I was reading one of my favorite magazines the other day
when I came across an article on the Cost of Quality. This intrigued me and as I was reading the
author made the statement that quality cost can be 20%-30% of sales. These costs are the costs not only of
implementing quality programs, but the costs associated with diagnosing and
fixing the errors of your day to day production. I really have to agree with this 100%. I have seen our company fix product and even
scrap poor products and that just really hurts.
We as managers/owners really get a pain in our side when we have to do
things like this. Not only does hurt the
pocket book, but the morale. It is so
easy and so cheap to implement quality thoughts in to your production staff. It’s the retention that is hard. We are
going through that right now. We have a
younger work staff and we struggle to retain the quality trains of thought
sometimes. We are actively reinforcing over and over again the teachings. That is where the implementation costs really
come into play. But I would rather spend
money teaching and reinforcing than patching and scrapping. A perfectly delivered product speaks volumes
for who you are and what your company is about.
I really am starting to see the tides turning as guys are more about how
to progress than feel sorry about themselves.
The other day we had an issue with a form that was not caught in time
and we had to patch a product. This was
a setback, but what I saw for the first time was immediate discussion about
what we can do to correct this in the future.
There was no finger pointing, no complaining, just instant brainstorming
and evaluation. That is quality thinking
in my mind and this making me very proud that the retention is happening. Good things are happening!
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
I Am Asking for Help
For those of you that read my blog and are part of a large
company I need help. We are a small
company (less than 15 employees) and we have been struggling with taking the
next step. We have some in the company
like myself who want to bigger and want to better. Then we have those that are content with
where we at right now, staying small and not growing, just remaining stagnant. I will say that we have this problem up and
down the organization. Take for
instance, we implement a new policy, there is an initial buzz and
everything goes well. Then as time goes
by employees get lacking and we find that we have to remind and remind and
remind. Does anyone else feel this way
sometime? I think we suffer from that
small shop attitude sickness. I like to
think that I really get along with everyone well, but maybe it’s me. Maybe I should be more of a dictator and less
of a friend. Same the other direction we
have higher positioning employees/directors who feel the changes we implement are unnecessary. “Why do we need to improve?” is a common
comment. Again asking does anyone else
have this problem? Do I feel what we do
taking the next step is premature? No.
Maybe it’s the staff. Maybe we
need to re-staff, or find that one member who can step up. I don’t know.
This has caused me great frustration as of late as I feel we are on the
brink of the next step. I am very goal
oriented and I feel that if I don’t have goals I really don’t have any other
reason to work. I have done my research,
I know what we need to do, and it’s just a matter of keeping the wheels turning. I don’t quit, I don’t walk away, I’m just curious
if anyone else out there has dealt with this type of sickness and has any
suggestions. Anyone made that transition from a small shop to a larger shop or even industry leader. Or maybe the better quesiton to ask when do you know you are ready for the transition?
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