2 • Managing for Productivity and Quality
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The car will be ready within 24 hours of the promised date.
The paint will not fade within one year.
3. Prevention is superior to detection. Preventing defects is less ex¬pensive than detecting defects and then making corrections. The idea of building quality into a product supports this idea. It is generally difficult to patch up a key quality problem after the problem has already surfaced. The problem of trying to repair defects is the most pronounced problem in product recalls. For example, bringing an automobile back to the factory or dealer for rework often alienates customers, dealers, and factory per¬sonnel. Besides, many people believe you can never really remove all quality defects from a “lemon.”
4. Zero Defects should be achieved. Supervisory management ex¬pert Lester R. Bittel claims that Zero Defects made it possible to put a per¬son on the moon.9 ZD can also put a company on the map. Whether or not Zero Defects ever rids a product of all its problems, ZD does give em¬ployees a goal. The purpose of ZD is to instill pride in employees; it helps them think about pleasing the customer by offering a flawless product or service.
5. Quality is measured by the cost of nonconformance. Poor-quality goods and services cost an organization a substantial amount of money. The costs of low quality include such important items as:
Granting refunds or exchanges on flawed merchandise.
Paying employees for doing the same job twice.
Loss of good will and repeat business.
Hiring extra quality inspectors to prevent further problems.
Possible liability suits for major problems such as fires on customer premises caused by faulty wiring.
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6. Carefully select and train suppliers. High-quality goods must be built with high-quality components. Suppliers (or vendors) must there¬fore be selected with care. After selecting suppliers, it is still necessary to train them to meet the company’s quality specifications. The boxed insert about Motorola provides insight into the role suppliers play in helping an¬other manufacturer achieve quality.
7. The manufacturing process must be in control. Running a “tight manufacturing ship” is necessary to achieve quality products. An in-control manufacturing process includes such things as well-maintained machinery, good housekeeping, well-trained employees, and an efficient
9Lester R. Bittel, What Every Supervisor Should Know: The Basics of Supervisory Man¬agement, 5th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985), p. 455.
