Can a Quality Department Add Value?
Why Ask the Question?
For some, the more relevant question is should quality add value? After all, the function has enough responsibilities without concerning itself with shareholder value or return on investment. Is there a compelling reason to even try? Actually, there are least three good reasons to add value to the organization.
A quality department that consistently adds value will better implement compliance objectives. People are more receptive to suggestions from a trusted friend than directives from an impersonal department. Important, yet difficult procedures or initiatives can be more amenable coming from a credible quality function. Individuals are more likely to extend a helping hand to the quality manager who has already done something for him or her.
A reality is that a quality unit can better protect jobs and salaries from cost cutting measures if it actively pursues value-adding tasks. Because quality is overhead, which is usually reduced first in a downturn, an organization that adds value will find support from those departments that it has helped in the past. Furthermore, outsourcing is becoming progressively more prevalent in quality in the areas of quality engineering, document control and inspection. With the lesser documentation requirements of the newer standards, the decision to move quality duties to outside contractors is easier than ever. The quality unit that believes itself irreplaceable and behaves as such may find itself completely eliminated.
Adding value fosters a team environment rather than conflict. Quality should not always be the bearer bad news or the corporate police force. Legitimate quality issues like poor workmanship or failure to meet specifications will go underground and be incorrectly reworked or released in a hostile environment. Furthermore, some quality personnel will leave a company that pushes them into adversarial roles with their operations colleagues.
A Unique Position
Interestingly enough, the difficult nature of quality means that many core business skills reside within the quality department. This gives it a unique potential within the organization to add tremendous value. Because there are few degrees in quality, most personnel are technically proficient in other areas. Almost all engineering and management personnel have four-year degrees in science or engineering. Many managers also hold Masters degrees in Science or Business Administration degrees. Quality personnel often work in other fields (operations, engineering, research and development) prior to transitioning to quality giving them valuable insights into the operation of the business. Quality also has a comprehensive understanding of problem solving, process improvement, quality management, quality control, quality assurance, and the various ISO/GMP/QS/TL standards.
While many departments only focus on their vendors, quality can cross the different departmental boundaries freely. Quality usually thoroughly understands the organizational structure and the business processes. Moreover, because quality is a compliance organization, it frequently deals with the decision-makers in an area giving them opportunities to establish relationships. Most quality personnel also have a feeling for the political environment of the organization. They usually know or have experienced first-hand the influence of the different managers.
Customer Driven
The first task an organization can do to add value is to develop a customer oriented culture. Quality is ultimately providing a service to those engaged in producing a product or service. This includes active solicitation of customer feedback. Holding a lunch for the key decision-makers in each department and asking for candid opinions regarding quality can lead to some surprising insights. Developing a semi-annual or quarterly survey of customer satisfaction for the departments will also give a feeling for the key drivers of satisfaction. Another option is to interview individuals who interface with quality to find out what is going well and what needs improvement. Even if the improvement efforts fall short, the organization will positively respond to quality’s efforts to better themselves.
A customer driven organization should develop a quick turnaround for routine items. Procedural changes and data review should be processed within 24 hours. Routine decisions should be consistent and quickly given without the need for interminable meetings or upper management involvement. Even better is to give the customer the ability to make the decisions him or herself without quality’s involvement. This puts the sometimes arbitrary, even mysterious, decision-making process into the open so that the other departments can understand how a decision was made.
Incentives should be used to encourage quality personnel to support customer driven behavior. Customer service should be part of the salary review process and actively communicated to the quality department. Time off could be given off for outstanding service to a department.
Technical Support
Providing technical assistance to the other departments is quality’s most effective value-adding activity. Most organizations have little statistical ability, so thorough and accurate statistical analyses or studies would be one service quality could freely provide to the other departments. Written reports, however, should be shunned, as these are inherently non-value. It is more important to share the conclusions with the team and move on to the next project.
Quality’s relatively better organizational ability can be used to facilitate project meetings for other departments. If quality is already on the team they could offer to coordinate the project tasks for the team. As the project manager, quality can ensure quality assurance objectives are achieved early rather than coming in at the end to implement quality controls. This valuable development tool can also be used to increase the visibility of high potential individuals for promotion to other areas of the organization, perhaps the ultimate in providing value.
Quality can also develop and provide formal training for the rest of the organization in quality topics such as lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, and Total Quality Management. Training adds credibility to the quality department and provides a visible means of adding value. Other training or education venues would be publishing in the company newsletter, holding seminars, or producing a quality web page on an intranet.
Should quality be adding value to the organization? Yes, no department can survive if it is deemed unnecessary. By changing the perspective to a customer focused organization and providing services that add value to the organization, the quality department can ensure the company’s quality objectives are met.