Can you help me build the perfect Quality Room?

[Lindsey]

Hi All,

My COO wants to create a quality room and has asked me to determine how to "decorate" it (what kind of things to put in there). Beyond reading materials and our quality policy I don't have that many ideas. He basically wants it to be a place for Management and Employees to have as a quality area.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what kind of things to place in a quality room? I'm trying to find a good cost of poor quality poster, but haven't been able to locate one so far.

Thanks for any help!

[BradM]

Hello, Lindsey!

It's good that management is giving time and effort to the quality initiative. I would ask, though... what is the rationale of a quality room?

Is it supposed to be something where people will randomly go into? Now... I'm being funny a bit with this one... but you could put a TV, free hot dogs, and a back massager, and you'll have a line around the building!

But seriously, I'm kinda scratching my head a little in it's purpose. Is it in a strategic location?

You might could put examples of poor quality, to show (in material format) what poor quality cost the organization.

[Sidney Vianna]

Have a look at despair.com posters.

[Lindsey]

Hi Brad,

To be honest, I'm not quite sure. My COO used to head a customer support organization at HP and apparently they had a quality room. I think that it is to serve as a reminder of our commitment to quality.

Although I don't see the room being used on a day to day basis I think he wants it to be a monitoring room. He has also called it a "war room" before. My only guess is that he wants a place to track the quality progress of the organization. I haven't grilled him about the reasoning...

[Steve Prevette]

Espeically if this used to be the "war room", I'd populate the room with:

1. SPC and Pareto charts of your key metrics on the walls

2. Poster stories about quality improvement initiatives in progress, and completed successes. (Note getting this material is good for other publicity for the company)

3. Samples of new gadgets developed, hazards avoided. Sort of like the infamous safety glasses with an object embedded in them from an accident where someone would have otherwise lost their eyesight.

4. A Red Bead Experiment kit.

5. Personal stories from workers (with photo ops) about how they contributed to quality at the company.

6. A picture of the CEO, with his personal philosophy about safety.

7. Any company awards, magazine or newspaper articles about the company and/or its employees.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by Steve Prevette

Especially if this used to be the "war room", I'd populate the room with...

That's what I was thinking when I saw the thread title, Steve. Essentially a data room.

[Stijloor]

Originally Posted by Lindsey

Hi All,

My COO wants to create a quality room and has asked me to determine how to "decorate" it (what kind of things to put in there). Beyond reading materials and our quality policy I don't have that many ideas. He basically wants it to be a place for Management and Employees to have as a quality area.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what kind of things to place in a quality room? I'm trying to find a good cost of poor quality poster, but haven't been able to locate one so far.

Thanks for any help!

The most impressive quality rooms are the offices and work places where all this stuff is actually being used for the benefit of monitoring, correcting and improving processes. Most "quality rooms" I've seen were set up as "show pieces" to impress corporate folks and customers who in many cases had no clue of what was being displayed.

Stijloor.

[Pistonbroke]

I'd choose to deliberately mis-interpret this, and would start gathering all of the equipment for a small but product focussed QA laboratory.

Microsectioning, gauges, microscopes, pull-peel, blacklight box, continuity testing, artificial aging chamber spring to mind, but whatever your industry, I'm sure you ahve your own ideas about what you need to effectively investigate defects and perform analysis.

I've always loved having a little place to tinker, investigate, fiddle and break things in a constructive manner.