Article November 13, 1965 Issue

Signs of the Times

O. Ernest Erwin

The Iron Age

O. Ernest Erwin, Director
Quality Assurance, Lockheed-Georgia
as reported in
"Zero Defects Plan Declares War"
The Iron Age, Philadelphia

An all-out drive to show mistakes are not a way of life has begun at Lockheed-Georgia Co. Top management support, use of supervisors to guide the effort, and employee pledges to improve are its main factors.... The campaign is directed at making quality everyone's responsibility. It's targeted to reinstill a pride in craftsmanship in each employee. It hammers home the positive psychology that mistakes are not "natural"—they do not "have to" happen.

Lockheed's analysis of error cause was really the springboard for the current campaign. O. Ernest Erwin, director of quality assurance, describes how it happened. "We became aware that personal error prevention had to get more attention, Too many of our problems were being caused by avoidable mistakes."

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