Notes on the Cost of Non-Quality
Presented
to The
by
Charles Prier
I remember as a young Quality professional highly motivated and energetic getting my first chance to meet with management on Quality. My ideas concerning the importance of quality were not much different than they are today. The idea is very simple and not at all original.. "do it right the first time"; it's the most effective all around. I remember My grandfather talking to others while building a barn when I was a kid "let's do this once".
My opportunity had come to present my ideas to the management staff who, I was convinced had never heard about my brand of quality. I was so excited; you would have thought I invented "DO IT RIGHT FIRST TIME".
I had extensively prepared for the presentation. I had charts and graphs depicting the defectiveness and trends in every area from receiving inspection to shipping.. and these were the days before computer spreadsheets and desk top publishing.
I began my presentation with enthusiasm. I showed all my charts and graphs I enumerated, condemned and verbally assaulted every contributor to defectiveness that I could remember and probably even made up a few for good measure. I had worked up a good sweat and was sure that when I said I was finished and sat down that the CEO would dismiss the meeting and send his lieutenants out to correct the situations I had so eloquently described.
Instead there was silence and a puzzled look on the old man's face. Finally, after what seemed like an hour he said: "Charles.... are you finished?" "
Yes sir", I replied.
"I'm surprised, your boss said you might have some good ideas on what to do about some of the quality problems we have around here."
"That's true. The reason I wanted to talk to you and your staff was to gain your support for improving quality."
"You have our support, what do you need from us.. what do you want us to do?"
With an incompetent attempt to present the concept of the cost of Quality I said, "We need to reduce the cost of our scrap". To this, the manufacturing guy responded that we had one of the best scrap reclaiming operations in the state and at least twice he can remember actually making money on the scrap. Once because of a billing error and once long ago when there was a benefit from a radical price change on some precious metals we were using on relay contacts. He stirred as much interest with that little story as I did with my entire presentation.
Then, not to give up, I said, "we spend entirely too much on rework". Again the manufacturing guy retorted "there's no one in
I was obviously not prepared. I still had fuzzy thoughts in my mind as to what I wanted to get across to the Staff. I may have been a little confused about my brand of Quality. I certainly didn't recognize the dual mature of quality, in fact, it was probably a few years after that before I was able to realize and the multidimensional nature of quality.
Before we can discuss the "Costs of Quality" or the "Cost of Non-Quality" we need to have a good picture of the definition of quality in our minds.
It is the nature of Quality to be elusive, difficult to explain and to really understand. We're often fooled by taking it for granted. Just what is quality?
Quality is "good".. How about "Excellence".. pretty or "handsome" there are some problems with these meanings.. You see good, excellence, pretty and handsome are different to different people.
If we think of quality as these things, we can never be quite sure what we will get when we ask for quality; this might present some special problems when dealing with employees.. How do you think an employee would react to the instructions "This work is not good enough, bring it back when it's excellent".
We need some more useful definition for quality. I like to talk about the two flavors of quality and use at least two definitions. We could call them left handed and right handed quality or consumer and provider quality. The important thing is to realize the dual character of quality.
When we talk about consumer quality we can define it as: "That part of the product or service that is perceived to be in excess of what is customary"
Here, non-quality would be that part that is less than expected... I call consumer quality "right-handed quality"
Provider quality address conformance to specifications such as specific dimensions, weight, grade and any number of variable parameters.
I call this "Left-handed Quality"... as providers we have to speak specs to our suppliers and employees.
Right handed... Consumers.... Left handed ....Providers.
You can always remember this if you associate it with the two halves of the brain.. you know.. the left side of the brain controls our logical thoughts our ability to deal with numbers, and our language;... the right side of our brains control the more subjective thoughts, opinions, tastes, and appreciation for artistic things.....
Whereas a provider might precisely express quality in terms of numbers, grades and specifications.. using the left side of his brain; the consumer might say "I can't explain it.. but I sure know it when I see it"... or feel it".. or wear it".. or taste it".. or just use it".
With just these two definitions we can already make some observations about the nature of quality and how we might go about achieving it.
As a Quality Professional we can recognize that we have to be switch hitters it the "thinking about quality department".. left handed for our suppliers and employees and right handed for our customers.
We can recognize that our customers may not realize that there are such things as grades and specifications applicable to the more complex things we make... and that they may make unwise decisions at which of what to purchase and present unrealistic expectations.
It's management's job to determine the expectations of the customers... those right hand thinking individualist that don't understand specifications but know quality when they have it. Then translate these expectations into objective specifications and instructions for our suppliers and employees..
How well we achieve these things is the ultimate measure of our Quality Performance.
We the providers must realize that our success even.. our survival may depend upon the quality performance of the enterprise.... Quality being another issue to monitor and control.
How do we do this? ... With fussy customers and careless employees it may seem near impossible.
How do we improve? Improvement is not just a matter of being more careful, concentrating or trying harder. It requires a systematic change in our thinking and perception of errors, our own and those others make. Some recognitions are involved in making this change.
In order to improve we must learn to tolerate rather than accept error.
These are not just words but an expression of a "state of mind" important to success. Acceptance has no limit, tolerance does and will provide the initiative needed for actions to improve.
We must recognize that there are only two major causes of errors in the workplace: LACK OF KNOWLEDGE and WRONG ATTITUDE.
The origin of 85% of the errors and problems in business is the negligence of management in these areas.
BE CERTAIN that you know the expectations of your customers.
BE CERTAIN that your subordinates know how to do the things that result in those expectations being met.
BE CERTAIN that they understand that although you may tolerate some error you do not accept it as a normal natural human occurrence.
Recognize that all errors even though tolerated are expensive and can be prevented.
Recognize that although you are hearing these words
and perhaps agreeing with them.... as individuals you
really don't believe they apply to you personally... But they do. As business
leaders, achieving quality in
Thank You,
Copyright © 1989 Charles Prier
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