Philip Crosby
Philip B. Crosby (1926-2001)
Philip B. Crosby was a legend of quality. A noted quality professional, consultant, and author known as the “Father of the Quality Revolution” or “The Guru of Quality Management”. His philosophies and concepts helped changes the way business is conducted worldwide. He is widely recognized for promoting the concept of “zero defects” and for defining quality as conformance to requirements.
Philip Crosby was born in West Virginia in 1926.
Crosby’s career as a quality professional began in 1952 after serving in World War II and Korea he has worked for Crosley, Martin-Marietta and ITT where he was corporate vice president for 14 years.
Crosby initiated the Zero Defects program at the Martin Company Orlando, Florida, plant. As the quality control manager of the Pershing missile program, Crosby was credited with a 25 percent reduction in the overall rejection rate and a 30 percent reduction in scrap costs.
During the late 1970s and into the 1980s North American manufacturers were losing market share to Japanese products largely due to the superiority of quality of the Japanese products.
Crosby’s response to the quality crisis was the principle of “doing it right the first time” (DIRFT). He would also include four major principles:
1. The definition of quality is conformance to requirements
2. The system of quality is prevention
3. The performance standard is zero defects
4. The measurement of quality is the price of nonconformance
Crosby’s prescription for quality improvement was a 14-step program. His belief was that a company that established a quality program would see savings returns that more than pays off the cost of the quality program (“quality is free”).
In 1979, he founded Philip Crosby Associates, Inc. (PCA), teaching management how to establish a preventive culture to get things done right the first time.
Crosby was recognized by corporations around the globe as a “guru” of quality management, and a business philosopher and innovator who changed the way organizations seek to achieve greater efficiency, reliability, and profitability.
Crosby’s first book, Quality is Free, has been credited with playing a large part in beginning the quality revolution in the United States and Europe. He published a total of 13 books, including The Absolutes of Leadership in 1996 and Quality and Me, an autobiography filled with lessons from life published in 1999.
Philipp Crosby died in August 2001, but his legacy will live on in better quality in thousands of organizations.
External Links
- http://www.asq.org/about-asq/who-we-are/bio_crosby.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Crosby
- http://www.philipcrosby.com/pca/index.html
- http://www.skymark.com/resources/leaders/crosby.asp
