Welcome! The QA blog offers a forum for open disscussion about quality assurance Topics. How is Quality Assurance perceived in today's organization relative to business excellence? What tools do you need? Where once having a quality assurance program was a strategic differentiator has it now become standard practice? If so, what exactly is the standard?
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Jean, I think the "Kaizen Habit" link on your opening page provides a key part of the solution to your question, "where is quality assurance". The key is persistent "baby steps".
As a fellow QA practitioner in an oversight role in state government I've found persistent, yet small changes are helpful in getting the concepts of quality assurance ingrained into the minds of people whom we interact with each day. For example, while reviewing a document from the corrosion control staff of a major oil company, I was pleasantly surprised to find their program philosophy was depicted using the PDCA or Shewhart Cycle. I happen to know a former co-worker had been dropping little QA "crumbs" which hint at continuous improvement.
I also believe quality assurance has to become an integral part of the behaviors exhibited by company executives. Their behaviors must demonstrate a serious and deep commitment to fundamental quality assurance concepts. A company policy that espouses continuous improvement, or the basic approach to managing system or process outcomes with the Shewhart Cycle is a good start. However, an executive feeling a deep connection with Deming's 14 Points for Management is either a very rare individual or is a former QA practitioner who made it to the top - a rare instance in modern business.
Quality assurance has to burst through the swamp-muck of trendy business rhetoric. Through our efforts, slogging through the mire with persistence and dogged determination I believe quality assurance will no longer become an after-thought or necessary evil mandated by statute, regulation, or code. It will eventually pay off by reaching the young consumer.
Young people need to understand the value of process-oriented business, systems thinking, and not be afraid to demand of service providers and manufacturers: "How do you know your widget or service is as good as you say and will it meet my expectation for performance."
Absolutely! I could not agree more that Quality Assurance implementation and initiatives must be step-wise. The question is, what is the formula? Executive management tens to expect the "how" to be some form of cookie cutter: six, sigma, Lean, etc.
I've found that from industry to industry, and even from company to compnay within the same industry, the cookie cutter is different. How do you measure what cookie cutter to use? More importantly how do you measure culture?
The internal culture of the company can dictate a mix of cookie cutters...
2 comments:
Jean,
I think the "Kaizen Habit" link on your opening page provides a key part of the solution to your question, "where is quality assurance". The key is persistent "baby steps".
As a fellow QA practitioner in an oversight role in state government I've found persistent, yet small changes are helpful in getting the concepts of quality assurance ingrained into the minds of people whom we interact with each day. For example, while reviewing a document from the corrosion control staff of a major oil company, I was pleasantly surprised to find their program philosophy was depicted using the PDCA or Shewhart Cycle. I happen to know a former co-worker had been dropping little QA "crumbs" which hint at continuous improvement.
I also believe quality assurance has to become an integral part of the behaviors exhibited by company executives. Their behaviors must demonstrate a serious and deep commitment to fundamental quality assurance concepts. A company policy that espouses continuous improvement, or the basic approach to managing system or process outcomes with the Shewhart Cycle is a good start. However, an executive feeling a deep connection with Deming's 14 Points for Management is either a very rare individual or is a former QA practitioner who made it to the top - a rare instance in modern business.
Quality assurance has to burst through the swamp-muck of trendy business rhetoric. Through our efforts, slogging through the mire with persistence and dogged determination I believe quality assurance will no longer become an after-thought or necessary evil mandated by statute, regulation, or code. It will eventually pay off by reaching the young consumer.
Young people need to understand the value of process-oriented business, systems thinking, and not be afraid to demand of service providers and manufacturers: "How do you know your widget or service is as good as you say and will it meet my expectation for performance."
Mike E-B
Mike:
Absolutely! I could not agree more that Quality Assurance implementation and initiatives must be step-wise. The question is, what is the formula? Executive management tens to expect the "how" to be some form of cookie cutter: six, sigma, Lean, etc.
I've found that from industry to industry, and even from company to compnay within the same industry, the cookie cutter is different. How do you measure what cookie cutter to use? More importantly how do you measure culture?
The internal culture of the company can dictate a mix of cookie cutters...
Jean
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