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Quality systems are one of the most important aspects of delivering a company’s brand promise to customers, but often it is thought of in a dismissive or minimized way. When faced with a change brought about by a newly revised Quality Standard, a CEO of a large aerospace company said, “you-quality-people are just overhead”.  Do you think he was right?  I don’t and neither did those quality-people!  They argued that what they are is “Life-Support for Production or Services”.  I like their reference.

I have run into more people in management roles who don’t recognize quality systems as a valuable aspect of their operational checks and balances.  Instead they are under the misconception that quality costs too much.   My observation has been that these people fight it, they don’t believe in it, they don’t support it, and everyone knows they don’t support it.  They’re certainly not going to invest in it.  So, they end up with an improperly set up quality system that hasn’t got a snowballs chance of being truly effective.    Oh, it meets the requirements alright… “On Paper”!

These managers will say it’s not worth the investment, so they devote the least amount of resources necessary to get by and then guess what, their preconceived notion becomes their reality. The quality system they’ve implemented is defective.

Self-fulfilling prediction – you believe it adds little-value, you treat it like it adds little-value…the outcome, a quality system of little-value!

Money invested in building quality into every aspect of a business, returns substantial profits.

Alignment + Consistency = Quality

The nut ‘n bolts of quality requirements:

#1 – Alignment

Holding executive management accountable to be knowledgeable of the company’s strategic plan, policies, procedures and resources.  Expecting them to be committed to providing support, encouraging communication and holding others accountable.  It promotes Customer Satisfaction!  It’s the first step in establishing “Alignment”.

#2 – Consistency

Defined roles and employee awareness; everyone is clear who they report to and who has specified authority, they are knowledgeable of policies, procedures and how to do their job.  The right mangers sitting in the right seats and having a robust training program insures “Consistency”.

#3 – Quality

All Processes from purchasing to delivery, whether it’s product or services, are to be controlled and monitored to assure the highest level of measurable performance, and to capture breakdowns, malfunctions or failures before they become catastrophic, costly and/or you fail to meet your customer expectations.

The first step in turning quality system into an asset is estimating possible waste. Schedule a free coaching session with us today.