Philip Bayard Crosby, a onetime assembly line worker who became an entrepreneur spreading the gospel of quality control in manufacturing, died on Sunday at a hospital in Asheville, N.C.
He was 75 and lived in Winter Park, Fla., with a summer home in the North Carolina mountains.
The cause was respiratory failure, according to Philip Crosby Associates II, a worldwide consulting and educational company based in Winter Park.
Mr. Crosby was credited with developing the concept of zero defects, which emphasizes customer satisfaction as a measure of quality control. He also taught methods for eliminating the causes of defects before a defective product reached the customer.
Among his clients were General Motors, Chrysler, Motorola, Xerox and many hospitals.
Mr. Crosby introduced the concept of zero defects in the 1950's, and it was embraced as a crucial change in the approach to industrial quality control. Quality, he preached, is a question of expectations. If people are expected to make mistakes, they will. But if the goal of no defects is set from the start, people will work toward that goal and quality will improve.
Mr. Crosby, Armand V. Feigenbaum, W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran were often grouped as the nation's leading consultants on quality assurance.
Mr. Crosby advised corporations on how to improve efficiency, reliability and profitability. His company also organized what he called his Quality College, which trained managers in 20 countries.
He explained his concepts in speeches and seminars worldwide. He wrote hundreds of articles and more than a dozen books, most of which remain in print.
His first book, ''Quality is Free'' (1977), drew attention to his management principles; the book was translated into 15 languages and sold more than 1.5 million copies. His last book was an autobiography, ''Quality and Me: Lessons From an Evolving Life'' (1999).
Philip Crosby was born in Wheeling, W.Va. He attended what is now Case Western Reserve University, received a degree in foot surgery at the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine in 1949 and served in the Navy as a hospital corpsman.
After starting on the assembly line, he won quick promotions and by 1957 was named quality manager at the Martin Marietta plant in Orlando, Fla. From 1965 to 1979 he was a vice president at International Telephone and Telegraph, a position he made into a platform for his basic message: Get things done right the first time -- it is better business and cheaper in the long run.
He left in 1979 to found his own business. He served as president of the American Society for Quality in 1979-80.
His books in print include ''Leading: The Art of Becoming an Executive'' (1999), ''Quality Without Tears: The Art of Hassle-Free Management'' (1984) and ''Running Things: The Art of Making Things Happen'' (1986).
Mr. Crosby is survived by his wife, Peggy Davis Crosby; a son, Philip Jr., of Hot Springs, N.C.; two daughters, Phylis Crosby-Wright, of Greenback, Tenn., and Leyla Crosby, of Oviedo, Fla; a brother, David, of Glen Ellyn, Ill.; and six grandchildren. His earlier marriage to Shirley Jones ended in divorce.
Photo: Philip Bayard Crosby