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Improving Quality, Efficiency
& Profitability
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“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention,
sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution;
it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”
William A. Foster
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 It’s “Back to School” time already. The summer will soon be over. The question you might ask yourself is, “What do I want to learn more about?” Most business people want to be able to improve their company and increase their profitability. The ‘easiest’ way to do that is to become more efficient and to improve the quality of their products. That’s what it takes. Easy! Not always. But do-able.
The articles this time will address quality from various perspectives. Improving quality doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen without a concerted effort. If you’re ready to make your company more efficient, to improve the quality – and profitability – of your company, give me a call. My vacation is over and it’s time to get back to work – how ‘bout you?
Enjoy the last of the summer sun!
Sal Ganino
Manufacturing ETC
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 Managing for Quality |
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Are We Sacrificing Quality for Short-term Profit?
Have you noticed lately that much of the things we purchase today don’t seem to have the same level of quality they had ten, twenty, or more years ago? Back in the 1980’s, in response to the high level of quality coming out of Japan, every auto manufacturer instituted a push to improve the quality of their products. I’ve noticed that in many ways, albeit small ways, the quality of the automobiles I’ve purchased over the past ten years has begun to degenerate. This is resulting in my now considering a different auto manufacturer for the next vehicle.
During the past two or three years there has been a rash of quality problems coming out of the food processing industry, often meat being contaminated as a resulting of shut cuts being taken in the clean-up process. Now we are seeing contamination of fruits and vegetables. When finally resolved, it will undoubtedly be the result of some failures or short cuts taken in one or more of the quality assurance processes. Click here to read the complete article.
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Managing for Quality
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Should You Outsource Your Quality Function?
What is quality? We’ve all heard many different definitions of quality: doing the right thing right, compliance to specifications or that quality is in the eye of the beholder, like beauty. But for an academic definition, as it relates to business, we might say that quality is a product or service that consistently has zero defects, conforms to particular specifications, and is satisfactorily receive by the customer. Which really means it is the thought process sought out by an organization to create an overall drive toward efficiency, the reduction of waste, and the continual creation of more streamline management processes.
For many years, and up to about 20 or 30 years ago, quality was considered to be the creator of quality. We have since learned that quality cannot be inspected or subsequent to the manufacturing process, be infused into the product. As Ron Atkinson, past president of the American Society for Quality so nicely put it, “now the whole concept is more ingrained into the culture of organizations. Quality is created by people performing the function, whether it be assembling a Bluetooth device or filling out an intake form at a medical clinic.” Click here to read the complete article.
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MRP/ERP
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It’s Not the Fault of the Forecast
The word “forecasting” congers up all kinds of bad things for most of us; we’ve all heard that a forecast is “always wrong,” will maybe not always wrong, but never right. How can a company forecast in today’s world of instant gratification and customers deciding at the last moment on what they want, and then of course wanting what they want when they want it? And yet it is, if not impossible, very highly improbable to operate a manufacturing business without some sort of knowledge, information, indication, or forewarning of what is going to be required in the future.
Some years ago, I had the pleasure of being the Materials Manager for a major ball bearing manufacturer; bearing manufacturing at that time had a lead time of 13 weeks with a 26 week lead-time for the steel. With four categories of bearings (single row, double row, angular contact, and pillow blocks), three load bearing groups (light, medium duty, and heavy duty), and upwards of 15 to 20 individual sizes (from 1" to 36" in diameter), you can just imagine the chaos if we didn’t try to forecast future demand. Click here to read the complete article.
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For more information or to schedule training
call (518) 377-6107
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