efficient quality management

I know that an effective quality program pays for itself over time and is an accepted expense for operating a business. I know this expense is considered “overhead” or the “cost-of-doing-business” and is usually the first to be cut when right-sizing. The last 10 years of quality evolution has shown me that Customers want professional-grade management in their Suppliers before they’ll consider them as candidates. Today, that means Suppliers must provide a pedigree that proves they are worthy of consideration by concerned Customers.

Customers and Suppliers have only one chance to do it right the first time. They have to invest their time and resources on good practices that will increase profits and continuously win new business from their Consumers. Customers and Suppliers have the same goal – perform as a team to satisfy their Consumers and increase profit margins.

My name is Frank and I’m a career quality manager from a diverse range of sensor and electrical hardware manufacturing for more than 30 years. I’m an employee like any other that desires respect and admiration by my employer. I think I earn that by doing more than expected all the time.

Early in my career I learned to live in 5-year intervals; that is, do it right the first time so it doesn’t need to be improved for at least 5 years. A silly notion, but everybody needs a goal, and after more than 30 years there are so many overlapping 5-year intervals that they’re all a blur.
I still live by the 5-year goal and I’m constantly being inspired by current events or something in history that could improve my job. I found the internet in 1989 and during the 90’s I witnessed the transfer of quality management knowledge to the internet. I joined the evolution in 1998 by releasing all my paper-based knowledge to the internet through www.quality-control-plan.com.

Over the years I’ve lived a lot of “the-flavor-of-the-month” improvement scenarios and I’ve read a lot of twisted guidance by so-called experts in quality management. One endearing book that has stuck with me is Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment: How to Improve Productivity, Quality, and Employee Satisfaction by William Byham PhD and Jeff Cox (Author). You can find it on Amazon for about $12.00. When you read the book you’ll learn about dinosaur eggs that are laid by the inherent inefficiencies of any process that later hatch to eat your hard work to cause you to do it all over again.

Well, believe me when I say I have scars from the many dinosaurs that have chewed on me where it hurts the most. Such unforeseen grief that hatches when you least need it – just like being crushed by one of Murphy’s Laws.

One of those dinosaurs finally convinced me there must be a better way. One day I was psychologically slapped into submission by a resident Customer during one of their product release inspections. I knew that a few days ago I had a piece of paper that proved compliance to one of their critical requirements but somehow it got misplaced during filing. I threw a bunch of people at the problem but we couldn’t find it so I had to hold the shipment because it would never get past their receiving department if they didn’t have one 8″ by 11″ piece of paper. At that moment of despair I resolved to fix the problem – 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration – I resolved to scan every important document to PDF and store it on the server. Well, that fixed the problem but it created a few new problems and that got me to thinking about other electronic resources that could eliminate the grief that was inherent in my job.

After several years of effort and some mighty handy software programming from my guru buddy Brian, we created a solution that helps me when I’m on the road and from any computer in the company. I can now get a record to support the Customer and answer a question or look at the details of a procedure that was always somewhere else other than right where I needed it, exactly when I needed it. The vast majority of my job-related problems are solved and every Customer and Supplier that interacts with me and the solution wants one for themselves because they suffer the same way I used to suffer. I was finally inspired under the right circumstances to solve my everyday problems and I’m going to share it with everybody.

Ask yourself these questions: How much grief will I experience by the end of the day because of my quality program? Doesn’t my business need an Efficient QMS™ that eliminates dinosaur eggs to enable me to lay-back and finally enjoy the view?

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Efficient QMS™. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.