The Battle of the Gurus

The Battle of the Gurus
Dr. W. Edwards Deming, was an eminent scholar and teacher in American academia for more than half a century. Edwards Deming guided the rise of the Japanese industry after World War II. His expertise and skill was used to improve the war equipment quality in Japan, while at the same time revitalizing and restoring a Japanese Industry that had been broke down by the World War. He was also known to be best practitioner who device the 14 points in quality improvement. (March, 1986)
Leadership roles being very important to Deming he professed 14 pints for managers to incorporate at every level of the organization. He is known for his ratio - Quality is equal to the result of work efforts over the total costs. If a company is to focus on costs, the problem is that costs rise while quality deteriorates. Deming’s quality teachings emphasized system management and quality control through the use of statistical process control charts. While Deming’s theories supported quality control, his 14 points emphasized management’s responsibility for making quality improvements. (March, 1986)
Philip Crosby is an American who promoted the phrases “zero defects” and “right first time”. Zero defects doesn’t mean mistakes never happen, rather that there is no allowable number of errors built into a product or process and that you get it right first time. (Crosby, 1989)
Crosby also identified a 14-step quality process emphasizing management commitment, his philosophy focused on creating real change in organizations. He made the point, much like Deming, that if you spend money on quality, it is money that is well spent. Crosby found that leaders had to get employees’ conviction and commitment to change first before any support for change could occur. Similar to Joseph Juran’s cost-of-quality theory, Crosby