The Next Leap in Productivity: What Top Managers Really Need to Know about Information Technology

4.14. An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth 16 Tons of Cure

Defect prevention is not the same as defect detection. Defect detection is the process of finding and fixing defects after a product is built; the flawed process that generated those defects is left uncorrected.

In the seat bolts example, defect detection would have simply tightened the seat bolts at the end of the assembly line. This action might have ensured that the bolts were installed properly, but it would have left the root of the problem embedded in the manufacturing process. The problem would never go away because the root cause was not corrected.

Implementing Deming's methodology took time—years, in some instances—as every step in the manufacturing process had to be analyzed and, in most cases, altered. However, in adopting Deming's defect prevention techniques, Japan, Germany, and other nations saw the quality of their products skyrocket. In turn, the manufacturing process became more efficient, resulting in greater production numbers and reduction of per-unit costs.

The American automotive industry remained skeptical of the Deming approach, despite the unexpected and astonishing quality improvement experienced by the Japanese. Postproduction testing remained the standard approach to quality in the American auto industry well into the 1970s.

Only after the 1973 oil crisis, when the customers turned to smaller foreign imports in an effort to save fuel, did the American auto industry take notice. What they saw was ...