What do you mean by zero defects What are the pros and cons of zero defects what does it achieve?

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The pros and cons of ‘Zero Defects’

Zero Defects is the approach to quality that was developed and promoted by the guru Philip B. Crosby in his book ‘Quality Is Free’.

Forget Six Sigma – this is ‘Infinite Sigma’!

It’s a way of thinking about quality that doesn’t tolerate errors or defects and continually strives to improve processes and prevent errors so that work is always done correctly without needing repetition or rework or generating waste; this is Crosby’s philosophy of ‘right first time’.

These phrases have the benefit of being unambiguous; ‘Zero Defects’ and ‘right first time’ mean exactly what they say.

Think of this issue the other way round; the alternative to Zero Defects is that a certain level of defects is seen as normal or acceptable, as implied by the Acceptable Quality Limit approach; Crosby took a strong line against AQLs for precisely that reason, he saw them as a “commitment, before we start the job, that we will produce imperfect material”.

Zero Defects is based on four key principles:

1. Quality is simply conformance to requirements, not some sort of measure of performance or ‘goodness’
2. It is always cheaper to do the job right the first time than to correct problems later (quality should be ensured through prevention, not appraisal)
3. Quality is measured in monetary terms (the price of non-conformance)
4. The performance standard must be Zero Defects, not “that’s good enough”.

The key word for achieving Zero Defects is prevention, you don’t get ‘ZD’ by simply taking corrective actions to rectify existing problems, you have to stop them occurring in the first place. And, as I have mentioned before, taking preventive actions is much harder than taking corrective actions.

The case for Zero Defects

Zero Defects addresses the apathy that you often come across: “There will always be errors, there’s nothing you can do to prevent them”; why do we accept this statement for product manufacturing or software design but wouldn’t accept it from our surgeon as we entered the operating theatre, or in our bank accounts?

Crosby explains that defects represent a cost that is often hidden (inspection, waste/scrap, rework, lost customers, etc). By eliminating defects these costs are sufficiently reduced that the savings more than pay for the quality improvement programme; hence his assertion that ‘Quality is Free’.

The case against Zero Defects

Zero Defects is controversial because it’s so difficult to achieve; some people claim it’s ridiculous and counter-productive to have a target of zero that will rarely be attained. They believe it will lead to excessive inspection costs and demoralised staff who keep ‘failing’.

If implemented without sufficient thought it could even cause defects because of the extra stages of increasingly rigorous and expensive inspection and handling of the products.

It also incurs the wrath of people who hate slogans or ‘campaigns’.

Zero Defects is a difficult sell.

In many regards these criticisms, although well-meant, miss the point. Crosby didn’t expect that everyone adopting Zero Defects would always achieve it, or that residual defects should be seen as failings by an individual or group. Nor did he advocate commercially unjustifiable amounts of inspection. As with many areas of quality management it’s about the philosophy and the journey you take from where you are now to being a better business, it is the “attitude of defect prevention”.

When your goal is zero defects it sets a standard against which all your processes can be assessed. It’s about continually striving to work better and not being satisfied with the status quo.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that he didn’t intend ‘ZD’ to always stand alone, it formed just 3 steps out of a 14 step quality improvement programme.

So how do you do it?

I’d love to elaborate but it’s not something that I can easily summarise in a blog. His book describes ‘how to’ in detail, so may I refer you to ‘Quality is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain’ by Philip B. Crosby?

However, you might be interested in some of his related concepts such as how to assess the real Cost Of Quality, so I’ll talk about these in future blogs; watch this space!

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Welcome

Zero defects is a term “Absolutes of Quality Management” and the concept mentioned in the book has emerged as proper and mostly recommended for quality management.

It is so highly regarded that even six-sigma is adopting it as one of the major theories. But this concept is lacking in criticism and unfortunately, most of the belief that zero defect in quality management is just next to impossible.

On the other side, the majority of the people have worked hard on this concept and proved the naysayers wrong. They convinced the non-zero defects believer by pointing out that zero-defect doesn’t mean complete perfection but it’s about eliminating the waste, as well as the majority of the defects, can be reduced in this way.

Hence, zero defects don’t mean perfection, but it is about ensuring the highest in quality standards. In this article, we have discussed whether zero defects in quality management are possible or not. But before we dig into that, just have a quick look at what is zero defects, its theory, and its pros as well as cons.

About Zero Defects

Zero defects in quality management are logically not possible but in this scenario, we are not talking about complete perfection. On the exact note, the organizations are looking forward to reducing all the possible defects and meet the quality standards.

As per the definition given by six sigma, zero defects mean 3.4 defects per million opportunity and allowing for sigma process shift that is 1.5 approximately. Hence, zero defects should be viewed as a quest for perfection to meet quality standards by avoiding unwanted defects.

Now, let’s take a look at how zero defects can be beneficial, on what theory it is based on.

About Zero Defects theory

The theory of zero defects has been based upon four elements that are as followed:

• Performance – The performance is judged by the quality standards and zero defects seek perfection as close as possible.
• Requirement – Quality should meet the requirement and introducing zero defects in this means providing quality requirements at a particular time.
• Step-by-step procedure – In zero defects procedure, the quality is looked after from the beginning to the end.
• Measurement in financial terms – Later, at the end of the procedure, one need to judge production, waste as well as revenue regarding budget impact.

The most important feature of zero defects is the process of elimination of waste. It eliminates any of the unproductive processes, employees, as well as tools that do not add value to the project. Now, let’s have a quick look at zero defects’ pros and cons.

About Zero Defects Pros And Cons

One of the most clear-cut advantages of zero defects is the deduction of defective level in the project which also saves money and meets the requirement of the customers. These steps would also lead to better sales and profit in a short time.

On the other hand, it may be possible that the team gets misguided or have a different outlook on the definition of zero defects. Having zero defects in quality management is not possible and if the team kept looking forward to getting completely zero defects, then they would waste their time as their satisfaction wouldn’t meet.

Now, let’s have a look at is six-sigma zero defects standard or not.

About Zero Defects concept in six-sigma standards

Currently, six-sigma has amazed all their customers by their stunning quality standards and it seems that zero defects concept has made the quality management of six-sigma better than ever. Talking conceptually as well as fundamentally, zero defects and the six-sigma walks on different lines; let’s have a quick look to it:

• Even kid would explain about zero defects but when it comes to six-sigma, one must have a particular knowledge regarding some of the mathematical as well as statistical concepts.

• Zero defect completely focuses on how to prevent defects whereas six-sigma focuses on how to manage defects. Six-sigma does focus on the deduction of defects but dealing with zero defects, it reduces the occurrence of the defects.

• The training of zero defects and six-sigma is different as well. In zero defects, not special training is provided as it just focuses on the delivery of the usual training. Whereas the six-sigma has particular sets of training to be followed. Even it includes various certification levels such as green belt certification and yellow belt certification.

• Talking about the concept of zero defects, it aims to have a reduction of defects as much as possible. This can be achieved by working right for the first time and thereafter as well. Whereas in six-sigma, the concept is based on 3.4 DPMO and this also seems to very few defects. Hence practically, zero defects in quality management cannot be achieved.

• In zero defects there’s no need for extra employees. But when the company calls for rigorous implementation regarding six-sigma, then it requires six-sigma green belts as well as six-sigma black belts. To avoid this disadvantage, the company consists of training resources internally.

• Talking about the standards, the zero defects have way high standards as it does not allow single defects at all. But in six-sigma, few defects that is 3.4 are accepted in a million opportunities. This is quite easy to know but performing implementation and detecting the defects is way harder.

• Coming to the hot topic of all time, employee involvement. In zero defects, each employee is being involved in the definition and works for fixing the possible defects. Whereas, in six sigma, not all the employee is given equal importance as all employees cannot handle the six-sigma statistical mastery.

Hence, you may have concluded from the above points that zero defects is much demanding compared to six-sigma. Not every company can meet the quality standard as six-sigma has. It took a lot to invest to achieve quality standards.

Moreover, if you are willing to go forward for six-sigma then do go through its six-sigma green belt certification as well as yellow belt certification. Currently, quality management is highly demanded. So, what are you waiting for, go and give a shot to this one if you are interested?

Hence, the above was everything you need to know about zero defects in quality management. Zero defects in quality management are possible, only if you know zero-defect definition well. It’s not at all about perfection but close to perfection as much as possible.

What do you mean by zero defects?

What is zero defect What are the advantages of zero defect?

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