By Paul Graver
Quality means many things to many people. It’s a matter of perspective, but your definition of quality needs to be specific to your process and products. Attributes of a quality product from a customer’s perspective are consistency, meeting customer expectations, durability, and fitness for use. From the producer’s view, quality impacts reputation, work culture, production cost, material cost, waste, revenue, time, and productivity. All must be considered when creating a quality program or evaluating an existing one.
Where does your quality program stand? It helps to ask a few questions.
Are you looking at the right things?
Are you measuring them correctly?
Are you logging the right data, analyzing it, and making the right decisions based on what you see?
Does your quality system cost you money or save you money?
Does your team understand the value of quality?
What do your customers think?
How well does your product perform?
Is it fit for its intended use?
Who you are and what you are selling will define your quality. Sales, Marketing and Product Development will decide what needs to sell and to where and to whom it needs to be sold. Product quality and the capability of achieving that level of quality must be part of that equation. You must understand your customers’ expectations and know that your product, and how you make it, will meet those expectations.
Specifications and limits are the key. Make sure the specifications are the right ones needed to properly define your product and that the specifications are within your capability. Understand what your customer is doing with the product, so you can be sure the specs are right. Keep in mind that even if you’ve done that homework sometime in the past, your customers’ process or expectation may have changed. Did your specs change to keep up? Even if your quality is meeting all your expectations, your competition may have adapted their version of the product to meet the customer’s changing needs. If you haven’t, the difference may show up as loss of market share that will be hard to win back if you are late to the party.
Once you have specs established, you need to decide how, and how often they need to be measured or observed. Whether it is a specific measurement, test, or visual assessment, it must be defined, quantifiable, and documented to ensure consistency and validity. The frequency of these tests should be in line with the known variability of your process, so you know the data you collect is representative. There should be written procedures with clear expectations and examples to reference. You want to be sure that quality decisions are based on defined targets and expectations, so to keep individual perspective and “eyeballing” out of the process. Don’t forget to also look at incoming materials and keep your vendors/suppliers in check.
Documentation of the results is critical to a quality program. Knowing and seeing the results of tests and observations will keep your process in check. You will be able to see any drifting or variance and use defined action limits to know when and how much to adjust your process so you can stay within the guardrails, all while continuing to produce. Reject limits will protect you from sub-standard products going out the door.
Analyzing your data will help drive productivity and improvement. If you look at the right trends and correlations, you can identify opportunities for improvement. Those opportunities could range from training needs, changes in maintenance, new/better equipment, etc. Having the data will help quantify the opportunity and determine return on investment. If a customer complaint were to arise, the historical data will help figure out what happened and how to improve in the future.
The cost of quality also can have many perspectives. Raw material, work in process, and finished goods losses are all quantifiable costs of quality. Slowing of production rate or work stoppages due to quality issues obviously hit the bottom line too. Customer complaints and loss of market share have their costs as well. A good quality process and data collection can help define and quantify all these things to help set process expectations, performance goals, define budgets, and enable capital improvements.
Is quality part of your culture? Your team needs to be engaged in the quality process rather than just “tick the boxes.” Everyone needs to take ownership of quality, not just the quality tester or inspector. Educate your team on the value and cost of quality. Share with them the expectations of the product and the customers. Measure and celebrate quality milestones. If all in volved understand and believe in the process, results follow naturally.
Customer satisfaction is the goal. Good quality welcomes increased sales, return customers, good referrals, and interest from new customers. Know your customers. Know their expectations. Know what they need your product to do. Run tests or trials of your product with your customer so you can see your product from your customers perspective. Your product must fit for its intended use. Balance your customers’ needs with your capabilities. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. Focus and improve your process so what you deliver gets better and is consistent. If a customer has a complaint — own it, learn from it, make the necessary improvements. Customers understand that things can go wrong and appreciate the effort and fortitude to resolve the issue and move forward.
Whether you are building a new quality program or evaluating your current program, ask the right questions. Evaluate the key steps — product definition, specifications and limits, data collection and analysis, assessing value, team engagement, and customer satisfaction. Quality must be present throughout your process and organization — it’s worth it! Where does your quality program stand?
Paul Graver is the owner of EXSETIS Consulting, a firm focused on quality and process improvement. Paul has more than 30 years of experience of manufacturing and business experience and a history of hands-on leadership in quality assurance and quality control, facility operations, technical support, material management, and production management. For more information, visit exsetis.com.
