Total Quality Management

Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal - Tuesday, September 13 (1994?)

18 Chinese Managers Executed for Shoddy Quality

BEIJING - Eighteen factory managers were executed for poor product quality at Chien Bien Refrigerator Factory on the outskirts of the Chinese capital.

The managers - twelve men and six women - were taken to a rice paddy outside the factory and unceremoniously shot to death as 500 plant workers looked on. Ministry of Economic Reform spokesman, Xi Ten Haun, said the action was required for committing unpardonable crimes against the people of China.

He blamed the managers for ignoring quality and forcing shoddy work, saying the factory's output of refrigerators had a reputation for failure. For years factory workers complained that many component parts did not meet specification and end product did not function as required. Compressors were cracked, leaked freon and the electrical components were sub-standard. Complaining workers quoted the Plant Manager as saying "Ship it."

Customers, who waited up to five years for their appliances, were outraged, he says.

"It is understandable our citizens would express shock and outrage when managers are careless in their attitudes toward the welfare of others."

Refrigerators are among the most sought after consumer items in Communist China.

"Managers in charge of production and engineering failed to perform any useful corrections to the quality problems for the last 20 years," Haun said.

"Our soldiers are justified in wishing to bring proper justice to these errant managers."

The executed included the Plant Manager, the Quality Control Manager, the Engineering Managers and their top staff.


(yuk) The Politically Incorrect Collection