How do you combat boredom in Quality (in Small company)?

Mike S.

Happy to be Alive
Trusted Information Resource
#11
Several good ideas are already presented. A few more:

How is your supply base performing? Any of them need "help" to be better suppliers?

Are your processes using the most efficient equipment or is something better out there that you can investigate?

You sound really flexible -- often a characteristic of folks in small companies. Can you help out the Sales folks -- either by visiting customers alone or with Salespeople on customer visits?

Look at it not so much from needing work in "Quality", (though this might be your personal like) but look at it from the perspective of the owner/Prez. If you were the Top Dog, what would you want your semi-bored Q guy to do to help the company be more competitive, get more sales, make more money, etc. Maybe even ask the Top Dog if you aren't afraid this might backfire by letting him know you might be expendible.
JMO.
 
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Mike S.

Happy to be Alive
Trusted Information Resource
#12
Squid said:
I can empathize with you, I am bored out of my skull. So now I spend a lot of time on here. I also find myself going out of my way to justify my existence to my bosses. When something comes up, I jump all over it like you know what on you know what. On thing I have found myself doing over and over again is reading all docs in our system, rereading the standard to the point of memorization. Every now and then I will find something we can do differently and then since I am a numbers cruncher by nature I put together feasibilities and spreadsheets for the things I have come up with. Who knows one of these days I might get senior management buy in and then really have something to do. I know this probably doesnt help but who knows. Good luck. Or we can play chess online.......
Squid,

Between "Z" lurking out there and being bored and having to work to justify your existence to your boss, maybe you had better work on keeping your resume' up to date. I'm not trying to be a smart alec or doomsayer, I just think that from my outsider's perspective it sounds like you could get the big, unwelcome surprize (layoff or worse) at any time. Try your best to be visibly valuable to the company, but CYA just in case. Never hurts to have a plan B. JMO.
 
#14
Mike S. said:
You sound really flexible -- often a characteristic of folks in small companies. Can you help out the Sales folks -- either by visiting customers alone or with Salespeople on customer visits?
I love this one. Nothing ups my customer satisfaction that having a supplier's QA manager call me out of the blue and ask what he can do to improve. Sales VPs love this!

You're the MIS guy, too? Put all of your calibration records, CA/PA system, ECO tracking, document tracking, etc. (you know, records) into Access databases structured so that anyone in the company can enter a new record, view progress, etc. from any terminal in the company. Scalable, for when you're BIG! CIOs love this!

5S, I agree! Nothing sells your company competence like a clean, organized facility. Operations VPs love this!

Pick your top profit product (with low volume) and find out why it doesn't move. Pick your top volume product (with low margin) and improve the process so that you get more margin. Pick a high volume, high profit product with a sub-par return or defect rate kill a couple of root causes. CEOs love this!

Use your QA slack time to show "top management" what an indispensible go getter you are!
 
#15
If you enjoy crosswords try http://newspuzzles.com/ - the enigma game will kill a good bit of your time.

I have created a number of Access databases from which I create monthly Scrap and Rework reports. No one else is familiar with this software so management seems sufficiently impressed.

Sue
 
R

ralphsulser

#18
My experience has been that evrytime you get a lull, or it seems boring, watchout, you are going to get a customer complain about somethig you thought wouldn't happen, Then you sure won't be bored for a while. Ther is always something happening you don't think can happen.
Prevention, prevention, prevention
 
B

Bob_M

#19
ralphsulser said:
My experience has been that evrytime you get a lull, or it seems boring, watchout, you are going to get a customer complain about somethig you thought wouldn't happen, Then you sure won't be bored for a while. Ther is always something happening you don't think can happen.
Prevention, prevention, prevention
I totally agree! That always seems to happen to me in life not just work!
Prevention is the key but not always easy.

No I haven't tried the crosswords yet. The boss/president does those...

I still have plenty to do, but when my mind is not occupied with a project, it tends to wander and or start to think about negative/depressing/distracting things that affect my ability to do the little boring tasks. *shrug* More of a personal problem than a work causing problem.
 
G

Greg B

#20
Network

Bob,

I often get bored. Last year I started a QA group. I rang all of the local companies (National and international standing) and asked who ran thier QA system. Many of them did not have dedicated QA professionals but like you people with many other hats including Chemists, Engineers, Environmentalists etc etc. I then asked if I could come and visit them and look at their systems and maybe pass some ideas around. Every single person I contacted took up my offer. So once a week I would pack up the car and my USB Pen (Data Stick) and travel around the local area swapping ideas. I'd make a day of it and maybe visit a couple of people. We then had an idea to have all of us meet once a quarter to have lunch and an afternoon of idea swapping. This has been very beneficial and given me lots of ideas to alter my system (Intranet, Paperless system, digital photos, etc). It got me out of the office and away from my PC. It's like the cove.
I also wnet and interviewed many of our employees and asked them what thye thought of the system and how we could imporve it. It beats auditing.
Anyway that is my two cents worth. Hope it helps

Greg B
 
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