UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE

Quality that's simple

Hey Reader

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What’s wrong with the word “quality”?

What is Operational Excellence?

Here’s an idea - get rid of the quality label!

We’ve all been there. If it’s a quality idea, then quality must do it.

• Quality Planning - Quality must lead it
• Quality Review (Management Review) but it’s entirely separate from actual business review
• Document Control - those are just Quality’s documents.

If it says quality or comes from quality, it’s just for quality.

Why Operational Excellence?

Put simply operational excellence (OpX) helps get the ideas out of the quality department and into the rest of the business.

Here’s the definition of OpX from Wikipedia:

You as a quality professional read that and just see quality everywhere.

So why redefine all the quality stuff?

Well - OpX is a new term that doesn’t come with all the baggage.

You may ask, “What’s in a word?”

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Words matter. A lot.

Words have a subtle influence over our thoughts and perceptions. They can excite or incite, elucidate or confound, excite or aggravate.

Have you finished yet? (implies impatience)

Could you send a status update? (expects progress without judgement)

Give me the juice. (demanding)

Please pass the juice. (requesting)

I must finish on time. (implies intrinsic motivation)

I have to finish on time. (implies extrinsic motivation)

Changing Cliché to Action

“Quality is everyone’s responsibility”

I hate this phrase. Not because it’s wrong, but because it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t do anything.

Businesses already understand they have to make quality products for their customers to buy. Their customer service must be "quality" to build their reputation.

Yet, who’s responsible for quality? The quality department.

So where do we go from here?

1. Understanding. “Seek first to understand, then to be understood” - Stephen Covey

Ask questions to understand what your company thinks today.

How is quality viewed? What are the quality department’s responsibilities?

Use non-judgmental questions focused only on what’s going on today. The word “should” is not allowed in this conversation. (As in “you should do…”) At this point, you are collecting information. Be curious.

Specific processes to review - document management, management review, and continual improvement processes.

Who uses the documents? What are they used for? Are there separate “useful” versions?

This becomes the starting line.

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2. Demonstration. Think Quick-Win.

Work with one department. Figure out what they want. What will be useful for them? Go build it (with them).

If we’re doing documents, get rid of the currently useless information. Then build something with the department that they want and will actually use. (Caution: Use your brain. if you are in a tightly regulated industry, don’t get rid of the required stuff. You have to figure out what you can and cannot do.)

Document the financial impact of your project (reduction in scrap or returns, faster setup times, faster training, etc.).

​COPQ is a good tool here. Or record it with the project details. Just calculate it and record it.

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3. Expanding. Build the change team.

You now have buy-in from at least 1 team. Now build on the success.

What’s the next easiest change? How can you involve more people? How do you delegate to this new change team?

The more people involved, the less the change depends on you.

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As the guide on your organization’s journey to excellence, ask questions. Lots of them.

Get others involved, and help them figure this stuff out for themselves. It turns out, people don’t like being told what to do.

These are the first steps of organizational change, combining parts of the ADKAR Model and John Kotter’s 8 steps (Awareness/Vision, Desire, Knowledge, Short-Term Wins). Exploring change management in more depth might be the topic of a future newsletter 😉.

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