What is the Future of Quality Consulting?

[Helmut Jilling]

You are absolutely right Hjilling. But these kind of companies are so large that they never “die”... They just do one typical thing for them – they change...

But in general I don’t see here in my country much work for quality consultants. Not that organizations don’t need it, but are they able to pay fort it?
... now it’s difficult to pay for something that was almost free... AV

Sometimes it takes many years, but their bad practices catch up eventually. Many companies are no longer as strong as they were, and many have been partly or fully bought by other companies.

More importantly, here in USA, some consultants guarantee their work. I guarantee if a client goes through my whole program, it will ultimately not cost anything. I will make them money. If you think you are able to provide enough value, maybe this idea would be good for you as well?

 

[JWenmeekers]

I have to agree with António Vieira, same thing in Mexico.

Although, several US (and other international) companies are here on the peninsula, they bring their own ‘system and managers’.

Much work is outsourced to small, not even companies, more families in little villages, working 14 and 16 hours a day for…well..not that much.

The US (and international) people don’t speak Spanish, or don’t want to, and here the local consultant is coming in.

Make a system in accordance with our (US/Int) system…. where you know that most people ‘on the floor’ can’t read nor write, although they are very good workers.

Oh, but that’s the ‘training’ within QA…and you think a company will pay to ‘train’ those people so they can read and write…no way.

So, I made procedures with icons and clip art, not one single word….customer is happy…

I have a future as consultant, yes, do I have a bright future, no.
Do I bring value to my customer, yes, but I want to ‘get out of the system’, where I know it is impossible. It’s the economical system…more what is good for the business rather than what is good for the people.

Sorry I rant too much and this not the place nor the forum for it, but in the light of Christmas and New Year…

 

[Paul Simpson]

The market has changed, but it is still there

Certainly the market for quality consultancy has changed. IMHO past bad consultancy practices have been found out and the chickens are coming home to roost!

Every time I see a system "put in by" a consultant I see a formula response to the standard the system is intended to address and this is "bolted on" to the company's operations. This inevitably leads to a poor fit and the problems that arise are papered over with additional bureaucracy. What kind of impression does that leave with the customers of these consultants?

If the standard response to the question is: "You need a procedure and three forms for that." The you end up with a heavily documented and bureaucratic system tht everybody hates and nobody follows. You also now have a group of "experts" running around who have "put in" 25 systems in 13 companies over 3 years - in reality one system imposed on those same companies.

The larger companies are sometimes no better - they have their own in house "experts" who had the same kind of experience before they were hired and now imposed the system they implemented at their previous company on this one.

This is all overlaid with a certification process that is confrontational - ending up as a battle of wills with either the registrar "winning" and the company changing their documentation to meet the whim of the auditor or the company "winning" and keeping the auditor neatly in a box because he / she doesn't want the arguments.

The future of quality consultancy is to move from being implementers of identikit systems to becoming systems analysts and designers of bespoke solutions that address the needs of the individual organization. Any less is a cop out.

There is a general exemption for the above for cove members - but at the start of this new year ask yourselves; can you truthfully say you try to understand the problem / requirements before imposing the solution?

If you can say yes to this then perhaps there is a future for consultancy - all we have to do is to get potential customers to come to the cove to select their next consultant.

I'm not 100% sure I could recommend the cove as a source going (going by some of the debates of last year), but still this is a new beginning - happy new year to all.

 

[db]

I hear what you are saying, Paul, and I agree wholeheartedly. As a consultant, I first look at what needs to be done. I am more concerned with a QMS/EMS that works for a company, rather than one that simply gets registration. I've begun working with QMS Management Reps to transition them from a compliance mentality, to a growth mentality. There also has to be a tremendous amount of top management culture change.

I also think those consultants that participate in the Cove are the ones who also want their clients to succeed. With success being measured not by registration, but by organizational improvement. The evidence for this is that they take time to participate.

 

[JWenmeekers]

My approach is always a ‘project-based’ one. Not just certification, not with the registrar in mind, not to ‘please’ the auditor or ‘to make it easier to audit’. My objective is to give the company (my customer) a tool for general/specific constant improvement. They have to use the tool.

I don’t use ‘of the shelf templates’ and bang in items like <<Name of the Company>>, or <<Clause number of the standard>>. Cash the money and walk.

Yes, over the years I have a ‘personal’ way of doing things, like all of us, but it is flexible, each customer/company is unique, even when the production/product is the same.

If the basis is only the paper on the wall, I refuse the job. It’s a waste of my time and waste of company money. Although I need, as all of us, money to finance my private live.
But I have my own ‘standard of quality and ethics’, and stick to it.
Of course the ‘contract’ (for QA) can be down to ‘paper on the wall’, but I still believe that’s ‘the first step’.

I try to implement a system that is easy to use by the company, the people who has to work with the tool, meet the requirements.

Was I always successful ?. No, I admit. There were some failures, only in the beginning of my ‘fly alone’.
I never advertise, all my customers are by ‘word of mouth’.

I’m not the best, but I know I’m good, thanks to my customers. I learned something from each one of them. It’s part of my ‘constant improvement’.

And sometimes the jobs done by ‘in-house experts’ are the worst. They don’t care, they are an employee, they are covert in their job.

And I learned something from nearly each member of the Cove. Have to be thankful to them also.

Respectfully.

 

[qualitygoddess - 2010]

I hear what you are saying, Paul, and I agree wholeheartedly. As a consultant, I first look at what needs to be done. I am more concerned with a QMS/EMS that works for a company, rather than one that simply gets registration.

I also think those consultants that participate in the Cove are the ones who also want their clients to succeed. With success being measured not by registration, but by organizational improvement. The evidence for this is that they take time to participate.

db, thanks for sticking up for those of us that think this way!!

--QG

 

[lokeky1]

I once read, to be sucessful you have to be at the right place and at the right time. An example of this is to GIVE WHAT YOUR CUSTOMER WANT. err..isint this 5.2 (Customer Focus).

Many years ago I asked a Cambridge Professor if it is difficult to find work if you are highly qualified (MSc or Phd). His answer was "Only if you are no good at what you do".

In summary, i guess what I am saying is that we should not worry about the market, but we have to understand the market and adapt to it and be the best in the field.

 

[Steve Prevette]

I once read, to be sucessful you have to be at the right place and at the right time. An example of this is to GIVE WHAT YOUR CUSTOMER WANT. err..isint this 5.2 (Customer Focus).

I have found it worthwhile to consider - give the customer what they need. That may not be what they "want" - at least not initially. It has been said of innovation - no one told Thomas Edison they "wanted" an electric light bulb.