UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE

Quality that's simple

Hello Reader,

Have you ever been asked to implement absurd requirements?

Do you struggle with meeting compliance requirements?

Have you ever felt that no one else understands what quality really means?

I've been there.

I started in corporate culture, implementing processes and requiring compliance with things I didn't understand or agree with. But it was the expectation. Corporate said so.

I made no progress and felt like no one cared about quality. It was demoralizing.

Later, I went into automotive quality, designing complicated processes that complied with the IATF 16949 standard. Auditors, and corporate "experts" told me what to do, and I followed.

Did it work? Nope.

At best I got malicious obedience and inefficiency. At worst, I ended up with completely obstinant people or complete process failures.

Making improvements became impossible. Employees knew if they were stubborn, eventually, the corporate office would move on.

Following requirements blindly wasn't working.

Where did I start?

I had another opportunity when a large automotive company acquired us. Our new owners implemented a 40-element quality standard beyond the IATF 16949. Compliance was mandatory.

Here's what we did:

Honesty - first go through, I was brutally honest (internally). There's no point covering up what isn't working or noncompliant. BUT pay attention to the audience. I shared the assessment with the immediate management team, no outside people, no corporate people.

Understanding - I asked a lot of questions of our new owners. I read the standard, then re-read it, and then did it again. I agonized over every word and aimed to understand exactly what was required.

Creativity - we found a process where we already did something similar. Then we modified the current process to meet the new requirements creatively. Often this meant not following what the corporate team expected.

Team - This is not a 1 man band. It took process experts, operators, and quality to work through this. The team argued and challenged one another to find the best solution.

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