QA (Quality Assurance) Department - What metrics do you use to monitor performance?

This is the second submission for this post. As I do not know what happened to my first post, please excuse any duplication.

I was recently asked the question as to how the Quality Assurance Dept. is measured, what metrics do you use to monitor performance? This was an interesting question, being it was directed to a department that typically evaluates and measures the performance of others. The QA goals usually have been to achieve ISO 9000, implement online NCR application, etc. These have been "yes or no", "did they achieve it or not" goals. Does anyone have any experience in establishing measures of performance of a more ongoing nature within the QA Dept. Please feel free to give some examples to help me focus on this. Thanks for your input! Mike

[Laura M]

It depends on the exact nature of the responsibilities of the department. Based on my previous central QA experience suggestions might be...

-response time to customer concerns
-non-repeat customer complaints
-reduce supplied part problems (assuming supplier quality is in organization)
-efficiency improvements in calibration processes?
-In our ISO efforts it was commonization in a fairly large organization that had alot of individualized reporting systems.

Opportunities around efficiency, cost savings and support for manufacturing were the challenges I was measured by. You have to "prove your worth"...or "make the company more than your salary." Don't know if that's the kind of environment you're in, but that's my 2 cents.

[Kevin Mader]

Mike,

Laura makes good suggestions. I would like to add that anyone should look for cyclical activities as potential metrics. They are the easiest to identify. Ask the question, "Who is this activity important to?" Know your customers' needs and wants, internal or external. How does your list of cyclical activities compare to the list of your customers' needs and wants? Pick the vital few. Just a suggestion.

Regards,

Kevin

[bertever]

Laura M,

You mentioned the magic word. What is an acceptable operational definition of "repeat". Our Customer, yes we have only one, has become concerned about repeats. Genisis was a comment by the Boss Customer about repeats being the worst kind of discrepancy in her background - military aviation maintenance. The definition of repeat in that environment is the exact same discrepancy on the exact same system on the very next attempted sortie. However, our customer QAPs are fond of using the term for anything that remotely resembles an earlier discrepancy even if it is in a previous year and at a different site. Any ideas of how to approach the customer and sell them on a consistent, measurable definition?

[madannc]

Another area to look at is the QA contribution to revenue.... Most companies do not recognise the savings the QA dept make e.g.

Reduction of NCR's (month on month, year on year), this is achieved by implementing effective CA's... and who approves/rejects CA's!!

Involvement in Projects, helping during planning stage to ensure that compliance is achieved and it has been known for QA to reduce (rather than the general misconception of increase) the amount of paperwork required, speeding delivery up and therefore making available to mkt earlier and freeing resource to start other projects early.

harmonising methodology which increases productivity and consistency... reducing the amount of rework, rejects etc etc, coupled with this is the amount of Inventory held to complete job (another saving)

I am sure if you think about it there are lots of other examples, the point I am trying to make is it's not just about ensuring the company retains its certification

cheers Nigel

[DsqrdDGD909]

We have product related customer complaints and first pass yield as metrics.

[JP Frisbee]

At my company we also track the number of findings within each internal department, what area the findings are in, as well as what root causes are typically identified. In addition, we track which findings have affected our customers and which ones have only affected our company internally. Tracking all this information is great, provided the company actually has the knowledge and methods to use the information to improve things.

[PaulSanda]

Hi guys,
Short question: to calculate OTD you have early, late or overdue delivery. For my "critical" suppliers I have about 48% with early delivery and 38% with Late delivery (the remaining is a combinatin of early/late, etc). If for LATE delivery there are a lot of reasons (shortage of raw material, overproduction, etc) for early delivery I can see only one: poor communication between buyer-supplier. The question is: 48% is not too much? How much this level should be? (20% early and 80% late ?).
Thanks,
Paul