Manageable quality is measurable quality

There was a time when quality and quantity were opposites. "Do you want quantity or quality?" used to be the question. As if the two are exclusionary. In research, a "qualitative study" stood for something that cannot be measured. If it can be measured, it's quantitative.

There was a statistician called W. Edwards Deming who thought just the opposite. Deming said that you only manage what you can measure. You only get consistent quality if consistent parameters are established and if output is consistently measured against these parameters. He called it the theory of variance. Too much variance, not enough quality. You want more quality? Tighten up your tolerances.

Unfortunately, nobody listened to him.

Then World War II broke out and was nearly lost early on. The American industry built weapons in great quantity. Quality was another matter.  Deming participated in a team to improve the quality of the products produced for the Allied cause. Things were really bad. Deming wasn't the only one who noted that "bombs did not explode on impact. Torpedoes made a full circle and struck the submarine that fired them." Deming's approach to solve these problems was to introduce quality management. One key element was to measure quality against standards. The other element was to bring the worker in the measurement loop. Soon, bombs exploded when dropped. Torpedoes ran straight and sank the ships they were fired at. The war was won.

After the war, Deming's quality methods were quickly forgotten. In 1947, McArthur needed someone to help with the Japanese census. The Unite States Department of the Army sent Deming - he wasn't longer needed at home.  While Deming was in Japan, his expertise in quality control techniques led to his receiving an invitation from the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers. Japan desperately needed someone to help them improve Japanese quality.

Deming trained hundreds of engineers, managers, and scholars in statistical process control (SPC) and concepts of quality. Deming's message to Japan's chief executives: You can only manage what you can measure. Improving quality will reduce expenses while increasing productivity and market share. A number of Japanese manufacturers applied his techniques widely and experienced unheard of levels of quality and productivity. The improved quality combined with the lowered cost created new international demand for Japanese products. "Made in Japan" became a symbol for excellence.

Ironically, the unsung hero who helped to win the war against Japan became a very popular and revered hero in the Japanese industry.

Deming blamed poor quality on the system and not on the workers. He stressed the importance of basic statistical tools now widely known as the seven quality tools. This list of basic tools includes histograms, scatter plots, Pareto charts, fishbone diagrams, control charts, flow charts and check sheets.

What impresses quality auditors most are statistical methods that are used, data that are collected and documented, standards that are not just in the head of an engineer, but on signs at every workplace.

A large line chart on the wall that shows daily how quality is being maintained - or not - works much better than a catchy slogan.

Walk through a modern factory today, and if you see continuously updated charts on the wall that quantify the measured quality, you can be pretty sure that this factory produces quality.

Next time:  My biggest grief with the Chinese parts industry.

About the author: Bertel Schmitt, Gasgoo's columnist, is CEO of Hong Kong based parts sourcing company Sinamotive. Before founding Sinamotive, with the assistance of U.S. venture capital, Mr. Schmitt was a marketing consultant to Volkswagen AG.