SQDPE- What is it, and why is it?

This tool has at least a dozen names. SQDC, SQDPE, SQDCE, QDIP, so on and so forth. What is it and why does it matter? Well to understand the why, you will need to put yourself in the position of a leader. Imagine you have just been handed a large operation, with 500 people doing some type of income producing function. You aren't familiar with whatever the industry is, and you have no idea about the type of work performed, nor how the people engage with it. You are tasked with simply figuring it out. Thankfully we have a little toolbox that acts as the express lane of good operational management, the SQDPE- Safety,Quality,Delivery,Productivity,Engagement.

(Note: The acronyms can be scary and vary wildly. Some people prefer to frame it as cost rather than productivity, or defect rather than quality. Even "morale" or "people" instead of engagement. It doesn't matter which acronym you use, or which words you prefer, as long as you get one of each of the following categories.

Deploying the Tool Box

To begin with this toolbox, you will only need to consult the SME (subject matter experts) as it relates to critical outputs. This will allow you to translate outcomes>deliverables>measurables. Have a very brief conversation as it relates to each acronym, and take off!

Safety- We will measure safety incidents per month.

Quality- We will measure defects per million pieces.

Delivery- We will measure on time completion of work.

Productivity- We will measure the cost associated with the corresponding output.

Engagement- We will measure something that gives us a barometer of team engagement.

Every workplace needs to track safety, everywhere should track the quality of their work, the timeliness, the overall cost to operate, along with some sort of human factor, which is most commonly attendance.

You will need to create an identical line chart for each category, with each day of the month on the horizontal axis, and a number range that corresponds to what you are measuring in the vertical axis. Once you have this, place it in a highly visible part of your operation. This gives the entire group insight into "are we winning" by category. once here, you are ready to rock n roll!

Daily Contribution

The single most important piece of this tool is to update it daily. This keeps everybody in the know in every category on a consistent, daily basis. Periodicity allows for the discipline required to manage the business successfully. Once you have a full calendar month of data, you are ready to add a trend-line to your new, fresh month. For each category, simply plot the prior month's data, and challenge the team to beat it! If you are measuring the number of safety incidents for Safety, and you have 3 incidents in January, go for 2 or less in February! If you chose to measure absenteeism for engagement, track the total call offs for January, and aim to beat it in February! Regardless of the specific track the team wanted to measure, you can still capture the data, and attempt to directionally improve. Now what happens when you don't do so successfully?

Failure Modes

You need to have a fun conversation with the SME's about what can go wrong within each category. Once you have some defined failure modes(a brief summary of what went wrong), add some free space on the board to track. You can simply have a horizontal axis with the day of the month, the details of failure modes listed on the vertical axis, and write in the # of infractions where the two meet. It is okay if you don't start with all of the answers, simply leave free space on the vertical axis should you need to write in a new failure mode. Over time, this gives you a fantastic barometer of which segments of the business to focus on. It will allow you to perceive what is failing, what is successful, and what needs your attention the most. Now that you have trended all the data on your SQDPE, and tracked failure modes successfully, you only have one thing left to do, and that is to take action!

Corrective Action

Anytime your calendar month does not improve directionally within a category, a corrective action is required. In addition, any excess of the same failure mode should also trigger corrective action. Now handed to you on a silver platter is the category that went wrong, along with the defined reason of what went wrong. Now you go to where this work takes place, involve the SME, the people doing the work, and utilize the Socratic method to both understand the issue and arrive at a path to correction. Below is an example exchange, presuming it is an ice cream based operation.

New Leader: "Alright! Seems the team has the third chocolate flavor mix up in a week, let's go what is happening here". (Invite the chocolate manager, and go to the flavor station).

New Leader: "Good morning team. Seems we have the third incident this week with strawberry flavor being shipped as chocolate. Could I ask your feedback on how this occurs?"

Choco Manager: "Yea sometimes the employees are not paying attention".

New Leader: "Let us get the perspective of the employee". (Repeats question to employee)

Employee: "The labels are on a tiny 2x2, and the font is 8 point. This makes it hard to read and really easy to mistake when you ship 10,000 gallons a day."

New Leader: "Absolutely that is a barrier, now how do you think I could fix this for you?"

Employee: "You could get bigger labels, or color code them. Something so I don't have to squint and try to figure it out."

Boom! We have lift off. We asked questions, remained respectful to the team, and we have all of the details gathered to deploy an effective solution.

Handing the Power Back to the Team

Once you have a full cycle of data, distinct failure modes, and several successful corrective actions, all you really need to do is invite permission. Place the team in charge of updating the board, tracking the failure modes, asking the questions, and delivering the corrective action. Monitor this regularly to assist the team in building the habit, and constantly preach to the authority the team possesses to make change, solve problems, and deploy solutions. As soon as they are taking off with this, you have hit success. Congratulations, the site is managed.

Conclusion

Now in this article, we intentionally stayed as vague as possible, in order to illustrate the broad spectrum this toolkit can be applicable to. It largely does not matter what industry or system you ascribe to, as long you measure critical outputs within each category, and try to directionally improve over time, you are winning! There is no excuse in regards to the complexity of the work being conducted, nor the amount of insight or intelligence as it relates to said work. Simply track, trace, directionally improve.

Need help making your first board? linkedin.com/in/jakeharrellchasingexcellence . I genuinely enjoy doing the work and happy to help anybody, free of cost.:)