Quality as a Mindset, Not Just a Buzzword
by Robert Dunne
Documenting procedural best practices isn’t enough to consistently
produce high quality products. Rotational molders need to instill a
desire to manufacture to high quality standards.
Nothing sparks thoughts about quality like sitting in a plane
that’s about to take off. “I hope this pilot went through
some intense, high quality training” -- “I hope this plane was
designed with the finest quality systems and components
available” -- “I hope the maintenance program conforms
to the same high quality standards we use in our plants,” I
thought to myself while awaiting my departure. And as a pilot,
I could not help but recall what happened the first time I
bought my own airplane. It was delivered from
the factory with a standard airworthiness
certificate documenting having been
manufactured properly and was
therefore safe to fly. And fly I did.
Everywhere I could. Except I was
blissfully unaware the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA ) was soon mailing
me my first Airworthiness Directive
(A.D.), a letter suggesting I immediately
upgrade my plane with stall strips on
the wings to prevent the plane from
falling into an “unrecoverable spin
with subsequent crash.” After paying
for the remedial repairs and returning
to the skies, I received three more A.D.
notices from the FAA over the next 20
months alerting me to one problem
after another. First, the motor needed
new pushrods to prevent the engine
from stopping in mid-air (followed by
a “forced landing”). Then the engine
magnetos needed to be replaced also
to prevent the engine from stopping in
mid-air. Then the tail mounting brackets
had to be replaced to prevent the tail
from falling off in mid-air with similar
consequences. My shiny, new plane may
have been manufactured according to
its design specifications but the design
hardly seemed to be a quality design.
Just because it would fly did not make
it a quality product. The fact that these
design flaws were only uncovered after
investigating fatal crashes cemented
in my mind forever the importance of
establishing high quality as a mindset at
every level of a company.
Manufacturing a plastic container
may not seem like it involves the same
grisly life and death consequences as
manufacturing an airplane does but if
that container fails while loaded atop a
forklift the results may be just as deadly.
While the vast majority of rotational
molders – and that certainly includes
those of you who invest time in reading
publications like RotoWorld® – pay close
attention to the quality of every facet
of operations, there are some who run
their day to day operations much like
the company that manufactured my
problem-plagued airplane. Unfortunately,
they do so without concern for how their
approach affects the perception of the
entire rotational molding industry.
Industry Sentiment
There is no way to know exactly how
some design engineers latched onto
the idea that rotational molding is
intrinsically unable to meet precise
tolerances. Maybe they were comparing
it to more familiar processes like
metalworking or injection molding
without truly understanding how the
processes differ. Or perhaps a few
rotational molders convinced some
engineering and purchasing managers to
stake their jobs on trying out rotational
molding, then failed to deliver the level
of service, manufacturing and support
they had promised, sending them
running back to their other vendors – for
good. In fact, the quality of any process
corresponds directly to the commitment
of the people behind the process. Like
the computer age axiom, garbage in -
garbage out, rotational molders who put
quality into the process get quality out
and those who choose not to put quality
in get inferior parts out. The future of
rotational molding depends on how
OEM’s perceive the process and if even
a few bad apples continue to dismiss
high quality standards as an imperative
then not only will their businesses fail to
excel in the long term but our customer
base as an industry will contract along
with the range of products and parts that
OEM’s consider suitable for rotational
molding.
Plants Do Shut Down
I’ve seen firsthand that plants do close
down and while there may be many
factors leading up to a plant closure,
rarely is it shut down due to the quality
being too high. More often, a closure is
triggered when people fail to care about
quality and how it impacts the customer.
A man sitting next to me on a flight a few
years ago, for example, had just been laid
off when his global automotive company
shut down his plant. The company had
been enjoying a resurgence thanks to
the launch of an economy car and the
plant was humming along. To cut costs,
managers decided to source components
from several different countries and
assemble the cars in another country.
When the cars started rolling off the
assembly line, their horns honked
when the button to open the windows
was pushed and the doors locked and
unlocked when the light switch was
turned on and off. Quality inspectors
soon figured out the prints for wiring the
car were misinterpreted due to errors in
translation. Problem solved, right? Not
exactly. This should have been the happy
ending to the story but unfortunately,
according to the former manager who sat
next to me, company executives decided
to continue producing the cars with
these known defects, shifting the burden
of repair onto the dealers with no
notification of the problem. Surely this
wasn’t the best practice documented
in the company’s ISO application.
As word spread among the dealers
and customers, the once successful
car had to be discontinued and the
adverse impact of this debacle on the
company’s brand was incalculable as the
perception of poor quality drove people
away from the company’s other, more
luxurious cars, too. Clearly, the level of
commitment to quality at the assembly
line corresponds directly to the level of
commitment to quality at the executive
level. In this case, the executives failed
as role models. They demonstrated that
poor quality was acceptable and even
preferable. Had the company invested
in promoting quality as a mindset
among line workers, had thousands of
binders been distributed and posters
hung documenting proper procedures,
it no longer mattered. Whatever impact
internal quality programs had made up to
that point had been dashed in an instant.
As customers, we refuse to buy cars
that score poorly on quality and safety
data. We expect airlines to land safely
every time (and with our luggage on
board, too). Yet as rotational molders,
some of us then turn around and deliver
designs and parts to the customer that
do not measure up to the same level of
quality that we demand ourselves. In
some cases, the customer may knowingly
ask for an inferior design but it is our
responsibility to dissuade that request
and educate the customer. With cost
increases affecting every facet of our
business, this is simply no way for our
industry to operate if we want to prosper
over the long term. To avoid the quality
issues that hurt customer satisfaction
and degrade the image of rotational
molding, consider taking some of these
steps in your plant:
Automate
Automated equipment when operated
by trained workers with experience in
rotational molding promotes consistent,
part to part repeatability. CNC routers
and our Leonardo rotational molding
system are key examples.
Teammate
Involve the sales team in the
manufacturing process to help them
understand exactly what issues the
manufacturing team faces during day
to day operations and what types of
products are likely to create quality
issues. Then involve the manufacturing
team in the sales process to help them
understand how much work is involved
before a quote is even requested. Be
sure everyone understands that a single
quality issue upon delivery can nullify
years of effort that had been contributed
to a project or to a customer by many
people.
Vendor Relate
Establish positive relationships with
material suppliers, mold makers and
other vendors and involve their sales
representatives early in the product
development stage. Polyethylene from
one supplier, for example, may be
chemically identical to that of another
but they may not always perform the
same way once in the mold. To deliver
consistent product quality, tailor
the process to the material of one
primary supplier and understand how
adjustments may need to be made to
the process in case a vendor change
is necessary.
Mission Statement
As demonstrated by the shuttered auto
plant example, commitment to quality
starts at the top. The first step is for
executives to put a mission statement to
paper. This requires truly thinking about
the strengths and weaknesses of one’s
company in relation to what the market
is interested in buying. For an example,
our goal at MOD is to exceed customer
expectations as a premier rotational
molder and to produce the finest quality
rotationally molded parts in the industry.
Quality Statement
Every employee needs to understand the
impact of quality on the customer and
on his/her own company. Hiring a quality
inspector and uncovering defective
parts at the end of the line is better than
unknowingly shipping defective parts, but
not much better. Ultimately, this thinking
will cost too much for the company to
stay in business. A quality statement that
supports the mission statement helps
focus the concept into a mindset that
everyone can embrace. For an example,
at MOD, each member of the team has
the responsibility to conform to agreed
upon customer expectations, and the
right to make improvements or meet or
exceed those expectations through both
teamwork and individual empowerment
to address quality issues through
preventative action.
I feel confident in our business
knowing that any one of our people can
stop production to address a quality
issue or present an idea to improve
operations. I know our managers will
listen and take action accordingly, not
just because we’ve documented our
quality procedures in a manual – though
we have - but because they understand
the importance and the value of quality
to the customer, to our company and
to the entire industry. And back to that
airplane flight, if only the airline would
care as much about my luggage.
If you have comments or questions,
I would love to hear from you. Send
comments to Bob Dunne at rdunne1@usa.net or see www.Rotomolding.com/
bobdunne.shtml. Meese Orbitron Dunne
Co. is the first rotomolder in North
America to invest in the Leonardo
system. Its parent company, Tingue,
Saddle Brook, New Jersey, has a history
of bold moves since 1902 that include
pioneering the use of plastics for
rotomolding laundry handling products.
|
