The Candle of 2010 Burns Away

The end of the year approaches and WOW what a year it has been! A year of bizarre weather patterns....a year of continued job cuts in the USA while the BRIC countries have all experienced rapid growth in many key business sectors. It has been the year that many techies will remember. Apple officially rocks....they have become the new Microsoft. Android has become something other than a 'space word'....

I am excited about 2011. My focus will be on innovation, safety and sustainability. I do not believe the 3 can be separated.....well, technically they can but only at a cost.

I have consistently preached quality, safety, lean, reduction of waste and sustainability during 2010. One by one I have watched the companies that are highly efficient remain highly profitable.....while those who refuse to embrace lean sustainability have watched profit margins wither away.

To all of the companies and employees I have worked with in 2010.....I wish you a safe and profitable 2011.

Look for more frequent updates in the future.

kml
2010

Quality & Safety

Can either exist in business absent of the other? I have recently been in discussions regarding safety in a company. Often times people assume that safety in business is something that 'happens' only in the manufacturing areas. Many people also assume that quality is limited to one or two areas of the company. Safety and Quality are not simply 'other programs' that we will try and see if they work out.

I like to view these two areas as character traits. We must live them. We do not simply switch into 'safe mode' when we enter our places of work.

I'd be interested to see how other folks view 'safety' and 'quality'?

Can the two words be simply defined?

kml
2010

8D - INDUSTRIAL QUALITY

8D - QUALITY

1. Use Team Approach Establish a small group of people with the knowledge, time, authority and skill to solve the problem and implement corrective actions. The group must select a team leader. 2. Describe the Problem Describe the problem in measurable terms. Specify the internal or external customer problem by describing it in specific terms. 3. Implement and Verify Short-Term Corrective Actions Define and implement those intermediate actions that will protect the customer from the problem until permanent corrective action is implemented. Verify with data the effectiveness of these actions. 4. Define and Verify Root Causes Identify all potential causes which could explain why the problem occurred. Test each potential cause against the problem description and data. Identify alternative corrective actions to eliminate root cause. 5. Verify Corrective Actions Confirm that the selected corrective actions will resolve the problem for the customer and will not cause undesirable side effects. Define other actions, if necessary, based on potential severity of problem. 6. Implement Permanent Corrective Actions Define and implement the permanent corrective actions needed. Choose on-going controls to insure the root cause is eliminated. Once in production, monitor the long-term effects and implement additional controls as necessary. 7. Prevent Recurrence Modify specifications, update training, review work flow, improve practices and procedures to prevent recurrence of this and all similar problems. 8. Congratulate Your Team Recognize the collective efforts of your team. Publicize your achievement. Share your knowledge and learning.

Deming.....14 Key Principles for Management

The man was genius.....you can find this tidbit on Wiki....but I'd also recommend reading his material. Timeless.

Deming offered fourteen key principles for management for transforming business effectiveness. The points were first presented in his book Out of the Crisis. (p. 23-24)^[22]

1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and stay in business, and to provide jobs.
2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for massive inspection by building quality into the product in the first place.
4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership (see Point 12 and Ch. 8 of "Out of the Crisis"). The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.
8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company. (See Ch. 3 of "Out of the Crisis")
9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
11. a. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.
    b. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.
12. a. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
    b. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia," abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective (See Ch. 3 of "Out of the Crisis").
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.

The same principles that built modern day Japan and brought Ford from the very grasp of death still work today. Some folks modify a few of these but the basic principles are timeless.

kml

2010

The ‘Science’ of QUALITY in business! TOYOTA

At work last week, one of our VP’s sent out a weekly ‘internal operations’ update. In this update he mentioned the latest ‘quality issue’ that has arisen within Toyota. (the gas pedals that stick) He mentioned the issues and pulled a few comparisons out that might apply to our company as well as other companies. I had been following Toyota since the late 1990’s and writing articles about the Japanese automakers for several publications. So needless to say, his mention of the most recent Toyota episodes aroused my interest.

His email started quite a bit of debate among the folks at our business. Many people replied with various opinions and feedback. I read an article just this morning that mentioned the fact that Toyota has recently engaged in cost cutting initiatives and that these initiatives have caused easily noticed deficiencies within their automotive lines. The article mentioned the differences in the RAV4 line which at first appears to be ‘more value for the money’ but after closer observation it becomes obvious that the materials have become cheaper and that the fit & finish has been sacrificed. (the opinion of the article and not necessarily my own)

As I listen to the folks at my company, read the articles and speak with friends of mine that work within some of the Japanese automaker companies I realize how easy it is for us to ‘jump on the bandwagon’ and pontificate about these companies such as Toyota when they suffer a ‘hit’ like this. (and make no mistake, this will hurt Toyota…..even if only in the short term)

The real truth of the matter is that 85% of the companies in America (and probably in the world) are doing the same things that will lead us to the same results. Have you tried finding a company in this economy that is not attempting to trim internal costs? We have collectively cut our experienced labor force and we trim every single process that we can trim. The areas in which we trim and still can not make it work for a ‘predetermined $$$ amount’, we simply find a vendor (or Country) in which the part can be made cheaper. We have become a society that must make it cheaper and sell it for more.

Did you notice the last time you bought a bag of snack chips how many were in the bag? Did the price change when the company started placing fewer chips in the bag?

Quality is a real ‘Science’ and many good men & women have argued and fought over the real definition of quality. Oftentimes an engineer will define quality in a different way than the salesman selling the product. Sadly, most of our companies define ‘quality’ from within………I submit that our customer should define the vast majority of our ‘quality equation’……….and we must remember that quality comes with a price.

We can browse back through world history and see that within any manufacturing process or product line quality always comes at a premium. Toyota in the early years was built upon quality and with the assistance of a lean (not to be confused with attempts to strip a company from within and do the job with less people working more hours) manufacturing attitude. I suspect we will find, as has been the case nearly 95% of the time in the history of the automobile industry , that somewhere along the way Toyota became more concerned with cutting cost and increasing profit margins than they did with making a quality product.

This is a tough lesson and I find that often times the people who ‘laugh the loudest’ when these things happen to a company are guilty of the same exact way of thinking!

I challenge you to search deep within your organizations and see if every single internal operation adds quality & value to your product. If it does not, you are setting yourself up for future failure. Quality is not a ‘meeting’ or a ‘group of people’ or even a ‘program’ within an organization………but rather, much like safety…….quality must be a lifestyle. We must live it…..we must not be guilty of cloaking ourselves in ‘quality’ as we enter our places of business and leaving it at the door on our way out……we must walk the talk for if we do not it will be glaringly obvious to those who look at us…..and most importantly the end user suffers in the long run…….and the end user is where our paychecks ultimately come from!

Your thoughts?

kml

2010