Working at a production line, you find out there is a fault with it resulting in a part of production going out with slight defects – unnoticed at the beginning but tending to come out crashing on you later on. You have an option: turn off the line and stop production – leading to you being sacked without a notice. Or else, you start the procedure: reporting to your line manager who reports to his line manager who reports to his line manager who reports to one decision maker. After a couple of weeks your report will be taken care of…maybe… This is Russian-style quality manager.

Imagine yourself a janitor… Relax, it’s just for a sec

You walk your routine along the production line wiping dust maybe… You notice there is a slight fault with the line (you may get it wrong but you don’t think so)… So, you don’t have any options – you just stop the line… People will come over in a sec to have a look and solve the problem… This is Japanese-style quality management.

Which do you opt for? I’d pick the latter. Don’t be scared to overeact. It is easy to miss a small fault which may result in dramatic failure. Once you make a fuss out of nothing – you will at least be sure that people have paid attention to what might have been a problem.

Technorati : marketing, quality management

Share on Facebook