What are your 'Quality Objectives'?

[al40]

Well, I saw some of our objectives in the poll here are some we're tracking I didn't see:

Overall effectivenss of QMS
Supplier development
Supplier quality and OTD index

We had employee satisfaction once but we dropped it since we have 2 per reviews a year and a very effective open door policy.

Also Craig, I would be interested in seeing your management review tool as I have a review coming up next month.


Thanks,
al40

 

[ccochran]

Here you go. There is one added input on there: supplier performance data. It's not a requirement of Mgt Review, but it is a requirement for analysis of data. Mgt review is as good a place as any to cover it. Good luck!

Craig

 

[ccochran]

Well, I saw some of our objectives in the poll here are some we're tracking I didn't see:

Overall effectivenss of QMS
Supplier development
Supplier quality and OTD index

We had employee satisfaction once but we dropped it since we have 2 per reviews a year and a very effective open door policy.

Also Craig, I would be interested in seeing your management review tool as I have a review coming up next month.


Thanks,
al40

Al40,

I really dropped the ball by not including supplier performance as an objective choice. That's a big one. Thanks for reminding me.

Craig

 

[trainee]

Ccochran, I'm currently working in a format like that.
I downloaded your to compare it with mine.
Thanks.

 

[RoxaneB]

The difficulty in setting objectives - be the 'quality' or 'business' related - lies in making them meaningful to the Stakeholders while promoting constancy of direction. These objectives should be like the North Star, a compass, so that in difficult times, everyone still moves forward in the same direction.

People talk about changing their objectives during Management Review or on a fairly regular basis. I argue that barring a fundamental shift within your market/industry, the objectives should not be modified on a regular basis...but rather how your organization tracks its performance towards the objectives is what is subject to change.

Taking this approach has allowed us to drill down with our KPIs, so that we can have a set up like this:

Objective : Increase overall process efficiency.

KPI (department) : Utilization (%)
KPI (A crew) : Utilitization (%)
KPI (B crew) : Utilitization (%)
KPI (C crew) : Utilitization (%)
KPI (D crew) : Utilitization (%)

KPI (department) : Energy (kWh/T)
KPI (A crew) : Energy (kWh/T)
KPI (B crew) : Energy (kWh/T)
KPI (C crew) : Energy (kWh/T)
KPI (D crew) : Energy (kWh/T)

We have basically aligned each metric with an objective to show how it contributes (and with what weight) to the achieve of an objective. By drilling down to the Crew level, each group can see how they have performed (along with their expected performance), how they contributed to the department and how they contributed to the objective. Everyone knows not only that they have a role in the success of the team or organization, but what that role is.

Of course, if we have goals that get better and better each year, we establish plans on how. To simply plan for a goal with no means to get there, well, don't expect your objective to be met then.

Again, down to the crew level...everyone knows if they have a task (including a say in what that task is), due dates, etc.

Nothing irks us more than grandiose statements or wonderful looking goals but no means to get there and no responsibilties assigned.

 

[Old Quality Gal]

Howdy, folks:

I had an idea for an interesting poll. What are the most common 'quality objectives'? Of course, you might not call them quality objectives, but everybody here has some kind of measurable that they're tracking and trying to improve. I was a little constrained by the fact that the poll could only accommodate 14 choices, but I tried to consolidate the most common ones I see, though. Thanks to Al Dyer for inspiring this discussion.

Craig

Well you folks are as timely as ever! We just had our three year full up audit from our registrar this past week where they look at everything and go back 3 years in the records.
I am happy to say we did real well and I credit the whole company with making that happen. We provide compliance management and quality control software , services and consulting so the auditors always have high expectations of us. Which is fair.
We spent a lot of time focusing on the data we capture and the trends we track in support of our quality objectives.
Among our objectives are the usual selected from the above list "Increased revenue and market share" etc. What the auditor found interesting was the data we track. I think software and service providers have a unique set of challenges that differ from product manufacturers. I would be curious what other service and software providers track as metrics.
We do the usual:

• Customer Satisfaction Surveys
• Training Feedback Evaluations
• Retention and renewal of our maintenance base

We also look at reported issues and bugs within the first 30 days of a new version release. This lets us hone in on not just bugs but design shortfalls, documentation and help errors and shortcomings and flaws in our training approach.
A key metric I track within my group, Implementation and Training, is how much we give away in free services and why. If a customer is unhappy for any reason after we address the immediate issue we offer some sort of service consideration as an additional apology. This has been an effective metric for us.
How about the other software and consulting service groups participating here, what do you use and how has it helped you achieve your goals and objectives.
We are having our post audit management review meeting in a couple of weeks and as management rep I want to keep my management moving in the right direction and away from just high fiving each other and business as usual.
I guess for me the interesting area is metrics that measure progress towards the objective. Do you tweak them over time and vary what you are monitoring at different phases of movement towards the objective? Looking forward to peoples responses.
Regards,
Mary

 

[alekra]

We have basically aligned each metric with an objective to show how it contributes (and with what weight) to the achieve of an objective. By drilling down to the Crew level, each group can see how they have performed (along with their expected performance), how they contributed to the department and how they contributed to the objective. Everyone knows not only that they have a role in the success of the team or organization, but what that role is.

Of course, if we have goals that get better and better each year, we establish plans on how. To simply plan for a goal with no means to get there, well, don't expect your objective to be met then.

Again, down to the crew level...everyone knows if they have a task (including a say in what that task is), due dates, etc.

Nothing irks us more than grandiose statements or wonderful looking goals but no means to get there and no responsibilties assigned.

Could you please attach an example or send it PVT?

regards!

 

[Tupham - 2008]

Ours haven't yet been quantified (yeah, yeah - I know the objectives are the cart that comes before the horse!) but the current culture is definitely $$$ biased.

 

[harry]

IMHO, profit and revenue should not appear as objectives over here. As long as you carry out some or all of the objectives listed in the poll, it will result in changes to profit and revenue.

In other words, profit and revenue should appear at the corporate level only as they lay down specifically what the organization wants to achieve. Departmental objectives are plans on how that particular department can help the organization achieve its corporate or overall objectives.

However, if the organization is really small, then you may lump them together. I remember seeing previous discussions on whether "$" can be used as objectives.

My

 

[al40]

IMHO, profit and revenue should not appear as objectives over here. As long as you carry out some or all of the objectives listed in the poll, it will result in changes to profit and revenue.

In other words, profit and revenue should appear at the corporate level only as they lay down specifically what the organization wants to achieve. Departmental objectives are plans on how that particular department can help the organization achieve its corporate or overall objectives.

However, if the organization is really small, then you may lump them together. I remember seeing previous discussions on whether "$" can be used as objectives.

My

I agree I work for a private company and they do not share any finance information other than we're doing good and the bank still cashes our checks.

Regards,
al40