- November 2006 -
Improvement is Better Done Now
Good times. Bad times. There’s never an appropriate time to improve quality. Apart from the most obvious...
In today’s highly competitive global market, most companies have given the subject of quality improvement at least a cursory glance. The highly-escalating onslaught from competing firms and products, along with the current, growing trend to embrace quality systems, have made most firms aware that they need to eventually take action. The question, though, is when?
Ironically, most companies tend to agree on the ‘best’ timing: never.
As an example, in the canmaking industry we have experienced – as with other industries – our share of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ times, especially in recent years. It is wonderful to hear recent news of expanding can sales worldwide. Those of us residing in the US are especially grateful, as sales have been stagnant here for far too long.
Which brings us to the first perceived ‘worst’ time to embark upon quality improvement: when times are good.
When we are enjoying prosperity in our businesses, we tend to discount quality improvement efforts for several reasons. The most pervasive I hear in my travels is, “We do not have the time, given our elevated level of business.” The next – actually almost tied for first place – is, “We will make budget this year; we do not need to improve quality.”
The point: most businesses do not want to improve quality when times are ‘good’. So when should they, you may ask?
I have also found that most businesses also shy away from quality improvement when times are ‘bad’. There are usually two reasons: “We do not have the resources, as we have trimmed our staff.” And close behind this is: “We are doing everything we can to make budget; we cannot afford to embark upon a quality improvement effort.”
So you see, the best time to improve quality – if one were to believe the majority of companies – is never!
We can all agree – I assume – that all companies produce defects, especially those in the mass production world, as in canmaking. It is simply a matter of the magnitude of this poor quality.
Poor quality, in turn, creates two problems: wasted costs and unhappy customers.
Ironically, wasted costs are actually exponentially higher as a percentage of sales when our businesses are doing well. The money may be literally burning up because of poor quality, but increased sales have a way blanketing this from our view. Or we simply may also just choose to look the other way. After all, making budget is the goal, correct? If we must waste a lot of money to achieve this goal, so be it, yes? Our customers will get over it, right?
Wasted costs are obviously also present during ‘bad’ times, but we tend to focus on them a bit more at this juncture, even though they are disproportionately lower than during the ‘good’ times. However, given that we have necessarily brought our human resources ‘in line’ with sales levels, there is no one available to address the problems.
Besides, our budget may prove elusive and every expenditure must be watched. We just cannot afford to improve quality, correct? We will need to postpone quality efforts until business improves, yes?
Which leads us back to ‘good’ times. But wait, we are too busy…
So, you see, ‘never’ really is the perfect time to improve quality, especially if you will never have competition and your customers will always be happy.
However, if yours is like most companies, this is certainly not the case, making the perfect time to improve quality obvious: it is now.
