How Do Quality Professionals Explain Their Jobs?

In the March 2013 issue of Quality Progress magazine, contributor Marcia Weeden laments the difficulty of explaining what she does as a quality professional to her friends and acquaintances who have no idea what quality is. Marcia states, "Sometimes, if I am lucky, somebody might guess, 'Is that like quality control? You inspect things?' I have hope. At least they know that much".

I just tell such people that I am a farmer!

Seriously, though, I borrowed that line from the episode "The Career Day" of  "That 70's Show" starring Ashton Kucher.  In this episode, Kelso (Kucher) is trying to understand what his dad's job is as a "senior executive statistical analysis technician".  Totally dazed, confused and frustrated, Kelso finally gives up and says that he will just tell his class that his dad is a farmer!

I have had similar experiences to Marcia Weeden where acquaintances might associate quality assurance with quality control. My response is to explain that my role is more strategic and that my goal is to replace product inspection with process control. I work with business teams to design processes and products that help the business WIN in the marketplace by creating value for the customer. (Entitlement Quality is when the customer gets what they want, when they want it, at a price they are willing to pay, and the business makes a reasonable profit). Borrowing from the Baldrige Criteria, I developed a 2-minute visual presentation comparing quality to the hamburger where the meat pattie represents the business results; the buns represent the organization's mission, vision, principles, and action plans. The condiments represent Lean, Six Sigma, TQM, and other continuous improvement activities. The lettuce, tomato, cheese, pickles, etc. are leadership, planning, work systems & processes, and customer & workforce focus.  The entire experience of ordering and enjoying your hamburger - prepared exactly as you ordered it - is the final outcome of a "Quality" process.

Do you have a similar metaphor or story to explain your job in the quality profession?

Quality - Flawlessly Delivering Customer Value

The definition of quality continues to evolve. Joseph Juran defined quality as fitness for use:

• product features that meet customer needs
• freedom from deficiencies.

Philip Crosby defined quality as "conformance to requirements".

The current definition of quality that I prescribe to is "total customer experience". Customers today are sophisticated and savvy. The growth of the internet and e-commerce allows consumers to physically examine and compare products in local brick-and-mortar stores, but seek the best price and review user ratings using on-line sites and tools. Perfect product quality today is a given. Competitive advantage is won by the business that best delivers a satisfying experience to the customer throughout the entire value chain and over the course of the product life cycle, including advertising, promotions, point-of-sale merchandising and support, the purchase experience, cost to use/own, and after-the-sale service.

In light of two recent studies commissioned by ASQ (Emergence - the 2011 Future of Quality; and, the 2013 Global State of Quality) ASQ CEO Paul Borawski asks two fundamental questions:

1. What is the most important challenge the quality community faces in ensuring that the value of quality is fully realized for the benefit of society?
2. What question does the quality community most need answered in order to advance the state of quality practice in the world?

Edwards W. Deming postulated the Deming Chain Reaction where quality improvements decrease costs and increase productivity allowing for lower prices and increased sales. However, a single-minded focus on costs alone can result in decisions that negatively impact quality and customer satisfaction. In today's global economy of slow economic growth there is immense pressure on organizations, businesses, Quality functions and Six Sigma departments to improve efficiencies and reduce operating costs. The important challenge to the quality community, then, is to advocate for the customer - internal and external; to not lose sight of organizational and operational effectiveness, and champion the cause to deliver distinct competitive advantage and superior customer-perceived value.

Not all costs are created equal. If cost reduction is to be the focus, the Quality professional should encourage and promote a focus on addressing structural and product design costs as opposed to the traditional focus on realized and systemic costs. In 2010, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., published a cost driver framework that showed greater cost reduction impact by focusing efforts on product design, manufacturing strategy and supply chain structure rather than manufacturing efficiency.

*ISSR Cost Driver Framework graphic is used with permission.

Lean philosophy teaches us that value is defined by the customer. Lean philosophy abhors waste. Waste is whatever the customer is not willing to pay for. The desire by organizations to reduce costs should be based on the lean philosophy... to reduce non-value added activities and eliminate all forms of waste. Muda is the Japanese word for waste. Taiichi Ohno at Toyota had described a list of seven types of muda. Many lean-based organizations are focused on driving out muda. But there are two other forms of waste that relatively few organizations have yet to pursue: mura and muri. Mura is excessive variation (e.g. unevenness); Muri is complexity (i.e. overburdening). Jim Womack, CEO of Lean Enterprise Institute, states that mura and muri are the root causes of muda in many organizations.

Another quality guru, Genichi Taguchi, developed the Taguchi Loss Function that described variation as loss to society. Today's continuous improvement and sustainability efforts share the belief that conformance to requirements alone does not deliver superior customer experience. A "Run to Target" mindset promotes improved process aim and variation reduction.  Stable, capable processes enable flow resulting in operational excellence and optimized customer value. Delivering superior customer experience is today's most important challenge for the quality community.

So, what question does the quality community most need answered in order to advance the state of quality practice in the world? In my opinion, Quality must convince leadership that focusing organizational resources on cost avoidance activities - even in difficult economic times - has greater return on investment (ROI) than cost reduction activities alone.  In an article recently published in Industry Week magazine, Eric Arno Hiller, President, Hiller Associates, reminds us per a famous DARPA study from the 1960s that the majority of product cost (~ 80%) is “locked in” early in the product development cycle. Eric Hiller argues that 70% to 90% of product cost management resources should be focused focused on avoidance instead of after-the-fact cost reduction.

* ROI of cost avoidance graphic is used with permission from Hiller Associates



To advance the state of quality practice in the world, the quality community must continue to advocate for the customer and society. Quality leaders must be able to demonstrate the economic value of customer loyalty to the business enterprise. A 6-year study of stock performance completed by Watermark Consulting demonstrated that customer experience leaders outperformed the market between 2007-2011, generating a total return that was three times higher on average than the S&P 500 Index.
















* CX Stock Market performance graphic used with permission from Watermark Consulting

To advance the state of quality practice in the world, the quality community must speak the language of management while relating increased customer experience to improved customer loyalty (willingness to repurchase, willingness to recommend) leading to repeat business and increased sales.

The Global State of Quality - A Perspective

ASQ, in partnership with APQC, released the first findings of the ASQ Global State of Quality research initiative at ASQ’s 2013 World Conference on Quality and Improvement in Indianapolis, Indiana. Releasing its Discoveries 2013 report, ASQ asks "What finding is the most useful to your work?  What finding is the most surprising? What question would you most like to have answered?"

I first became exposed to the Discoveries 2013 report during the Enterprise member Executive Roundtable event at the WCQI. Two key observations that I took away from the report are the revelation that "service organizations are 1.6 times more likely than manufacturing organizations to view quality as a strategic asset and competitive differentiator" (page 14); and, the relatively small number of customer perceptions of quality used as compared to the number of internal measures of productivity, efficiency and effectiveness (page 18).

Why might more service organizations view quality as a strategic asset than their manufacturing counterparts? One main reason, I believe, is because service is THE product of service organizations; whereas service is an added feature of manufacturing. Direct contact with the customer is the moment of truth for service organizations; a distinct competitive advantage is won by the organization that can deliver consistently superior customer experience. In today's global economy, local interaction can be a cost equalizer and a key differentiator.

Common measures of quality frequently cited by participating organizations include:

• First Pass Yield
• Defects Per Million
• % On Time
• Safety
• Internal Failures
• % Compliance
• Employee Satisfaction
• Customer Satisfaction.

While I am not surprised that most organizations measure performance based on their internal goals and requirements, it appears that very few organizations measure customer perceptions of quality beyond an overall satisfaction number. First, it has been well researched and documented that Satisfaction does not necessarily translate into Loyalty...  Second, ASQ's 2011 Future of Quality Study (Emergence) introduces 21st century quality as Total Customer Experience (TCE). TCE is quality experienced by the customer at every touchpoint in every transaction with the supplying organization. I would be interested in learning more about how organizations are capturing and translating customer experience ratings throughout the value chain and product lifecycle: advertising, merchandizing, point of sale, invoicing, customer service, technical service, installation, service, repair and disposal, as well as any online web experience. What innovations have organizations implemented to increase employee and customer engagement?

I look forward to reading the subsequent analysis and insights reports due later in 2013.

Surviving Conferences

In his April blog post, ASQ CEO Paul Borawski asks, "What’s your advice for getting the most from  a conference or networking event?"

Yes, I am planning to once again attend the ASQ World Conference on Quality & Improvement (WCQI). I have attended nearly every WCQI/AQC event since 1990. As an officer of either the Statistics Division or the MN Section many of the related WCQI trip expenses have been shared between my employer and the ASQ member unit for whom I was an officer, or complimentary as a conference speaker. This annual networking experience has proven to be a win-win for my personal development, my employer's benefit, and the ASQ member unit.

Conferences such as the WCQI and the ASQ LSS are an excellent opportunity to build one's professional network. I bring a handful of business cards and, of course, my smartphone. Apps like LinkedIn's CardMunch and Evernote's Hello are great tools to quickly capture contact information and profiles. Social media apps such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and many others are also very helpful collaboration tools. This year I plan to capture video via Viddy (for Facebook and Blogger) and Eyejot (for email) as I document my impressions and interactions at the WCQI for the benefit of others.

However, no number of electronic impressions can equal or replace the impact of face-to-face collaboration and networking. The receptions, luncheons, hospitality suites and 'After 5' sessions are other great venues to meet speakers, subject matter experts, and people like you exploring new learning and best practice sharing opportunities. I hope to see you at the Indianapolis WCQI, but if you cannot physically attend I encourage you follow my tweets and others' (#WCQI13) and/or follow the ASQ Influential Voices blog posts.

The MN State Quality Program - Performance Excellence

In his April blog post ASQ CEO Paul Borawski asks for examples of national quality programs, and whether the program is growing in visibility and perceived value and creating capacity for organizational excellence.

The United States has the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program. I first became familiar with the Baldrige Criteria while an internal evaluator back in the late 1990's when 3M's Dental Products Division won the national quality award in 1997. The Baldrige Program is the USA's public-private partnership dedicated to performance excellence, administered by NIST and ASQ. Rather than focus on the national program, I wish to introduce my readers to the Minnesota state quality program. The Minnesota Council for Quality and Productivity was formed in 1987 as a part of the Department of Trade and Economic Development. The word “productivity” was later dropped from the name, and the organization was eventually spun off into an independent, private non-profit. The Council was one of the first state quality award programs modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. In 2012 the MN Council for Quality was renamed to the Performance Excellence Network, or PEN for short. The primary goal of PEN organizational assessments is learning and improvement, but it also recognizes levels of performance excellence to eligible organizations through the Performance Excellence Award (formerly the Minnesota Quality Award). Per the PEN website, the Award Cycle - with its multiple levels of recognition - remains an important part of PEN’s offering. Since 1991 there have been nearly 100 MN State Award recipients, representing various industries, sizes, and communities throughout the region.

I have been a trained State Evaluator for four years and have participated in several assessments and site visits. The great thing about the MN State Award process is that, unlike the national program, EVERY applicant gets a site visit!  Brian Lassiter, President, and the PEN judges and evaluators have done a masterful job of building a program focused on learning and best practices sharing. My participation with PEN has also benefited from the knowledge and experiences shared by Mark Blazey, author of Insights to Performance Excellence, whom has been invited to teach every year of my PEN evaluator refresher training. Serving as a MN state evaluator has significantly strengthened my understanding of overall organizational performance excellence beyond traditional quality tools, methods, processes and systems, which has also benefited my employer and all with whom I correspond.

Quality in Local Government

Paul Borawski, in his latest ASQ blog, talks about quality improvement efforts in various city governments including Milwaukee, WI, Coral Springs, FL, and Irving, TX.

I have similar experience with the City of Hutchinson - a small town in central Minnesota - where the mayor and city council wanted to establish a "One Stop Shop" for licensing and permitting in the building/planning/zoning departments. A cross-functional team was assembled from across three different government entities: the State of MN, McLeod County, and City of Hutchinson. A problem statement was developed focusing on delivering constituent experience and satisfaction. The 'DMAIC' problem solving methodology was employed to define a new operating system. Quality tools used include surveys, fishbone diagrams, FMEAs, C&E, brainstorming, affinity diagrams, inter-relationship diagrams, experimentation, SPC and control plans.

A more detailed explanation of this example and other personal success stories using statistical thinking are available in the book, "Improving Performance Through Statistical Thinking" by Britz, et al (ASQ Quality Press, Item H0160).

Quality Tools in Forensics

In his March blog, ASQ CEO Paul Borawski asks if anyone had spotted a place where a quality tool would really come in handy. I am happy to announce that I am in the midst of a planned weight loss program. I lost 52 lbs during July-November to achieve my target weight, and have been in transition mode back to "normal" foods since December while maintaining my new weight.

During my weekly consulting sessions the weight loss coach would take my blood pressure, measure my weight and every few weeks conduct an "in-body" scan of muscle vs body fat. I continue to be amazed by the large variation between blood pressure monitors and the apparent lack of standardization between the different scales. Fortunately, these devices are not life critical in a weight loss program, but how often do you question whether the lab equipment at your clinic, in the dentist's office, or in the hospital are calibrated, or whether the test methods are validated and in a state of statistical control?

In a story making local and state headlines, the St Paul Police Crime Lab suspended its drug testing in July 2012 after public defenders challenged the reliability of the lab's work in court. The lab provides drug testing for Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties. The problems at the crime lab have thrown thousands of past and pending cases into question. In a report from MPR News, "A senior lab employee also testified that the lab lacks written procedures for testing evidence for drugs and provides only informal training to new employees. The lab, which processes up to 50 cases per day, does not regularly review its work to check for errors, the employees said, and, like many other smaller crime labs in Minnesota, is not accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors."

Minnesota law does not require accreditation for crime labs, although evidence from these labs play an increasingly larger role in convicting people of drug possession, murder, and other crimes. Perhaps this case will cause the state government to reconsider the value of quality audits, equipment calibration, standard procedures, measurement quality assurance and operator training and certification.