Measuring quality with fuzzy logic

Abstract

Notes that the seven basic tools of quality management document flow analysis, cause‐and‐effect variables, and linear patterns of process but that in organizational systems composed of human beings, data are not always regular, or logical. Comments that the real world of work does not usually provide black‐and‐white situations and crystal clear data and suggests that quality can be measured with hard logic data, and with qualitative, or fuzzy logic information. Discusses the use of tools that measure non‐quantitative information. Points out that the profound knowledge that Dr Deming taught had its underpinnings in an appreciation for the system as a whole and that to understand quality, one had to commit to the whole. Suggests that it is this holistic view of quality that will be the driving force of the next wave of the total quality management movement and that the ability to measure and analyse the fuzzy processes of a learning organization will move quality leaders into a new paradigm. Points out that the integration of fuzzy logic theory with quality principles in a continuous and unbroken alchemy may lead to dynamic self‐discoveries within the quality movement.