Quality at the Source

Any person skilled in quality control disciplines knows that checking cannot prevent quality problems. Checking only catches quality problems after they've happened. When the error is caught we still have to fix it or re-do it and that costs time and money.

Quality problems can only be prevented at the time the original work is done. So the only person who can prevent a quality problem from happening is the person doing the job. If the person doing the job can do it perfectly every time there will be no problems to catch. No need to fix or re-do. That saves time and money.

Quality at the Source is the management technique of placing responsibility for preventing errors on the only people who can prevent errors in the first place -- the people who actually perform the work. When a person can perform a job perfectly every time, we can usually eliminate the need for checking.

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