Failures Move Upstream
Failures move up-stream from the customer through manufacturing and back to the design. When customer complaints become too common a company is forced to react to them. Reacting starts with beefing up product appraisal through inspections before shipping to the customer. This creates a bottle neck of failed product at the end of the manufacturing line. A mountain of failed inventory that must be dealt with. This is the description of the Protective Culture of Quality, because it is intended to protect the customer from defective product and the company from a deteriorating reputation. Many consider it a reactive culture, but we will refer to it as Protective since this informs us of its intentions.
The mountain of inventory creates the internal crisis to stop these defective products from ever reaching the end of the line. So the different types of failures are stopped closer to their source of creation somewhere up-stream. This spreads the inventory balloon inside the manufacturing plant. Quality departments are formed, and quality management systems are put in place, procedures are written down, audits are performed and accountability is established. The company has a big problem with throughput, and is obsessed with volume and meeting customer order deadlines. It feels systemic, chronic, inflamed and caustic. This is the description of the Quality Culture of Accountability.
In order to dissipate the inventory and pressure on the employees, the manufacturing facility learns about its processes and begins to control the processes so the defective products are not made, and the build up of inventory begins to subside. People running the processes are invested in with education and training and given more responsibility. They are allowed and expected to stop defects from being passed down-stream. They are rewarded for their quality efforts. Quality is no longer the responsibility of a single department. It is diffused and is everyone's responsibility.This is the description of the Quality Culture of Deeper Understanding.
Now that the processes are better understood and managed, the teams begin to realize the designs are not optimal for the processes, so they begin to create designs that are built to tolerate the process variation clearing up remaining inventory levels. Freeing up human resources and money that is no longer trapped in inventory and rework loops, creates opportunity and funding to try new ideas and focus on customers. Open discussions and solutions to long ignored problems, relieve conflict between the design and the manufacturing departments and creates better flow throughout. Both design and manufacturing leaders begin to focus more on exciting the customer through innovative ideas. This describes the Innovative Culture of Quality.
There is a new Quality culture which is emerging today, which I call the culture of Mass Ideation. However this is beyond the scope of this article, and we will stop here. So again like a wave, failures move up-stream from the customer, through manufacturing and into the design. If the company continues with the improvements they become innovative, but first they must thoroughly learn the disciplines of their current products and processes.
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