Dealing with a defiant Operations Manager

Z

Zenzi09

#1
Good afternoon all,
I work for a medium sized paint / powdercoat shop that has been working on ISO 9001:2008 for the last 3 years. I myself started the company 2 years ago as a simple executive assistant, but in the last year I have had this beast dropped on my lap and told to make it work.

So after about a month of reading the QMS that was created by our consultant fron to back 10 times over, then reading hundreds of articles all over the internet about what kind of documentation and quality records we would need to produce I started having at it.

While I've made some great strides in the project such as programming a database from FileMaker Pro 10 to handle all inventory, personnel, approvals, NCRs, maintenence, calibration, etc(Which even without ISO compliance saved roughly $1,000+ a month in office labor due to autogenreration and accessibility) I am having a terrible time trying to get my direct manager on board.

It was originally his burden to make this work, and this same mentality he now has seems to run down to the production supervisor which he is pretty good friends with. That aside I've tried to spell out the savings we made just implementing the database, and how we stand to save more by lowering our quantity of rework. However now I have pretty much everything that I can have in place, in place. All that should be done at this point is implementation so we can start a retaining quality records for our certification audit, but I have hit the wall.

A little more backstory, we are being forced to be ISO 9001:2008 certified by our largest customer CASE new holland / Fiat and our deadline is the end of the year or otherwise no new work will come through our door. My boss believes this is a scare tactic, and that ISO is no more then a dog and pony show to make bean counters feel good about themselves, and give CASE a reason to have 10 guys in quality management. Another thing to note that my manger's boss(the owner) who has little do do with operations other then talking with customers, is telling CASE, and all our other customers that I(I being me not him) am working on ISO and will have us compliaent and certified by the end of the year; making this projects sucess my liability.

I imagine I am not the only one who has hit this kind of problem, and I was wondering if anyone has some helpful hints that I could try to get my boss on board with this and start implementing my last years worth of work?
 
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M

MIREGMGR

#2
The only way to get your boss on board will be to get the owner to clarify his goals and expectations.

Call a Management Review meeting, on the basis that it's a Requirement, with mandatory attendance by all concerned. Make sure that the agenda includes discussion of "progress and issues" on the major project elements. Lead off each topic with a summary, in which the words "cooperation" and "participation" are prominent. At least that would make the owner aware of the issue. It's up to the owner as to what happens next.
 
Z

Zenzi09

#3
I would love for a manager review to take place, I even implemented a message board of sorts in our database so that the the office workers can communicate important data with each other regarding quality, data that can be recorded and used as our agenda in the meetings.
However, according to the structure of the company, the defiant operations manager is the one who needs to schedule the meeting.(Very reason I made the message board, to work as a rolling manager meeting, until our consultant told me that it can not replace actually sitting down together and talking).
I could go over his head and directly express my concerns to the owner, but this could also lead to some butting heads.
 
T

tomvehoski

#4
To be blunt, I would get my resume in order and work on escaping. You have tried putting it in $$$. You have tried going all the way to the top level. It is obvious they don't believe in the system and never will. The only thing I could see motivating them is losing their customer, after the fact since they think it is a bluff.

A last ditch effort might be just going ahead and schedule a certification audit. One, it might finally motivate them to get moving. Two, you might have already done enough to slide by. Three, they may be more likely to listen to a registration auditor's nonconformances.
 
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M

MIREGMGR

#5
You need to get the structure of the company changed. Your argument is that Management Review meetings must take place, with minutes kept. No excuses or alternatives.
 
Z

Zenzi09

#6
Thanks for the quick responses, I think I will try to restructure the Quality Representative position, or at least demand that a manager meeting take place.
Depending on how it goes from there I guess I will have to deciede if its time to get my resume in order.
 
M

MIREGMGR

#7
Some ammunition: it's normally considered to be regulatorily undesirable, at least, for the top Quality position to report to the top production manager. The top Quality position should report to Executive Management.
 
Z

Zenzi09

#8
We have a production supervisor that oversees the floor, and helps schedule jobs, but the op. manager is both head of production and the office, unfortunately.
 

Cari Spears

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
#9
You need to get the structure of the company changed. Your argument is that Management Review meetings must take place, with minutes kept. No excuses or alternatives.
Exactly - 5.6 is pretty clear. Your organization will not get registered without management reviews. There are alternatives to meetings if you are not able to call meetings yourself and the person who can will not.
 

Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Staff member
Admin
#10
What exactly are his objections to this system? (practical considerations)

Or, could it be he is objecting to an (ex)executive assistant creating a system that he could not/would not? (ego factors)

What was in place prior to this system - something he prefers? (technophobia factors)

I had a boss who used to say "I don't want to bureaucratize the system" when I asked for things like material control. :lmao: He and his cousin (who ran the plant - I was the quality inspector) went along fine until Cousin misdrilled a part that looked identical to the one he should have drilled - but its material was cast instead of forged. That cost the 35-employee shop several thousand dollars. :mg: They faithfully exersized material identifiaciton after that - but only on those parts, they did not deem controls necessary on other stuff until deciding it was time to register ISO.

Moral of the story is, it really isn't about you. Of course you know that, but I didn't quite understand if your boss knows the nature of the stoppage.

I appreciate you don't want to go over people's heads, but if you truly have accomplished what you can to the extent of other people's cooperation, you can report "I have completed the tasks within the extent of my ability. Now what's left is for the company to engage in the processes." and let the discussion ensue from there.

Of course you can't "get your company registered." I also suspect you haven't been granted the organizational stature and level of authority to be Management Representative. Everyone needs to play their roles or the initiative will not succeed. That needs to be clarified, perhaps in blunt but polite language.
 
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