Philip B. Crosby Crosby is perhaps best known for his motivational style and popular programs such as: zero defects, conformance to requirements, and quality is free. He has a 14 point program for quality management and the four absolutes of quality. Crosby refers to the four absolutes of quality management as, "The concepts that form the foundation for improvement. They must be ingrained in the mind and fabric of an organization and implemented continually if success is to be complete and permanent." They answer the questions: What is quality? What system is needed to cause quality? What performance standard should be used? What measurement system is required? Crosby's four absolutes of quality management The definition of quality is conformance to requirements. Quality improvement is based on the concept of getting everyone to "do it right the first time". Management's responsibility is to establish the requirements, supply the resources to meet the requirements and spend "all its time" assisting employees in meeting the requirements. Crosby states the cause of many quality problems is, "... management's definition of what quality is: goodness. Nobody knows what that means except the speaker." He contends quality must be defined as conformance to requirements. The system of quality is prevention. Appraisal and inspection are expensive and unreliable methods of attaining quality. Organizations have to adopt prevention as a way of life, as Crosby notes, "The error that does not exist cannot be missed." The secret to prevention is observing the process, identifying opportunities for error, and eliminating the causes of problems. An observation concerning service and manufacturing organizations, "The only difference between the two is that the waste in service companies goes out in baskets and in manufacturing companies in barrels." The performance standard is zero defects. Crosby believes errors are a function of the...