{"id":376,"date":"2007-04-03T21:12:20","date_gmt":"2007-04-04T04:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/376\/zero-defects-is-wrong-approach"},"modified":"2014-10-07T13:43:42","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T18:43:42","slug":"zero-defects-is-wrong-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/zero-defects-is-wrong-approach\/376\/","title":{"rendered":"Zero Defects Concept is Wrong Approach Unless You Use Poka-Yoke"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>There is wisdom in the definition of Six Sigma, which is 3.4 defects per one million opportunities (DPMO), allowing for a 1.5 Sigma shift.\u00a0 But, some companies subscribe to sloganeering such as &#8220;Zero Defects&#8221;. \u00a0Indeed, there should be processes <a title=\"arlington national cemetary grave mix up\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/a-grave-error-arlington-national-cemetary-quality-problems\/3223\/\">where we get as close as possible to zero defects<\/a>. The <a title=\"zero defects is possible with poka yoke\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/cost-of-poor-quality-poka-yoke\/451\/\">&#8220;Zero Defects&#8221; sloganeering<\/a> is counterproductive, unhelpful, statistically impossible, and completely cost prohibitive.<\/p>\n<p>But is Zero Defects impossible? Maybe not, if we make good use of <a title=\"poka yoke example in coffee cup design\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/a-coffee-cup-taught-me-about-poka-yoke-human-errors\/12986\/\">Poka Yoke<\/a>, maybe we can get close to zero defects with minimal costs.<\/p>\n<p>Statistically, zero defects means a defect level of infinity sigma, which is not possible.\u00a0 What most people mean, is an attitude toward process improvement, but the sloganeering gets in the way.<\/p>\n<h2>Are All Defects The Same?<\/h2>\n<p>The &#8220;Zero Defects&#8221; movement has an implicit assumption that all <a title=\"all defects are not equal\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/defects-hidden-in-plain-sight\/10645\/\">defects<\/a> are equal.\u00a0 This is not true.\u00a0 In fact, for most firms and products, defects must be identified and prioritized, and attacked and treated from most important to least important.\u00a0 For the defects at the bottom of that prioritized list, it might even make sense to move on and not eliminate or reduce those.\u00a0 The point here is an attitude toward perfection, but fully understanding that perfection is not possible.\u00a0 The attitude and efforts are valuable and the customer will feel and appreciate it.\u00a0 Shareholders will benefit, and the firm will be better for it.<\/p>\n<h2>Types of Costs<\/h2>\n<p>There are three types of costs that comprise the cost of quality: Appraisal, Preventative, and Failure costs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Appraisal Costs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The costs in this category includes any and all activities in identifying and assessing for errors or defects in products.\u00a0 For example, testing is an activity that falls in this category; a department that might fall in this category is the Quality Assurance department &#8212; this department&#8217;s burden would fall under the Appraisal Costs category.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Preventative Costs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The activities that fall under this cost category are training, and any and all activities the encourage prevention or discourages introduction of defects.\u00a0 Establishing processes, procedures, and systems prior to the product being built is typically found in this category.\u00a0 Money spent in this category is money well-spent!<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nFailure Costs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Failure costs can be both Internal and External.\u00a0 Internal Failure Costs can be money spent to fix defects caught within the firm.\u00a0 For a software firm, money spent on fixing bugs caught prior to shipping a product can fall in the internal failure costs category.\u00a0 For External Failure Costs, these are activities that involve refunds, complaints, call center functions (not outbound sales, but inbound complaints), concessions to the customer for poor service, and warrantees.<\/p>\n<h2>Zero Defects and Costs<\/h2>\n<p>I present below what I believe to be the relationship between costs and defects:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14845\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/zero-defects-chart-cost-function.jpg\" alt=\"cost function for zero defects\" width=\"701\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/zero-defects-chart-cost-function.jpg 701w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/zero-defects-chart-cost-function-600x347.jpg 600w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/zero-defects-chart-cost-function-300x173.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 701px) 100vw, 701px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On the X-axis, we see the costs category (just use a dollar multiplier for the X tick marks).\u00a0 On the Y-axis, we see defects, by count.\u00a0 So, we see that as defects approach zero, costs increases exponentially and hovers asymptotically on the x-axis, and never reaches zero.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Footnote<\/strong>:\u00a0 The costs to a firm where there is no effort to identify and reduce errors or defects can also be exponential.\u00a0 For example, imagine a firm where there was no inspection, appraisal, or prevention of faulty, defective, or harmful medical devices or drugs.\u00a0 The external failure costs alone could bring the firm to bankruptcy.\u00a0\u00a0 I recognize this fact, but wanted to make a point above regarding zero defects.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is the above Graph True?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As defects are identified and eliminated, there will be theoretically few defects.\u00a0 But, this means that identifying defects will require more effort and will become more and more difficult, thus increasing the costs of this activity, along with the subsequent costs to fix the defects identified: The costs to inspect and test increases as there are fewer and fewer defects.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Sloganeering doesn&#8217;t help, especially if the slogan makes no sense.\u00a0 &#8220;Zero Defects&#8221; as a mantra has a nice cumbaya ring to it, but doesn&#8217;t really help or motivate a crew to do better.\u00a0 Moreover, &#8220;Zero Defects&#8221; is statistically impossible as well as cost prohibitive.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding defects: not all defects are equal.\u00a0 It is important to identify the defects that impact the customer, prioritize those, then respond in a prudent way in improving the product or process.\u00a0 Going after all defects is not prudent.<\/p>\n<p>The key takeaway here is the following: strive to be better everyday; strive to make the customer happy.\u00a0 The Firm&#8217;s efforts to make the customer happy will be felt, a culture of improvement will be created, and the firm and shareholders will benefit from it.<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is wisdom in the definition of Six Sigma, which is 3.4 defects per one million opportunities (DPMO), allowing for a 1.5 Sigma shift.\u00a0 But, some companies subscribe to sloganeering such as &#8220;Zero Defects&#8221;. \u00a0Indeed, there should be processes where we get as close as possible to zero defects. The &#8220;Zero Defects&#8221; sloganeering is counterproductive, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":8636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Zero Defects Concept is Wrong Approach Unless You Use Poka-Yoke<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Zero Defects Concept is Wrong Approach Unless You Use Poka-Yoke - that&#039;s the only way to get to zero defects with minimal cost\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zero Defects Concept is Wrong Approach Unless You Use Poka-Yoke\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Zero Defects Concept is Wrong Approach Unless You Use Poka-Yoke - 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