Why do 'we' and ?our? QMS?s stop working? What are the Failure Modes?

[noboxwine]

Have I missed something along the way ?

!Hola! For just a minute, disregard ISO / QS / TS / AS. All that’s a heaping pile of BS. Twelve years of this gig from QE to Eng Mgr to Director have afforded me a cornucopia of lessons. We well understand that us Quality types are of somewhat sound mind and stand for the best interest of our respective organizations. Unequivocally, we have the cerebral aptitude to constitute a strategy to diminish cost and preserve a confident customer base. Yet, I ask you, why do 'we' and ‘our’ QMS’s stop working? Throw out the semantics, oblique vernacular and decorate thyself with an ever-dwindling commodity dubbed common sense. In case you’re still scratching your head, the attached chart may reveal the answer. The intent of this post is not sarcastic. It’s to solicit your opinions to see if I may have missed something throughout this safari. Have a great day and may all the data points in your 1.67 Cpk be inside spec limits (see, because you can have, well, never mind). Have a nice day.
:thedeal:

 

[Mike S.]

Nobox,

You sound a bit frustrated and in need of venting some steam. Sounds like your day must be going about the same way as mine! Some Mondays are worse than others and this is a bad one. Anyway...

FWIW your comments and chart are meaningful in my opinion. Not the be-all and end-all, but important. I've always thought that the #1 most important component of any well-functioning QMS (or just plain MS as Jim Wade would have us say/think) is the top management's committment. Nothing else is close IMO. I urge anyone who thinks otherwise to step up onto the mound and make his/her best pitch.

Having said that, the sad reality is that most of us (90%+??) have to work with top management groups that show less than the optimal level of commitment and support. Still, because of our very nature and the jobs we have, we “Q people” usually work our tails off to make the best of what we get. Rarely in life, in any area of endeavor, are we working under optimal circumstances/conditions, and our job situations are often that way as well. But usually the source of frustration comes from seeing opportunities to greatly improve the situation for the good of all but not being able to get others to see what we see. Frustration grows in direct proportion to the degree of ease with which the ignored problem could be solved and/or the degree of risk involved in not making the change. Sometimes despite our best efforts we just have to watch the inevitable painful event happen even though we know how to prevent it. It is similar to the feeling a parent gets when they see a child heading down the wrong path yet despite all of their best efforts the parent cannot get the child to see the problems ahead on that path so the child ends-up having to “hit the wall” and feel the pain themselves, which often causes the parent the same or worse pain. I’m not so egotistical to suggest we as Quality workers or parents are always right, but often history shows us that we are, and thus we end-up frustrated to varying degrees. The goal, I guess, is to try to put ourselves in situations where we can minimize the frustration, but we will never eliminate it.
JMHO.

Okay, enough crappy Monday philosophical blathering from me.

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Missed something? Nah

Hullo boxer,

Nope. As far as I can see you missed nothing. Bullseye...

/Claes

 

[energy]

Re: Have I missed something along the way ?

noboxwine said:

Twelve years of this gig from QE to Eng Mgr to Director have afforded me a cornucopia of lessons. We well understand that us Quality types are of somewhat sound mind and stand for the best interest of our respective organizations.

Nobox,

Your profile says Quality Manager. The above shows Quality Engineer to Eng Mgr to Director. Director of Engineering? Quality? Do you have "Quality" in your title, now? Most people who jumped to Engineering from Quality rarely return. They are also inclined to, in least in my experience, overlook things that Quality types moan about.

Call me dense, but your graph shows Management Commitment rising way up into the effectiveness of the QMS. I know it's a red line. Is this what you desire? Is this what you have? Is it a picture of a bad thing or a good thing? Mike S. got it, I guess. I'm a bit slower. I can't blame it on Mondays. Just call me curious.

 

[noboxwine]

Oh how easy it is.

Mike S. said:

Nobox,

You sound a bit frustrated and in need of venting some steam. Sounds like your day must be going about the same way as mine!

Actually not a bad day for Monday and no specific event caused the post. Thanks for letting 'vent' nonetheless ! It's comical now as opposed to a couple years ago. I simply have looked back over the companies I have worked/consulted for and the solution is simple. I know why one ran single digit dPPM's and another ran 25,000. A commitment, not lip service, from the guy in charge to improve and maintain quality was all it took. There simply is no science in delivering a product as advertised..............................

 

[M Greenaway]

Nobox

Is top management commitment all it takes ?

Or is this just the pre-requisite first building block of an effective system ?

 

[noboxwine]

Since '65 ? I was not even thought of !

.

energy said:
Nobox,

Your profile says Quality Manager. The above shows Quality Engineer to Eng Mgr to Director. Director of Engineering? Quality? Do you have "Quality" in your title, now? .

Hey veteran mucka ! Thought you might bite on this one. I am now just a low life QM after a few other stints in and around it. Found out that big $$ and high profile is not what it's all cracked up to be. Even for a single guy, it's hard to spend it when you never leave the office ! Anyway, the titles have changed but the heartfelt commitment to excellence never did. Yet, God only knows why I still do this. The occasional sense of satisfaction, I guess. Kinda like golf. You can beat yourself into submission for 4 hours and on the 18th hole you drain a 30-foot birdie putt that makes all the bad shots go away. The graph, based upon my experience, simply shows that an effective system is directly proportional to the level of management commitment. If you get the support necessary, it’s just not too difficult. Top Mgmt is unequivocally the biggest roadblock on this planet. Have a day !
:thedeal:

 

[noboxwine]

They're the main ingredient !

M Greenaway said:

Nobox

Is top management commitment all it takes ?

Or is this just the pre-requisite first building block of an effective system ?

Mgmt Commitment is the foundation. Then, us analytical, anal- retentive quality types come in and develop a recipe for acheiving the objectives. I've never seen it fail when true commitment is there.

 

[energy]

Re: Since '65 ? I was not even thought of !

noboxwine said:

Hey veteran mucka ! Thought you might bite on this one. I am now just a low life QM after a few other stints in and around it.

I got it now! Low life QM? That's what Engineers call me It's a living. Every day I am reminded by these " living large" executive types that they do not have a clue what a QMS is and what it should consist of. So, besides making more cash, we're even! Our QM rewards are.......uh......ah...somewhere. I got mine 3 months ago. Approx. 2%. That was considered in the upper half. Pwew! Don't tell anybody. We don't need QM envy!

 

[noboxwine]

Re: Re: Since '65 ? I was not even thought of !

energy said:



I got it now! Low life QM? That's what Engineers call me It's a living. Every day I am reminded by these " living large" executive types that they do not have a clue what a QMS is and what it should consist of. So, besides making more cash, we're even! Our QM rewards are.......uh......ah...somewhere. I got mine 3 months ago. Approx. 2%. That was considered in the upper half. Pwew! Don't tell anybody. We don't need QM envy!

It'll be our little secret !