Deming point no 3
Deming 14 points for management are well known.
Point No 3 says -
Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.
Easier said than done! What does it mean actually? it means different things to different people at different times.
It also means you can make a lot of money by following this advice. Or if you cant make out how to follow, get consultants who know how to implement this advice in your organisation.
Let me share a couple of instances to illustrate.
In the first, MD of a business manufacturing millions of ball-point refills everyday called me for help.The problem was that customers were complaining about large difference in ink level between 2 refills - as much as 20 mm!(Large indeed!!) To avoid these complaints, they resorted to sorting the refills into 5 different batches (levels) so that within each there was very little/or acceptable variation. Problem was this took a lot of time, and a battalion of girls had to be employed do this job! We were able to solve this problem within 2 weeks. The operation cost was reduced by 25% - literally making more than a millions dollars a year!
Second instance involved manufacturer of voltage regulators for auto industry.They were inspecting every unit for the voltage and replacing one particular component ( called calibration resistance) to give exact required voltage. This was industry standard practice then. The owner of this business invited me to improve this process of selective assembly. Needless to say, this process too was modified in such a way that selective assembly was no more required. The bottleneck in the process was removed. Within a short time. they were able to increase production level manyfold to meet market demand!
Our experience shows that every industry has such opportunities hidden from the eyes of the management. (But visible to the trained eye!) We only need to uncover them and exploit them.
Each of Deming 14 points is so powerful.
Vice President & Program Manager
9 年Absolutely correct. Every time you read after completion of any assignment or during the assignment; it gives additional flavour of understanding. Quality is a journey and not a destination - rightly said by Quality Gurus !
Data Analyst & Continuous Improvement Specialist | Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt
9 年Such a wonderful flow of knowledge !! Great sir
Seasoned Quality Assurance Professional with 33+ years of experience; Empaneled Assessor of ISO / IEC 17025 at NABL
9 年Thank you Sir, for sharing the experience. The day is not too far in eliminating inspection by improving upstream processes. I admire such contributions by the organisations.
Vice President & Program Manager
9 年Absolutely correct Sir ! All 14 points has tremendous depth for improvement; but one has to understand it ... I mean, these points to be digested and experienced by everyone in the organization.