Philip Crosby

“Doing it right the first time”, has been a stimulating quote from a man that was an inspiration to thousand of companies around the globe, Philip Bayard Crosby. Mr. Crosby was a practitioner, writer, and philosopher of quality management. His works range from books, seminars, and Philip Crosby Associates, which has helped to change the ever growing companies in corporate quality.

Philip Crosby was born on June 18, 1926 in Wheeling West Virginia to Mary and Dr. Edward K. Crosby. After graduating from high school in 1944, Mr. Crosby decided to become a hospital corpsman with the Navy. After two years, Mr. Crosby enrolled in college. He attended the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine. This was the field in which his father worked. He practiced the field for awhile, but decided it was of no interest. He returned to the military as a Marine Medical Corpsman.

In the year 1955, Mr. Crosby worked as a reliability quality technician for Bendix Mishawaka Corporation. He was responsible for looking into imperfections found by examiners and testors. In 1957, Mr. Crosby went to labor with Martin Marietta Company as a leading quality engineer.

This is the time that his career as a motivational speaker about quality started to blossom. The “Zero Defects” concept was designed, journals article being written, and his speaking seminars started to bud. In 1965, Mr. Crosby took on a job at ITT as a VP for corporate quality. He stayed there for fourteen years and in 1979, he established his own firm called Philip Crosby Associates, Inc. (PCA) His company “grew into a publicly traded organization with 300 employees around the world and $100 million dollars in revenue.” (Philip Crosby Associates, 2005) This company was responsible for teaching companies’ management teams like General Motors, Xerox, and Motorola how to institute a pre-emptive background to obtain things completed right the initial time.

In 1991, Mr. Crosby retired but didn’t quit his quest. He founded Career IV, Inc. This company offered specialized education classes and sermons for the growth of company executives. A few years later in 1997, Mr. Crosby established Philip Crosby Associate II, Inc. by buying the assets of PCA.

During all these years, Mr. Crosby had found time to author 13 books. These books covered his favorite topic, “Quality.” These books sold over

millions and were transformed to17 languages. His first book was established in 1967 preceding his most widely known book, “Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain “printed in 1979. He was also known for his great work in other essays and writings that he created.

After educating companies for over 40 years, Mr. Philip Crosby passed away on August 18, 2001 from respiratory failure. Although he is gone, his legacy continues to inspire.

“Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain”

Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain was written in 1979. This was Philip Crosby’s second book and the one that really got his name out there to the corporate industry. He wrote this book in his intention on explaining quality to business managers with the purpose to clarify it in simple terms.

The book talks about the misunderstanding of quality management. Mr. Crosby utilizes a story associated with the ITT Corporation to show how quality was used. It goes on to explain the meaning of quality and how companies can go about using skills to incorporate it into their work environment. Mr. Crosby also utilizes an example revolving around the HPA case in which an executive was trying to better a company with where they were employed with. Further along in the book, a Maturity Grid is presented, which helps companies, by letting management establish where their business positions with the quality procedure.

The first part of the book starts with Philip Crosby’s thoughts on quality and how to interpret, use and apply the Maturity Grid. Further along in Chapter 8, Mr. Crosby goes into detail with a 14-step method for

establishing quality improvement. To be able to create change, these 14 steps need to be addressed to improve quality. Management participation is essential for this process.

The first step in the 14-step method is “Management Commitment.” This step includes discussing with management the need for quality and accomplishing by assisting management to be aware that it has to be dedicated to partaking in the program. “We see an immediate reduction of errors when employees realize that management is determined to improve things.” (Crosby, 1982, November 22) Step 2 is “Quality Improvement Team.” This consists of joining members of all departments in the effort to establish a team. Step 3 is “Quality Measurement.” This is determining the position of quality all through the company. Measurements needs to be noted on all departments and noting were corrections need to be made. Step 4 is “Cost of Quality Evaluation.” COQ needs to be made. This is done through the comptroller’s office and is a sign of where remedial action will be beneficial. Step 5 is “Quality Awareness.” This step is where communication with all employees about the findings of quality within

the company. Step 6 is “Corrective Action.” This refers to identifying the problem and foreseeing ways to resolve the issue. Step 7 is “Establishing an Ad Hoc Committee for the Zero Defects program.” This is communicating to all employees what the Zero Defect is and that “everyone should do things right the first time.” (Crosby, 1979) Step 8 is “Supervisor training.” Step 9 is “Zero Defects Day.” This is making a day of the Zero Defects commitment. Step 10 is “Goal Setting.” Step 11 is “Error Cause removal.” This pertains to employees communicating problems that forbid them from performing free from error labor. Step 12 is “Recognition.” Designing programs that take notice of employees that do top quality work and achieve their goals. Step 13 is