Crosby’s Four Absolutes of Quality

Phillip Crosby, PhD, former president of the American Society for Quality established four absolutes for quality performance. These "absolutes" are as applicable to service industries as they are to manufacturing:

1. Definition of quality is conformance to requirements, not goodness


2. System for causing quality is prevention, not appraisal


3. Performance standard is zero defects, not “that’s close enough”


4. Measurement of quality is the cost of nonconformance, not indexes

Although "zero defects" may be an impractical goal for most businesses, it nonetheless is an interesting a worthy ideal parameter. The broader point is, of course, to know what you are measuring and what the proper standard of measurement should be.