Good article. Point made is right on. One suggestion: A zero defects guy should proof-read his articles. Not knowing how to spell "Reagan" was a big blunder.

I enjoyed this article but I have to also say that we Americans as a whole have contributed to the Quality Crisis in America by accepting poor quality. What I mean by that is how many of us have when purchasing a car or an appliance or any type of electronics have also purchased additional (extended) warranties at the same time? In my opinion that is that same as saying yes I know it is probably not made as well as it should be and it's OK because I still want it. When I do any type of process / quality training in the company I work for, the first thing I say is don't except poor quality in your personnel life because then you will accept poor quality in your work.

I can't help but think of Peter Glen's (services) view in "It's Not My Department"-- we all have to be better customers if we're going to change quality. That means we have to tell the provider exactly what we want, how and when we want it, and MAKE them give it to us JUST THAT WAY. If not, we're being bad customers, because the provider will then think they are building (or providing a service) to proper specs. In practice, we probably won't go back and buy from a provider who produces defects. However, if we refuse to accept poor quality, both parties should in the end get what they want - a satisfied buyer.

The problem is that Six Sigma has sent quality back to the stone age. The basic principles laid down by Deming have been forgotten. Instead, the masses waste their time on the utter nonsense of counting to 3.4 defects.

The cure is to get back to Deming and the basics.

With all the technology that goes into todays cars, I am impressed with the level of quality we are at. If we waited to prove out all our advances, we would be lagging 25 years in developements. I love the quality guys
that live in a dream world where nothing should go wrong....Quality is and always will be a "a work in progress!"
Here's a great idea. Let's engineer a great new idea and then test it for 10 years to make sure everything works as designed. LOL

1. The biggest obstacle to long term improvement is the short term hit you take in profits while changes are being implementing and haven't shown fruition. Time after time improvement projections will be abandoned because management will change their mind in face of the bottom line.

2. The biggest danger to sustained quality is tough times and good times. Tough times pressure management to cut quality to improve the bottom line and good times pressure management to expand even though the company isn't structurally ready for it.

3. In the 1940's american meat was second to none but in 1950 we switched from grass fed to grain fed cattle.
To help the consumer, the customer? Not on your life! Grain is cheaper and more abundant than grass. The
bottom line ruined a world class product.

A couple points in response:
- I get a little dismayed when I read these articles that bash the big boss. Maybe some big bosses have reservations about committment to quality because so many quality professionals (leaders in this case?) continue to bash them. Maybe they view the quality profession with skepticism because they know that the quality guys are likely to blame them for all the problems being their fault.
- Which brings me to another point - the writer of articles about quality playing the "blame game". The same authors would encourage you to look at the system and not find fault with the users if they were writing a politically correct article about problem solving in your plant. They might criticize managers for searching for who to blame instead of solving the problem with the system. But in this case - we jump right to the blame and do not consider if it is a system issue.
- Leading in to the next point - yes view this quality "crisis" as a system issue. The system is delivering results in accordance with it's capability. The American system has created this, not the leaders of manufacturing companies. Everything needs to be cheaper. It drives things everywhere. Advertisers, retailers, consumers, and yes - quality professionals, all are driven by the almighty dollar. The old saying - "they don't make 'em like they used to" is no accident. You asked for it! Good luck trying to change it - seems like low odds to influence change by placing blame on business leaders though.

Unfortunately, America probably stopped having quality products that are reliable for customers since the 40's or 1950. America has been making new laws that do not work in the interests of average Americans and average customers who are poor. The American infrastructure stopped being reliable because American politicians are legalizing food pollution, which is causing children to have cancer early and causing the children to be murdered by cancer that was caused by the food pollution that was caused by the business people in America. The greedy psycho elite is the one controlling America now. Environmental pollution and food pollution that are legalized in America are what causes the Americans to have cancer, hormonal problems, obesity, osteoporosis, alzheimer's disease, and other things. The American system has been bought by the mafia. So, now the old mafia people are retired and they are living "peacefully" because of Americans' suffering who were born after the 1970's or 1980's. Americans who were born in the 1980's were being screwed over by school administrators and politicians because the people in the banks, political field, and school administrations were getting evilly greedy. So, they started making college expensive to keep poor people from being able to attend college easily so they could keep the poor people dumb and exploitable for profit. Then, they started to make product quality drop to exploit the poor people further. Now, the bribed American politicians are trying to take away the poor people's guns. Also, there has been an increase of parents in America that don't want to do their parental jobs anymore. So, schools in America do social work more than teach the children practical skills to prepapre them for the real world after they graduate. Also, the child therapists in America have sold their souls to the bribed drug industry. They put harmful drugs in American children's bodies that aren't good quality drugs in the first place because they give the American children side effects on purpose. America business people became greedy degenerates, and now America is becoming worse. There are European countries that do a better job of making quality products and quality citizens, but America is failing and America will collapse if these unwise Americans keep accepting poor quality.