Quality is a problem that every manufacturer needs to face. It is the most important companion of industrial production.

It is very necessary to trace back the quality before industrialized mass production, so as to return to the origin of quality. In the handicraft era before the industrial era, products were produced in single piece or small batch by craftsmen and workshops. It has other rules for the definition of quality.

Until today, we will still praise the complexity and fineness of the process of the national treasure "Siyang fangzun". Is it a high quality product? beyond all doubt. In terms of modern quality specifications, what specifications does it meet? No, Does this affect its user value (not just cultural, artistic and archaeological values)? No,

For a single piece product, the craftsman is responsible for the product, "Siyang fangzun" does not need to meet some quality standards or product specifications. Even if there is still a specification deviation or defect, it is covered up by its complex shape. As a wine or ritual vessel, the quality is reflected in the complex modeling process.

Another characteristic of handicraft product quality is the craftsman responsibility system. In ancient China, there was a saying of "Wu Le Gong Ming", that is, the names of craftsmen are engraved on the articles. This system began to appear as early as the spring and Autumn period. The names of craftsmen should be engraved on the utensils to facilitate others to test the quality of products. The ancient bricks of the Ming City Wall in Nanjing have a craftsman's name and native place. In the handicraft era when Western craftsmen were developed, producers would also engrave names, and finally gradually develop into a brand mark, which was widely encouraged. The craftsman spirit is the craftsman hero first, and then the handed down spirit. At that time, the means to ensure the quality of objects did not depend on specifications, but on names. This is also a rule to measure quality.

"Wule work name" is equivalent to the quality certificate at that time. Serving users wholeheartedly has become the prerequisite for the survival of craftsmen. This is the spiritual essence of quality. After thousands of years, the quality is leisurely.

In the handicraft age, there is no need to measure. Easy to use, enough, you can. For example, Chinese made swords first relied on their senses to listen to sounds, such as tiger roaring and dragon chanting. The industrialization of modern quality starts from testing.

For the first industrial revolution, Watt was not the only protagonist. When watt steam engine came into the factory with surging power, a new problem appeared. How can machines achieve the same accuracy as clocks when producing their own parts? This makes us notice that energy power is not the only protagonist of the industrial revolution, but also a key invisible Hero: measurement.

The measurement of accuracy was solved by the British metal wizard mozley, the "father of machine tools". He invented a fully mechanical automatic lathe, which is an all iron lathe. All iron means stability, and stability represents accuracy. He made exquisite production machine tools for the lock owner he first served. At that time, lock not only meant safety, but also symbolized wealth. The rich in the upper class have begun to widely use all kinds of locks to protect their property. A complex lock requires 100 different parts to be embedded with each other, which requires accurate machines. Lock should be the first device for mass precision production. The detection of accuracy began to appear. Its value is second only to the steam engine, making the manual method of "only one at a time" possible for mass production.

Mozley's precision began with screws, nuts and lead screws, and then invented a micrometer, which should be the earliest accurate measuring instrument in human industrial history. This micrometer has a real name called "the Lord Chancellor". It eliminates the average value of tolerance, so that it is extremely accurate everywhere. Because the "Lord Chancellor" was able to measure small increments, it provided an accurate measurement system for the booming machine boom at that time, which also made the machine move towards stability, accuracy and efficiency.

In the first industrial revolution, a solid partnership was formed between power and measurement. This is a fable pointing to the future. No power, no efficiency, no measurement, no precision quality. The modern quality seed, so far, the embryo is correct and breaks through the ground.

In the era of industrialization, the first industry of "interchangeability" is national defense firearms. At that time, soldiers' long guns were made by hand. A gun is made one by one, and different people make different guns. It is not only time-consuming and laborious to manufacture, but also very difficult to repair when used in the battlefield. One part is broken and the whole gun is useless. Around 1800, Whitney, who engaged in textile machinery, put forward the concept of "interchangeable parts", which greatly accelerated the manufacturing pace of firearms. This is a concept that has a far-reaching impact on the development of quality science. More than 200 years later, the concept is still like the sound of pulling the trigger.

Eli Whitney was an inventor, mechanical engineer and machinery manufacturer in the United States from the late 18th century to the early 19th century. He invented the gin and co invented the milling machine. At that time, when the United States might go to war with France, Whitney needed to supply 10000 to 15000 rifles for the U.S. military. He designed a set of special instruments and processes according to the size of gun parts, which can allow ordinary workers to operate these instruments and produce different rifle parts.

The dimensions and tolerances of the parts produced by this process are uniform. Any part can be applicable to any rifle of the same model. As long as they are assembled, they can become a complete rifle. However, Whitney was not very enthusiastic about arms production. He focused on the production and promotion of ginning machines with increasingly promising market conditions, and even repeatedly delayed the delivery of arms for the sake of ginning machine business. Later, in order to improve the relationship with the government, Whitney invited government representatives to display interchangeable parts. In front of the audience, he disassembled all the built guns, and then casually took out parts from them to form a fully usable rifle. At that time, the popular technology was that each gun was made by a craftsman from head to tail, and the parts of each gun of the same model could not be exchanged. Whitney's innovative performance impressed the government representatives present.

The innovation of engineers was very popular in the United States at that time. Whitney's interchangeability attracts people's attention to quality in a dramatic way. Another quality characteristic directly "explodes" in people's hearts, that is "reliability". The DuPont enterprise established by French scientists fleeing to the United States has brought not only black powder but also production quality to the American explosive industry. DuPont's gunpowder is reliable. It will explode if you want it to explode, and it will not explode if you don't want it to explode. Such gunpowder has naturally attracted the attention of the whole Federation. Even Jefferson, the third president of the United States, wrote to thank DuPont for providing explosives for safe land reclamation.

Although Whitney did not complete the military's order for 10000 rifles as scheduled, the large-scale manufacturing and quality system caused by the interchangeability of parts has been like a dark room with suddenly opened windows, and the light lit up the whole room.

The one who really turns "interchangeability" into a erected lighthouse is the Springfield military factory in Massachusetts. The most surprising thing is not the guns here, but its way. After strict standardization, parts can be replaced with each other, which is the most impressive American product exhibited at the 1851 World Expo in London. This attracted the attention of Britain, which was still the manufacturing Empire at that time. The British named this new manufacturing method of "high replaceable parts" as the American manufacturing system. The foundation of "American manufacturing system" is the large-scale manufacturing of "interchangeability", and its by-product is "stable quality". This naturally answers the question of "industrialization, why large-scale".

Quality presents its own dignity for the first time in the form of "interchangeability" and "reliability". This makes the manufacturing industry marvel. In the long manufacturing years later, facts have proved that quality is an angel good at covering up the veil. People still need more exercise to see more diversified quality faces.

Quality becomes an explicit knowledge through measurement. This makes inspection a lifelong servant of quality. The inspection department has also become the standard configuration of a factory. This is an ancient tradition that has spread so far. Many enterprises have forgotten the relationship between the two and mistakenly equate inspection with quality. In terms of value increment, measurement is actually useless, because inspection itself will not change the product quality. Leaders without quality awareness will mistake servants as masters. There are other entrances and exits for quality, and the inspection is only responsible for warning.

Quality is Pu stone. Only a good enterprise can moisten jade and contain gold. A good enterprise will respect quality as the way of science. And quality science benefits from the carving of great companies.

In the first half of the 20th century, with the emergence of wired communication, space was extremely compressed by time at the speed of current. People's attention began to be permanently out of sight. Bell telephone has become the darling of the times. Western Electric, as the hardware manufacturing department of bell telephone company, has naturally become a busy person in the manufacturing era. A large number of products need to be manufactured, and the budding modern quality calls for scientists on every machine and phone. Jade remains to be carved. Three American quality masters are here.

Shewhart was an old man of bell telephone. He worked in Bell Telephone and Western Electric Company from 1918 to 1956, while Julan worked for 20 years from 1925 to 1945, and Deming stayed from 1925 to 1927. In a sense, scholars Zhu LAN and Dai Ming are also students of engineer huhart in quality. The atmosphere is surging, and people are like thousands of people. In 1924, Shewhart in the inspection department of Hawthorne factory found that in the face of a huge number of products, it was impossible to ensure "consistency" by full inspection. Therefore, on the basis of British scholars, Shewhart put forward the epoch-making quality control method of control chart, sampling products for inspection, making the inspection results into broken lines according to time, and judging whether there is a problem with product consistency from the change trend. This method became the first work of quality statistics and unified the later field quality engineering. This kind of influence still exists today.

Deming simply modified the "Shewhart cycle diagram" to form a PDCA ring to continuously improve the quality, which was later carried forward by Japan. However, the laurel of the invention of the quality ring is directly hung on Dai Ming's head, even called "Dai Ming ring". There are many details in history that cannot be corrected.

Why was the revolutionary theory of quality born in Hawthorne factory of Western Electric Company? This is another legend in the history of enterprise management.

Taylor's scientism has played a decisive role in scientific labor. However, it holds a stopwatch behind the workers to calculate the efficiency, which makes people feel that this is a squeeze on employees, and people are just a part of machine parts. The Hawthorne factory of Western Electric Company reveals the complex interpersonal relationship covered by the noise of factory machines. The mutual behavior between these people can improve the efficiency and influence of the system more than the precise movement measurement method of Taylor doctrine. In the same year that Deming left Hawthorne, Harvard professor Mayo entered the factory to study the behavior of workers. This research has directly led to the discipline of "behavioral science". Whether an employee is happy or worried is actually much more important than machine efficiency. This will have a great impact on product quality. Mayo doctrine or Taylor doctrine also formed two huge schools and mountains in the subsequent history of enterprise management.

Hawthorne factory was the most famous factory laboratory at that time. It carried out double experiments of product and spirit. The exchanges among those masters and excellent manufacturing practices have given birth to the most influential quality monument in the United States. Hawthorne factory experiment gave birth to the later influential management school "behavior management", and gave birth to three quality masters. It is really a wonderful metaphor: quality thinking comes from the observation of human nature. This hidden relationship between man and man, man and machine, man and product is still easy to be ignored by entrepreneurs as far as quality is concerned.

It can be said that quality is water and enterprise is a container. A good quality concept needs an excellent enterprise to carry it. If there is a gap in the container, no amount of water can be retained. If an enterprise wants to be excellent, it should be rich in quality. Interestingly, many quality masters in the United States have a long life. Hugh Hart is 76, Deming is 93, Julan is 104, and Feigenbaum, the father of total quality control, is 94. The average life expectancy of the three is 92 years. This is a good fable for quality people.

However, in the process of the rise of the United States, the real change in the social stratum structure is not the telephone, but the car. If the telephone and telegraph changed people's imagination of space, the car completely changed the distance between man and nature. The boundary of the city was immediately enlarged and pushed to the endless far end of the street, while more people poured into the city from the suburbs and became an industrial labor force. More importantly, since 1914, Ford has also established a rich middle class through an ultra-high salary of $5 a day: how fast the automobile industrialization assembly line is, how fast this class grows. If we can't consolidate the stratum and economic foundation of a society, only one sudden change in technology is not enough to wear the crown of the industrial revolution. This is why we doubt that "German industry 4.0 is difficult to become the fourth industrial revolution".

This epoch-making product manufacturing mode and epoch-making class were created from the large-scale assembly line of Ford Model T in 1913. Therefore, quality has become a pressing nail that cannot be removed on the manufacturing layout, which plays the role of fixing and pressing the axis.

Later, the famous Ford assembly line was not named "assembly line" at that time, but it has become the decisive force of socialized mass production. However, it can still be said that Ford actually inherited Whitney's "interchangeability" mantle 100 years ago, and the speed pointer was adjusted more than 100 times faster, resulting in a more refined division of production and socialized mass production. Fordism has become synonymous with "mass and cheap industrial products", while quality adheres to it.

The assembly line combines too many industrial elements, and the more early Taylor process balance plays a leading role. Industrial production requires the decomposition and assembly of products, resulting in the requirements of compatibility and cooperation, so there is quality inspection and its means. Taylor's scientific management movement made quality inspection a department, which led to the emergence of quality discipline. Ford absorbed the essence of Taylor's scientific labor. At that time, there were as many as 60 people in the "time research department" who stood behind the workers and pinched the stopwatch to study the movement. There are many kinds on the assembly line, and the specifications must be consistent, so that different workers can concentrate on completing the fastest professional division of labor in the world.

Quality seeds have found the largest and most fertile land in history. Ford's amazing integrated chemical plant in yanzhihe shows the perfect vertical integration ability. By the end of 1940, there were 100000 workers here. Of course, 160000 tourists come every year. Metallurgy, power generation, lighting and even soap factories can be produced here. It can turn iron ore, sand and wood into a running car within 28 hours. The Ford factory pioneered the super factory. However, the concept of super factory was smashed one after another by the multi brand development of general motors, and then by the lean system of Toyota in Japan and the subsequent global professional division of labor. The idea of super factory is regarded as an antique. It was not until Tesla rebuilt the super factory in Nevada that Ford's impression of Rouge River began to slowly re inject into people's minds.

The quality problem was formally introduced into the conveyor belt. When a genuine car goes off the assembly line in almost a day, inferior products can run all over the assembly line at the same speed. It even leads to the blockage of the pipeline. Without the scientific view of quality, it will become a stain on the assembly line that engulfs efficiency.

Ford himself soon noticed this phenomenon. He invited Hugh Hart, a master of statistical analysis, to establish a systematic quality engineering system around automobile manufacturing. Since then, the automobile manufacturing industry has become the most important cornerstone of the palace of quality. It is worth noting that from this time on, "consistency" began to represent "quality". Like a polyhedron, people have found another side of mass beyond "interchangeability". Quality takes off another veil. This was a great progress at that time. However, the evolution of manufacturing will show that quality is much more complex than consistency. Today, when many enterprises take "consistency" as the requirement of the quality department, the result is to vulgarize the quality. For consumer goods manufacturers, if they simply pursue specification consistency, they will inevitably fall into the historical trap of quality.

Back on Ford's assembly line, managers with quality thinking are accelerating as if they were on a treadmill. The efficiency of Ford cannot but attract the attention of all manufacturing circles. In the former Soviet Union in 1925, people read books describing Ford assembly line with the piety of reading Lenin's works. It can be said that quality has officially become a discipline, running and growing on the high-speed belt.

During World War II, Ford and general motors manufacturers switched to the manufacture of tanks, SUVs and even aircraft. From the interchangeability of weapons manufacturing to the consistent quality system, it has been honed in the automotive industry and carried forward in military factories again.

The United States has always spared no effort in praising its own culture and exporting influence. A writer mentioned in "made in America" that "interchangeable parts" and "assembly line" have American characteristics, which is the era when "American character" was deified. The United States is eager to build itself into a country of thinkers and inventors. Observers, researchers and writers all took action one after another and began to label "American spirit" for American manufacturing.

The US Information Agency noticed this phenomenon. After World War II, it began to take "assembly line" and "quality system" as part of its American values and began to instill them into the world. Japan became the first student to be asked to face it.

General MacArthur became the founder of Japan's industrial order after World War II. It's hard to imagine that he even sent a quality team to Japan's reconstruction support team. Dai Ming, who is already in his forties, is one of them.

At that time, Dai Ming had not established a reputation in his own land. After leaving Hawthorne factory, Deming began to count the population and was not very impressed with manufacturing. Since 1942, the principle of statistical quality control was introduced into industrial management in the crazy flood of arms manufacturing in World War II.

In 1946, Japan established the union of scientists and engineers, just (really an innovative combination), established contact with Dai Ming and invited him to tell the Japanese about statistical methods. Dai Ming's quality course lasted for 8 consecutive days. The leaders of Japanese manufacturers at that time went to attend the course one after another, and there were no absentees. The studious Japanese compiled shorthand and transcripts into "Dr. Dai Ming on statistical control of quality", and such manuscripts competed to spread.

While Dai Ming recited quality notes repeatedly in Japan, another American quality giant, Julan, also came to Japan. In addition to the factory site emphasized by Deming, Julan presented the manager's side to the Japanese industry and successfully supplemented Deming's shortcomings. The cooperation between the two makes the quality run through the factory above and below, and there is no obstacle to the communication between managers and workers.

NEC factory in Japan has long been vigorously promoting the conclusions of Hawthorne factory. Because NEC (Japanese electric company) itself is a joint venture factory established by American Western Electric Company.

However, are these quality theories really heard by Japanese entrepreneurs? How can an experienced entrepreneur accept the new quality system?

The answer was unexpected.

In the process of reshaping Japan, MacArthur carried out "economic cleansing" on the management of Japan's industrial sector. In 1947, MacArthur replaced 1937 company managers with more than managing directors of 154 large companies in Japan's manufacturing sector. The manager's clean-up, like hemodialysis, has brought surging fresh nutrients to the Japanese manufacturing industry. Such scenes are too common for people familiar with Chinese history. Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty was famous for her knowledge of people and good use. She ruthlessly cleaned the imperial relatives and relatives of the Tang Dynasty, and many positions were left to energetic newcomers. In the era of Wu Zetian, a group of capable officials were trained again, which also explains why the Tang Dynasty entered the second prosperous stage after her death.

It can be said that the American quality theory is completely injected into the blood of a new generation of Japanese managers in the way of zero resistance and total absorption. Quality thinking has successfully taken root in the minds of Japanese manufacturer leaders. When Dai Ming repeated again and again that "quality is the number one project" and "quality is the responsibility of the chairman", the young Japanese management quickly absorbed it and became the fundamental driving force for the rise of Japanese manufacturing.

The enthusiasm of Dai Ming and Zhu LAN missionaries led to another missionary in Japan, Shin Ishikawa. He is well-known for analyzing quality defects with the "fish bone diagram" hierarchy diagram, and he is also the initiator of Japan's "quality circle". He was also an important leader in the "total quality control" movement launched by Japan from 1955 to 1960. This continuous quality movement is like a boiling pot, and the old quality ideas are completely boiled. The new generation is ready for the pursuit of quality. It is like batch after batch of Monkey King released from the alchemy furnace of Taibai Venus.

Deming may have been too successful. When he returned to the United States, he found that compared with his Japanese counterparts, the quality management system in the United States was shaky. From the late 1970s, Deming began to cooperate with major American organizations to vigorously promote the concept of quality. But the effect is very little, not warm and not fire. His work in Japan did not attract the attention of his American compatriots. The theory of the whole American quality community is happily self Hi, just like an endoscope in a car, just to look at their face.

After the first oil crisis, the American automobile manufacturing industry suffered a heavy blow. Japanese cars, known for their small beauty and low fuel consumption, have quietly become the darling of the American market. Those Humvees with huge fuel consumption have become heavy objects of ridicule. The quality of Japan has caused both anger and anxiety. In June 1980, NBC said, "if Japan can, why can't we?" The feature film is directly criticized for being made in the United States and being overtaken by Japan. The 90 minute documentary includes a 15 minute interview with Deming. Deming's proposal is simple and frustrating: imitate Japan. The origin of the rise of all manufacturing in Japan is the revolution of production quality.

This documentary has caused a great sensation in the American manufacturing industry. Deming finally became famous and became a national treasure made in the United States. The interview attracted the favor of the top production director of Ford. In 1983, Deming held a morning meeting with the president of Ford every month. Ford's response has become a trend phenomenon in American business circles. Deming's 14 points of quality management are regarded as the standard by the industry. Not only in manufacturing companies, but also in service companies, the board of directors has been proud to introduce "quality projects". Many societies have been established to promote Deming's quality thought. A large-scale quality revolution seems to have detonated in American business. This has plunged the quality community, which has always been conceited in the United States, into ambivalence. However, Deming failed to concoct success in Japan. Because the people who attend the training in American companies are often the company's quality control experts, not the executives - they do not realize the value of Deming and are unwilling to attend the class in person.

Since about 1947, Deming has trained nearly 20000 middle and senior managers in Japan ten years ago. Coupled with the later Julan, it can be said that the raging fire of quality management was widely ignited in the Japanese manufacturing industry.

But it is neither appropriate nor reasonable to say that the Japanese quality system is all due to Deming. Japan has its own theorists and contributions.

Let's start with the world-renowned Japanese lean system, which originates from Toyota. Toyota, which started from textile machinery and then started to make cars, was not even the object supported by Japan's Ministry of trade and industry at the beginning. It placed too much emphasis on independent manufacturing rather than joint venture production with foreign countries, leaving a frivolous impression on the Japanese government who advocated joint venture at that time. But in fact, Toyota has long been in mind. Among the nearly 200000 tourists coming to Ford factory every year, the audience from Japan is the most special. They often don't wear umbrellas, but professional glasses. More directly, this is to learn art. Among them, the most fruitful person should belong to naiichi Ono of Toyota. With a pair of poisonous eyes, he found the disadvantages of Ford's assembly line. This is the beginning of Toyota's lean manufacturing in Japan.

Toyota began to introduce total quality control TQC in 1962, which is also the basic composition of Toyota Production System TPS. It can be said that lean production naturally includes quality management. Lean is a Seafood Dumpling, and quality is one of the shrimp. For example, one of the implementation conditions of Kanban management is to ensure that all parts are qualified. As long as there is defective product interference, the Kanban cannot operate. Many of these quality on-site improvement contents often appear in a lean context. After his retirement at the age of 70, Ono stepped out of the automotive industry for the first time in his life and was invited to be a consultant for Sumitomo metals and other enterprises in Japan. Here, he found surprising waste in other industries in Japan. With a furious temper, Ono finally jumped out of the sky over Nagoya and became a thunder in the whole Japanese manufacturing industry. This influence has surpassed several or dozens of enterprises and has become the standard believed in by the Japanese manufacturing industry.

Another hero of Toyota Lean is Xinxiang Chongfu. In his contribution, rapid die change is only one of them, and the research and contribution on quality zero defect is more prominent. The practical principle of poke-yoka is also invented by Mr. Xinxiang. In Toyota's field, the construction system of quality conditions is the core of quality management.

If Ono is the guardian God of Toyota, Xinxiang repetition is a preacher of international quality. As a witness and participant of Toyota's production mode, when he left Japan to preach in Europe and America, the quality concept was also the core content. This brought him great honor in the United States. The U.S. and Japanese governments have done a very symmetrical thing by giving awards to foreign monks. Dai Ming's work has been greatly welcomed by Japan. In 1951, Japan set up the Deming award to reward companies that won in the strict quality management competition. In 1956, Emperor Hirohito awarded him the second-class treasure award. In the United States, Americans have set up a Nobel Prize in manufacturing: the Xinxiang prize. Behind this is a set of management system, an evaluation system with quality and lean as the core.

Mathematical statistics has armed the quality science, but its application field is still limited to the links of production and inspection. In the process of product design, there is no essential difference from the handicraft era. It depends on the designer's experience and various design standards.

Isn't quality made? Isn't the quality inspected? Isn't quality polished by craftsmanship?

These questions do not seem to need to be answered in the era of large-scale manufacturing. Industrialization is too mature. It is like a well functioning chariot. As long as you refuel, you can roar forward endlessly. The real awareness of quality problems caused by design comes from agriculture.

American statistics Professor Fisher's discussion on agriculture led to unexpected results. Entrusted by the U.S. Department of agriculture, he studied the secrets of crop science and high yield at the agricultural experimental station. Weather, water and soil, fertilizer, temperature, irrigation and other influencing elements are diversified. Which combination will produce high yield in the field? Fisher found a new method: the experimental design DOE method, which is used to check when multiple factors work. Better design is looking for better working conditions. Although he did not do manufacturing, the method of experimental design has sprouted.

According to the work results of the agricultural experimental station, Fisher wrote the statistical methods of researchers. From the title of the book, it can be seen that statistical methods have entered the field of R & D. The famous experimental design method DOE has also become the standard operation of modern factory design. As a talented mathematician with keen intuition, Fisher established all kinds of mathematical foundations needed by modern statistical science almost on his own. His influence spans disciplines. In every field such as biology, sociology, chemistry, industry and agriculture, he can use his formula to establish a model of understanding error. Statistics is a mathematical bomb, subverting people's perception of error. Fisher is the strongest Grenadier. Lady Tasting Tea, with Fisher as the main line, introduces a huge portrait of a statistician. They dropped bombs everywhere in society. This book is full of gorgeous temptation. The subconscious feeling after reading this book is that managers of the whole society, no matter from that industry, should learn about Statistics - it will enable decision makers to better grasp uncertainty.

After Indian statisticians improved the orthogonal experimental design method, the Japanese appeared again with the goal of making quality decision more scientific. This time is the inventor of parameter design, Xuanyi Taguchi.

Xuanyi Taguchi and Shewhart cooperated during their work in the Indian Institute of statistical research and were familiar with the latter's statistical theory. Taguchi applied the experimental design method to the product design of manufacturing industry for the first time. Through the experimental design of various working conditions, the stability and reliability of quality are found. Statistics is used to find controllable and uncontrollable factors. "Uncontrollable factors should be insensitive, while controllable factors can be sensitive".

The quality characteristics of products, such as reliability, performance and consistency, are affected by controllable and uncontrollable factors, such as firing porcelain. The kiln temperature can be controlled, that is, controllable factors. However, the uniformity of temperature distribution in the kiln is difficult to control and belongs to uncontrollable factors. Specifically, the firing temperature of each porcelain in the kiln is different from each other. If the glaze color of the final porcelain is affected by the temperature, how can the glaze color achieve better consistency? Further precise control of furnace temperature and its distribution, however, may be very expensive or even impossible. Taguchi did the opposite, making the glaze insensitive to the firing temperature. Even if the temperature is high or low, the glaze color is consistent.

This is the idea of Taguchi method. Mathematical statistics once again armed the quality design engineering, and the gateway of quality control moved from the production end to the design end. Smart Americans quickly digested and absorbed this concept, packaged it into robust design and pushed it to the quality community. The thinking of "design affects quality" is widely recognized in the industrial field. Later, due to the introduction of computer-aided design tool CAD and the wide application of model-based system engineering in complex products, design is considered to be the top priority of quality. At this stage, it only needs to spend 10% of the cost, but it determines 70% of the cost of the whole product. It will be a disastrous situation if there is a potential quality hazard at the design end and the defect is corrected at the later stage of manufacturing.

The designer decides the quality, so that the quality gate moves forward to the design field, which allows the quality department to breathe a sigh of relief. The decisive factor of quality is not at the quality site. Similarly, the craftsman spirit is not conducive to the fundamental solution of quality. In this way, people began to think about where the source of quality is. The Japanese believe that the impact of Taguchi's method on the GDP of the whole country is more than 4%. What an amazing achievement.

In the United States, Taguchi method is also popular. He even provided free services to Bell Laboratories of at & T as a report of the help the United States had given Japan. So in the 1980s, the American industry, which was a little confused about manufacturing, was crowded with Taguchi seminars from at & T, general motors, Xerox, etc. Many people even have the idea that "if it is Japanese, it must be good".

It can be clearly seen that a good quality philosophy and quality culture have the effect of de boning and rebirth for improving a country's manufacturing brand. The process of a country's manufacturing becoming powerful is accompanied by telling the story of manufacturing system and excavating the culture of quality myth.

People who engage in quality really live a long life. Xuanyi Taguchi also lived to 88 years old. Some people say that quality is a long-term belief. It needs to abandon floating fire and stick to it for a long time. Maybe this is really a very good interpretation.

From the 1950s to the late 1980s, the respective development of quality engineering and quality management also began to converge during this period, bursting out great innovation energy. A large number of modern quality engineering and management masters have emerged, which is the integration stage of quality science, and it also brings new glory to the enterprise.

Figure 1 quality master

Feigenbaum from GE has become a global quality leader with the theory of total quality control. Fegenbaum's greatest contribution is to closely bind quality and cost accounting, and make quality a topic that everyone can participate in. This is the favorite thinking of corporate finance. He boldly predicted that if TQM is widely used, it will increase US GDP by 7%. In his eyes, quality is the best clue to solve the cost problem - if not all. What inspired the quality community most was that at the age of 88, he won the "national technology and Innovation Award" issued by President Bush. "Quality" and "innovation" are firmly connected.

Master Zhu Lan's quality management and analysis is more extensive and profound and has a complete system, which has been updated to the sixth edition, compared with the easy to understand Daiming's Article 14 on quality or turning crisis into safety. The quality change caused by the latest digitization is also being added to Julan's quality ring. This is a set of theories that keep pace with the times.

Crosby's "quality is free" and once done right have attracted extensive attention with its shocking slogan. Free quality sounds like an exaggeration, but Klaus, who is good at language art, was prepared earlier than me. He believes that entrepreneurs only know one language, that is profit; Quality must be expressed in the language of money. In Crosby's zero defect concept, the quality culture of the enterprise is regarded as a life body that needs to grow gradually through the five steps, which has a strong landing and has many supporters in China. The quality director of Ingersoll Rand Compressor Shanghai factory was the first person to introduce clausby's zero defect concept into China in the early 1990s. Recalling the past, the most impressive thing is that Crosby College attaches the most importance to the will of leaders. The top leaders need to be highly recognized, and they need to be trained before they can talk about whether to land. Only when executives are convinced, can quality be invincible. This detail once again depicts the source power of quality.

Although there were many quality masters in the United States, American manufacturing was shrouded in aggressive Japanese products throughout the 1980s. From cars to electronic products to semiconductors, Japan's positive competition is the south wall they can't get around. The belief in American quality was torn apart by the Japanese quality movement, which greatly dampened the belief of American managers.

What makes the United States regain its confidence in quality is a mathematical term used to express statistical errors. It originated in the electronics industry and was finally carried forward by industrial giants. This is the dazzling Six Sigma.

As a quality theory, six sigma grows up in fear. At that time, Japanese home appliance manufacturing almost swept the United States, and even RCA, the overlord of the United States who first invented television, declined (Japanese home appliances such as sharp and Panasonic were disciples of RCA in those years). Motorola's TV and audio were wiped off the earth by Japanese manufacturers. As memory chips, Japan's six Golden Flowers account for more than 80% of the global market share. Just talking about quality, no market share, no matter how good manufacturing is.

Motorola found the root of the matter. Japan's quality comes from cost control. Tit for tat, the American electronics industry must find the bottom brick of the quality pillar. Smith, an engineer, found the cornerstone of quality defect management and named it six sigma, which means that the error rate per million products cannot exceed 3.4 defects. This can only be distinguished by God's eyes and God's hands. Motorola is regarded as a treasure, and former president Galvin regarded it as a sharp weapon to beat Japanese products with lower cost and higher quality.

Six Sigma Theory and tools were quickly imitated by American peers. And it is equipped with a set of skill level system, such as black belt and green belt, which makes people interesting. This means that quality engineering needs to stimulate people's thinking consciousness with quality culture. As early as in Hawthorne factory, this revelation has released bright and rotten sparks. But it should be said that even now, many entrepreneurs still disagree.

Since 1995, Six Sigma has become the new favorite of Ge legendary CEO Welch. Behind it are frustrated Ge executives, because many managers feel they lack statistical knowledge and can't understand Six Sigma. However, once a strong CEO becomes a fanatic believer in six sigma, the huge Ge will become the largest training ground for Six Sigma in the world. Executives even lost their jobs for two years and became the black belt of Six Sigma. Strong execution, up and down, and finally full of harvest. Internally, GE products harvest delicious food with low defect rate and high quality; Externally, Six Sigma has become a part of GE's manufacturing excellence culture. A symbol of new corporate culture.

During this period, Six Sigma has also been further revised. If the establishment of powerful tools still revolves around the manufacturing process, "six sigma Design DFSS" extends the idea of ultra-low quality defect rate to the design field.

20 years after Taguchi's parameter design in Japan, Americans have also found a way to move the quality level forward.

In this process, a number of excellent American manufacturing companies, such as Honeywell, 3M and Boeing, have made great achievements on the road of Six Sigma. As a quality engineering tool, it is much simpler to implement than lean in Japan. Lean thinking seems to be global, but it is actually Japanese. Outside Japan, it is difficult to find the soil for the rapid implementation of lean. Just like Ford's assembly line, it was a great success in the United States before World War II, but it was difficult to find a successful base in Britain, Germany and the former Soviet Union. Assembly line, lean thinking and connected quality theory seem to be technology, but in the final analysis, they are cultural. Mobile warfare cannot make any quality theory take root.

GE's Six Sigma whirlwind has blown all over the world. Samsung Electronics has also become a supporter of Six Sigma. In 1993, the worried president of Samsung established the "quality first" strategy. At that time, in the U.S. home video recorder market, Samsung of South Korea had relatively high quality, but it was still the cheapest price, falling behind Japanese and American goods. Samsung Electronics decided to erase the impression that "made in Samsung" is a cheap commodity in customers' minds. The "quality first" strategy has achieved amazing results. Ten years later, Samsung Group held the 10th anniversary meeting of the declaration of quality first management at Xinluo hotel in Seoul. The turnover increased three times, while the profit increased nearly 30 times.

Quality strategy is essential for an enterprise pursuing excellence. The gold lettered signboard of quality is not used to attract users, but to illuminate the road under the feet of the enterprise.

So far, the palace of quality has been renovated. Quality engineering, including mathematical statistics and other tools, is like a carriage familiar with the road conditions, moving forward at a high speed in an orderly manner. And another carriage, quality management is also getting better.

Management science is characterized by dealing with people, unlike engineering dealing with technology, machines and systems. The foundation of quality management is scientific management. Taylor, the father of scientific management, laid the foundation of quality management. The four basic principles of scientific management proposed by Taylor have now derived disciplines such as method engineering, human factors engineering, time action analysis, planning and scheduling and industrial relations, which have laid a foundation for modern industrial engineering. The earliest source of industrial engineering management can be said to come from Taylor's "time action analysis".

Sloan is another entrepreneur and explorer of scientific management in the glorious period of American automobile industry. He served as president and CEO of general motors for 33 years. Managing general motors was a new challenge in history. At that time, there was no company as large as general motors. He has created many relevant management methods, the most famous of which is that he uses the organizational form of the business division for management.

According to the process of production activities, Sloan divided the company into different business divisions. Each business division has independent accounting, has the autonomy of operation and management, and is controlled by the profit center of the head office, that is, the later group company system. Sloan has established many far-reaching management systems, including accounting cost analysis, vehicle pricing strategy, annual vehicle renewal system, etc. The accounting system of large groups is still used. The accounting system at that time, even if the car was not sold, the inventory was cash. After all, it was a seller's market and rare goods could live in. This kind of taking inventory as equivalent cash and workers as manufacturing consumption cost has a far-reaching impact on the global manufacturing industry, which can still be seen in many factories.

The concept of quality in different times is different, but people can always see the reins of history, which is still around the neck of modern people. In the luggage capital of Xingan County, Jiangxi Province, there are triangle debts everywhere, which is very unusual for small private enterprises, and each enterprise has a heavy burden. In the past, almost every small factory, half of the factory buildings were warehouses, with dense trolley boxes. In addition to the backlog of funds, if these products have quality problems, it is almost impossible to go back.

Quality management and quality engineering are intertwined like the double helix of DNA. In the whole process of industrialization, the theory and tools of quality are also changing, and the quality thinking of entrepreneurs also needs to change. If you are not familiar with the history of quality and do not respect the formation of quality system, manufacturing is a children's play.

Figure 2 cross wrench: mass torque with force

Quality engineering and quality thinking are intertwined, which greatly promotes the quality level of manufacturing industry. The human problem is a management problem. To study quality, we should make efforts from the perspectives of engineering and management at the same time. It can be said that quality engineering is the capital word "I" in China, while quality management is the Arabic word "1". The two work together to form a cross wrench and become a powerful quality torque. The rise of manufacturing industry in any country is inseparable from such a cross quality torque. The popularization of Six Sigma is the classic masterpiece of quality cross wrench: Welch's quality management makes Motorola engineers' quality engineering shine.

As the four major manufacturing countries in the world, China, the United States, Japan and Germany accounted for 58% of the added value of manufacturing in the world in 2020. The added value of German manufacturing accounts for nearly 5% in the world, ranking behind 7% in Japan. However, in terms of the global contribution of quality theory, the two are active and the two are silent.

It is hard to understand that Germany, rich in philosophers, thinkers and writers, as one of the most powerful manufacturing countries in the world, has not produced a global quality theory. Over the years, there have been many myths about German quality, but they are all virtual "made in Germany" quality and invisible champions, and there is little systematic concept of German quality.

If we look further, the reputation of "made in Germany" does not just rely on the belief of quality first and the persistence of craftsmanship. It has another set of rules and relies on national quality infrastructure. Through the standards of every detail and the vigorous development of independent third-party conformity assessment institutions, German manufacturing has moved towards the gold medal podium.

In 2019, Germany's total foreign trade accounted for 71% of its GDP, and still reached 67% under the influence of the epidemic in 2020. Germany, which is highly dependent on the international market, is also unique in the industrial certification system. Relying on the experience of export and market access accumulated all over the world, Germany has established a complete set of "law industry standard quality certification" management system. On the basis of various laws and regulations, it is refined into tens of thousands of industry standards, and then the quality certification authority reviews the enterprise's production process, product specification and finished product quality one by one.

From another point of view, Germany is a country ruled by engineers, and has always had a deep-rooted engineer complex. German technician education is unique in the world, and the United States can't imitate it. This is a tradition that originated more than a century ago. As early as the end of the 19th century, German engineers often held the highest industrial management positions and enjoyed the highest social status. Many parents were willing to marry their daughters to engineers, which was the touchstone of men's social status. In the United States and Britain, engineers have never obtained such a considerable social status, and those laurels belong to managers. This gap was fully reflected in World War II. German 109 and 190 fighters flew faster, higher and heavier than their British counterparts.

There is a reason for the silence of German manufacturing on quality theory. With the guarantee of the national system and the strict autonomy of engineers, it has naturally formed a set of landing product quality concept. Foreign quality theories such as total quality management, lean production and six sigma are also strictly implemented here. The German automobile federation formulated and proposed the automobile vda6 in 1991 The quality system has become a solid barrier for the whole German automobile manufacturing industry, and the global automobile supply chain is in line with this. German quality, win by system, not individual hero.

The same silence in quality theory is China. Made in China accounts for one third of the added value of the global manufacturing industry. However, the global label of made in China is "high quality and low price" or "labor dividend". While Chinese products are firmly rooted in the global market, the quality theory suitable for this strong manufacturing capacity has been absent.

The Chinese manufacturing system is based on the 156 aid projects of the Soviet Union. Around 1961, the Minister of machinery personally led the team and put forward the 70 articles on industrial enterprises, which had a far-reaching impact on Chinese enterprises, in which the technical management was centered on "rectifying product quality". However, before the reform and opening up, due to the exclusive production and marketing, and the lack of users and markets in the strict sense, quality became a floating gift. In 1974, as an old industrial city, Shanghai's strict requirements for quality were described as "pouring cold water on the masses". Quality is the projection of industrial thinking, which has an immediate effect. In the rescue of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, 20% of the cars sent to the earthquake area could not be driven. In the forklift enterprises at that time, only one of the 11 sampling enterprises had qualified product performance.

The depth of industrialization determines the cognition of quality. Industrialization is also in the exploratory period, and it is difficult to find a suitable carrier for quality.

Academician Liu Yuanzhang, a Chinese quality master, had a good friendship with shin Ishikawa of Japan as early as 1950. He was also the first person in China to contact the quality diary of Dai Ming's visit to Japan. In 1976, Professor Liu established China's first quality control group (QC group) in Beijing Qinghe wool textile factory. Since 1979, the Ministry of machinery has finally freed up its hands, vigorously promoted total quality management and started a large-scale quality tillage movement. Also this year, Professor Liu Yuanzhang won the title of model worker of the State Council. A quality hero appeared in China for the first time. But quality takes root, the first thing we need is the resonance of entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, Professor Liu Yuanzhang did not become a Dai Ming style quality preacher, because entrepreneurs at that time did not form a complete independent group.

By 1982, the State Council's policy for the development of machinery industry was "three improvements and one improvement": improving quality, variety, level and economic benefits. Quality has once again become the primary research object. The quality circle in Japan in the 1960s and the total quality management in the United States have been sought after. By 1987, there were more than 140000 mass quality control groups. At this time, there are "quality villains" everywhere. We can solve many quality problems with common sense and attitude.

However, who is linked to the quality of products has not been clarified. In 1984, the Ministry of machinery still gave special incentives, and the price of products with gold award brand can be increased by 20%. Products are priced by grade, and premium products can be increased by less than 12%. Pricing is the core of the market feedback mechanism. Pricing is not free, and it is difficult for the market to make decisions. Quality has always been a cunning person with many faces. The only force that can make it surrender is the users from the market. The government's reward can not change the character of quality.

The last systematic effort to improve quality came from the outline for the revitalization of machinery industry in 1992. Machinery, electronics and automobile are defined as national pillar industries. As a deployment for the revitalization of the national machinery industry, the Ministry of machinery industry launched three major campaigns in 1995, "product quality turnaround campaign", "organizational structure optimization" and "improvement of development capacity". This massive quality battle disappeared with the revocation of the Ministry of machinery industry in 1998. Quality, it seems that a river suddenly changed its course and entered the soil made in China with two tributaries. One branch is market supervision based on inspection, which is based on macro governance of reward and punishment afterwards. The annual quality "315 days" and "quality Miles" have become the most impressive quality popularization for Chinese people. Another tributary, then aimlessly poured into the vast factory, and how much it absorbed was the entrepreneur's own business.

The quality of jade is covered with thick dust, and it is no longer cultivated systematically. Quality culture has never taken root easily. It needs a clear spring, facing the management first, and then the deep infusion of industrial workers. Spontaneous, automatic, no climate.

In 2001, China's accession to the WTO opened the door to the globalization of Chinese manufacturing. With the vigorous release of production capacity and the torrent of manufacturing, the research on quality theory seems to be unimportant. Many of them are processed with supplied materials. They only need to be processed according to the size of the drawing. However, studying the connotation of quality is still an indispensable work. In fact, in such a manufacturing era of rapid progress, a few excellent manufacturers also began to arm themselves with classical quality theory. The quality theory made in China or the quality practice combined with national conditions have long been on the road.

The Hongguang mini electric vehicle of Shangtong Wuling had sold more than 370000 vehicles in the first anniversary of its listing at the end of July, ranking first in the sales of new energy models in China for a consecutive year, and topped the global new energy sales champion in January and April. The design concept behind this popular car is the real king. Firstly, it preset the goal of "making profits without subsidies" several years in advance. Secondly, it decisively switched its positioning to youth fans according to the user's response during the test run. Sales come from deep listening to users and the magic pen of designers, which is the highest level of quality. Only by going deep into the factory can we understand how Shangtong Wuling, which has repeatedly offered the national God car, can listen to the voice of users and quickly enlarge the production capacity. Experience quality has become an important competitiveness.

Ningde times, the world's largest power battery manufacturer, has launched "extreme manufacturing", pushing the defect rate of power battery to the limit, and the safety performance has further moved from Six Sigma to nine sigma. Such a bold challenge, we still need some time to see the real contribution behind it.

Behind successful manufacturing, there is a set of suitable quality concept to support. Even if it is not original, it must have been cut appropriately. Only when we call out its name will it be full of spirituality and have greater value.

For a hundred years, quality has formed a free flying quality science from the exploration of interchangeability and consistency to the wings of statistics. Quality tools and management ideas echo each other, making the manufacturing process shining. The quality theory of the whole 20th century, wave after wave, just like the development history of Western oil painting for hundreds of years, presents one beautiful and well-defined school after another. Quality masters are screenwriters in the manufacturing industry. They accurately capture the story connotation of the manufacturing scene.

Since 2000, six sigma Design has become more and more mature, quality theory seems to have fallen into a stagnant era. Around 2012, GE and McKinsey jointly promoted value oriented design DTV, that is, a page of value engineering was added to the "six sigma Design" to balance cost and performance. This makes the design side not only consider the quality, but also consider the realization of cost. In 2017, GE's new products, including wind power, aeroengine, aircraft and CT, are entering the new product introduction stage. Performance is naturally a top priority, but the cost remains high, and value-oriented design plays a great role.

However, this is only a small repair.

Quality is the latest echo of the times. The digital age is sending out new invitations. The development of quality theory has experienced more than 100 years of history, from tolerance setting, to process quality statistics, to quality management system, to six sigma management, all along with the corresponding technological progress.

Now, with the introduction of various digital technologies, the era of traditional quality management is changing into digital quality management. Shewhart's process control theory, which has been applied in factories for nearly a century, has faltered and become unable to follow his heart. So, what is the new quality theory?

Deming once proposed that fear would make operators and even managers fake data, thus deteriorating quality management. More data fracture is due to the shortage of analytical ability. Now, data has been automatically migrated through online measurement and direct upload by intelligent tools. People will often become bystanders of data flow. Fool proof and error proof have entered a higher-level independent link. Quality engineering is gradually moving towards big data analysis and even intelligent closed-loop quality control.

The motion analysis of Taylor's watch pinching calculation has now adopted video analysis. By capturing people's posture, the determination of the best operation will become very easy. The same changes have taken place in petrochemical, iron and steel metallurgy and other process industries. For a long time, due to the corner of time and space held by the Design Institute, the construction party and the owner, the data princes under the information island of the process industry have been seriously separated, making data black holes everywhere and systematically causing quality deterioration. Now, through the digital delivery platform and digital twin, the whereabouts of data are captured in an all-round way, and the quality has a new perspective line.

In fact, in the two decades of the new century, the Internet of things and digital technology are driving earth shaking changes in factories. More and more intelligent machines and shorter user feedback paths are calling for a new breakthrough in quality theory. China has the largest number of factories in the world, the wisdom of manufacturing is condensed behind the practice of countless digital technologies, and the Internet connects users and enterprises more closely. What is the definition of quality when the user is not far away from the factory? The answer is infinitely close, perhaps right in front of you.

Manufacture for thousands of years and quality for a hundred years. Looking back, we need a broader perspective to understand how quality reshapes the muscles and bones of the country.

Quality is the sum of legends made by a country. It is a general passport to globalization.

Quality is an entrepreneur's lifelong work. It is a raging flame that shines in the hearts of users.

Quality is the ultimate belief of researchers. It is a symphony that transcends time and space and knows no borders.

The noisy discussion in the palace of quality theory should squeeze into the unique voice made in China.