Quality Department Objectives

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SESPOLY

I work in the Quality Department of a manufacturing facility. The company has several objectives (goals) such as reducing scrap, reducing nonconforming material, increasing sales, reducing customer returns, reducing injuries, turning R&D projects into sales, etc. Of course the Quality Department supports the company in all these areas. As a department, we also track and monitor many of these objectives and even though we can impact them somewhat, we don't directly. Such as reducing scrap and nonconforming material from production or looking for new sales.

My question is, what are some suggested objectives that will support the company, but would be directly impacted by the Quality Department. I realize that some may be to reduce errors in the inspection process, time to test material and provide timely results to production.

Anyone have any other objectives specifically for the Quality Department that they would have direct control over yet help in the success of the company?
Thanks
 

Eredhel

Quality Manager
Are you looking for department specific objectives because your organization wants them or are you trying to meet requirements of a standard? Btw our quality department directly impacts scrap percentages by doing in process inspections. It definitely makes a difference catching things in process in smaller amounts rather than at the end in larger quantities.
 
S

SESPOLY

Yes, the organization has at least asked for each department to consider objectives. Since we define Quality as a process, our ISO9001 external auditor expects them as well stating each process must have defined measurables. Don't need several just looking for ideas we may have overlooked. As far as scrap goes, our quality department can impact it as well by performing inspections. However, since this KPI is owned by production, not sure how we could measure what impact quality has on it.
Thanks
 

Sidney Vianna

Post Responsibly
Leader
Admin
Welcome to The Cove.

I realize that some may be to reduce errors in the inspection process, time to test material and provide timely results to production.
So, why not use these? When it comes to quality objectives, one should be careful not to have too many, as you are expected to track them and maintain documented information. The scope of responsibility of quality departments vary widely. So, if the 3 you listed are in your scope, my suggestion is to stick to them, as a starting point.

Also, please note that some of the business objectives you listed for the organization would NOT be deemed quality objectives by some experts. Have a look at the Quality Objectives - Is this an audit nonconformity? thread.

While businesses must manage many objectives in order to prosper, not every business objective is a quality objective; actually some business objectives (when not properly managed) work against product conformity and customer satisfaction.

Good luck.
 

dsanabria

Quite Involved in Discussions
I work in the Quality Department of a manufacturing facility. The company has several objectives (goals) such as reducing scrap, reducing nonconforming material, increasing sales, reducing customer returns, reducing injuries, turning R&D projects into sales, etc. Of course the Quality Department supports the company in all these areas. As a department, we also track and monitor many of these objectives and even though we can impact them somewhat, we don't directly. Such as reducing scrap and nonconforming material from production or looking for new sales.

My question is, what are some suggested objectives that will support the company, but would be directly impacted by the Quality Department. I realize that some may be to reduce errors in the inspection process, time to test material and provide timely results to production.

Anyone have any other objectives specifically for the Quality Department that they would have direct control over yet help in the success of the company?
Thanks

Your thinking needs to evolve from collecting data that does not have meaning to your process.

Then the thinking should be evolving into continuous improvement, quality tools and efficiency of manufacturing.

Remeber - Quality does not own the process - they just merely reflect the outcome of production.
 

Sidney Vianna

Post Responsibly
Leader
Admin
Remeber - Quality does not own the process - they just merely reflect the outcome of production.
Obviously, a quality department can own processes that affect customer satisfaction. Not everyone limits the processes of an organization to macro/high level processes like many AEA’s do, in a totally artificial manner, just to limit the number of PEAR forms they have to fill out.
 

normzone

Trusted Information Resource
I've been down this road before. The Q department is under pressure from on high to show that they too monitor and work to improve their performance.

But since most of what they do does not fit cleanly into this category, as others have described above, it's difficult to find an appropriate issue to track and brag on. Best of luck to you .... :bonk:
 

SpinDr99

Involved In Discussions
I'm in an exactly opposite situation where we are a service organization with a contract with one major customer and several customers under them. The contract covers all customers with 90-100% compliance requirements. While many requirements are business and not Quality related, customer satisfaction still rules.

Our Quality Policy still addresses meeting customer requirements and continuous improvement, but with the contract setting the bar SO high, it's almost impossible to show improvement since we meet the compliance requirements.

Corporate (and I) believe there's room for improvement and Quality Objectives are possible. I just can't seem to put my finger on them. BTW, this is the organization's first exposure to ISO-9001 (2008, as the contract requires), and except for Quality Objectives, we are compliant (no requirement for certification currently). Processes and materials are dictated by the manufacturers' service manuals so there's no room for streamlining there, costs (Purchasing of materials/services) are tightly monitored by the customer, scrap, rejections and rework are virtually zero. The workforce is highly skilled and talented. To say this is a very tightly run ship is a gross understatement.

I'm open to any and all suggestions on where to look for Quality Objectives. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 
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TrustAuto1

Objectives should not just be Quality Objectives. They should be business objectives and every department / process should have them.
 

John Broomfield

Leader
Super Moderator
Yes, the organization has at least asked for each department to consider objectives. Since we define Quality as a process, our ISO9001 external auditor expects them as well stating each process must have defined measurables. Don't need several just looking for ideas we may have overlooked. As far as scrap goes, our quality department can impact it as well by performing inspections. However, since this KPI is owned by production, not sure how we could measure what impact quality has on it.
Thanks

SESPOLY,

Departments serve cross-functional processes within an organization’s process-based management system. Processes serve customers whereas departments tend to serve bosses.

To me process objectives make more sense than departmental objectives.

Most if not all processes are cross-functional to some extent. So while an organization may have its organizational or system objectives in makes more sense to fulfill those goals via process objectives.

So, go to the processes owned by QA and adopt those process objectives as your departmental objectives and you’ll be on the right track.

This also avoids the possibility of departmental objectives tearing your system apart as departments compete for resources needed by those all important processes.

Don’t let your process-based management system revert to the old-style departmental management system. Resisting this can be made more difficult by budgets being departmental instead of being assigned to processes.

Best wishes,

John
 
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