Quality catastophes.
Life behind the quality Dykes. Not so many years before he died Dr Juran created a video entitled 'life behind the quality dykes' in which he commented that as we come to rely more and more on technology, the consequences of quality related disasters become more severe. The terrible consequences of the natural disaster of the tsunami impacting on all of the safety measures and predictive statistical calculations in the planning and design of the Fakushima Nuclear Power station puts all of that in perspective. Can we, should we ever give up in the quest for ever better and more effective quality disciplines. None of us knows nor can we know when the next disaster will strike, what form it will take, or even if it might involve ourselves in some way. Never before has the quality profession been put to such a test? Who is complacent about the importance of the quality sciences and disciplines now?
It is not just the impact of natural disasters, there are the man made ones too!
Toyota recalls cost billions,
About £1 million is to be paid out to relatives of patients who died as a result of neglect at Stafford Hospital. Nearly 100 bereaved relatives and patients are to receive compensation sums ranging from £1,000 to £27,500. They are in line for an average payment of just more than £11,000 in what is believed to be the largest group claim ever made against a hospital.
It is claimed in the news that the recent Rolls Royce engine failure may have been caused by a design fault. Wiping billions of the value of their shares at a stroke! Of course we do not yet know that for sure but we do know that the final costs to Rolls Royce will be astronomic
These are all catastrophic Quality related costs!
What is behind all of this?
Generally speaking most people think that quality related costs only refer to scrap and rework in manufacturing companies and only account for some 1% of costs.
They do not realise that even design faults are quality related.
When all quality related costs are taken into account, scrap and rework are almost insignificant. In fact those who understand the subject know that quality related costs in fact account for more than 30% of sales revenues on average year by year not taking into account the occasional disasters such as the Rolls Royce episode and the Toyota recalls!
In the light of all these recent experiences how could we ever put a price on the cost of poor quality
It is also a fact that through the organised application of the Dr Juran originated Project by Project systematic improvment process these costs can be halved year on year more or less exponentially. Eventually there may come a point where to reduce them further might cost more than the benefit but history informs us that this is unlikely, there will always be new challenges but right now, let us concentrate on the job in hand.
If the British Government is looking for cuts that cause not pain only benefit both in terms of reductions in real cost matched by increased sales, increase in reputation and a sense of pride in workmanship and service delivery then look no further than to direct people at all levels to our Chartered Quality Institute registered courses on business performance improvement. Details on this site.