Philip Bayard "Phil" Crosby , (June 18, 1926 – August 18, 2001) was an American businessman and author who contributed to management theory and quality management practices.
45-688: Zero Defects (or ZD ) was a management-led program to eliminate defects in industrial production that enjoyed brief popularity in American industry from 1964 to the early 1970s. Quality expert Philip Crosby later incorporated it into his "Absolutes of Quality Management" and it enjoyed a renaissance in the American automobile industry—as a performance goal more than as a program—in the 1990s. Although applicable to any type of enterprise, it has been primarily adopted within supply chains wherever large volumes of components are being purchased (common items such as nuts and bolts are good examples). "[...] Zero Defects
90-488: A " poison pill " in the form of a major share price hike to dissuade the hostile bid, the result of which caused Burroughs to borrow much more funding than was anticipated to complete the bid. Certain internal divisions of Sperry were sold off after the merger, such as Sperry New Holland (1986, to Ford Motor Company , who in 1991 sold the Ford-New Holland line to Fiat ) and Sperry Marine (to Tenneco , in 1987, and
135-556: A 54% defect reduction over a single year. During its heyday, it was adopted by General Electric , ITT Corporation , Montgomery Ward , the United States Army among other organizations. While Zero Defects began in the aerospace and defense industry, thirty years later it was regenerated in the automotive world. During the 1990s, large companies in the automotive industry cut costs by reducing their quality inspection processes and demanding that their suppliers dramatically improve
180-764: A better-paying position as reliability engineer at Bendix Corporation in Mishawaka, Indiana in 1955, working on the RIM-8 Talos missile. He left after less than two years to become senior quality engineer at The Martin Company 's new Orlando, Florida organization to develop the Pershing missile . There he developed the Zero Defects concept. He eventually rose to become department head before leaving for ITT Corporation in 1965 to become director of quality. In 1979, Crosby started
225-511: A major military contractor. From 1967 to 1973 the corporation was involved in an acrimonious antitrust lawsuit with Honeywell , Inc. (see Honeywell v. Sperry Rand ). In 1961, Sperry Rand was ranked 34th on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies in the United States. In 1977, Sperry Rand purchased Varian Data Machines so as to enter the minicomputer market. Varian would be renamed as
270-496: A prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs Corporation , which merged the combined operation under the new name Unisys . Some of Sperry's former divisions became part of Honeywell , Lockheed Martin , Raytheon Technologies , and Northrop Grumman . The company is best known as the developer of the artificial horizon and a wide variety of other gyroscope -based aviation instruments like autopilots , bombsights , analog ballistics computers and gyro gunsights . In
315-560: A quality control department manager on the Pershing missile program at the Martin Company , though at least one contemporary reference credits a small, unnamed group of Martin employees. Zero Defects was not the first application of motivational techniques to production: during World War II, the War Department's "E for Excellence" program sought to boost production and minimize waste. The Cold War resulted in increased spending on
360-590: A standard must be specified for each. These become the requirements for a product and the organization must inspect, or measure what comes out of the production process against those standards to determine whether the product conforms to those requirements or not. An important implication of this is that if management does not specify these requirements workers invent their own which may not align with what management would have intended had they provided explicit requirements to begin with. Companies typically focus on inspection to ensure that defective product doesn't reach
405-502: Is a management tool aimed at the reduction of defects through prevention. It is directed at motivating people to prevent mistakes by developing a constant, conscious desire to do their job right the first time." — Zero Defects: A New Dimension in Quality Assurance Zero Defects seeks to directly reverse the attitude that the number of mistakes a worker makes doesn't matter since inspectors will catch them before they reach
450-524: Is currently part of Northrop Grumman ). Also sold—to Honeywell —was Sperry Aerospace Group , while Sperry Defense Products Group was sold to Loral ; those two units whose functions were originally at the heart of the venerable Sperry Gyroscope division. This group is now part of Lockheed Martin . Sperry in Britain started with a factory in Pimlico , London, in 1913, manufacturing gyroscopic compasses for
495-441: Is defective. Workers must "make the attitude of Zero Defects [their] personal standard." To convince executives to take action to resolve issues of poor quality, costs associated with poor quality must be measured in monetary terms. Crosby uses the term "the price of nonconformance" in preference to " the cost of quality " to overcome the misimpression that higher quality requires higher costs. The point of writing Quality Is Free
SECTION 10
#1732905268887540-412: Is merely setting performance standards that no one can misunderstand and then starting a two-way communications exercise to let everyone know about it." He blamed management actions and attitudes for creating the opportunity for defects. Philip B. Crosby Crosby initiated the Zero Defects program at the Martin Company . As the quality control manager of the Pershing missile program, Crosby
585-545: The British Aerospace brand. State of the art, high technology MEMS gyroscopes (together with other avionics equipment) are still made on the site today, although the company is now owned by United Technologies Corporation and is part of UTC Aerospace Systems . The name Sperry lives on in the company Sperry Marine , headquartered in New Malden , England. This company, formed in 1997, from three well-known brand names in
630-610: The Royal Navy . It became the Sperry Gyroscope Co Ltd in 1915. In 1923, Lawrence Sperry was killed in an air crash near Rye, Sussex . The company subsequently expanded to the Golden Mile , Brentford in 1931, Stonehouse , Gloucestershire in 1938, and Bracknell in 1957. By 1963, these sites employed some 3,500 people. The Brentford site closed in 1967, with the expansion of Bracknell. Stonehouse closed around 1969. By 1969,
675-498: The management consulting company Philip Crosby Associates, Inc. This consulting group provided educational courses in quality management both at their headquarters in Winter Park, Florida , and at eight foreign locations. In 1979, Crosby published his first business book, Quality Is Free, with the subtitle The Art of Making Quality Certain. This book gained prominence during a critical period for North American industry, when, between
720-499: The post–World War II economic expansion , had a lackadaisical attitude on the whole toward work. Crosby saw statistical quality control and the MIL-Q-9858 standard as contributing to this through acceptable quality levels —a concept that allows a certain number of acceptable defects and reinforces the attitude that mistakes are inevitable. Another contributor is the self-imposed pressure to produce something to sell, even if that thing
765-550: The Remington Rand acquisition, Sperry Gyroscope decided to open a facility that would almost exclusively produce its marine instruments. After considerable searching and evaluation, a plant was built in Charlottesville, Virginia , and in 1956, Sperry Piedmont Division began producing marine navigation products. It was later renamed Sperry Marine . In the 1970s, Sperry Corporation was a traditional conglomerate headquartered in
810-625: The Sperry Gyroscope division of Sperry Rand Corporation employed around 2,500. The site of the Bracknell factory and development center (sold to British Aerospace in 1982) is commemorated by a 4.5-meter aluminum sculpture by Philip Bentham , Sperry's New Symbolic Gyroscope (1967). In 1989, the Bracknell site was downsized and work was moved to the Sperry manufacturing site in Plymouth by then under
855-605: The Sperry Rand Building at 1290 Avenue of Americas in Manhattan, selling typewriters (Sperry Remington); office equipment, electronic digital computers for business and the military (Sperry Univac); construction and farm equipment (Sperry New Holland); avionics, such as gyroscopes, radars, air route traffic control equipment (Sperry Vickers/Sperry Flight Systems); and consumer products such as electric razors (Sperry Remington). In addition, Sperry Systems Management (headquartered in
900-545: The Sperry UNIVAC Minicomputer Operation, operating as part of the Sperry UNIVAC division. In 1978, Sperry Rand decided to concentrate on its computing interests, and sold a number of divisions including Remington Rand Systems, Remington Rand Machines, Ford Instrument Company and Sperry Vickers . The company dropped "Rand" from its title and reverted to Sperry Corporation . At about the same time as
945-559: The company diversified into aircraft components including bomb sights and fire control systems . In their early decades, Sperry Gyroscope and related companies were concentrated on Long Island , New York, especially in Nassau County . Over the years, it diversified to other locations. In 1918, Lawrence Sperry split from his father to compete over aero-instruments with the Lawrence Sperry Aircraft Company , including
SECTION 20
#1732905268887990-530: The company's first digital computer, SPEEDAC , in 1953. During the 1950s, a large part of Sperry Gyroscope moved to Phoenix , Arizona and soon became the Sperry Flight Systems Company. This was to preserve parts of this defense company in the event of a nuclear war . The Gyroscope division remained headquartered in New York—in its massive Lake Success , Long Island, plant (which also served as
1035-423: The contract date in 1962. Martin marshaled all of its resources to meet this challenge and delivered the system with no discrepancies in hardware and documentation and were able to demonstrate operation within a day of the start of setup. After reviewing how Martin was able to overachieve, its management came to the conclusion that while it had not insisted on perfection in the past, it had in this instance, and that
1080-506: The core motivation techniques of booklets, films, posters, speeches, and the "ZD Day" centerpiece. According to Crosby, there are four Absolutes: Newcomers to manufacturing bring their own vague impressions of what quality involves. But in order to tackle quality-related problems, there must be widespread agreement on the specifics of what quality means for a particular product. Customer needs and expectations must be reduced to measurable quantities like length, or smoothness, or roundness and
1125-437: The costs of establishing a robust quality system. According to Crosby, "quality is free" because it is more cost-effective to do things right the first time than to incur additional expenses from rework and repairs. Sperry Corporation Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following
1170-418: The customer. But this is both costly and still lets nonconformances through. Prevention, in the form of "pledging ourselves to make a constant conscious effort to do our jobs right the first time", is the only way to guarantee zero defects. Beyond that, examining the production process for steps where defects can occur and mistake proofing them contributes to defect-free production. Workers, at least during
1215-406: The customer. This stands in contrast to activities that affect the worker directly, such as receiving a paycheck in the correct amount. Zero Defects involves reconditioning the worker "to take a personal interest in everything he does[,] by convincing him that his job is just as important as the task of the doctor or the dentist." The development of Zero Defects is credited to Philip B. Crosby ,
1260-584: The development of defense technology in the 1950s and 1960s. Because of the safety-critical nature of such technology, particularly weapons systems, the government and defense firms came to employ hundreds of thousands of people in inspection and monitoring of highly-complex products assembled from hundreds of thousands of individual parts. This activity routinely uncovered defects in design, manufacture, and assembly and resulted in an expensive, drawn out cycle of inspection, rework, reinspection, and retest. Additionally, reports of spectacular missile failures appearing in
1305-431: The fact. Performance standard: The goal in terms of quality should be to achieve zero defects, ensuring that all products meet specified requirements. Measurement of quality: Quality is measured by the cost of nonconformance, i.e., the costs associated with failing to meet requirements. Crosby argued that implementing strong quality management principles would enable organizations to achieve significant savings that far exceed
1350-630: The late 1970s and early 1980s, North American manufacturers were losing market share to Japanese products, which were distinguished by their superior quality. Crosby's response to this quality crisis was based on the principle of "doing it right the first time" (DIRFT). This approach was structured around four key principles: Definition of quality: Quality is defined as conformance to requirements, with requirements encompassing both product specifications and customer expectations. Quality system: The quality management system should be based on defect prevention, rather than relying on inspection or correction after
1395-581: The new automatic pilot . After the death of Lawrence on December 13, 1923, the two firms were brought together in 1924. Then in January 1929 it was acquired by North American Aviation , who reincorporated it in New York as the Sperry Gyroscope Company, Inc . The company once again became independent in 1933 when it was spun-off as a subsidiary of the newly formed Sperry Corporation . The new corporation
Zero Defects - Misplaced Pages Continue
1440-671: The original Sperry Gyroscope building in Lake Success) performed work on a number of US government defense contracts. Sperry also managed the operation from 1961 to 1975 of the large Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant near Minden . In January 1972, Sperry took over the RCA Spectra 70 line of electronic digital computers (architectural cousins to the IBM System/360 ). In 1983, Sperry sold Vickers to Libbey Owens Ford (later to be renamed TRINOVA Corporation and subsequently Aeroquip-Vickers). At
1485-516: The post-WWII era the company branched out into electronics, both aviation-related, and later, computers. The company was founded by Elmer Ambrose Sperry . The company was incorporated on April 14 1910 by Elmer Ambrose Sperry as the Sperry Gyroscope Company , to manufacture navigation equipment—chiefly his own inventions: the marine gyrostabilizer and the gyrocompass —at 40 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn . During World War I
1530-565: The press heightened the pressure to eliminate defects. In 1961, the Martin Company's Orlando Florida facility embarked on an effort to increase quality awareness and specifically launched a program to drive down the number of defects in the Pershing missile to one half of the acceptable quality level in half a year's time. Subsequently, the Army asked that the missile be delivered a month earlier than
1575-485: The program, and therefore compliance with it, fades without this verification. Point 10 of Deming's 14 points (" Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. ") is clearly aimed at ZD. Joseph M. Juran was also critical of ZD. Another criticism is that Zero Defects is a motivational program aimed at encouraging employees to do better. Crosby stated that "Motivation has nothing to do with it...It
1620-490: The quality of their supplies. In 1979, Crosby penned Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain which preserved the idea of Zero Defects in a Quality Management Maturity Grid , in a 14-step quality improvement program, and in the concept of the "Absolutes of Quality Management". The quality improvement program incorporated ideas developed or popularized by others (for example, cost of quality (step 4), employee education (step 8), and quality councils (step 13)) with
1665-678: The same time, it acquired the Aircraft Radio Corporation from Cessna . On September 16, 1986, after the success of a second hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs Corporation CEO and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury , Michael Blumenthal , Sperry Corporation merged with Burroughs Corporation. The newly merged company was renamed Unisys Corporation — a portmanteau of "united", "information", and "systems," while also referencing Sperry's well-known previous UNIVAC computer branding. The takeover came about even after Sperry used
1710-414: The temporary United Nations headquarters from 1946 to 1952)—into the 1980s. In 1955, Sperry acquired Remington Rand and renamed itself Sperry Rand . Acquiring then- Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation and Engineering Research Associates along with Remington Rand, the company developed the successful UNIVAC computer series and signed a valuable cross-licensing deal with IBM . The company remained
1755-536: The work of a group of Stanford University inventors, led by Russell and Sigurd Varian , who had invented the klystron , and incorporated this technology and related inventions into their products. The company prospered during World War II as military demand skyrocketed, ranking 19th among US corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. It specialized in high technology devices such as analog computer –controlled bomb sights, airborne radar systems, and automated take-off and landing systems. Sperry also
1800-483: Was a holding company for a number of smaller entities such as the original Sperry Gyroscope, Ford Instrument Company , Intercontinental Aviation, Inc. , and others. The company made advanced aircraft navigation equipment for the market, including the Sperry Gyroscope and the Sperry Radio Direction Finder. It also moved into the hydraulics industry when it acquired Vickers, Inc. in 1937. Sperry supported
1845-496: Was all that was needed to attain outstanding product quality. Management commissioned a team to examine the phenomenon and come up with an action plan, which became the organizing, motivating, and initiating elements of Zero Defects. The Department of Defense also took notice and in 1964, began to actively encourage its vendors to adopt Zero Defects programs. Interest in the program from outside firms, including Litton Industries , Thiokol , Westinghouse , and Bendix Corporation ,
Zero Defects - Misplaced Pages Continue
1890-751: Was credited with a 25 percent reduction in the overall rejection rate and a 30 percent reduction in scrap costs. Crosby was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1926. He served in the Navy during World War II and again during the Korean War. In between, he earned a degree from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine . His first job in the field of quality was that of test technician in the quality department at Crosley Corporation in Richmond, Indiana , beginning in 1952. He left for
1935-541: Was keen and many made visits to Martin to learn about it. Their feedback was incorporated and rounded out the program. In particular, General Electric suggested that error cause removal be included in the program. Martin claimed a 54% defect reduction in defects in hardware under government audit during the first two years of the program. General Electric reported a $ 2 million reduction in rework and scrap costs, RCA reported 75% of its departments in one division were achieving Zero Defects, and Sperry Corporation reported
1980-831: Was the creator of the Ball Turret Gun mounted under the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and the Consolidated B-24 Liberator , as commemorated by the film Memphis Belle and the poem The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner . In 1944, Sperry sold the Brooklyn factory at 40 Flatbush Avenue Extension to the Howard clothing manufacturing company, which already had a smaller nearby factory. Postwar, Sperry expanded its interests in electronics and computing, producing
2025-481: Was to demonstrate that quality improvement efforts pay for themselves. Crosby divides quality-related costs into the price of conformance and the price of nonconformance. The price of conformance includes quality-related planning, inspection, and auditing; the price of nonconformance includes scrap, rework, claims against warranty, unplanned service The main criticism is the amount of effort required to verify every person's performance in an organization. Confidence in
#886113