Total Quality of Management

simple structure of cross-functional teams. Imai also suggests cross-functional

activities through teams as this extends TQC activities horizontally and breaks

departmental barriers. TOM Peters like Deming is wary of bureaucracy. He says

that structure kills and urges radical reduction in layers of management and ratio

of non-supervisors to supervisors. He also suggests redeployment of excess sup-

port staff to line functions. People can be retrained and will contribute effectively

if transferred to the line function rather than being shunted into non-productive

staff jobs that promote sluggishness and inefficiency. Ishikawa’s suggestion of

forming cross-functional committees selected from senior managers somehow

smacks of hierarchical bias. It may be acceptable in Japanese culture but many

may view it as being against the true spirit of TQM philosophy. Furthermore, his

idea of setting up different project teams and a separate secretariat to give admin-

istrative support to the committee is likely to promote bureaucracy and perhaps

encourage two parallel power centres within the organization.

Notes

1. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis (Madras: Productivity and Quality Publishing, 1992),

p. 6.

2. Ibid, p. ix.

3. Akira Sueno, Entrepreneur and Gentleman, Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1981), p. 93.

4. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, p. ix.

5. Philip B. Crosby, Quality Is Free (New York: Penguin Books, 1980), p. 6.

6. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, p. 27.

7. Kaoru Ishikawa, What Is Quality Control? The Japanese Way (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1985),

pp. 25, 112.

8. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, p. 6.

9. Gregory B. Hutchins, Introduction to Quality (Singapore: Maxwell Macmillan International

Publishing Group, 1991), p. 252.

10. Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), p. 83.

11. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, p. 76.

12. Masaaki Imai, Kaizen (Singapore: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1991), p. 46.

13. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, p. 76.

14. Masaaki Imai, Kaizen, p. 48.

15. Kaoru Ishikawa, What Is Quality Control? The Japanese Way, p. 112.

16. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, p. 404.

17. Ibid, p. 43.

18. Philip B. Crosby, Quality Without Tears (New York: Penguin Books, 1985), pp. 66–68.

19. Masaaki Imai, Kaizen, p. 41.

20. Ibid, p.25.

21. J. M. Juran, Managerial Breakthrough (NewYork: McGraw-Hill, 1964), pp. 15–17.

22. Philip B. Crosby, Quality Is Free, p. 2.

23. Ibid, p. 109.

24. A. V. Feigenbaum, Total Quality Control, Engineering and Management (New York: McGraw-

Hill, 1961), p. 13.

25. Philip B. Crosby, Quality Is Free, p. 15.

26. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, p. 124.

27. Ibid, p. 121.

28. Philip B. Crosby, Quality Is Free, pp. 21–34.

29. J. M. Juran, Juran on Quality by Design (NewYork: The Free Press, 1992), pp. 2–43.

SYNOPSIS OF PHILOSOPHY, CONCEPTS AND IMPLEMENTATION PRINCIPLES 63