Tom Cole, the president of Rudd Industries, Inc., was beaming when he was reviewing the company’s quality cost report. After he had implemented a quality-control program for three years, the company’s defect rate had declined from 20 percent to 3 percent. Mr. Cole patted Nina Hunt, the production manager, on her back and said: “You have done a great job! I plan to reward you for your hard work. However, I want the defects to disappear completely before I promote you to the position of executive vice president. So, zero-defect is going to be your personal goal for the coming year.” Ms. Hunt responded wearily, “I’m not sure that’s really a good idea.”

Required
Write a memorandum to the president explaining that zero-defect is not a practical policy.