2. What Will Be Covered
1. What are Crosby’s 14 Steps?
2. Brainstorming Exercise: How Can This Tool be
Used in Your Organization?
3. Explanation of Crosby’s 14 Steps
4. How Crosby’s 14 Steps Work
5. Real World Example: GM Truck & Bus
6. An Exercise
7. Summary
8. Readings list
3. What are Crosby’s 14 Steps?
• Adapted from chapter eight of Quality Is
Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain
(1979)
• A fourteen step program for quality
improvement
– Top management involved
– Entire organization involved
4. What are Crosby’s 14 Steps?
• A “how-to” for management that provides an
organization with a simple and organized
method to initiating the quality improvement
process and beginning the journey to world-
class quality
5. What are Crosby’s 14 Steps?
• “Focuses on long-term employee
participation, not short-term motivational
tactics.”
- Crosby, Philip (1979) Crosby’s 14 Steps to Improvement
6. Brainstorming Exercise: How can this
tool be used in your organization?
• Each person in the audience identify an
area in the organization (process, product,
service, etc.) that you feel needs
improvement. (3 min)
– Cycle times
– Delivery times
– Any wasteful or non-value added activities
7. Foundation for Crosby’s 14 Steps
Crosby’s absolutes of quality management:
• Quality means conformance, not elegance.
• There is no such thing as a quality problem.
• There is no such thing as the economics of quality;
it is always cheaper to do the job right the first
time.
• The only performance measurement is the cost of
quality.
• The only performance standard is Zero Defects.
8. Nuts and Bolts
1. MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT - Top-level view
on quality shown to all employees.
2. THE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT TEAM - To pursue
the quality regime throughout the business.
9. Nuts and Bolts
3. QUALITY MEASUREMENT - Analysis of business
quality performance in a meaningful manner.
4. THE COST OF QUALITY - Make sure everyone in the
business understands the need for a quality system, and
the costs to the business if there is no quality system in
place.
10. Nuts and Bolts
5. QUALITY AWARENESS - Again make everyone in the
business aware of the impact of quality systems.
6. CORRECTIVE ACTION - Ensure a system is in place
for analyzing defects in the system and applying simple
cause and effect analysis, to prevent re-occurrence.
11. Nuts and Bolts
7. ZERO DEFECTS PLANNING - Look for business
activities to which zero defect logic should be applied.
8. SUPERVISOR TRAINING - Get your supervisors
trained in both quality logic and zero defect appreciation
which they can apply to their business activities.
12. Nuts and Bolts
9. ZERO DEFECTS DAY - A quality event by which all
members of the effected section become aware that a
change has taken place.
10. GOAL SETTING - Once a change has been
implemented in a section of the business, the next step is
to get the employees and supervisors in that section to set
goals for improvement to bring about continuous
improvement.
13. Nuts and Bolts
11. ERROR CAUSE REMOVAL - Communication process
by which management are made aware that set goals are
difficult to achieve in order for either the goals to be reset
or help given by management to achieve the goals.
12. RECOGNITION - Management must recognize the
employees who participate in the quality schemes.
14. Nuts and Bolts
13. QUALITY COUNCILS - Using both specialist
knowledge and employee experiences to bring about a
focused approach to business quality regime.
14. DO IT OVER AGAIN - Continuous improvement means
starting from the beginning again and again.
16. Real World Example: GM Truck & Bus
Background:
• Responsible for the planning, engineering, manufacturing,
and assembly of General Motors Trucks worldwide
• They needed to develop a common direction for our
quality process
• They wanted the entire workforce to be aware and
involved
- (Hartman, 2002)
17. Real World Example: GM Truck & Bus
Implementing Crosby’s 14 Steps:
• “In line with Step 2 of Crosby’s 14-step process, Truck &
Bus implemented both a group quality improvement team
and plant and staff quality improvement teams to run the
quality improvement process.”
- (Hartman, 2002)
18. Real World Example: GM Truck & Bus
Progress:
• The quality improvement teams initially managed the “soft” or
non-product areas covered in Crosby’s 14 steps, such as
awareness and communication, quality education, cost of
quality, and recognition.
• The role of [their] quality improvement teams gradually shifted
from “implementing [their] quality improvement process” to
“being the driving force in improving the quality of all of [their]
business processes.”
- (Hartman, 2002)
19. Real World Example: GM Truck & Bus
Results:
• “The 14-step process provided The Truck & Bus Group with the
most defined, simple-to-follow road map for the initial legs of
their quality journey.”
• “Helped everyone focus on the quality of their business process
and to understand their internal customer/supplier relationship.
Every individual produces a product and has customers.
Everyone must determine the requirements and satisfaction of
their personal customers.”
- (Hartman, 2002)
20. An Exercise
• Break into groups of four-six
• The group discusses the identified items from the
brainstorming session (6 min)
– Choose one area that you feel needs the most
improvement (i.e. causes the most problems, wastes
time and resources, will make biggest impact)
• Discuss as a class
21. An Exercise Cont.
• Split back into your groups and determine the
following (8 min):
– The costs to the business if there is no quality system
in place
– A corrective action that will prevent re-occurrence
– A goal for improvement that will bring about
continuous improvement
• Discuss as a class
22. Summary
• Crosby’s program is designed to transform the quality
culture of an organization
• Helps involve everyone in the organization in the quality
process
• Crosby 14 Steps to quality improvement is a continuous
process that will bring great rewards and benefits to your
organization
23. Summary
• “Either you don't accept things that don't meet the
requirements— or you find out whether the
requirement is really what you need, but the
business of ‘that's close enough’ has to go away.”
~Philip Crosby
24. Readings List
• Crosby, Philip (1979). Crosby’s 14 Steps to Improvement. New York: McGraw-
Hill
• Crosby, Philip (1979). Quality is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain. New
York: McGraw‐Hill.
• Crosby, Philip (1984). Quality Without Tears. New York: McGraw‐Hill.
• Crosby, Philip (1988). The Eternally Successful Organization. New York:
McGraw‐Hill.
• Crosby, Philip (1989). Let’s Talk Quality. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Crosby, Philip (1994). Completeness: Quality for the 21st Century. Plume.
• Crosby, Philip (1996). Quality is Still Free. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• R W Hoyer, Brooke B Y Hoyer, Philip B Crosby, W Edwards Deming, et al.
(2001) Quality Progress. Milwaukee: Vol. 34, Iss. 7.
• Hartman, Melissa (2002). Fundamental Concepts of Quality Improvement.
Milwaukee: ASQ Quality Press.
Editor's Notes
In order to be successful, a company needs to develop a quality improvement program that can be implemented throughout their company and management. Crosby’s 14 Steps offers a guideline on how to accomplish this. However, to be successful at the 14 steps takes commitment and determination, as well as support from every level within your organization. The entire organization must be involved and especially top management. It is critical for the top management be an example and support the quality improvement efforts 100%.
This program gives attention to transforming the quality culture of an organization and helps involve every employee that is part of the organization in the quality process.
These steps articulate a platform for TQM efforts to follow. They depend on the foundational thought that any money or resources that an organization uses towards quality improvement is well-spent.
Philip Crosby's 14-step quality improvement program demonstrates how to get all of your employees involved and supportive of the quality movement, and it helps them comprehend and appreciate what quality really means.
Every one works alone
Save papers for “How it Works” section later in presentation
Crosby’s 14 Steps fall closely in line with these 5 absolutes of quality management that Crosby lists in his book, Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain (1979).
Make it clear that management is committed to quality
Form quality improvement teams with representatives from each department
Determine how to measure where current and potential quality problems exist
For example late deliveries, budgeted to actual sales/deliveries/costs/etc.
Keep it simple for all to understand.
Evaluate the cost of quality and explain its use as a management tool
Raise the quality awareness and personal concern of all employees
Take formal actions to correct problems identified through previous steps
Establish a committee for the zero defects program
Train all employees to actively carry out their part of the quality improvement program
Hold a “zero defects day” to let all employees realize there has been a change
Encourage individuals to establish improvement goals for themselves and their groups
Encourage employees to communicate to management the obstacles they face in attaining their improvement
Recognize and appreciate those who participate
Establish quality councils to communicate on a regular basis
Do it all over again to emphasize that the quality improvement program never ends
Crosby’s 14 Steps to quality improvement can be used in any organization to better the organization as a whole and offer a better result for the customers.
It is a continuous process that is not a quick-fix and isn’t always easy. It is very important that the method be carefully followed. Beginning with step 1 and moving forward will build the organizations confidence and comfort with the process. It will also allow everyone to jump on board in the beginning stages so that the entire organization as whole can move forward more efficient.
It is critical that when you complete Steps 1 through 14, that you do not stop there, but that you start the entire quality program over from the beginning and continuously reach for improvement.
“In 1982, the Truck & Bus Group was formed by combining the truck operations of Chevrolet, General Motors Assembly Division, and the Truck and Coach Division.” (Hartman, 2002)