Get to know the Zero Defect concept and how to apply it as a quality tool

Has stopped to think how much a company or an industry spends annually with errors in production and waste of resources? Certainly, it must be a high value. Therefore, corporations adopt efforts to increase the level of quality. One such effort is the adoption of a zero defect philosophy.

Want to know more about it? So keep reading this article to find out:

• What is zero defect?
• The origin of this concept
• Pillars of the concept of zero defects
• The advantages of this philosophy for a company.
• How to apply this concept effectively?

Ready to learn the concept of zero defects? Come on!

What is zero defect?

Zero defect is a concept or philosophy that encourages the adoption of measures to correct manufacturing errors to achieve optimal production. In other words, a production with minimal errors, tending to zero and, preferably, the first time.

The mentality "get it right from the start" is at the heart of the zero defect philosophy. By combining this concept with continuous improvement practices, we approach the Lean Manufacturing methodology.

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How did zero defects come about?

The concept of zero defects began during World War II when manufacturers needed to deliver war equipment as quickly and flawlessly as possible.

Later, the Martin Company, a maker of missiles and rockets, adopted a quality program for training workers in 1961.

In 1970, the company's quality manager, Philip Crosby, created the term zero achievements, introduced in his book "Quality is Free".

For Crosby, manufacturing practices based on zero defects tend to significantly reduce the costs associated with the final condition of a product or a service, so the quality is free.

Also, according to Crosby's thought, it is possible to see how zero defects integrate with known production systems such as Taylorism, Fordism, and Toyotism. When with the latter, the zero defect is called ZDQC (Zero Defect Quality Control).

And how do zero defects add value to these methodologies? Through the pillars and good practices defined by Crosby and other quality researchers over the decades.

Find out more on the next topic! Keep reading.

Zero Defect Pillars

First, it is important to note that zero defects are not a methodology. There is no structured sequence of steps for you to apply this concept.

What exists are pillars and good practices that guide managers and improvement professionals to direct production towards a quality defect zero-policy.

What are these pillars?

Inspect at source

Rather than just monitoring and controlling process execution and results, as production methodologies encourage, it is important to evaluate and quality control at the source of all resources used in manufacturing.

Inspect All Results

It is common for quality analyses to be performed on samples of the results.

Although by statistical means these analyzes present high reliability about the characterization of the results, to move towards production with zero defects, it is suggested that the analysis be carried out considering all the results.

Act immediately

The time between detecting a problem and taking corrective action should be as short as possible to prevent the problem from causing further errors, compromising product quality.

Remember Workers Are Not Infallible

While the zero defect philosophy is rigid to achieve high levels of quality, it is important to remember that workers can make mistakes and that's okay. Quality managers must be aware of this and must treat their team with empathy.

Simplify the process

The simpler a production process is, the less likely there are to be errors. For this, it is possible to use methodologies such as DFMA and Poka Yoke integrated into the production system to reach the state of no defect.

As this list is already long, let's stop here. But these 5 pillars are enough for you to understand what are the main practices that must be adopted to achieve zero defects.

And what is the advantage of this for an organization, besides producing error-free products of course? In the next topic, you will see the advantages of this concept for companies and industries.

Advantages of the zero-defect philosophy

The main advantages of the zero defect concept are:

• Increased revenue
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Decrease in waste
• Incentives for continuous improvement.

It is interesting to note that this concept can be applied in any area: from assembling a vehicle to a marketing campaign. The central idea of ​​zero defects is to bring the mentality of always looking for an impeccable result.

And how to do this?

How to apply zero defects in practice?

At this point in your reading, after knowing the pillars and advantages of this philosophy, you may be asking yourself: how to apply zero defects? Here are tips for you to implement such a concept!

1. Monitor all processes

If you are not controlling all the processes, however small, involved in production you will hardly be able to achieve zero defects. To do this, define all processes and create routines to monitor them frequently.

2. Measure the results of your actions

Begin to analyze how a corrective or preventive action influences the revenue of the companies. This way, you will understand how to act in the future so that the process has a very low defect rate.

3. Create teams focused on improvement

Develop quality improvement skills in your team. Promote training and encourage his training in methodologies such as Kaizen, Lean Six Sigma, and WCM.

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