A Modest Proposal: Let's Get Rid of "Quality."

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#1
I was just rereading George Orwell's famous 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language" (you can read it here: http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html) and got to thinking about the quality profession in general, and quality policies in particular. We all know that most, if not all ISO-mandated quality policies are nothing more that motherhood statements at best, and fatuous gobbeldygook at worst. The only purpose they serve in most instances is satisfaction of the ISO requirement, which is the worst possible reason for having a policy. In the essay, Orwell said, "Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." If you leave out the part about murder, you have a perfect description of quality policies.

So why not just get rid of the word "quality," as its nebulous and subjective definitions seem to be the pleasing facade covering all manner of heinous industrial dishonesty? In the essay Orwell makes an example of the word "democracy," which in many ways is the political equivalent of "quality":

"In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different."

And so every manufacturer, without regard for the actual state of his products, will make a claim for quality, and because the word has become functionally meaningless, it is impossible to argue against such claims.

If we banish "quality" from the lexicon, how shall we replace it? There happens to be a perfect substitute, one that by definition includes an assurance of fitness for use (which is what we usually mean by "quality," I think). I am referring to efficacy. It's well known in the medical and pharmaceutical worlds. It means "having the ability to perform as expected or as desiged." Something that works as it's supposed to is efficacious. If you make high-quality medical devices that kill patients, you can't say that they're efficacious. And you quality policy can't be referred to as having efficacy if it doesn't contribute materially to the efficacy of your products.

I have no illusions about actually getting rid of "quality." It's just to easy too abuse the word and seem like you're doing something worthwhile. It's the naked emperor's coat of many colors.But if we don't rage against the dying of the light, we'll all be stumbling around in the darkness, bumping into one another while mumbling something about enhancing core competencies or leveraging best practices in order to facilitate a new paradigm. And there's no efficacy in that.
 
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Randy Stewart

#2
One of the things I try to impress upon my employees and associates is that if you are truely a "Quality Professional" you must understand that the fullfillment or application of your ideas should ultimately result in the elimination of your job!!!

Of course that is in a perfect world, but the mindset is whats needed.

I am really looking at how I can eliminate the inspection responsibility of my department now. I am training my technicians to be process engineers and troubleshooters. I don't want inspectors!
 

Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Staff member
Admin
#3
Randy Stewart said:
One of the things I try to impress upon my employees and associates is that if you are truely a "Quality Professional" you must understand that the fullfillment or application of your ideas should ultimately result in the elimination of your job!!!

Of course that is in a perfect world, but the mindset is whats needed.

I am really looking at how I can eliminate the inspection responsibility of my department now. I am training my technicians to be process engineers and troubleshooters. I don't want inspectors!
This is very good and it is important to eliminate as much need for inspection as we can. However, in regulated industries this may never completely happen as it is assurance "needed" for legal purposes.

Getting people to become self-examining critical thinkers [enough to control processes that far] means an organization can then work on strategy. Then the quality professional may turn into a coach for the PDCA, metrics, critical analysis (as an observer role, rather than owner) and customer relationship management functions. This is the Baldrige Way, and I'd like to see more of it.

We could use it in the schools, so we can ditch all these resource consuming standardized tests when those numbers simply don't accurately reflect what's going right in the schools. They certainly don't do much to account for dynamics in incoming students, the "raw product stream": that is, the rising numbers of autistic kids (a 15% increase yearly) and learning/behavior disability factors.

Oh yes, there is work to do. When you work yourself our of a job, other industries need you too. By the time you have worked yourself jobless, those industries may have advanced to the point they actually know they need you! :tg:
 
T

tarheels4 - 2007

#4
Randy Stewart said:
One of the things I try to impress upon my employees and associates is that if you are truely a "Quality Professional" you must understand that the fullfillment or application of your ideas should ultimately result in the elimination of your job!!!

Of course that is in a perfect world, but the mindset is whats needed.

I am really looking at how I can eliminate the inspection responsibility of my department now. I am training my technicians to be process engineers and troubleshooters. I don't want inspectors!
Why not eliminate a few inspectors by having the ones that make the parts do the inspection.
 

Wes Bucey

Quite Involved in Discussions
#5
As finicky as I can often be about spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, I absolutely agree that words with elusive meanings fog up the landscape for a lot of folks trying to do "the right thing" because so many charlatans and necromancers pervert the words to their own ends (viz. "Six Sigma.")

I am reminded of the dim bulbs I've encountered who say, "I know Quality when I see it."

I've also lived through an era of government specifications when a simple one inch long metal rod had a two foot by three foot blueprint and five pages of specifications to describe it, leaving absolutely nothing to individual interpretation.

ISO9001:2000 comes relatively close to my concept that the marketplace (the customer) determines value of a product or service. The concept of "quality" (regardless of which meaning is chosen) is merely one of the factors a customer uses in making a decision about quality.

In the end, "quality" really IS in the eye of the beholder and may mean different things to different people for the same product.

I am always reminded of the caterpillar in the Disney cartoon, Alice in Wonderland, who says "words mean exactly what I choose them to mean."
 

Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Staff member
Admin
#6
In another thread I said somewhat the same thing--quality is a confusing term for people who think it only applies to attributes: a hot hamburger, bus on time, a capable and courteous help desk representative.

So what else should we call it?
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#7
Jennifer Kirley said:
In another thread I said somewhat the same thing--quality is a confusing term for people who think it only applies to attributes: a hot hamburger, bus on time, a capable and courteous help desk representative.
It does only apply to attributes if that's how I choose to define it. That's the whole point--"quality" is inescapably subjective, and that which is inescapably subjective is effectively meaningless.

Jennifer Kirley said:
So what else should we call it.
See the next-to-last paragraph in the original post.
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#8
Wes Bucey said:
I am always reminded of the caterpillar in the Disney cartoon, Alice in Wonderland, who says "words mean exactly what I choose them to mean."
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "It means just what I choose it to mean - neither more or less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all." --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
 

CarolX

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
#10
Randy Stewart said:
One of the things I try to impress upon my employees and associates is that if you are truely a "Quality Professional" you must understand that the fullfillment or application of your ideas should ultimately result in the elimination of your job!!!
I couldn't agree more, Randy. My goal as a Quality Profesional has always been the elimination of my job. Coworkers always found that strange, but if I do my job to my full abilities, I am no longer needed!!!
 
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