How would you change the mindset of an entire company?
I’m asking my first serious non-vampire question ( hold the applause )
I’m a Quality Manager of a manufacturing facility. We produce very detailed pieces of equipment that’s very difficult to build. We produce on the average of 8,000 units per year. A few months ago we hit “300 PERFECT UNITS.” Out of our quality inspections, we found 300 units to be perfect quality. Zero defects were found during these inspections. Management was thrilled and congratulated everyone and catered in a meal for the production floor associates.
I seemed to be the only one left disgruntled. In my manager’s meeting prior to the meal, I stood up and asked why we’re celebrating? We shouldn’t be celebrating less than 4% of our products had zero defects! We should be taking this opportunity to be digging into why 96% of our products have discrepancies! They looked at me like I had said something terrible and told me that this was a milestone and I should be happy that the associates were showing a strong initiative in their work.
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8 Answers
I think management has it right.
Yes – 100% is a goal – no doubt about it. But it’s not realistic. Change on something like this has to be incremental.
So last month it was 300 units. The next goal – end of December – is 600 perfect units. And if that happens, management buys everyone a t-shirt that says “perfect 600”.
And in January you (and they) set the goal of “1000 Perfect” to be reached by April. Be realistic about what’s possible. And if that goal is reached in April, management takes everyone out for dinner. Or some reward of some type.
You can’t expect this to happen immediately. But you need to start setting the mindset (with employees) that striving for the next goal is GOOD and that there is some reward for it.
And you need to convince management that it may cost them a little $$ to create the incentives for a better process – but that it’s an investment worth making.
Start now.
@elbanditoroso thank you! This factory has been in operation since 1999 and has never reached 300. I completely understand where they’re coming from but from a different perspective, it’s sad that the numbers are that low. Every audit is given back to the production lines to fix the discrepancies. It’s their report card so to speak. They should use it to prevent the same thing from happening again but they don’t. There’s no accountability here.
Slow baby steps like you’re suggesting is what we’ve implemented and is driving the force behind the success we’ve seen.
The answer you got is actually true. It is a milestone. People get dejected if you tell them there will be a reward when perfection is reached. You have to change people’s attitudes a little at a time. Unfortunately, in today’s corporate business environments, forward progress is frequently lost. Example: someone came up with the idea of celebrating if we hit a milestone. So a campaign was started to try pushing the idea that if a certain milestone is reached it will result in a reward (a catered lunch). But that is as far as it realistically gets. The corporate leaders are not leading…they are bribing. And there is no other plan in place to push for further improvements other than to set a new goal.
And you are absolutely correct as well…you do need to go after the 96%. But back to the first point…corporate business…getting that 96% requires more than setting goals. The leadership needs to understand what challenges the workers are facing that are causing so many rejected pieces. They need to engage the workers in coming up with ideas for improving the processes. They need to show not only that goals can be set, but that this improvement is a top priority. They are willing to spend money if necessary to improve the processes. Supervisors and Managers are having discussions every day with some or all of the workers about how to improve. And, unfortunately, this is where things usually fall apart. That takes time and effort. It might mean having to lose a couple executive meetings. It might mean having to be out in the field. It might me having to spend money for improvements. It DOES mean it requires telling and showing the workers how important this is and how pertinent and important their input is. So too often these things never happen and people start figuring that it is just another flavor-of-the-week.
Hitting a milestone like that provided it’s not a complete fluke and you don’t normally see more than ten items roll off the line without a defect is an indicator. If you can trend quality improvement over time it means that little changes and tweaks are making a difference and that is certainly worthy of a celebration. Recognition is important yet often overlooked, it has a reinforcing effect when the lack of it does the opposite.
It’s good for morale and for quality to celebrate success like this but you can’t learn from perfection. You can celebrate the 4% today and then get back to understanding why the 96% had faults tomorrow.
My daughter’s favorite coffee cup has the slogan, “The beatings will continue until morale improves!”
You don’t want that. ;D
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