Is "World Class" Quality possible by Accident?

[TPMB4]

Just a quickie...

Is it possible to achieve world class production without trying or by accident?

Or if you achieve a good measure of quality such as 6sigma or single figure PPM defects does that mean that you have good systems and processes?

I'm curious to know what people think about this.

 

[Jim Wynne]

Just a quickie...

Is it possible to achieve world class production without trying or by accident?

Or if you achieve a good measure of quality such as 6sigma or single figure PPM defects does that mean that you have good systems and processes?

I'm curious to know what people think about this.

Unless there is an operational definition of "world class," there's no way to answer the question. It's usually taken to mean "really, really good," and most generally used to describe things for which there is no (or very little) meaningful supporting data.

If a manufacturing company sustains very low defect rates and reasonable levels of profitability, by definition it must have "good systems and processes."

 

[somashekar]

Just a quickie...

Is it possible to achieve world class production without trying or by accident?

Or if you achieve a good measure of quality such as 6sigma or single figure PPM defects does that mean that you have good systems and processes?

I'm curious to know what people think about this.

Just a quickie ...
If something can go wrong, it will ~~~
This is what I think.

 

[Steve Prevette]

Just a quickie...

Is it possible to achieve world class production without trying or by accident?

Or if you achieve a good measure of quality such as 6sigma or single figure PPM defects does that mean that you have good systems and processes?

I'm curious to know what people think about this.

Of course it can happen by luck. There is enough natural variation in things that for some period of time, any outfit can appear to be world class - on the short run.

Now, sustainable, replicable, long term "world class production" is a different matter.

 

[Bev D]

Accepting for a moment that we somehow agree on a definition of world class quality per jim's response, my two cents on the question

Is it possible to achieve world class production without trying or by accident?

is: NO. there must be a set of deliberate choices and actions that concieve, design and produce products. simple happenstance will not combine in such a complex system to 'accidentally' create world class quality.

...does that mean that you have good systems and processes?
you can do it for a short period of time or on a few products IF the few people involved are all committed to doing the right thing and they can do the right thing. It is relatively easy to have undocumented 'systems' in small companies or in isolated functional teams. However, to replicate and/sustain that level of quality as the organization changes (growth, turnover, change in organization mission, etc.) will require more 'formal' systems and processes...in my experience.

 

[Mikishots]

Of course it can happen by luck. There is enough natural variation in things that for some period of time, any outfit can appear to be world class - on the short run.

Now, sustainable, replicable, long term "world class production" is a different matter.

Ahh, spoken like a true statistician.

Well put.

 

[Bev D]

Of course it can happen by luck. There is enough natural variation in things that for some period of time, any outfit can appear to be world class - on the short run.

Now, sustainable, replicable, long term "world class production" is a different matter.

hmmm. define 'luck'. certainly you don't mean actually random work activitiy. like if 100 monkeys were let loose without any training, guidelines or direction someday they might create a really good quality product?

 

[Mikishots]

hmmm. define 'luck'. certainly you don't mean actually random work activitiy. like if 100 monkeys were let loose without any training, guidelines or direction someday they might create a really good quality product?

I worked for a place like that. Until it went under.

I was Monkey #44.

 

[Jim Wynne]

hmmm. define 'luck'. certainly you don't mean actually random work activitiy. like if 100 monkeys were let loose without any training, guidelines or direction someday they might create a really good quality product?

100 well-fed monkeys will assuredly produce a large volume of "quality product" on a daily basis, for some definitions of "quality product."

 

[Steve Prevette]

hmmm. define 'luck'. certainly you don't mean actually random work activitiy. like if 100 monkeys were let loose without any training, guidelines or direction someday they might create a really good quality product?

Short answer is "YES". Given a sufficiently large quantity of monkeys, and sufficiently long period time. Consider the "infinite monkey theorm" (I really didn't know this formally existed until I googled it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem