Of course, taking action is one thing, but knowing what action to take is another. Support is not enough: action is required.” They must know what it is that they are committed to-that is, what they must do. “It is not enough that top management commit themselves for life to quality and productivity. “Support of top management is not sufficient,” Deming says. Edwards Deming from “Out of the Crisis” that speaks to this issue. “It doesn’t mean you can’t focus on continual improvement just that you should scope your plans to what those who decide how the organization’s resources will be directed are committed to making happen.” “That will allow you to avoid the most common reason for failure: talking about big plans that there is no interest in actually doing the work to make into reality,” Hunter says. Only commit to do those things that the leadership is going to put their time and effort behind for week after week, month after month, year after year.” Don’t begin an effort with the hope that things will work out. An organization needs to figure out what it will actually commit to and then commit itself to that wholeheartedly. “The reason for this is more about commitment than anything else. “Most management efforts to improve are not successful,” Hunter says. John Hunter, author of “Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability” and founder of, also has advice for manufacturers looking to implement a continual improvement program. “That’s been becoming true for quite some time, and it’s definitely true now.” “Having excellent quality only gets you a seat at the table, it does not put you ahead,” Allan says. On a personal level, you benefit and so does your organization. “Don’t accept that what you know about technical quality is what you’re going to need to know in three to five years in strategic quality.” Thinking bigger provides more job security, more money, and allows you to make a bigger difference, he says. They lose the spark that brought them into the field to begin with.įor those quality practitioners looking to improve, he suggests looking beyond the status quo. But, Allan says, they gradually gets discouraged over time. They got into the field to improve quality. In his long career, he’s met thousands of quality practitioners and says they all want to make a difference. And considering how much time is spent at work, this is no small matter. “Those are the quality practitioners who are going to have the better jobs and in Deming’s words, ‘more joy in work,’” Allan says. Quality practitioners have to have a voice and offer suggestions on how to reduce costs. On a micro level, Allan advises finding a tactful way to address issues that are causing problems, even those outside your traditional purview. But these are no longer enough: “Technical quality is no longer much of a differentiator. “Tools are great, robust, they have changed the world,” Allan says. “Companies that are making a difference and leading the trends, they hear the voice of the quality people.” “There’s just so much opportunity but we’re not going to find it in our traditional gages and tools-not just physical tools, diagnosis tools like Pareto or control charts,” Allan says. “As quality goes up, productivity goes up and costs go down.”Īnother suggestion for improvement is to look beyond technical quality to strategic quality, Allan says. “Quality and productivity are the same thing,” Allan says, citing another Deming concept.
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