Total Quality Management

On January 28, 1986, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Challenger Space Shuttle exploded just 73 seconds after the lift-off, killing all seven astronauts on board. The cause of the explosion was identified as the hardware failure of the solid rocket booster (SRB) O-ring together with the flawed decision-making process. The day before the launch, Thiokol, the subcontractor of O-rings, warned NASA of their possible failure due to the low-temperature forecast for the following day. Both NASA and Thiokol knew from the previous findings that the low temperature could prevent the crucial O-rings from forming a seal in critical field joints in the SRB. Thiokol recommended waiting till the outside temperature reached 53°F before proceeding with the launch. Thiokol's engineers' quality and safety concerns were ignored because of the political and financial implications of another delay. In an extensive report, Jeff Forest from the Metropolitan State College observed that Thiokol's engineers' concerns were ignored for the sake of cost, schedule and outside environmental demands. Social and ethical decision-making was thus sacrificed. Apart from liability issues, two key facts related to quality management emerged from this incident, i.e., the importance of the supplier's quality management programme and the fact that even small components can have disastrous consequences on a project ( Miranda, 2014 ). In this chapter, quality improvement is discussed in terms of the elements of Total Quality Management (TQM) from the modern and Buddhist points of view.