Dr Kondo was professor of metallurgy at Kyoto University, and has worked at MIT as research associate. He is the president of
International Association of Quality, and has written several books One Hundred Questions on Statistical Methods and Their Answers, Companywide Quality Control and Human Motivation.
He was in Mumbai recently to address the 8th World Congress on Total Quality, and also addressed the students of Principal L N Welingkar Institute of Management. He took some time off to meet The Strategist Excerpts from the interview and the lecture:
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Q. Why do you feel that quality is eternal?
A. My idea is that quality is a constant in turbulent times. Quality is distinguished from the other equally important management indicators - cost and productivity - by two points. One, its history, its relationship with human beings is far longer. Two, it is one of the three factors (cost and productivity being the other two) to be of common concern to both the manufacturer and the customer. And because of these unique attributes, quality has a far more human aspect than either cost or productivity. While we may stress the importance of establishing a quality culture, we do not commonly use the terms cost culture or productivity culture.
The fact that an appeal by senior management to improve quality is more easily sympathised and accepted by the workforce and harder to refuse than a call to cut costs or to raise productivity.
The tools used by human beings have shifted from simple to complex - the quality of tools is very important to human beings. Even chimpanzees have tools, and even they improve upon the quality of the same!
Q. Quality is today almost an abused term. Do companies really understand quality?
A. A product should satisfy customer needs. But here, it is important to understand who are your customers. Take the example of a construction company called Takenaka in Japan. To build a hospital, they spoke not just to the authorities in charge of the construction, but also to doctors, nurses and patients.
You have to understand clearly the customers needs. You have to find out whether he is satisfied or not. It is not like answering a pre-election questionnaire, whether I like this party or that party.
Q. Can we say that for a product, a manufacturers perspective of must-be quality is the same as attractive qualities from the customers point of view? (Prof. Kondo defines must-be qualities are those which are the minimum factors necessary for a product to satisfy customer requirements, and on the other hand attractive qualities are those which have consumer appeal. In must-be qualities, it is necessary to reduce the number of complaints to minimum, and increase the appeal of attractive qualities.)
A. The specifications are decided by the company and not the customer. But with attractive qualities, it is often possible for companies to expand markets, to increase market share, and thus to increase profitability. Most often, these attractive qualities are forgotten about because customers have abandoned hope of obtaining them or do not realise they want them.
If this kind of thing continues, competitive power will drop. Very little be left of the company; its name will disappear from the telephone directory. Because, you see, the market is free and competitive. Improving qualitydiffers from lowering costs or raising productivity. In that sense, it pleases the companys internal customers and external customers as well as the people actually engaged in improving quality.
Q. What are the recent developments that have influenced quality?
A. These days environment protection has assumed an important role. For example, reducing the rate of defects is one step towards environment protection. There is another factor about participation and leadership. People are beginning to exercise their individuality more and more. The teamwork that takes place in such times will probably differ from the conventional teamwork. The team members will increasingly participate in planning and managing their work.
With this happening, the nature of leadership itself will probably change. The leaders main tasks will consist of explaining the common aims to the team members and persuading them to buy into them, persistently and patiently monitoring progress towards achieving the common aims. The work aims must be ones that all the team members are concerned about in achieving.
The first condition necessary for the successful introduction and establishment of TQM in the era where individuality is likely to intensify further is to identify the organisations common aims. It is thought that the company is the property of society rather than that of the owners, and this provides a hint to the solution of this problem.