Thought Leadership
Does Quality = Manufacturing and Engineering Only?
Lost Cost Savings and Revenue Growth
Currently (and in the past), Companies focus their Quality efforts in Manufacturing and Engineering. Certainly this makes sense in that you must design and produce good products (and services) in order to generate revenue and profit. But what about the rest of the organization – Purchasing, Legal, Sales, Marketing, HR?
Is Quality just for Manufacturing and Engineering, and in many cases, only a select few within these functions, or are there reasons to broaden the focus of Quality to include more of the organization? The direct answer is YES. By broadening the reach of quality to involve all functions within an organization, or an enterprise wide quality model, everyone is responsible for quality and therefore cost savings, revenue growth, safety enhancements and efficiencies and effectiveness can come from everywhere and anywhere in the organization.
In multiple industries – Manufacturing, Automotive, Healthcare, Food and Beverage, Education, Government and others, most organizations only have a few “Quality Experts” or a small “Quality Department” that are tasked with increasing quality and blamed for quality problems. When Quality is expanded to include all functions, everyone becomes accountable and responsible for Quality but the benefits don’t stop there.
Expanding Quality to include everyone gets everyone in the action of saving money, increasing revenue, improving safety and increasing efficiency and effectiveness – and this isn’t “extra work”, it’s the work that should be done “all the time.” Expanding Quality also creates positive cultural growth by involving everyone. Everyone speaks in the language of Quality – People, Safety, Cost, and Time and everyone understands the tools and methods of Quality so “plug and play” project leaders can take on projects both within their areas of expertise and outside of them.
So how do you determine if your organization may have an opportunity to improve quality beyond Operations, Manufacturing and Engineering? Simply ask a few people: “Who is responsible for Quality”? If they say “not me” or “the Quality Department is in Building #2,” well… you just found your opportunity to recover lost cost savings and revenue growth.
Pioneering the Way
Subir Chowdhury
A thought leader in quality management strategy and methodology for more than 20 years and currently the Chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group. He originated LEO methodology and wrote the first book for Design For Six Sigma (DFSS). More…
Genichi Taguchi
An engineer and statistician who developed a methodology for applying statistics to improve the quality of manufactured goods. Dr. Taguchi is the originator of the Taguchi Method. Engineers all over the world have accepted his concepts as a gold standard for engineering. More…
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The Difference A new book by Subir Chowdhury that shows us that what distinguishes one organization from another is its people. The best processes and training programs in the world will not succeed, unless we improve our organization’s culture, and nurture the skills, loyalty and passion of the people who make up our workforce, from the C-suite to the shop floor. To be released February 2016 from Penguin Random House. |
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Robust Optimization Improve robustness using low-cost variations of a single, conceptual design. Benefits include faster product development cycles, faster launch cycles, fewer manufacturing problems, fewer field problems, higher performing products and processes, and lower warranty costs. Adopt flexibility that minimizes product development cost, reduces product time-to-market, and increases overall productivity. At Amazon.com |
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The Power of LEO In The Power of LEO, you’ll find how continuous improvement delivers unprecedented levels of quality. By focusing on quality improvement, you can revolutionize any process — from manufacturing operations to managerial decision making. The secret is to cease delegating the responsibility of quality to specific teams or departments and permanently lodge it within the core of an organization’s culture. At Amazon.com |
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The Ice Cream Maker This concept drives home the point of building quality in every aspect of the organizational culture, for businesses to become leading players in the global market and retain their position. In an easy to read and understand, Chowdhury gives an in-depth insight of quality leadership. At Amazon.com |
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Next Generation Business Handbook To stay ahead of the wave in today’s rapidly changing business environment, successful business leaders must precisely forecast the future and efficiently employ new concepts and methods to drive their competitive edge. At Amazon.com |
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Taguchi’s Quality Engineering Handbook In the last fifty years, one man stands out as the driving force behind the quality revolution? Genichi Taguchi. Now, in one handy volume, Taguchi’s Quality Engineering Handbook presents all the methods and beliefs that have made Taguchi one of the most respected authorities on quality engineering and management in the world. At Amazon.com |
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The Power of Six Sigma The Power of Six Sigma is unlike any other book on Six Sigma. This fictionalized tale simplifies a complicated topic and through dialogue between Joe and Larry, explains the way Six Sigma works in a nonthreatening, easy-to-understand way. Everyone in the organization will learn what Six Sigma is and how it works. At Amazon.com |
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Management 21C This book is a collection of essays and speculations by the likes of Peter Senge, Sumantra Ghoshal, Barry Posner, and 23 more management heavyweights on the future of business, leadership, process, and organization. At Amazon.com |
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The Talent Era Subir Chowdhury reveals the seven key secrets of talent, then shows managers exactly how to measure Return on Talent (ROT)-and exactly how to enhance it. He also shows talented individuals exactly how to maximize their own talents-and maximize the rewards those talents can earn. At Amazon.com |
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Design for Six Sigma In Design For Six Sigma, Chowdhury explains to managers and company decision makers how to fully reap the benefits of this methodology and become a market leader. At Amazon.com |
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The Power of Design for Six Sigma Even with the best Six Sigma implementation, most companies only attain a Four or Five Sigma level. To truly attain the level of Six Sigma, 3.4 defects per million, companies need to go back to the drawing board and create a product or process using Design for Six Sigma (DFSS). At Amazon.com |
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Robust Engineering Powerful and elegantly simple. Achieve higher quality, lower costs, and faster time to market. Companies worldwide have used the methods of quality expert Genichi Taguchi for the past 30 years with phenomenal product development cost savings and quality improvements. Robust Engineering, by this three-time Deming Prize winner, along with Subir Chowdhury and Shin Taguchi, is the first book to explain and illustrate his newest, most revolutionary methodology, Technology Development. At Amazon.com |
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Organization 21C In Organization 21C: Someday All Organizations Will Lead This Way, leading management thinker Subir Chowdhury brings together 28 of the world’s eminent thought leaders, covering all four key drivers of organizational success: leadership, process, people, and organizational design. You’ll find breakthrough ideas and practical solutions for virtually every management and leadership challenge you face – tactical and strategic. At Amazon.com |
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QS9000 Pioneers Through a series of case studies profiling suppliers to leading-edge automotive companies like General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, QS-9000 Pioneers is the first book to reveal the best practices of the certified companies who continue to lead the way. Readers will discover: How to register and/or implement QS-9000 through a series of best practices; Successful case studies showing the requirements, milestones, pitfalls, and expected returns; A formula for “Instant Knowledge” on subject areas that apply to the reader’s particular organization. At Amazon.com |
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The Mahalanobis-Taguchi System A groundbreaking new philosophy that has been reshaping Japanese industry since its inception. Developed by award-wining quality engineering expert Dr. Genichi Taguchi – acknowledged as one of the most innovative thinkers in the field, and based on the work of Indian Statistics giant Dr. P. C. Mahalanobis, the system provides a powerful process for recognizing patterns and forecasting results. At Amazon.com |
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Taguchi on Robust Technology Development Taguchi Methods, or “Quality Engineering” as Dr. Taguchi preferred, points to the benefits of evaluation and improvement of the robustness of products, through tolerance specifications, design of engineering management processes, and evaluation of economic loss caused by functional variation of products. This practical guide presents proven quality engineering methods. At Amazon.com |
