3 Questions to build a Quality Culture

How does one build a culture for quality?

Quality is often called a journey. While it is a useful paradigm to have, it can sometimes put things too far off in the future to act upon them. Just as when you are on a long journey you don't worry about what you will do at every step.

Quality, however, is a result of what we do daily. It is not something we can do later in the journey. It is what you do daily.

And what we do daily is Culture.

How can we build this culture?

Over a decade ago, I took my Quality team to Toyota's India manufacturing plant. We were over 25 of us and all were eager to learn. The plant officials were adept at handling such eager students and answered all we could ask with aplomb.

At the end of the day-long visit we had a meeting with the head of Production, and my good friend V Ramesh. Ramesh is an accomplished quality professional and his answers were all in keeping with the Toyota tradition of quality. He answered all our questions but the one answer that has stayed with me.

The question was - How do you build a culture for Quality? Do you use Kaizen, Lean, Six Sigma to do so?"

It was an innocuous question but the answer was reflective of the Toyota legacy. Here was what he said:

"At Toyota, we believe in improvement daily. We don't need a name like Six Sigma for it. For each report, each meeting, and anything we do we ask - can we do this better."

Ramesh then went to explain a bit more but the opening sentence was enough for me. I have been in awe since then.

This is how you build quality. Daily.

No events. No methods. No drama. No theatre. Just daily discipline. Boring. But it works.

3 questions to build a quality culture

Over the years, I have stayed with the reply Ramesh had for us. I have built upon his reply and now have 3 questions that I think help in building a culture of Quality.

What are we doing and why?

How well are we doing it?

How can we get better at it?

Innocuous questions. Let's tackle them.

What are we doing and why?

What is the work we are doing? How do we know? Does it comply with what the customer wanted? Are following a process? A standard process?

Answering all this or even trying to answer can be daunting. But this is where quality begins. What are we doing and why?

How well are we doing it?

Are we doing a good job of what we decided to do in the first place? How do we know we are doing well? What is the process capability of our process? How do we perform compared to the competition? Compared to Industry? Compared to best in class?

This is a lot of work but worth it.

How can we get better at it?

This is where improvement kicks in. If you are performing at world-class levels, almost everyone knows about it. And they catch up eventually. You will be soon left behind if you are not improving. Hence, improvement is the third and perhaps the most critical aspect of quality.

Should one use Kaizen, Lean, and Six Sigma to get better? Or benchmarking? or Automation? If you want to get better on a daily basis, the method does not matter much.

Recall what Ramesh said - Get better every day. Always ask - how can I get better?

Kaizen and Imai San

Kaizen is a popular Japanese-origin management method that loosely translates to continuous improvement. Over the years many variations of Kaizen have developed and one of the foremost proponents of it is Masaki Imai. Imai San has written books and consulted companies across the world on how to deploy Kaizen.

I met Imai san in 2014 in Delhi and was spellbound by his simplicity. Here was the man credited with one of the most famous quality management methods and he had time for everyone. His lack of proficiency in English was no hindrance at all. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, I asked him - what is Kaizen according to you?

He looked very earnestly at me and in broken English said:

Kaizen is to improve everything, everywhere, all the time, by everyone.

Tough to beat that mindset.

3 Questions and the Juran Trilogy

Look closely. The three questions I shared are nothing but the Juran Trilogy of planning, control, and improvement.

Dr J M Juran taught us the universal method to manage Quality. Plan or set the standard. Comply to the standard. And then improve. And repeat.

In conclusion

Use these 3 questions on a regular basis to understand where you are in the Quality journey. Asking how can we get better will instil a quality culture that will not need any specific method. People and culture will take quality forward.

One request

I am on a mission to make Quality a priority and to help all of us manage better. I will continue to share content on Quality and Effective Management practices but I need your active support and encouragement.

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Thanks for reading and with best wishes to Manage Better,

Anshuman