RUN! QA is Coming!
By
Amy Powers
I closed a ten year chapter with one company and started my new position as a
Quality Assurance Administrator in a different organization. As I was
introduced to my new co-workers, I noticed by the look on some of their faces
that QA is not a popular group around here. I can understand where they are
coming from. QA is usually the bearer of bad news and gives out “extra work” in
the form of corrective action requests or audit findings. As quality assurance
workers we push, we refresh, we give advice, and we try to be systematic but to
some, we are just plain pains in the neck.
This is my vision. It is time for the Quality team to re-sell ourselves as a
helpful tool to the organization. We all know that culture change doesn’t come
easy and we will probably be in for the roller coaster ride of our careers, but
what a delightful challenge! I think the best approach is to use the analogy
that we are all operating within a living, breathing, integrated series of
process systems. Like all living things, they must be cared for. QA is like the
physician one visits to ensure that they are in good health. Only, the doctor
comes to you when you work in a manufacturing plant! Visiting the doctor is
rarely fun; however, it is a necessity to ensure that we will be healthy enough
to live life to the fullest. It is just as important that our “living” process
systems have the same fullness of life if we are going to remain competitive as
an organization within the market place.
The doctor’s instruments and methods of testing look and sound really scary.
The same is true when QA starts revealing their quality tools. It is important
for the patient to know why the doctor thinks that all this painful sounding
stuff can be of any benefit to them. The idea of getting “poked and prodded”
isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time, but if you want to be as healthy as you can
be, some changes or surgical procedures may be necessary for us to remain at
the peak of health. The same goes for our process systems.
To make any ugly growth go away, it has to be taken out by the root. If you
have a severely broken tooth or a small tumor or wart, the doctor will always
aim for the root to make it disappear. Within our business system, in order to
make nonconformances vanish, it is in the best interest of our processes to
eliminate the root of the problem as opposed to constantly covering them with
“quick fixes” or band-aids. Once you get to the true root, a majority of the
nonconformances go away for good, just like that ugly wart!
It is far better to find our little lumps and pains on our own as opposed to
having an external party telling us that something is wrong. We try to avoid
going to the doctor by doing self evaluations on our health. Just as we try to
pinpoint our health issues early by being aware of how our bodies function on a
good day, we need to periodically self check our systems to continually improve
on our processes. It’s far better for you and your doctor to have a
preventative physical done from time to time to ensure problems are caught
early. The same goes with our business system.
The quality professionals of today can be viewed as the physicians of the
organization. You may not always like what you hear, but in the long run,
everyone is healthier and happier for it. It makes the organization look good,
it makes top management look fantastic and it helps in getting employees
involved in creating a smooth running process which is much easier to work in.
It is a win/win all the way around! Quality looks mainly at systems and it is
our job to ensure that our process systems are in top running health.
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