The line actually reads, “Marriage isn’t a party dress…you’ve got to wear it morning, noon and night” and is taken from the 1936 Robert Taylor-Joan Crawford movie, “The Gorgeous Hussy“ ( I caught a few minutes of it late night on TCM) during which Crawford’s aunt admonishes her to take her thoughts of marriage serious. It’s not something to enter into lightly.  Let’s just say Crawford’s character had  a less than admirable reputation, often changing suitors as quickly as she changed dresses.

In similar fashion, those giving thought to starting a quality improvement journey need to consider the long term impact upon their organization and have to be committed to being in it for the long haul.  To be successful, all parties involved have to make clear their commitment to see it through to the end. And as we all know, it’s called continuous improvement because the eff0rts never end.

Just like in a marriage where there are ups and downs, good days and bad, your initiative will face challenge after challenge. However, you keep pressing forward knowing that you’ll receive the reward for your willingness to ride out each and every storm. You may have times of course correction, but there’s no exit plan.

Tell me, what are the challenges you have faced along your journey to operational excellence and what lessons can you share?

{ 0 comments }

I wrote this article as a contributor to the April 2010 edition of the Edge Business Magazine.

Chain reaction: A series of events in which each induces or influences the next.

Often new and exciting technologies or philosophies can provide us with the needed solution to the dilemmas we face in today’s ever-changing business environment. However, there still exist a few of the old world ways that outshine, outperform, and will outlast the best of these. One of my all time favorites, is W. Edwards Deming’s Chain Reaction concept, a work that addressed the need for management to move away from seeing quality simply as a desired output of a product or service, to seeing it as the critical input to a business strategy.

Improve Quality

Any effort to improve, grow and sustain your business must begin with a focus on improving the quality of the products and services that you and your people provide. Everything else that follows in the chain reaction results from this improvement and would not be sustainable without it.

Reduce costs

As quality improves, costs are reduced because the seven traditional forms of waste, defects, over-processing, overproduction, inventory, excess motion, excess transportation and waiting are minimized. Take a moment, set the magazine down and scribble down a few examples of each — trust me they are easy to spot once you put on your new “waste vision” glasses.

Improve Productivity

As costs are reduced, fewer of your businesses resources are spent producing defective goods and services. They are now freed up to devote their time to work that actually adds value. This, by the way, is a great morale booster. Other than a professional proof reader, who happens to get paid by the word, who finds joy in correcting errors and mistakes all day?

Capture the Market

By improving quality, reducing costs and improving productivity, we position ourselves to do better in both existing and new markets. If our price is not competitive, we can pass along any savings to our customers, perhaps even attracting new customers by reduced costs and improved product quality. We can also use this additional capital to investigate and explore new markets, products and services.

Staying in Business

By capturing the existing market and breaking into new ones, we help to ensure the sustainability of the business. By now we have built products and services valued above any of our competitors. We have gained a reputation for being a business capable of not only reacting quickly to the changing needs of our customers, but also capable of predicting what it is our customers will want and need in the future. We are a leader in our industry.

Provide Jobs and More Jobs

If, as a business, your focus is on quality and you wholeheartedly embrace continuous improvement, you will have the opportunity to contribute significantly to the quality of life of a growing number of people, both inside and outside your organization as well as inside and outside your community. This contribution will come in the form of new jobs, better jobs, safer jobs, and lasting jobs.

Whether you are the owner of an existing business or making plans to create a new one, let these principles be your guide. In life we often outgrow things, which in the case of thumb sucking is a good thing. Outgrowing the fundamental truths expressed by Deming about the importance of quality and continuous improvement is not. It has been said that practice makes perfect. The truth is practice makes permanent. Let’s make sure that we are practicing the right things.

Agree or disagree? Let me hear from you.

{ 0 comments }