Quality Science
| The 1920’s are widely recognized as the dawn of quality science. Bell Laboratories led the way by forming a quality department that emphasized quality, reliability, testing, and inspection. While with Bell Laboratories Walter Shewhart introduced the concept of control charting, and H. F. Dodge and H. G. Romig perfected methods for acceptance sampling. The methods developed during those early years were recognized and adopted by the War Department and the U.S. Army during the war effort of the 1940’s. Guidelines for the use of control charts, sampling inspection standards, and sampling techniques were adopted to aid manufacturing of war materials. Training courses in statistical quality control also began to emerge. | Much of what was learned in the U.S. during war time manufacturing was published and taught during the fifteen year period following WW II. J. M. Juran and F. M. Gryna published the Quality Control Handbook (1957), and both Juran and W.E. Deming were invited to Japan to give seminars on statistical methods and quality management. Japanese engineers and scientists also began developing methods for quality improvement such as Taguchi’s methods for experimental design, and Ishikawa’s introduction of the cause-and-effect-diagram. However, it is interesting to note that after all that was gained during this time period, the growth of quality methodology during the 1960’s and much of the 1970’s was stagnant. | Something stalled the course of the quality movement in U.S. manufacturing between 1960 and 1980 when NBC televised W. Edwards Deming’s first white paper titled If Japan Can . . . Why Can’t We. Many quality professionals believe that management gave up on the tools that lead to the successful advancement of traditional quality science here and abroad. Instead management concentrated on productivity and profits, and many blamed unfair trade practices for loss of market share. However, a new modern quality movement emerged after Deming’s famous white paper, and with it came a new philosophy regarding quality and continuous improvement. |
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References Duncan, A.J. Quality Control and Industrial Statistics. 5th ed. Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1986. Farnum, N.R. Modern Statistical Quality Control and Improvement. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1994. Precursor for the
second Edition A Historical Perspective - Part 2: The Modern Quality Movement |
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