Where is Quality on your Organization Chart?

[TigerLilie]

Our firm is in the process of a major reorg. We had a RIF several months ago and our QA team went from three people to one person. Previously the Director of QA reported directly to the CEO. But now there is no Director of QA, just me, a QA Engineer, and I am only reporting to the CEO in the interim. There is no plan for me to permanently report directly to him. Also no plan to hire another Director or QA or QA Manager. Not sure what I make of this, but that's another story.

So I was curious, being this is my first QA job, where does QA fall in your org chart?

 

[John Broomfield]

TigerLilie,

It seems like quality management is becoming part of everyone's job and process. Your role now could be to advise and support the CEO in maintaining and improving the organizational management system so it helps leaders at all levels to engage employees in understanding and fulfilling requirements.

John

 

[normzone]

Been there, done that. My experience has been that QA needs to report to the top.

Otherwise, you're reporting to the people you're supposed to be keeping on the straight and narrow. That's not worked well in my previous lifetimes.

 

[Lincole]

From my personal experience, QA/QC department has to report separately from the manufacturing (process, sales, work force) group. So that when quality vs quantity related conflict happens, the QA/QC department will not be ignored or overruled by the production management. QA/QC are like police and production are like citizens, we report to the chief police and citizens report to their bosses.

 

[Ninja]

Sounds like it's contrary to the previous responses (on this thread and others), but our Quality team reports to the Director of Operations who also is over Manufacturing.

Quality hierarchy will intersect Mfg hierarchy at some point, whether it be at the CEO or lower. The need is that the two are not pitted against each other.
A CEO can override QA for immediate profit as easily as DirOps can...the question is "Will they".

Having them join at Director level works well for us.

 

[PaulJSmith]

I've been in just about every scenario as well during my years in Quality. Reporting to Operations Managers has never worked well in my experiences. When I came to the small company I'm at now, I made it clear to the Owner that working for the Production Manager (his initial idea) was a potential conflict of interests. He agreed, and I report directly to him. It works well for us. I'm fortunate to work with a PM who cares about quality over making promised ship dates. He "gets it." I've not always been so lucky.

So, in our Organization Chart, the Quality Manager (me), Production Manager, Engineering Manager, and Sales Manager all report to the Owner/CEO. No one has over-riding power over others, except the Owner (of course).

 

[John Broomfield]

Tigerlilie,

Do not deprive design, purchasing and manufacturing of their responsibility to control quality - keep QC with them.

Being as QA is delivered by everyone using and improving their management system to fulfill requirements, the top manager needs the expertise of the QA function or a quality professional reporting to them.

John

 

[kgott]

I am that person. Above me is the operations manager, the MD then the owners. Officially the operations manager is the nominated representative but I'm the one with knowledge and skills for quality.

I've not had a problem with these arrangements. Anyone who wants to know something comes to me anyway.

I do the audits and I'm the contact point for customers etc.

I'm not bragging here, what I am saying is where the official representative sits not relevant. Its the commitment of management that counts.

I have learned not to push management any further than they want to go. I do a lot of CYA but there is a fair amount of confidence in management about my expertise in the area anyway but that not to say that I have not got things wrong from time to time because I have

 

[Pancho]

It's common for folks not familiar with quality management to think of it as inspection management. It is not.

Quality is consistent customer satisfaction. Quality is the sole reason why customers give a company their money. It is achieved and maintained only through continual improvement of product and process. It is the foundation of any business that is successful in the long term, and such businesses manage quality from the top.

 

[kgott]

It's common for folks not familiar with quality management to think of it as inspection management. It is not.

Quality is consistent customer satisfaction. Quality is the sole reason why customers give a company their money. It is achieved and maintained only through continual improvement of product and process. It is the foundation of any business that is successful in the long term, and such businesses manage quality from the top.

Excellent Pancho.