How frequently has the Quality call been over-ridden by production? The organisation’s profit potential inevitably suffers as a result and opportunity for real process improvement is overlooked. Much like the failure modes of “Operator Error” or “Supplier out-of-control” the real culprit is a lack of Management planning or action.

The Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch may be familiar to many here. The ‘Production Uber Alles’ decisions made by some managers is similar to the Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch. When making quality decisions how many of us find ourselves feeling like the John Cleese character (an exceedingly annoyed customer who recently purchased a parrot) returning to the pet shop to berate the owner:

"He's passed away, This parrot is no more, He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker. He's a stiff! Bereft of Life, he rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed him to the perch he'd be pushing up daisies! His metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He kicked the bucket. He's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible! This is an ex-parrot!!!"

The shopkeeper (Production/Plant Manager) keeps insisting the parrot is simply resting. Incidentally, the Dead Parrot Sketch takes on even more meaning when you recall Stephen Ross's words that "All it takes to turn a parrot into a learned financial economist is just one word - arbitrage".

One would think that the same quality song sung since 1940 would penetrate….

How frequently has the Quality call been over-ridden by production? The organisation’s profit potential inevitably suffers as a result and opportunity for real process improvement is overlooked. Much like the failure modes of “Operator Error” or “Supplier out-of-control” the real culprit is a lack of Management planning or action.

The Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch may be familiar to many here. The ‘Production Uber Alles’ decisions made by some managers is similar to the Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch. When making quality decisions how many of us find ourselves feeling like the John Cleese character (an exceedingly annoyed customer who recently purchased a parrot) returning to the pet shop to berate the owner:

"He's passed away, This parrot is no more, He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker. He's a stiff! Bereft of Life, he rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed him to the perch he'd be pushing up daisies! His metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He kicked the bucket. He's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible! This is an ex-parrot!!!"

The shopkeeper (Production/Plant Manager) keeps insisting the parrot is simply resting. Incidentally, the Dead Parrot Sketch takes on even more meaning when you recall Stephen Ross's words that "All it takes to turn a parrot into a learned financial economist is just one word - arbitrage".

One would think that the same quality song sung since 1940 would penetrate….


For those who might not be familar:

4vuW6tQ0218

"and now frontal nudity"
...
what an end is that?
why didn't you leave the end out?
now I'm left here wondering what was following !!
where can I see the rest of that?
I want to complain !!

:D

all joking aside: the other side of the coin is that often the customer wants something produced at the lowest price, disregarding all improvement suggestions. He basically wants a dead parrot, thank you very much.
And then when the thing is in production he complains that it's not an eagle, doesn't do the 100 meters in less than 10 seconds and can't make coffee.
And then it's up to poor old me to write the 8D !!

:(


:thanx: for that movie clip, 't has been a while since I last seen that.
:thanks:

Thank the gods for the Monty Python team.

But in all seriousness I see far too much of the "Dead Parrot Mentality" in my current place of employment. They spend more time arguing with the customer that they are right than with improving the system that made the product that made the customer complain.