Armand Feigenbaum, Total quality control pioneer
2011 IW Manufacturing Hall of Fame Inductee
The concept of total quality control is directly attributed to the work of Armand Feigenbaum. When the American Society for Quality named Feigenbaum an honorary board member in 1986, the society acknowledged him for a career in which "the precepts of total quality control were carefully laid out and tirelessly promulgated in the United States and around the world."
While still a student at MIT Sloan, he published his first book on quality. His seminal book, "Total Quality Control," which appeared in 1951, remains the bible of quality.
Feigenbaum also is a pioneer in quality cost management, and ASQ notes his book "was the first text to characterize quality costs as the costs of prevention, appraisal and internal and external failure."
Feigenbaum is the founder and president of General System Co., an international engineering company that designs and implements total quality systems. Prior to that he was the manager of worldwide manufacturing operations and quality control for General Electric Co.
Feigenbaum was the founding chairman of the board of the International Academy for Quality, which brought together leaders of the European Organization for Quality, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers and ASQ.
He also received the National Security Industrial Association Award of Merit for leadership in defense of the nation. He has been a member of the U.S. Army's advisory group, general chairman of the Army Materiel Command's evaluation of quality assurance activities and a consultant with the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
He has written five books, including the most recent, "The Power of Management Capital." In 2009, he accepted ASQ's Technology and Innovation award.
"In today's global markets, management innovation is the principal driver of business growth, and quality is the principal driver of market strength," he said.
