes or omissions.

Quality is achieved by prevention, not by appraisal: Staff should focus on preventing errors in burger preparation by following proper procedures rather than relying on catching mistakes afterward

Quality has a performance standard of Zero Defects: The goal in both order taking and burger making is no errors - every burger should be made correctly the first time, and every transaction handled accurately.

Quality is measured by the price of nonconformance: The cost of errors, such as remaking a burger or correcting a transaction, should be minimized, as it affects the restaurant's efficiency and profitability.

For instance, employees could adhere to a checklist to ensure no point in the burger-making process is missed for conformance, adopt a clean-as-you-go policy to prevent issues, aim for a zero error rate in both cash handling and food preparation to meet the Zero Defects standard, and review mistakes at the end of the day to understand their cost implications - thus implementing Crosby's absolutes.