Mohammad Zaid

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Armand Vallin Feigenbaum

Armand Vallin Feigenbaum (born 1922) is an American quality control expert and businessman.

Education
Feigenbaum received a bachelor's degree from Union College, and his master's degree and Ph.D. from MIT.

Professional Career
He began his career with General Electric (GE) in 1937 as an apprentice toolmaker and management intern with the turbine, engine and transformer group. He entered Union College in Schenectady, NY, in 1938 to study engineering while continuing his work at GE. His coursework focused on mathematics, statistics, engineering and economics. When he graduated in 1942, he joined GE as a full-time design engineer. Later in 1943, he was named manager of quality control for the

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Schenectady Works plant in New York at 23 years old. He went on to graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was later promoted to GEs corporate headquarters in New York City to serve as the executive champion for quality According to the Department of Trade and Industry, Feigenbaum served as the worldwide Director of Manufacturing Operations and Quality Control at General Electric Company between 1958 and 1968. He later became President of General Systems Company, Inc. In 1988, Feigenbaum was appointed to the board of overseers of the United States Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award Program. Dr. Feigenbaum was elected to the National Academy of Engineering of the United States in 1992. He serves as the founding Chairman of the Board of the International Academy for Quality, the worldwide quality body. He served two terms as President of the American Society for Quality and one term as Chairman of its Board of Directors. While working at GE, Feigenbaum applied the lessons he learned at MIT to examine observations about how productivity improvement could be achieved by driving quality in a different way from how it had been.

Evolution of Total Quality Control

Demings speech to the Japanese revolutionized their perspective on quality and gave birth to the idea of using quality as yardstick for success. Demings idea of quality soon caught on, and using this lead, a General Electric (GE) Quality Control engineer named Armand V. Feigenbaum proposed the theory of Total Quality Control.

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Dr Armand V Feigenbaum is the originator of Total Quality Control. The first edition of his book Total Quality Control was completed whilst he was still a doctoral student at MIT. By 1950 the book had become quite popular, and the Japanese saw great potential in using TQC as a tool to achieve high quality. Feigenbaums idea of TQC came from his experiences being in charge of quality at General Electric (GE). During this period, he was in constant contact with world-class companies such as Hitachi and Toshiba. By studying the quality procedures at these companies, he realized the need for a total approach to quality. By this, he meant that all processes and units related to quality must aim at creating a high quality end product. In short, he believed that high quality could be achieved only through organizational support. He also asserted that quality must be a priority and not an afterthought. In his book Quality Control: Principles, Practices and Administration, Feigenbaum strove to move away from the then primary concern with technical methods of quality control, to quality control as a business method. Thus he emphasized the administrative viewpoint and considered human relations as a basic issue in quality control activities. Individual methods, such as statistics or preventive maintenance, are seen as only segments of a comprehensive quality control programme. Quality control itself is defined as:

'An effective system for co-coordinating the quality maintenance and quality improvement efforts of the various groups in an organization so as to enable production at the most economical levels which allow for full customer satisfaction.'
According to Feigenbaum, quality did not mean giving the best product to the customer. More important as a tool was control, which focuses on the following: Devising clear and achievable quality standards Enhancing existing working conditions to reach the desired quality standards.

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Setting new quality standards with an aim to further improve.

Feigenbaum TQC
Feigenbaum presented quality in a holistic perspective. According to him, quality must encompass all the phases in the manufacturing of a product. This includes design, manufacturing, quality checks, sales, after-sales services, and customer satisfaction when the product is delivered to the customer. Given that these factors control the perception of quality, he proposed controls to control the above mentioned phases. New-design control Incoming material control Product control Special process studies. Since these controls affect the quality of the product, they must be used to influence the quality of the end product.

Misconception in quality control

According to Feigenbaum, many organizations commit the blunder of viewing statistical tools as a means to control quality. However, he suggested that statistical tools make up only a small percentage of the quality control program. In short, statistical tools and techniques are a subset of the main quality control system.

Modern quality control

Feigenbaums idea of modern quality control was more management-based. He recommends: Increasing operator efficiency by educating them on quality in order to enhance overall quality. Aiming to increase quality awareness throughout the organization. Involving the entire organization in each and every quality initiative undertaken.

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He believed that quality control must not be viewed as a cost reduction tool but as an administrative effort to: Provide a channel for knowledge integration and communication, thus enhancing product quality. Encourage employee participation in organizational quality control initiatives. Grow constantly, not abruptly Feigenbaums modern quality control initiative stressed continuous improvement. He believed that the success of a quality control program depends on its ability to encompass more employees as it progresses. Often organizations leap into new concepts and techniques, and ultimately they become dejected. Feigenbaum advised climbing one step at a time. Therefore, he suggested that organizations allow the quality control program to develop slowly. Later, the emphasis should be on implementing the features of the quality control program throughout the organization.

Feigenbaums second book

In 1983, Feigenbaum wrote his second book on Total Quality Control. In this book, he focused on the buyers perspective of quality. He also explained why a few companies were able to implement successful quality control programs and why others were not. Simply put, the book focused on how to achieve Total Quality Control. The book argued that organizations must look at quality as a gateway to success. Essentially, the book argued that Quality is in its essence a way of managing the organization. Like finance and marketing, quality has now become an essential element of modern management

TQC today A best Practice

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It has been over forty years since Feigenbaum published his book on TQC. His book on TQC presents 10 attributes that are still critical to organizations today. 1. Quality control must be a company-wide process. 2. Quality is defined by the customer. 3. Quality and cost is a sum, not a difference. 4. Quality requires both individual and team enthusiasm. 5. Quality is a way of managing. 6. Quality and innovation are interdependent. 7. Quality is an ethic. 8. Enhanced quality demands continuous improvement. 9. Quality is the most cost-effective and least capital-intensive route to productivity. 10. Quality is implemented with a total system connected with customers and suppliers.

Awards
Dr. Feigenbaum was chosen for the National Institute for Engineering Management & Systems' Distinguished Service Award, and sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers, for his lifetime contributions to the field of management. Dr. Feigenbaum has been awarded the Edwards Medal of the American Society for Quality for "outstanding leadership in the field of quality control." He was awarded the National Security Industrial Association Award of Merit for "true leadership in the defense of the nation."

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He has been named an Honorary Member of the American Society for Quality, that body's highest honor.

He was awarded the Founders Medal by Union College for his "distinguished career in management and engineering."

He was the first recipient of the Lancaster Award of the American Society for Quality, for his "leadership of the international development of quality."

In December 1988 in Paris Dr. Feigenbaum was awarded the Medaille G. Borel by France, the first American to be so honored, in recognition of his international leadership of quality as well as his contributions to France.

In 1993 he was named a Fellow of the World Academy of Productivity Science, and awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award by the Quality & Productivity Management Association.

In 1996, he was the first recipient of the Ishikawa/Harrington Medal by the Asia-Pacific Quality Organization for "outstanding leadership in management excellence in the Asia-Pacific region."

In October 1997, the Quebec Society for Quality established the Feigenbaum Medal, which recognizes leadership as a source of quality progress in Quebec society.

In 1998 he was designated Honorary Member of FUNDECE (Fundacion Empresaria Para La Calidad y La Excelencia).

In 1998, the American Society for Quality established the Feigenbaum Medal to be granted annually for excellence in performance.

In 1992 the Governor of Massachusetts announced establishment of the Armand V. Feigenbaum Massachusetts Quality Award to annually recognize the business organizations displaying the strongest competitive leadership.

In 2001 Dr. Feigenbaum was presented with a Governor's Proclamation on the Anniversary of his book Total Quality Control by the Governor of Massachusetts.

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In 1994 Singapore's Ngee Ann Polytechnic inaugurated the annual Dr. A.V. Feigenbaum Gold Medal Award for the outstanding Quality Assurance Engineering graduate.

Dr. Feigenbaum is a member of many professional societies. He is a Life Member of both the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He is Honor Advisor to China's Association for Quality, and Honorary Member of the Argentine Institute for Quality. He is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, the American Economics Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and the Industrial Relations Research Association. He is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Quality. He has for many years been a registered professional engineer and active in engineering affairs.

Summary
Feigenbaums idea of Total Quality Control as a management responsibility has been widely appreciated and implemented. Nevertheless, it is only through entire workforce dedication that high quality by Total Quality Control can be achieved.

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