Brief History of Quality

Quality is a familiar word for everyone who can feel, taste, instinct or smells. Everyone claims knowing the quality; however the quality as a concept is difficult to understand and grasp. In a linguistic sense quality comes from the Latin word QUALIS which means “such as the thing really is”. The international definition identify the quality is “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfil requirements” (BS EN ISO 9000, 2000). In the modern business world, although there are many definitions for the quality but there is no single accepted explanation to demonstrate the quality. The quality most of time means comparing one organisation, service, event, product, action, result, and also person from another.
this is a brief history of quality .

 Pre -Industrial Revolution
Skilled craftsmen controlled their own quality through pride of workmanship.
They were involved in the product from beginning to end.
 1880’S - Frederick Taylor and “Scientific Management”
 Mass production, assembly lines, and division of labor (Introduction of work standards and wage incentives)
 1920’S - Shewhart Introduces Statistical Process Control
Methods based on continual on-line monitoring of process variation. Concept of
“common cause” and “assignable cause” variability.
 1930 - Dodge and Romig Introduce Acceptance Sampling Methods
Probabilistic approach to predicting lot acceptability based on sampling results.
Centered on defect detection; concept of acceptable quality level (AQL)
 1950- Deming Introduces Statistical Process Control to Japan
 1970’s - Many U.S. Companies Begin Losing Market Share to Global Competitors
 1980 - “Quality Revolution” Begins in America
NBC airs a white paper entitle “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?”
Deming hired by Ford as a consultant
 1984 - U.S. Government Designates October as National Quality Month
 1987- Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award is Established
 1990’s - Quality Programs Spread to Service Industries
Proliferation of Quality programs: TQM, QFD, Six Sigma, Kaizen, Poke Yoke,
Taguchi Methods, Benchmarking, CQI, FMEA, etc.