Blackwell Reference Online

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A. V. Feigenbaum, who was head of quality at General Electric, originated the concept of “total quality control” (TQC). His book Total Quality Control , first published in 1951 under a different title, defines total quality as follows: The underlying principle of the total quality view … is that to provide genuine effectiveness, control must start with identification of customer quality requirements and end only when the product has been placed in the hands of a customer who remains satisfied. Total quality control guides the coordinated actions of people, machines, and information to achieve this goal. ( Feigenbaum, 1983 ) Feigenbaum introduced the concept of the “hidden plant,” which he defines as the proportion of plant capacity expended on the rework of defective parts and goods and which, he claims, typically represents between 15 and 40 percent of plant capacity. He identifies four categories of quality costs – cost of prevention, cost of appraisal, cost of internal failure, and cost of external failure – and argues that by investing in prevention, failure and eventually appraisal costs will decline, resulting in a significant reduction of total quality costs ( see quality costing ). Perhaps most notably Feigenbaum made a direct attack on the view that responsibility for TQC lies solely with the quality assurance or quality control function, arguing that it must be shared ... log in or subscribe to read full text