Quality --- a state of mind.

Special "Off Cycle" Bonus Posting

It is not news to regular readers that I am an engineer.  But you may surprised to learn that I do not believe that all the "numeric" or "engineered" or "metrics" approaches to obtaining good quality in a manufactured product will succeed by themselves.  In fact they may be merely cover-ups for failure to provide leadership.

You cannot "legislate" quality, or morality, or motivation, or hard work, or customer service,  or anything similar to any of these.

All of these are a state of mind.  In an organization, they are built on a genuine commitment at the top of the organization.        [Here a family could be considered an organization.]

You can only create the atmosphere or conditions for quality.

Having said that, once the atmosphere or culture for top quality is created then the "metric" systems have value.  But people have to first take ownership of the concept of building a quality product or providing quality service. It has to be part of the tribal commitment first.

It must be an every day, every hour, every minute thing. 

When I was managing and building the company, we worked hard to assure quality.    One time we had some formed metal parts that did not quite fit together like they should  (think of a shoebox and cover).  To demonstrate that this was not acceptable, I gathered everyone together around a band saw and literally sawed into a number of the parts, tossed them on the floor and announced (not completely calmly) that this was not acceptable quality.  The fact that I was willing to sacrifice money (finished parts) to illustrate my commitment to quality helped drive home the point.

We used to have frequent short meetings at which the subject of quality would usually be discussed.  During one such meeting, our production supervisor  (Aaron) saw someone set a cold soda can on a sheet of steel.  (We had no formal meeting room or even a break room, so we always met on the factory floor).  He could be quite animated and became so that day, declaring with much passion "That is what I am talking about when I talk about quality! That will leave a ring on that steel that customers will be able to see even after it is painted!"  I backed him up, though not with quite as much volume.

All our management team knew I would (and did) back them on quality.   Paul, our sales manager, more than once went into factory and held a heated  discussion because of a shipping error --- some wrong thing had been shipped.   Yes, shipping errors are quality errors!  Accountability for quality is required so that everyone feels  it is their responsibility.

Lest it sound like we were always yelling or screaming, it should be noted that we actually spent a great deal more time rewarding or thanking people for good quality.  As I have noted before, you need to reward the good a lot more than to "punish" the bad if you want to instill a positive attitude about anything.

We worked hard to build the group knowledge of what good quality was, to the point that it did not have to be measured.  Everybody just "knew" it if was bad or good. You cannot develop the tools for every quality situation in advance of knowing what the "problem" may be. If people think that it is "ok" unless it is "in the book", you have not created a quality state of mind.   With a "quality state of mind" people can usually judge what to do in a new situation.

We built a reputation in our industry for quality which carried us a long ways with developing  major customers.  Like every thing else that is good, it has to be an ongoing and forever thing.  If not, the culture withers just as green plants wither without water and eventually death occurs.



Quality should be an attitude ---- not a department. 



The same is true for customer service and many other facets of business or life