Armand Feigenbaum's total quality control philosophy and contributions
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Armand Vallin Feigenbaum: Quality Management Guru
Historical Background of Feigenbaum:
Born in 1922, Armand Vallin Feigenbaum developed the philosophy of "total quality control" or more commonly, "total quality" defined as: "An effective system for integrating quality development, quality maintenance and quality improvement efforts of the various groups within an organization, so as to enable production and service at the most economical levels that allow full customer satisfaction" (The Original Quality Gurus, 2011, para. 2).
Feigenbaum's Quality Philosophies
In sum, Feigenbaum's philosophy of total quality control was regarded as a complete business method that involved three steps to achieving quality as follows:
Quality leadership
Modern quality technology
Organizational commitment (Reid & Brown, 2011).
Comparison of Feigenbaum to Deming
In contrast to Feigenbaum, W Edwards Deming placed more emphasis and accountability for success on management at the individual and company level (Gitlow, 1999), maintaining that the overwhelming majority (94%) of quality problems were the responsibility of management (The Total Original Quality Gurus, 2011).
Major Contributions by Feigenbaum
Established 10 benchmarks for total quality success:
1. Quality is a company-wide process.
2. Quality is what the customer says it is.
3. Quality and cost are a sum, not a difference.
4. Quality requires both individual and team zealotry.
5. Quality is a way of managing.
6. Quality and innovation are mutually dependent.
7. Quality is an ethic.
8. Quality requires continuous improvement.
9. Quality is the most cost-effective, least capital-intensive route to productivity.
10. Quality is implemented with a total system connected with customers and suppliers.
In addition, Feigenbaum's approach is "a complete philosophy of management that can be applied to small or large organisations in the public, private or service sectors" (The Original Quality Gurus, 2011, p. 5). In sum, Feigenbaum advocated preventing rather than responding to problems with quality (Avery & Zabel, 1997).
Two QM Tools Developed by Feigenbaum
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- Avery, C. & Zabel, D. (1997). The quality management sourcebook: An international guide to materials and resources. London: Routledge.
- Gitlow, H. S. (1999, August). A comparison of Japanese total quality control and Deming's theory of management. The American Statistician, 48(3), 197-205.
- Reid, M. & Brown, S. (2011, September). Quality management in Kentucky 2009. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 10(1), 47-51.
- The original quality gurus. (2011). Department of Trade and Industry. Retrieved from www.dti. gov.uk/quality/gurus.
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