Crosby's Four Absolutes of Quality

      Philip Crosby’s The Deming Management Method discusses how quality is achieved through the Four Absolutes of Quality. He also discussed the role of money in achieving quality but at the same time when quality is not achieved more money is spent, spelling loss for the company. This is because when quality is not achieve, for instance in a given product, a reproduction or rework has to be done. This creates more cost and loss of the materials already spent on the previous production. However when a product is done, meeting the standard quality, then the company will no longer has to spend more for corrections and reproductions. He discussed this under the Cost of Quality and Cost of Nonconformance or Cost of Nonquality. The main idea is to spend more money on preventing defects thereby spending less on inspection and rework.

            The Four Absolutes of Quality according to Crosby are:
1) Quality means conformance to requirements, not goodness;
2) The system for causing quality is prevention, not appraisal;
3) The performance standard must be zero defects, not “that's close enough.” and
4) The measurement of quality is the price of nonconformance, not indexes.

            Quality means conformance to requirements, not goodness means that the idea behind achieving quality is not simply to create good products or provide good service. Quality here means it is following a certain requirement that is part of the product. That requirement is meeting the standard high quality. Conformance to requirements or meeting the desired standard is not just an idea or a regulation that must be met but rather it is part of the product such as screw that must secured in placed since it is a part of the main design. This screw, being a part of the product must is a definite part of the production and therefore cannot be neglected or forgotten. Doing away with that one single screw means a defect in the product.

            The system for causing quality is prevention, not appraisal means that in order to be certain that the quality is met it should be already integrated in the product even before the production, if possible as early as the design on the drawing board. Appraisal, which is done after the product has been made, is a totally waste of money and time. This is because if the product has been appraised to be defective or not up to the standard, then a rework or reproduction is needed. This will cause the company loss. Therefore, to achieve quality, prevention of possible defects and errors must be guaranteed before the finished product.

            The performance standard must be zero defects, not “that’s close enough” means that the target in terms of quality for a given product must be zero defect. Zero defect means achieving a perfect product. “That’s close enough” means a high standard or high quality product and yet still not the perfect “zero defect” product that it should be. Therefore, the standard must be set so high that the product once it has come out of the production line is totally without any defect and perfect in any form and performance.

             The measurement of quality is the price of nonconformance, not indexes, means that to measure the quality of the product it is necessary to evaluate it out of the box of the typical guidelines or categories in evaluating quality products. It is necessary to deviate from the norm of standard quality assurance. For instance, it may be necessary to spend more on a particular part of a product even though a cheaper but less reliable part is available. Spending more will cost the company more capital input and less profit but in the long run this will ensure that the product will have the quality that will guarantee its performance to the market. Such move will establish the company as a quality producing company and therefore will create more market. The market of the company will expand and will become more stable. This in terms of long term business planning will create more profit and steady rate of expansion.

            To support his Four Absolutes of Quality, Crosby developed the Quality Management Maturity Grid and Fourteen Steps of Quality Improvement. The Quality Management Maturity Grid is the first step in moving an organization towards quality management. Using the Grid, the company locates its position (in the Grid) and then implements the Quality Improvement System.          This Quality Improvement System is based on the Fourteen Steps of Quality Improvement, which are: (Step 1) Management Commitment, (Step 2) Quality Improvement Teams, (Step 3) Quality Measurement, (Step 4) Cost of Quality Evaluation, (Step 5) Quality Awareness, (Step 6) Corrective Action, (Step 7) Zero-Defects Planning, (Step 8) Supervisory Training, (Step 9) Zero Defects, (Step 10) Goal Setting, (Step 11) Error Cause Removal, (Step 12) Recognition, (Step 13) Quality Councils and (Step 14) Do It All Over Again.

            Crosby’s The Deming Management Method focuses on the elimination of defects or zero defects which can only be achieved with the commitment of the management. As discussed, it is necessary for the management to accept the standard of zero defects because this puts the management into the shoes of the customer. Upon understanding or considering the customers’ needs and satisfaction, the management can begin to make a product that is totally for the consumer. Once this is achieved then the company can then be able to meet the need of the customer and can make a solid market out of them. The initial additional expenses or cost in production can then be overlooked once the real profit of having a solid market is achieved.