8th European Quality Conference
Luxembourg
The Wisdom of Quality Management
Pioneers Revisited
Key Messages for the 21st Century
2 October 2015
Prof. Dr. Y. Emery
Public Management and Human Resource Unit
Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, IDHEAP
University of Lausanne
www.unil.ch/idheap
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Why QM «wisdom»?
 QM has become highly technical and is frequently
associated with every kind of label and certification; the
very origins of QM has been forgotten
 Amazing amount of organizations, publications, specialized
journals, norms and quality frameworks, consultants and
prizes: but what is quality?
 QM tends to be perceived as deshumanized and is
frequently criticized by professionals who feel not
recognised: is there a way to reconcile Managers, QM
specialists and professionals?
Wisdom is about the underlying philosophy
and values of QM, the very heart of it
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Quality Management Pioneers
(J.-M. Gogue (1997))
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Walter A. Shewhart (1891-1967)
W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993)
Joseph M. Juran (1904-2008)
Kaoru Ishikawa (1915-1989)
Armand V. Feigenbaum (1922-2014)
Philip B. Crosby (1926-2001)
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Some ever-green wisdom…
 the same word quality, pronounced and spelled identically, has more
than one meaning (Juran, 1989)
 Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to
improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs
(Deming,1982)
 The customer is the most important part of the production line (Deming,
1982)
 try to eliminate the possibility of error, or “foolproof” the process, that
is, redesign the process so it is not possible to make the error (Juran,
1989)
 People will only tell you the troubles that others cause for them. The
will not reveal what they make happen themselves (Crosby, 1979)
 Failure is a seed of success (Ishikawa, 1985)
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Presentation template
Original quotation
(wisdom)
Revised wisdom
(for the 21st century)
Suggested implications / actions
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Suggestion 1
Suggestion 2
Suggestion 3
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Wisdom 1 (J.M. Juran, 1989)
Everyone is “for” quality. No one is “against” quality. No
one – not managers, supervisors, specialists, the work
force, the union. No one.
Everyone is «against» quality, if quality is defined by
«others» (managers, QM specialists, even clients or
customers…)
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Within the legal framework, co-define quality between professionals and
end-users
Quality should be operationalised (standards, requirements to be
evaluated): avoid vague definitions of quality, or «excellence» as broad
target of any QM programme
Make a clear distinction between «content quality» and «quality of service»
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Wisdom 2 (P. Crosby, 1979)
Quality is free. It’s not a gift, but it’s free. What costs
money are the unquality things – all the actions that
involve not doing jobs right the first time
Quality has a cost, which depends on political choices…
the unquality things still cost
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The analytical cost of any product or service includes the unquality things
The main purpose of process improvement is to decrease the cost of
defects (somebody makes them and get paid for making them)
The main purpose of process redesign is to decrease the cost of the
products / services itself
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Wisdom 3 (E.W.Deming, 1982)
Think of the chaos that would come if
everybody did his best, not knowing what to do
Think of the chaos that would come if everybody did his
best, knowing (only) what to do
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Job descriptions are useful but not sufficient to foster cooperation
Commitment-enhancing practices like strategic information sharing,
participatory-control practices and developmental feedbacks, are essential
in 21st century’s organisations
Individual evaluations and rewards should be complemented by collective
(team, process, project) management systems
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Wisdom 4 (J.M. Juran,1989)
The major obstacle to arriving at the optimum has been
the urge to suboptimize […] it is fostered by the
prevailing systems of departmental goals […]
The major obstable is related to organisational egoïsm
and the reign of possessivness. Interagency and
interdepartemental cooperation is mandatory to master
the complexity of today’s public demands
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Public policy and programme design should be modeled by the problems
and demands of society
Organisational structure/chart replaced by process charts
Find common purposes and objectives to foster cooperation
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Wisdom 5 (E.W. Deming, 1982)
Work standards, rates, incentive pay […] are manifestations of
inability to understand and provide appropriate supervision […]
the work of management is to replace work standards by
knowledgeable and intelligent leadership
The work of management is to combine work standards
with intelligent leadership, instrumental and
transformational
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Instrumental leadership is about the ability to communication a «line-ofsight», to translate strategic aims into concrete implementation steps
Transformational leadership (unlike transactional leadership) is about
inspiring and helping employees to do their best, unveiling their talents
Work standards/objectives have to be considered as feedback about the
ongoing process of improvement
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Wisdom 6 (P. Crosby, 1979)
It isn’t what you find; it’s what you do about
what you find.
It isn’t what you do about what you find, it’s
about steering, about evaluation,
about learning.
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Measurement (of any indicators) does not improve anything
Avoid producing data and indicators which are only useful for historians
Any steering system without objectives (strategic, operative) is new
(management) bureaucracy
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Wisdom 7 (P. Crosby, 1979)
Why spend all this time finding, fixing, and fighting
when you could have prevented the problem in the
first place?
Prevention is the sense of extended citizens’ participation
and co-design with users, it’s key to the creation of
public value
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Short term implementation of legal/political objectives & precipitation,
should be avoided
Co-design methodologies, test-in-use and similar practices to be introduced
The citizens as innovation consultants…
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Wisdom 8 (E.W. Deming, 1982)
The world is drowning in information but is slow in
acquisition of knowledge. There is no substitute for
knowledge
Knowledge acquisition is still a slow process. There
is no substitute for knowledge sharing and transfert
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Don’t confuse data with information, and with knowledge
Knowledge capturing, creating and sharing, are key to survival
From benchmarking to benchlearning: sharing knowledge across
boundaries (internal as well as external)
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Wisdom 9 (K. Ishikawa, 1985)
Management based on humanity is a system of
management that lets the unlimited potential of human
beings blossom
Management based on trust and support is a system of
management that lets the talents of every employee
blossom
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Resource based view as key input towards strategic HRM
Define a talent management policy adressing all employees
Long term investment in cultural change, putting emphasis on
transformational leadership
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Wisdom 10 (W. E. Deming, 1982)
Learning is not compulsory…
neither is survival
Learning is compulsory… survival
is no longer guaranteed
(for public sector organisations)
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Survive through added-value, not through statute
Continuous learning for EACH employee, regardless of his or her job
Innovation processes: co-design with employees as well as with
stakeholders
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Last Wisdom (P. Crosby, 1979)
Quality has much in common with sex. Everyone is
for it. Everyone feels they understand it. Everyone
thinks execution is only a matter of following
natural inclinations. And of course, most people
feel that all problems in these areas are caused by
other people (if only they would take time to do
things right)
Unchanged…!?
To be discussed during the break…
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015
Conclusion (G. Flaubert)
The absurdity of concluding… Yes, stupidity is
wanting to conclude. Who is the strong spirit who
concluded, starting with Homer?
Let’s we be content with the picture, thus, good.
(L’ineptie consiste à vouloir conclure. […] Oui, la bêtise consiste à vouloir
conclure. […] Quel est l’esprit un peu fort qui ait conclu, à commencer par
Homère ? Contentons-nous du tableau, c’est ainsi, bon)
Letter from the 4 of september 1850 to Louis Bouilhet.
In Correspondance (1973), Gustave Flaubert, éd. Gallimard, coll.
Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1980, t. I, p. 679-680
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Bibliography
 CROSBY, B. C., 1979, Quality is free. The Art of Making Quality Certain, McGrawHill, New York.
 DEMING, E. W., 1986, Out of the Crisis, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
 FEIGENBAUM, A., 1983, Total Quality Control, Mc Graw Hill, New York.
 ISHIKAWA, K., 1985, What Is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way, Prentice
Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
 JURAN, J. M., 1989, Juran on Leadership for Quality. An executive Handbook,
Macmillan, New York.
 SHEWHART, W. A., 1989, Les fondements de la maîtrise de la qualité, Economica,
Paris
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Prof. YE / 8th European Quality Conference, 2015