Philip B. Crosby
Philip Bayard "Phil" Crosby, (June 18, 1926 – August 18, 2001) was an American businessman and author who contributed to management theory and quality management practices.[4]
Phil Crosby
August 18, 2001 (aged 75)
Palm Cemetery, Winter Park, Florida
1950
Quality consultant
1952 – 1999
The Martin Company, ITT Corporation, Philip Crosby Associates
Philosophies of Quality management, Zero Defects, Quality Management Maturity Grid
Quality Is Free (1979)[3]
Peggy
2
Crosby initiated the Zero Defects program at the Martin Company.[5] As the quality control manager of the Pershing missile program, Crosby was credited with a 25 percent reduction in the overall rejection rate and a 30 percent reduction in scrap costs.
Early life and career[edit]
Crosby was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1926. He served in the Navy during World War II and again during the Korean War. In between, he earned a degree from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine.[2]
His first job in the field of quality was that of test technician in the quality department at Crosley Corporation in Richmond, Indiana, beginning in 1952. He left for a better-paying position as reliability engineer at Bendix Corporation in Mishawaka, Indiana in 1955, working on the RIM-8 Talos missile. He left after less than two years to become senior quality engineer at The Martin Company's new Orlando, Florida organization to develop the Pershing missile. There he developed the Zero Defects concept.[5] He eventually rose to become department head before leaving for ITT Corporation in 1965 to become director of quality.
In 1979, Crosby started the management consulting company Philip Crosby Associates, Inc.[2] This consulting group provided educational courses in quality management both at their headquarters in Winter Park, Florida, and at eight foreign locations.