Armand V. Feigenbaum

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Armand V. Feigenbaum is an American quality control expert who was born in 1922. He received a bachelor's degree from Union College, and his master's degree and Ph.D. from MIT. He was Director of Manufacturing Operations at General Electric (1958-1968), and is now President and CEO of General Systems Company of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, an engineering firm that designs and installs operational systems. He wrote several books and served as President of the American Society for Quality (1961-1963). Feigenbaum's contributions to the quality body of knowledge include:

  • Total Quality Control (TQC) - "Total quality control is an effective system for integrating the quality development, quality maintenance, and quality improvement efforts of the various groups in an organisation so as to enable production and service at the most economical levels which allow full customer satisfaction."
  • the "hidden" plant - the idea that so much extra work is performed in correcting mistakes that there is effectively a hidden plant within any factory.
  • Because quality is everybody's job, it may become nobody's job - the idea that quality must be actively managed and have visibility at the highest levels of management.

[edit] References

  • Feigenbaum, A. V. (1951), Quality Control: Principles, Practice, and Administration, McGraw-Hill
  • Feigenbaum, A. V. and Feigenbaum, D.S. (2003), "The Power of Management Capital", McGraw-Hill
  • Feigenbaum, A. V. (2004), Total Quality Control, McGraw-Hill Professional, ISBN 0-07-022003-4 (re-issue of Quality Control)