How to convince management that Quality Assurance adds Value

The latest 'corporate speak' in my Company is "how does QA add value to projects". Well - I think we do a fair job doing all the fairly traditional QA things: eg: audit for compliance, look for opportunities for improvement, resolve 'quality problems' etc..
None of these add value per se, but probably reduce costs - by improving efficiency (better processes), and cost overruns.
I'd like to be more 'up front' with my management to convince them that QA is truly adding value. All ideas/suggestions welcome.
(I'm the Quality Manager of a UK defence electronics Company, mainly software/systems devlopment).

Paul

Paul,

This is not a very professional reply. There are smarter people out here than me that can probably tell you in quantitative terms what Quality adds in value. In your line of work, as shown in your post, there would be no value at all to look at without a good Quality management System in place. Your customers, and they are probably defense contractors, would not even look at your company without a Quality program.

"I'd like to be more 'up front' with my management to convince them that QA is truly adding value. All ideas/suggestions welcome."

Nicely, I would suggest that without your quality system, being what it is, there would be no opportunity to question the value of Quality, because there would be no jobs. How's that for added value?
What do lengthy discussions about the value of the Quality System add in value?
I've been in this quality business my whole life, 35+ years, and have always been looked at as being overhead with no added value to the bottom line. This usually happens when there is a slow down in orders and people haven't a lot of work to do. They start to look at things, hoping that they can eliminate those things they don't understand because they surely can't have any value. I always reminded them that without a good Quality Program in place, the Customer goes elsewhere,unless you have a one of a kind product (niche) in the market place. I love it when the Customer arrives for his audit of the non value added Quality System and everyone scatters, but the "overhead, non-value added" guy. You and other like us. Hang in there. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. It's a "cyclic" thing.

energy

[This message has been edited by energy (edited 03 July 2001).]

[Kevin Mader]

My thought is, how do they define ‘value’? If they follow traditional norms, Value=Quality/Price (cost). If these things you list are driving down costs (do you have quantifiable evidence?), then you should be able to show simple comparisons of before, after, and for future data.

But how can you know the cost of a lost customer as energy points out? Sometimes, we must accept things on faith, for instance, we do training without ever really being able to quantify it. Ask any corporate tie if they think training or education is value added. I believe that they will agree on faith. If they say faith has nothing to do with it, ask them for their evidence. My guess: they’ll give you a silly grin.

[Sam]

From the lean Mfg stand point, quality i.e., inspection (from sources outside the process) adds value to the product when and only when it is a customer requirement. QS9000 is a customer requirement therefore it adds value. jmho

[David Mullins]

How about measuring performance over time for critical features of the business like (for starters):

- delivery vs (a) original promised date (b) last negotiated date

- cost vs (a) original budget (b) last budget (due to scope change during the project - typical in Defence environs)

- Customer complaints (I personally think this is FAR TOO WEAK an item to give meaningful measures of caustomer satisfaction, but I included it because it's easy)

- customer survey results. (Every job is handed over with a survey form. In a partnering relationship you'd have forms to assess eachothers performance) (I'll e-mail some I set-up at a defence facility in Oz.

These types of business system features should give you a clear picture of the benefit of quality systems (hopefully).

If you want "cost of quality" data, you're probably a bit too far down the track, but, it's never to late to set it up. Then you can measure the value of continuous improvement activities!

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[David Mullins]

PAUL,
You're not registered!
I don't know your e-mail address.
Silly me.
Silly you!

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[Andy Bassett]

Hello Paul

I sometimes pop up on the site to stir things up a but, and i think i might do the same again.

I beleive your management is absolutely on the right track, and i cannot blame them for doing their job and questioning the value of the dept. I personally beleive that the goal of every company should be to eliminate their QA dept, and i would do this slowly and surely by for example creating a Supplier Development Manager based in Purchasing to develop suppliers, or create a group of Internal Consultants to train and assist employees to improve their processes.

You might argue that this is QA by another means. Maybe, but it might be easier to justify your value-add in this context.

Lastly if you want to stick to your traditional concept of QA i would create stats, measurements and more stats wherever i can, ie Customer Satisfaction rates, Process Improvements etc, and attempt a stab at the cost saving of these improvements.

Management like facts, espcially when they are related to costs.

Regards


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Andy B

[Tuan]

As a QA Manager I have to agree that good system does not need QA department. If everybody are doing the right things, so we dont have QA at all. However most companies are still so far from that.

Regards,