This article was co-written by Dominic Tramontana, VP of Engineering, and Brian Brooks, Director of Product Management.
Is it possible to create a true quality culture within your organization? The short answer is yes. But it’s a struggle for the majority of companies. Since 1979 QAD has worked with many manufacturing organizations in many markets — some have struggled with creating a quality culture and some have excelled. What we hope to share with you in this blog post is what we’ve identified as the 7 keys to building a quality culture.
1. Design Quality from the Start
Quality should not be something saved until the end of the process. The most effective and efficient way to ensure quality in your business is to plan for it from the very beginning of a product’s introduction. Plan for quality by meeting quality standards in your industry and qualifying your suppliers as part of your RFX processes before awarding them work. Test and control your product designs with effective DFMEA, and improve future quality by ensuring you have proper controls in place and by reviewing past non-conformances, failed audits and corrective actions. By ensuring quality is baked into pre-production as well as production, your ability to produce quality products increases and your cost of quality, over time, decreases.
2. Disciplined Use of Improvement Tools
When problems arise (and they always do) don’t react by shooting from the hip. It may seem counterintuitive, but the key to effective and efficient problem-solving is to not immediately jump into “fixing” the problem. Stop and consider which tools you have available to provide a more structured and effective approach to solving your problem. By using tools such as ‘plan-do-check-act’, fishbone analysis, ‘5 Whys’ and ‘8D’, and quality management systems (QMS) you’ll be confident that you’re solving the root problem and not just a symptom. It also sets you up nicely to create effective corrective actions so that you don’t repeat the same problem.
3. Awareness of Quality’s Financial Impact
All employees need to understand how much quality really costs their organization. If it’s costing the organization, it’s absolutely impacting your company’s revenue. Everyone should understand how actions and/or inactions lead to lowering and/or raising those costs. Many of the costs of quality are hidden in accepted costs of doing business and are not questioned. Employees who understand how important quality management programs are to the bottom line — and to their paychecks — are more likely to challenge the status quo and become ambassadors for quality.
4. No Fires
Companies with a culture of quality aren’t running around putting out fires. That’s because they’re designing quality from the start, practicing disciplined use of improvement and problem-solving tools, and everyone within the organization has a true awareness of quality’s financial impact on the organization. This focus on quality reduces their risk, improves accountability, improves customer satisfaction and requires that a company constantly improve. In other words, they’re not putting out fires, they’re preventing them.
5. Full Ownership of Quality by Everyone
Hopefully everyone knows by now that quality is not just for the quality department. But what does it really mean? It doesn’t just mean following the processes the QA department has put in place. It means every action by every person should be done with quality in mind. It means ensuring quality in their communication, challenging the status quo with an eye toward continuous improvement, strict adherence to safety procedures, and most importantly, it means taking ownership of quality beyond just their specific function. Everything we do in an organization impacts the quality of the organization’s output.
6. Use of Cross-functional Teams
No individual or group knows everything. Companies who acknowledge this universal truth know how important it is to use cross-functional teams to solve and prevent problems. Cross-functional teams made up of subject matter experts from several different departments with differing areas of expertise and a good range of experience not only improve the critical thinking process in the moment, but also drive for continual development for all involved. Each member of the team will be exposed to different perspectives that will ultimately help widen their perspective and improve their critical thinking.
7. No Heroes
Companies with a culture of quality don’t have heroes. That’s because everyone is taking ownership of the organization’s quality and the leadership is using cross-functional teams to solve problems and continually improve the skills of all involved. There are plenty of organizations with people who thrive on solving urgent and critical problems so that they can be seen as the hero, but in companies with a true culture of quality everyone is working together to prevent problems from the beginning. There’s no need for heroes.
Diving into the Keys of Building a Quality Culture
With these 7 keys, it is possible to build a true quality culture within your organization. We’ve seen it. We want to help you do it as well.
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