Philip B. Crosby

For other people of the same name, see Philip Crosby (disambiguation).

Phil Crosby
Born	Philip Bayard Crosby June 18, 1926(1926-06-18) Wheeling, West Virginia, USA
Died	August 18, 2001(2001-08-18) (aged 75) Winter Park, Florida, USA
Occupation	Quality Guru
Spouse	Peggy

Philip Bayard "Phil" Crosby, (Wheeling, June 18, 1926 - Winter Park, August 18, 2001) was a businessman and author who contributed to management theory and quality management practices.

Crosby initiated the Zero Defects program at the Martin Company Orlando, Florida, plant. As the quality control manager of the Pershing missile program, Crosby was credited with a 25 percent reduction in the overall rejection rate and a 30 percent reduction in scrap costs.

Philip Crosby Associates

In 1979, after a career at ITT, Crosby started the management consulting company Philip Crosby Associates, Inc. This consulting group provided educational courses in quality management both at their headquarters in Winter Park, Florida, and at eight foreign locations. Also in 1979, Crosby published his first business book, Quality Is Free. This book would become popular at the time because of the crisis in North American quality. During the late 1970s and into the 1980s, North American manufacturers were losing market share to Japanese products largely due to the superior quality of the Japanese goods.

Crosby's response to the quality crisis was the principle of "doing it right the first time" (DIRFT). He would also include four major principles:

1. the definition of quality is conformance to requirements (requirements meaning both the product and the customer's requirements)
2. the system of quality is prevention
3. the performance standard is zero defects (relative to requirements)
4. the measurement of quality is the price of nonconformance

His belief was that an organization that established a quality program will see savings returns that more than pay off the cost of the quality program: "quality is free".

Bibliography

• Crosby, Philip (1967). Cutting the cost of quality. Boston, Industrial Education Institute. OCLC 616899. http://catnyp.nypl.org/record=b4578224. Retrieved 2009-05-03. 

•    (1969). The strategy of situation management. Boston, Industrial Education Institute. OCLC 13761. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/13761&tab=details. 

•    (1979). Quality is Free. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-014512-1. 

•    (1981). The Art of Getting Your Own Sweet Way. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-014527-X. 

•    (1984). Quality Without Tears. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-014511-3. 

•    (1986). Running things. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-014513-X. 

•    (1988). The Eternally Successful Organization. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-014533-4. 

•    (1989). Let's talk quality. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-014565-2. 

•    (1990). Leading, the art of becoming an executive. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-014567-9. 

•    (1994). Completeness: Quality for the 21st Century. Plume. ISBN 0-452-27024-3. 

•    (1995). Philip Crosby's Reflections on Quality. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-014525-3. 

•    (1996). Quality is still free: Making Quality Certain in Uncertain Times. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-014532-6. 

•    (1997). The Absolutes of Leadership (Warren Bennis Executive Briefing). Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-0942-4. 

•    (1999). Quality and Me: Lessons from an Evolving Life. Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-4702-4. 

See also

• Zero Defects
• Quality Management Maturity Grid

References

• Creech, Bill (1994). The Five Pillars of TQM. New York: Truman Talley Books. p. 478. ISBN 0-452-27102-9. 
• Hutchins, Greg (1996). The Quality Book. Portland, OR: QPE. pp. 2–68. 

External links

• Philip Crosby's Essays and Writings
• Online biography