One of Dr. Deming's 14 points for management states, 'Cease dependence upon inspection as a way to achieve quality.' The underlying tenet is which of the following?

• A. Quality should be built into the product, not inspected in.
• B. Inspection should be increased to catch more defects.
• C. Suppliers should be penalized for defects.
• D. Final testing should replace process control.

Answer: (A)

Quality must be built into the product and the process rather than detected by inspection after it’s produced. Relying on inspection treats quality as something to catch at the end, which is costly and unreliable: defects can slip through, rework and scrap add waste, and you’re often catching issues too late to prevent customer impact. By designing quality into the product and into the process—creating capable, well-controlled processes, using preventive tools like mistake-proofing, and involving people in continuous improvement—you prevent defects from occurring in the first place and reduce variation. The other ideas—more inspection, penalizing suppliers, or substituting final testing for process control—don’t promote prevention or system-wide quality improvement, and they contradict this preventive approach.