BUSI 616 Week 1 Contrasting Quality Philosophies Example

Deming's System and Crosby's Requirements: Contrasting Two Quality Philosophies for a Dental Laboratory

The Organization and Its Quality Problem

Shenandoah Dental Arts, a composite dental laboratory in Harrisonburg, Virginia, employs 60 technicians who make crowns, bridges and dentures for about 400 dental practices. Last year 9.4 percent of its crowns came back for a remake, each costing the laboratory material and labor and costing the dentist a second patient appointment. Goetsch and Davis (2016) present several pioneers whose ideas could guide a response; this paper compares two of them, W. Edwards Deming and Philip Crosby.

Deming: Quality Comes From the System

In Deming's view, the bulk of defects originate in processes that managers design and own rather than in individual carelessness, and that managers must reduce variation by understanding it statistically. His 14 points call for constancy of purpose, an end to dependence on mass inspection, training on the job and driving out fear. Anderson et al. (1994) built a theory from Deming's writings in which visionary leadership enables cooperation and learning, which support process management and continuous improvement, which in turn lead to employee fulfillment and customer satisfaction. For Shenandoah, Deming would ask how much of the remake rate comes from variation in scanning, design and milling that no individual technician controls. He would also warn against the laboratory's current response, a final inspection bench that catches some poor fits before shipping, because inspection sorts bad crowns from good ones without changing the process that made them. Blaming the technician whose name is on a returned case would, in his terms, punish people for the system's variation and teach them to hide problems.

Crosby: Quality Is Conformance to Requirements

Crosby defined quality as conformance to requirements, insisted that the performance standard is zero defects and argued that the right measure of quality is the price of nonconformance, the cost of doing things wrong (Goetsch & Davis, 2016). His message that "quality is free" holds that prevention costs less than the remakes it avoids. Crosby would ask whether each dentist's prescription states clear requirements for margin, contacts and shade, and what remakes cost the laboratory in a year. At roughly 1,100 remade crowns, even a modest cost per remake becomes a figure large enough to fund prevention, such as a prescription checklist and a design review before milling.

Competitiveness

In the study by Powell (1995), the familiar instruments of a quality program, training, process improvement and benchmarking among them, did not generally yield an advantage, whereas tacit, hard-to-copy features such as committed executives, openness and empowered employees could. What competitors cannot copy is not the fishbone chart but the way management behaves around it. That finding favors Deming's emphasis on leadership, yet Crosby adds what Shenandoah lacks most: precise requirements and a dollar figure that will hold an owner's attention. The laboratory competes on fit and turnaround, so it needs both.

Biblical Integration

Proverbs pictures a craftsman so capable at the trade that kings, not unknown men, become the ones served (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Proverbs 22:29). Excellence in craft honors God, and a crown that fits the first time also honors the patient who trusted the dentist. Deming's respect for workers and Crosby's insistence on prevention both serve that end, and together they remind the laboratory's owners that stewardship includes the system in which their technicians practice their skill.

References

Anderson, J. C., Rungtusanatham, M., & Schroeder, R. G. (1994). A theory of quality management underlying the Deming management method. Academy of Management Review, 19(3), 472-509. https://doi.org/10.2307/258936

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2016). Quality management for organizational excellence: Introduction to total quality (8th ed.). Pearson.

Powell, T. C. (1995). Total quality management as competitive advantage: A review and empirical study. Strategic Management Journal, 16(1), 15-37. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250160105