Challenge the Intuitively Obvious

The Challenger     (Image credit https://blog.historicenvironment.scot)

We all know Murphy's Law that states that if something can go wrong it will.
After that law became famous, a number of clever people added to "Murphy's Laws" and I've even seen books about Murphy's Laws. It is very true that "You always find something in the last place you look."  One that I read that has relevance to this blog post is, "In any accounting problem, the source of the error is the figure that is obviously correct."

Without being aware of it, our lives can be driven along a path where most of the decisions we make and the actions we take follow the line of least resistance. This line is usually bolstered by assumptions that we make, and the greatest assumptions are the ones that appear to us as obvious and self-evident, without any need for reasoning or logic. In other words, the "intuitively obvious".

The intuitively obvious pops up in different areas of our lives without us even noticing: parenting practices, voting choices, business strategy - to name a few.

Parenting

I know someone who grew up in a place and time where it was normal and expected for parents to discipline their children with corporal punishment, whether the bare hand, a belt or rod or paddle. Their religious upbringing reinforced this with the proverb, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." It was held intuitively obvious that if children are not physically punished when they do wrong, their character and behaviour development will suffer. It was not really until psychology studies were clearly demonstrating a link between aggression in children and aggressive parenting styles, and between later life behavioral problems and childhood physical discipline, that societies slowly started to question and reject what had been intuitively obvious for generations of parents and disciplinarians.

Elections

One of the problems about the intuitively obvious is that it is usually driven by our feelings. We stick with whatever we feel comfortable about and avoid what makes us feel uncomfortable or anxious. For many people this manifests when it is time to vote in an election. A large number of people vote for the same political party all their lives. They started voting that way because that was how their family voted and voting that way became part of their self-image. If you question them, very often you find that they actually know very little about the various party platforms. More often there is merely an enduring belief about one or two particular areas of policy. You hear statements like, "Those guys can't be trusted with the economy," or "Our party policy is based on a good moral compass." If you ask for evidence, whether on the left or right side of the political aisle, it is usually in short supply and you might even get a belligerent, adversarial reply.

Business and Professional

One of the differences between some smaller businesses and most larger business organisations is in the area of business and strategic planning. It does not have to be that way and a number of smaller organisations do engage in periodic strategic planning. Those that do not are at the greatest risk of following along the path of the intuitively obvious. This might work well for a while for any given small business, but the guarantees are no better than for relying on the intuitively obvious for our parenting style or our political decisions. In fact, the prospects are probably worse because, being a small business, you do not have the protection of the herd.

But even many large businesses fall into the trap of the intuitively obvious by presuming you can increase urgently needed profits merely by cutting immediate costs, usually by laying off staff. That is a short term trap. Why? Because it is not sustainable over the long term. You cannot sustain sales and revenue without maintaining quality of products and services. And you cannot maintain a consistent standard of quality without retaining a sufficient number of the right people for the job. W Edwards Deming used to say, "If you want to increase profits then improve quality of products and services."

Perhaps it is time to identify, challenge and probe the 'intuitively obvious' in your own personal and professional life?

Sick Notes. Really?

"Sick notes set up skewed incentives for everyone. For employers, they hinder trust with workers and replace effective management, which are important for retention, safety and productivity... For patients, it means they don’t take medical leave when they’re truly unwell: 8 out of 10 Canadians said they would go to work while ill instead of getting a sick note...


"Sick notes don’t benefit the patient, but are a service employers expect free of charge. Since public health insurance doesn’t cover them... requiring private payment from folks already disadvantaged by chronic illness, low income or precarious work is a “double blow” — unwell and out-of-pocket."

Read the full opinion piece in the Toronto Star: Sick notes are bad for everyone. So why not break the habit?

By
Edward Xie, an emergency physician and assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Monika Dutt, a public health and family physician in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and a board member with Canadian Doctors for Medicare.

Conducting Internal Audits for ISO 9001:2015

I recently received an email from a newly trained lead auditor asking for advice on conducting an internal audit. He was totally focused on a massive and detailed checklist for identifying gaps with ISO 9001:2015. When one receives ISO 9001:2015 lead auditor training, they generally teach you how to do Third Party audits - and little else. Therefore, it is a common but understandable mistake for newly trained lead auditors to conduct internal audits as if they were conducting a certification or surveillance audit by a 3rd party auditor. I know, because I did it myself for a while. So, here is a handful of important considerations to make your first internal audit less daunting. Or, if you have been treating your internal audits as mini certification audits then there is something here for you too.

The Quality Management System (QMS)

If your organization is, indeed, ISO 9001 certified, then an accredited auditor has certified that your QMS is ISO 9001:2015 conformant. You do NOT have to do that all over again. What you have to do now is verify - from evidence - that the people in your organization are executing on the procedures and processes that are laid out in your Quality Management System (QMS). It should go without saying that you need to be familiar with your organization's QMS, and the roles and responsibilities defined in its processes.

Internal Audit Process

First off, your QMS should have procedures and processes covering internal audits. You need to conduct your internal audits in conformity with that. If those procedures/processes are deficient then you should write up an appropriate finding. The audit process as laid out in your QMS should include something about having a schedule of internal audits. A good practice is to have an internal audit every quarter of the year where each audit covers at least a quarter or more of the QMS. Your internal audit should follow a plan that you, the lead auditor have drawn up based on  the scheduled content of internal audits. This plan is reviewed and approved by top management in the organization before the opening meeting of your internal audit.

Corrective Action (CA)

An important item to be audited in each audit is to follow up on corrective actions for nonconformities (NCs) found in the previous audit. Your QMS should have one or more processes defined for the handling of corrective actions. Is your organization following that process? NCs from previous audits, especially 3rd Party audits, are the most important corrective actions to follow up on, but a sample of other NCs should be reviewed as well, especially those originating from customer complaints.

Sampling

You cannot audit every single operational thing that an organization does. Have a system of sampling. This could be random sampling where, for example, you throw dice for your starting point and then take every Nth instance to ensure a certain percentage coverage; or risk based, where you focus on items that are safety related or that suggest financial risk if not performed satisfactorily. For random sampling I like to use Random.Org. (https://www.random.org/)

Nonconformities

When you think you have found a nonconformity (NC), be very clear in your own mind what the requirement is in terms of your QMS process. If the QMS states: "Document the customer's training needs in such-and-such a file in the customer's folder" - and this is simply being held in someone's emails instead, then write up your finding clearly showing where the requirement can be found in the QMS - chapter and verse. Somebody following in your footsteps should be able to locate the same evidence that you used and reproduce your findings and, from the evidence, come to the same conclusion as you did. As far as possible, without being argumentative, the manager or lead responsible for the process should be in agreement that the requirement has not been met.

Transparency

Remember, an important rule of auditing is that an auditor may not audit their own work. If you are the Sales Manager in the organization, or in charge of Quality Control, then you may not audit those departments if you have performed or signed off on any of the work that is being audited. This means that you will need to train one or more other people in your organization to be part of an audit team which you would lead. They do not need to have Third Party Lead Auditor training; they do need to have some introductory training in the requirements of the ISO 9001 standard and familiarity with the QMS. To preserve their freedom to audit without fear of repercussion, they should not be in your reporting structure. Even if you are well respected, there should be no perception of a conflict of interest. When you move on, your replacement in the organization may not be such a nice person as you. In the meantime, while you are the only auditor, you can begin auditing other parts of the organization. For all the same reasons, it is not a good idea for you to interview personnel who report directly to you.

The Audit Report

Look for the positive - where people are doing a good job, and where the QMS is working well for the organization. Make sure that this comes out in the beginning of your audit report. Very importantly, remember that we AUDIT THE SYSTEM, NOT THE PEOPLE. If there is an NC it is because the system has allowed it to happen. Ensure that people associated with an NC are given an opportunity to explain why it might not be an NC, or that they agree that it is, indeed, a nonconformity. They will, in all likelihood, be involved in the corrective action and so the organization needs them to be on board during root cause analysis.


Have you watched my video, A Common Mistake in ISO training?
Nothing else that I can tell you is more important that what I say there!

"EVERY SYSTEM IS PERFECTLY DESIGNED TO GET THE RESULTS IT GETS"

- W. Edwards Deming quoting Arthur Jones.

A common weakness in ISO 9001 training

Disclaimer: I call it a 'common' weakness but, in all honesty, I have no evidence other than anecdotal from my own experience over the years and from talking to other people who have had ISO 9001 training.

The Common Weakness in Training.

So, what is 'the weakness' of which I speak? It is to focus inordinately on the letter of the requirements of the Standard to the detriment of the spirit behind the Standard and its requirements.

Road sign: Blind Spot Ahead (Germany)

Right up front, let me hasten to say that this is not just a fault of trainers. Many, if not most people doing a training course in a standard such as ISO 9001:2015 have a blind spot for anything other than learning the minimum requirements for conformity or compliance. This 'defective vision' usually afflicts senior management who convey to their employees the sense that there will be some kind of new burden of documentation that we will all now need to add to our workload

On the part of trainers there is the temptation to have a quick introduction looking at the "Process Approach", maybe even looking at the 'benefits' of certification, but begin the 'real' training with the first "shall" clause of ISO 9001:2015, 4.1 Understanding the organisation and its context. Even if there is good coverage of what I call 'the spirit' of the Standard in the training's introduction, it usually gets lost thereafter in the weeds of the requirement from clause 4 onwards.

The Spirit of the Standard.

The spirit of the ISO 9001:2015 International Standard is articulated right at the very beginning in Clause 0.1 General

The adoption of a quality management system is a strategic decision for an organization that can help to improve its overall performance and provide a sound basis for sustainable development initiatives.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Note that it says nothing about marketing and sales. If marketing and sales are the driving motivation for ISO 9001 certification, and not organizational excellence through improving performance, then the organization is in for a rough ride culturally. That certificate on the wall will not be worth the paper it is printed on; the web site claim to ISO 9001:2015 certification will be another road sign to customer disappointment and employee frustration. Remember the famous saying questionably attributed to Peter Drucker? Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

I was fortunate to have to work with an engineering manager who frustrated me no end by asking me, "What is the value add…?" of this or that new process or document or quality initiative that I would come to him with. Over time I learnt to appreciate his challenges to me. He forced me to make my quality initiatives as minimally bureaucratic as possible while ensuring that there was, indeed, value added for the company. He would ask, "Who are we doing this for? Are we doing this for the business or for the auditors?" Frustrating at the time, but he inadvertently helped me get past the letter to the spirit of the requirement. Interestingly, if you meet the spirit of the requirement as your priority, it becomes easier to find ways through cooperation to meet the letter of the requirement that are practical and feasible.

Who is Your Quality Manual Written For?

continually improving performance

In short, as you write your quality manual and SOP's to implement the "shall" clauses of the ISO 9001:2015 Standard, ask yourselves as a team, How can we implement this in such a way as to achieve organizational excellence through continually improving performance? Remember, your QMS as documented in your Quality Manual is there primarily for the members of the organization, not the auditors. It should be easy to use as a training document. If it is not, then who was it written for?

Have you "made it to the top"?

The following is a post in LinkedIn by Ahmed Hafez, Business Development Manager for Interface HCP, reproduced here with permission of the author.

I called a candidate about a new opportunity.  It was a promotion from his current role, and he had the right skills and qualifications.

"Sorry but I'm not interested," he politely said.

I pressed him on it until he said something that really confused me.  He told me that he "already made it to the top".

I was familiar with his current company and looked at his CV again.

He wasn't anywhere near the top.  He would have needed binoculars to see the top.  He wasn't even a manager yet.

He explained to me that "making it to the top" for him meant he loved the exact work he did each day, he loved his company, he was treated fairly and with respect, he made enough money to be comfortable, he had excellent benefits, he had flexibility, and most importantly to him, he's never missed a single football game, school play, parent-teacher conference, anniversary, birthday, or any family event.

He knew what taking the next step in his career meant.  More time, travel, and sacrifice.  "Not worth it," he said.

Your definition of "making it to the top" doesn't have to be society's or anyone else's definition.  You Do You.

From the post in LinkdIn by Ahmed Hafez, reproduced here with permission.

Is saying, "as a goodwill gesture…" really an apology?

By now the whole world knows about Doctor David Dao who needed hospital treatment after being dragged off a United Airlines flight.


And many of us, meanwhile, will have heard that United Airlines again allowed too many passengers to board a plane, this time on a flight from Houston to Boston, resulting in a mother having to hold her 27 month old son on her lap in violation of FAA safety guidelines. The mother did not protest too strongly because she "did not want anyone to get hurt," the experience of Dr. Dao still fresh in her memory. (You can read about that here.)

This is the statement from United Airlines on this most recent event as reported by ABC News:

https://hub.united.com/sp/purposes/

"On a recent flight from Houston to Boston, we inaccurately scanned the boarding pass of Ms. Yamauchi's son," the statement read. "As a result, her son's seat appeared to be not checked in, and we released his seat to another customer, and Ms. Yamauchi held her son for the flight."
It continued, "We deeply apologize to Ms. Yamauchi and her son for this experience. We are refunding their tickets and providing compensation as a goodwill gesture. We are also working with our employees to prevent this from happening again."

From my experience in quality management, albeit in healthcare and design, development and production, allow me three general observations with lessons beyond the airline industry.

1. "… working with our employees to prevent this from happening again."

Put very simply, United Airlines top management have just thrown their employees under the bus but, not to worry, management will work with their employees to fix the problem. Read: we will give the employees concerned a dressing down and explain to them how they screwed up - in words they can really understand!

One of my quality heroes is Dr. W. Edwards Deming who was passionate about not “blaming” workers for poor quality when so much of the problem was because "the system" allowed it to happen. It is top management who are responsible for the system. Maybe one or more workers did screw up, but the fact remains that the system allowed too many passengers to board the plane, and this mere weeks after their experience with Dr. Dao. "Working with their employees" might help somewhat, but it is even less of a guarantee once there is employee turnover and a new crop of employees takes over. The problem is in the system more than with the employees. That is a management responsibility.

https://hub.united.com/sp/purposes/

2. Violation of FAA safety guidelines

Hello?  Is anybody listening? Does anybody care? A cabin crew member of my acquaintance decades ago told me that the most important responsibility of cabin crew is the safety of passengers. Has that changed? The element of safety is completely lacking in the reported statement by United Airlines. The fact that no serious injury occurred is no excuse for placing the child at risk - something that the system did not prevent from happening.

3. "… providing compensation as a goodwill gesture."

Let's not play with words. Compensation is something that is due, either for work performed or as a recompense for loss, injury, or suffering. It is an insult to say you are paying compensation "as a goodwill gesture." It is also an implicit denial of responsibility for the loss, injury or suffering for which compensation is being paid. The depth of the apology ("We deeply apologize…") is revealed as actually being very shallow indeed.

The four words, "as a goodwill gesture," are also a huge PR gaffe. I have no reason to suspect that top management at United Airlines really have the importance of their customers as people at heart, that customer satisfaction has any value beyond dollars and cents. In fact, I doubt that they would even understand the intent of this paragraph.


In my opinion, if United Airlines really wants to improve as a company, their top management needs to have an attitude transplant to understand what it means to be responsible for the system and the inter-related processes required to ensure the quality service it is supposed to produce.

Quality is about time...

by Philip Scalise, an online colleague and acquaintance whom I have met and interacted with on LinkedIn. Philip does Quality System Administration and Development based in Utica in the New York area.

Re-posted with his permission from his LinkedIn post.


People who find QUALITY to be an abstract concept contribute to why it is so. The lack of “common” understanding regarding quality is self-perpetuating. Just as oxygen fuels life it also fuels the flames of confusion. While I am neither a professor nor writer I do have a diverse background in quality and I am one to see things for what they are. Quality is about time, my time and your time. While I understand the traditional definitions of product & process quality and the methodologies utilized to achieve the condition, I need to stress this is not some high minded lofty diatribe, nor do I seek to solicit clientele in its offering. In fact, this is nothing more than a straightforward logical perspective on quality from the common of man. As such I will use every possible practical minded real world example at my disposal to substantiate this point. In the spirit of simplicity I have decided to use time as our least “common” denominator. I will be as direct as possible and not waste any of “our” time.

First let’s understand something. Those who appear not to understand every possible nuance or gradation of quality, in fact do have their own understandings they are just not the same as yours. When an honest person does not understand something we ask questions. Asking questions of people that lack the knowledge or the integrity to admit it is at the very root of this self-perpetuating cycle of misunderstanding. As a result, even more questions come up providing fog and even cover for the smoke and mirrors folks. These are people who use their time to play a shell game with your time. Questions and concerns multiply and grow into a giant sized mass of industry feeding confusion. Once upon a time smart minded business women asked me if I could define quality for her. When I told her I could not, she asked me why not? I explained “if you do not know what quality means to you how can I possibly define it for you?” There are far more people who cannot explain quality than there are those capable of doing so, but make no mistake about it, many of them are doing business just the same. Quality (good quality) is properly defined when things work. Conversely poor quality is defined when things do not work. For example I am writing this right now because of the time I have available while not edging my lawn and waiting for a refrigerator repair person to enter through the front door.

Why not edge the lawn?

Well, it’s about time. You see my WORKS (spelled with an x) lawn and garden tool does not work at the moment. It is a quality tool but it appears the replacement spools sold at area retailers are not. The quality condition of the spools that come with the unit are good quality and worked just fine, however, understanding quality, manufacturing and supply chains as I do, I was not in the least bit surprised to find the replacement spools are not of this same quality condition. It seems, this time, the private labeling business may have been “outsourced” to another organization other than the OEM (original equipment manufacturer). These replacement spools come in a two pack which one might expect to last a few years, but, when I put the first one in it continued to unwind until I lost my patience and threw it away. Trust me Mother Teresa would have done it sooner. When I tried to install the second one I had no chance at all, but this time for far different reason. After spending close to 20 minutes studying the spool with my needle nose in hand, I simply could not find the end of the line to install the damn thing, so I just gave up and came in for lunch when I remembered “do not to open the refrigerator.”

Why am I waiting for a refrigerator repair man?

Well, it’s about time, the refrigerator (a samsung) purchased through best buy and whose geek squad has been here multiple times now, is in the “process” of spoiling our food. Unfortunately for us and not for the folks at best buy or samsung, this time, there is no time for them to return for a third time. So this time at an unknown time they will send yet another repair agency because we are short on time. Surely it will be this person’s first time spending time on my time repairing the refrigerator for the third time, so I trust it will not be a good time.

Why will the repair person need to come through the front door?

Well, it’s about time, you see my kitchen is directly off the garage so this time when I opened the door for the repair man so he could roll his tool box into the house to dismantle the unit yet again, well, this time my garage door opener broke. This door opener is only a matter of years old, but here is the thing, you need only hit a button and the door opens along a threaded screw about 10 feet long. Well, as it turns out (yes pun intended) this ten foot long screw is not 10 ft. long? It actually comes in three sections so it can be easily packaged and home shipped as opposed to store bought. This allows the OEM to reach a greater customer base which is great for them, but surely not me! So this time I will need the coupling that is worn down from the multiple times the door has gone up and down wearing down this all important part that the genie door people no long provide. This time I will need more time to invest in the repair or replacement of the unit. Seems this could take some time, but hey, exactly whose time is it anyway…

All that said and in closing allow me to say this about that, when and if you struggle with your understanding of “quality” just recognize that no business on this planet has any such dilemma. They do not struggle with their definition of quality they struggle with yours. If we all woke up in the morning with the very same definition of quality in mind, well, to that my one and only response would be…well, it certainly is about time!

Simplify Clarify Control

The banner maxim for my company, tcmc Quality Management Services, is Simplify Clarify Control. This is not just meant to look good as a catchy slogan: it is what I really try to help my clients achieve and the way I operate and do what I do.

Simplify

You simplify by having a standard process for each of the value-adding steps of your core operations, ensuring that these integrate into one system that provides defined products and services.If you can identify busy work that does not add value for your customers, try to eliminate it or minimize the impact on your organization's resources.
As importantly, simplify the work environment and resources by applying 5S:
Sort: sort everything into one of Retain, Return, Rid
Straighten:  a place for everything and everything is in its place.
Scrub: clean everything regularly.
Systematize: have maintenance schedules and systems to keep it this way.
Standardize: create a culture with new habits for keeping things simple.

Clarify

You clarify by ensuring that every value-adding process has assigned roles and responsibilities and that everyone in the organization clearly understands and takes pride in their own roles and responsibilities: who their customers are, who their suppliers are, why they do what they do and why that is important.
Customers and suppliers are not just external to the organization; in fact, for most employees, their customers and suppliers are within the organization itself: who is the first recipient of my work output? That is my customer. Who gives me raw material/components to assemble - whatever I have to add value to by transforming into something for my customer? That is my supplier. How do I get along with my own customers and suppliers? Is there good rapport and mutual respect?

Control

Senior management controls by measuring and monitoring the performance of key, value-adding operational processes, setting SMART objectives that align with the strategic direction of the organization and its stated policies and mission.
SMART objectives are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.

Reap the reward - Quality

If you do the above for your organization - simplify, clarify and control - you should find greater predictability and quality in your products and services, less waste, improved morale and, most importantly, happier customers.

Regulatory Compliance is Not an Alternative to a Culture of Caring

This article appeared in today's Toronto Star:

Watchdog raises alarm over restraints used on children in care.

The article is on  a new report by Ontario’s Advocate for Children and Youth into the province’s (troubled) system of residential care with the subline: Confused, incomplete reporting of serious incidents makes it hard to know if guidelines on restraints followed, children’s advocate says.

Many people, both inside and outside regulated care organizations such as those for foster and group homes for youth, for people with mental health challenges and for seniors, confuse regulatory compliance with quality care. There is an assumption by outsiders, including governments, that enforcing regulations with inspections and a big stick will achieve the standard of care needed for vulnerable populations. Such people, and many inside these organizations - management and staff - who should know better, insufficiently grasp the important role of organizational culture for achieving a quality standard of care. Many managers and staff don't know or have forgotten why they're there and so, not being mindful of why they should do what they have to do, they take short cuts for convenience, defeating the purpose of the regulation or quality standard.

On top of it all, they are under-staffed and misunderstood which exacerbates everything.

Yes, we absolutely need adequate inspections for regulatory compliance, and getting further certification and accreditation to standards can also help, but we also need senior organizational leaders with vision who understand what Peter Drucker meant with his now famous quote, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." If changing the culture is not part of the strategy, the strategy is doomed.

A Look Back at the Early Days of Lean

Dr. W. Edwards Deming

This fascinating article, A Look Back at the Early Days of Lean  by John Dyer was published by Industry Week back in September. John is one of those people who was lucky enough to have done a (now famous) 4-day seminar with Dr. W. Edwards Deming.

The article contains seven of John's favourite quotes by Dr. Deming and a link to a very informative podcast that he did with Mark Graban.

Here are 3 of his Deming quotes that I particularly like.

“No knowledge without theory. Schools teach information, not knowledge. Information is not knowledge. People go to Japan (to copy what they are doing there) and don’t learn anything because they don’t understand the theories. I hope they enjoyed the ride!”

“We must focus on win-win. Would you want to be married to a loser? Would you want to be in business with a loser… work with a supplier that is a loser or employees that are losers? We must work as a system, Union and Management. Everybody wins.”

“What state of a company is in the best position to improve quality? A healthy company is in an excellent position to improve and has the greatest obligation to improve. A company on the rocks can only think of survival.”

Lean 101 - A 5-Part Introduction to Lean - from pretty high up

If you know nothing, or just a very little, about Lean, here is a five part, easy-to-follow video series that will introduce you to all the major concepts and elements. The whole series takes just under 50 minutes to watch.

The first video on the history of lean is optional. stands alone and can be watched any time. I do recommend watching the others in sequence as they build on each other.

The full series consists of:
Brief History of Lean
What is Lean?
What is Waste?
What is Heijunka and Value Stream Mapping?
What is Kaizen?

Kaizen: If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.

G. K. Chesterton. Credit

Just today, an old friend reminded me of this G. K. Chesterton saying that I used to quote more frequently and could profitably start using more frequently again. Our conversation was in the context of 'Kaizen' where I wrote: Even if it ain't broke, it can - and must - be improved. Imagine if the first wheel was never improved upon, or the first bicycle/car/plane... This, in turn, led me to do a search on the Chesterton quote and I found this excellent article, A Thing Worth Doing, on the American Chesterton Society web site.

Recommendation/Endorsement from Myostat Motion Control

Myostat Motion Control Inc. recently passed their certification audit for ISO 9001:2008 with flying colours. I am very appreciative of the recommendation that their CEO and President, Chris Murray, wrote on my LinkedIn page:

http://www.myostat.ca/

Myostat brought Terry on board to consult on our ISO 9001:2008 preparation and initial certification audits. The project was a great success due to his insightful observations and firm guiding hand. Everyone at Myostat appreciates the hard work, flexibility, expertise, and professional attitude that Terry brought to the team. I highly recommend having him on your side for any project management or quality management initiatives.

Thanks for the kind words, Chris. What a pleasure it is to work for a CEO who is, himself, the Management Representative for Quality.

The rest will follow as a by-product!

Many of the best things in life, including in business and professional life, come as by-products of doing the right other things, and doing them rightly. Many activities that we enjoy and take for granted, such as playing with our kids or grand-children, are dependent upon our good health which, in turn, is largely dependent upon a healthy life-style - what we eat, exercise, mental attitudes, emotional IQ. 

Our lives need a 'Life' Quality Management System to support our quality of life and health so that we can do the things we value - and so do businesses and service organizations, whether large or small.

Are any of the following on your wish list?

• I wish I could feel more in control of things
• I wish we could prevent things going wrong unexpectedly so often
• I wish our quality control was better
• I wish we could reduce the number of defects/errors/critical incidents
• I wish that fixed defects did not pop up again
• I wish we did not have to do so much re-work/retooling
• I wish we did not have so many changes 'on the fly'
• I wish our clients or customers would make up their minds
• I wish our clients or customers would do a better job telling us what they want
• I wish we had a better handle on our contracts
• I wish we could reduce the number of complaints
• I wish we had a better history of complaints for clients or customers
• I wish we could improve customer/client/resident satisfaction
• I wish we could produce more useful quality metrics for our departments
• I wish we did not have so many probing and burdensome site visits
• I wish our suppliers were more reliable
• I wish staff morale was better
• I wish staff would stop passing the buck and blaming one another
• I wish we could reduce staff turn-over
• I wish we could reduce staff absenteeism
• I wish it was easier to train new staff consistently
• I wish it was easier to find the latest specifications/requirements
• I wish it was easier to find the most up-to-date documents
• I wish documents were kept updated
• I wish documents were all in one place

If any of the above are on your wish list, a new or improved Quality Management System is probably what you really need. The rest will follow as a by-product!

Preaching Quality Effectively

Somebody recently read my blog, Look After the Quality and the Profit Will Take Care of Itself, and commented, "I completely agree, but how do you get the message across?"
You are asking the right question, I replied.


I think that quality people are sometimes their own worst enemies when they focus on the bureaucratic aspect of the Quality Management System and try enforcing it as an end in itself. I used to be irritated by an Engineering manager who told me that what I was asking for was b-s. He would ask, what is the value add? He was right, of course, and today I am grateful for the irritating challenges he repeatedly presented. Can we join the dots between our QMS and the effectiveness, reliability and efficiency of our processes to produce good quality products and services that consistently exceed customer expectations? This, I believe, is the message we need to be getting across because then there should be dots connecting to cost effectiveness or, at least, to a door into the discussion on the relationship between quality and profitability.

At a minimum this requires that our processes be periodically reviewed by stakeholders for waste and for pain points. Is there a better way? Such reviews create opportunities for preaching quality as needing to be effective, reliable and efficient.

Improving, or putting out a fire?

Watch this 9 minute video from The Deming Institute showing Dr. W. Edwards Deming talk about his 14 Points.

Deming: lead your team, don't supervise them, explain don't give orders. Every employee has a customer to satisfy and a supplier whose cooperation is nessary. Train and retrain, yes, but don't limit that to 'work related' stuff; encourage self improvement by elevating people's minds. I love this one: some people seem to think that putting out a fire in a burning building is improving the building. It's not. That's putting out a fire!

What is a Quality Management System (QMS)?

What is a QMS and why would you want one for your organization or business?

Which is more profitable, to improve Quality or to cut Costs?

Look after the quality and the profit will take care of itself. A practical illustration of the management philosophy of Dr. W. Edwards Deming.

Look after the quality and the profit will take care of itself

Why is it more profitable to improve Quality than cut Costs?

Let me begin by saying that I am no more against looking for a reduction in costs than looking for "peace of mind".  But just as peace of mind cannot be pursued as an end in itself but is rather the by-product of a certain way of living with others in the world, so reduction in costs is the result of increased efficiency and effectiveness in the processes of production, i.e. a by-product. If you aim for an efficient and effective process for producing a quality product or service then you should get a certain reduction in cost as a by-product. If you simply look to cut costs in whatever way seems quickest and easiest then your aim will be off, and so will your focus. You thereby run the risk of a lot of "collateral damage", shooting whatever gets between you and your target.

In 1990 Rafael Aguayo wrote a book laying out the management philosophy and principles of Dr. W. Edwards Deming (Dr. Deming. The American Who Taught the Japanese About Quality). That was twenty-four years ago. Reading it today I am amazed at how relevant and apposite those principles still are. In that book (p. 33) Aguayo uses a simple example to illustrate one way that quality increases profit. In this example it is because of less rework.

If you run a plant with a defect rate of 5 per 100, your revenue is limited to 95 saleable items per hundred but your costs are still for 100 items. Let's say selling price is $1.00 per item; production cost is $90.00 per batch of 100 items.

Revenue: $1 x 95		$ 95
Less cost of production: $90 per 100		$ 90
Profit		$  5

If you improve production quality by about 5% such that there are zero defects, then…

Revenue: $1 x 100		$100
Less cost of production: $90 per 100		$ 90
Profit		$ 10

So, a quality improvement of 5% in the production process has resulted in a 100% increase in profits. Not too shabby. Ah, but you say that there is an additional cost for improving the quality and reliability of production. Even if we increase the cost of production by 5% to $94.50, that would still give us a 10% increase in profits:

Revenue: $1 x 100		$100.00
Less cost of production: $94.50 per 100		$  94.50
Profit		$    5.50

The other side of this coin is that a quality improvement in production can be expected to translate into an improvement in the reliability and other quality attributes of the finished product. That should have a knock-on effect on enhanced customer satisfaction which, in turn, creates returning customers out of once-off customers.

The moral of the story?

"Look after the quality and the profit will take care of itself" - W. E. Deming. These are not Deming's actual words but the philosophy is his. This is similar to…

“Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself” – attributed to Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s

What is ISO? What is ISO 9001?

What is ISO ?
What is ISO 9001?
What is a Quality Management System?

Here is a short, simple, high-level explanation in less than 6 minutes.