Quality is everybody's responsibility

Quality is everybody ‍‍‍‍‍‍ responsibility (Dr Deming), however can you articulate how everyone is responsible for quality
Start with management :-
Management has the biggest responsibility for quality as advocated by quality gurus , Dr Juran and Dr Deming.
The Juran Trilogy is based on top down approach of quality planning, improvement & control.
Dr Deming 14 Quality Management points also need the management top down approach to be successful.
Follow by each functional team on how they impact quality ✅:-
Procurement must select supplier not base the lowest cost , it must base total cost of ownership
Design has to plan in quality into the product (Juran Trilogy)
Sales do not over commit without considering the capability of production to the level where quality is compromise
Manufacturing and process to create error proof process to prevent defect .
HR should have powerful ⚡ screening process to hire the right person for right job.
Do you think we still need Quality Dept if everybody owns quality? Appreciate a comment

Hello Evelyn,

"Owning" quality is wonderful, but there may be technical aspects that QA experts can help support. Just what they are depends on the organization's industry, maturity, and regulatory considerations among other things.

Evelyn7E said:

Do you think we still need Quality Dept if everybody owns quality? Appreciate a comment

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We can also get rid of umbrellas if it would stop raining all the time.

I was going to insert the quote that has kind of become a quality buzz-phrase in places I've worked -- "100% quality is not 100% effective"
But I saw that was already brought up (several times) here at the Cove: (par example)
How effective is 100% inspection

Quality of one's own process is the responsibility of the employee, but foregoing a quality group at large because that is stated is not an effective way to approach overall quality. Checks performed by someone who is not involved directly in a process is a great value. Not to mention those who, as stated above, have regulatory tasks to perform. Quality is very broad-reaching as a noun.

The quality function is morphing into the system function.

Making sure the organization, working as a system, helps people to understand and fulfill requirements.

Evelyn7E said:

Do you think we still need Quality Dept if everybody owns quality?

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Dr. Deming also said "We are being ruined by the best efforts of people doing the wrong thing." There must coordination of quality objectives and efforts to avoid different interest groups pulling in different directions or sub-optimizing.

How long did it take to understand, that quality of product depends on production operator's performance, rather than quality inspector effectiveness?
30, 40 years? But some still say "It is a Quality department job!"
How long will it take to understand, that production operator's performance depends on technical department (process designer) member engagement during APQP team work rather than quality engineer?
60, 80 years? Now, some still ask "What department should prepare control plan?" "Who's leader of PFMEA?"
Ok, let's keep approach, "technical department member is a child and forgets how the process runs, but fortunately there is quality guy and he will teach him" and see how guy will get frustrated.

Here's another one....

"Everyone is in Sales!"

Evelyn7E said:

Do you think we still need Quality Dept if everybody owns quality? Appreciate a comment

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Yes, I think companies still need a Quality Department even if "everybody owns quality". As MWER, I would hate to have to hold everyone (including myself) accountable for every breakdown in the quality system. My quip is motivated by the difference between Juran's "big Q" and "little Q" taxonomy.

There are specific areas of knowledge, expertise and methodologies that should/can be developed in members of a Quality department that I wouldn't expect a functioning business to assign to "everybody".

Evelyn7E said:

Quality is everybody ‍‍‍‍‍‍ responsibility (Dr Deming)

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Evelyn7E said:

Do you think we still need Quality Dept if everybody owns quality? Appreciate a comment

Click to expand...

The use of the word own is vague. I assume you intended it in the sense of the word responsible.

Responsibility is not coextensive with authority. Employees can be responsible for performing many activities, yet have no authority over those activities.

The Quality dept has authority over the quality system and its implementation, monitoring and improvement.