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But what is best quality for products and services involving multiple people in a more complex supply chain? What is quality at the source, why does it matter? Quality must be defined by whoever the end customer is, so there is not one definition. However, when a company commits to producing according to the quality characteristics desired by its end-consumer, doing the right thing the first time will help deliver a product of the desired quality and at a predictable cost. When quality is not built into every step of the way, defects get passed on and produce unnecessary waste, potentially compromising the end result and making for a more expensive overall operation. Our customers (and our associates) "taste" the quality of our products and services every single day. Let us create a flavor that has them coming back for more.

"Inspection does not improve the quality, nor guarantee quality. Inspection is too late. The quality, good or bad, is already in the product. As Harold F. Dodge said, "You can not inspect quality into a product." - W. Edwards Deming, Out of Crisis, Page 29

Putting people and tools on the line to catch defects created by another process is a sign of not showing respect in the inherent capability of the people to do good work. Instead, management has to spend time and energy in creating processes that are capable and can catch errors and mistakes by themselves leading to continuous improvement. Dr. Shigeo Shingo preached these concepts when he talked about zero quality control. According to Dr. Shingo, we cannot achieve the aim of zero defects until we make each element of the process capable to produce perfect quality by ensuring the errors and mistakes are quickly identified and corrected before they lead to defects. His idea of poka-yoke and source checking are exactly in line with this principle.

How could we avoid this from happening with our cross check process?

Let's set it as a vision and then design in 6-8 month improvement targets. The vision can be a year or two out and we can steadily march toward the vision with incremental targets.

It is difficult to assure quality at the source if leaders do not respect all associates. I have seen companies with people who do not feel comfortable reporting quality concerns at the gemba, because they are ignored or "punished" if they stop the line to report a problem. This creates an atmosphere of fear, and quality issues slip out the door reaching the customer and creates a snowball of problems for everyone.

"An organization relying only on audits with no quality training is like a teacher administering only surprise exams with no teaching; the result is poor quality." - Aly Basyouny, PGESCO

"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." - Willa Foster

What checks can we install to ensure that the information we send to our downstream colleagues is 100% complete and accurate? What error-proofing tools can we create? It's not that hard to insert data validation tools into a spreadsheet or a web form. Checklists and templates are other tools that can help ensure built-in quality.

Take any work - if it is assembling, accounting, programming, welding - anything.  If the work is simplified and understandable, if it is constructed so as to be simple to perform, it is likely to be far less open to simple mistakes and, therefore, quality improves - which means easier leads to better.  If the quality improves, then there's less re-work, less "going slow to make sure you get it right" and the like, so the speed at which the work can be accomplished is increased - hence, faster.  If we are doing things without burning people out, without rework and scrap, and take less time to do it - hour costs (especially per unit) are also….cheaper!

This pen-stroke solution is a great example of the smallest of steps we can take towards improving quality. The next steps may include making the using white-on-black or yellow-on-black marks to visually stand out, creating and posting one-point lessons around the machines, and starting an autonomous maintenance routine to prevent the marks fading or drift out of the target zone. These are just a few examples of the thousands of chalk marks that we can all make once we realize that the these smallest steps towards quality improvement are the most important ones in the long-term.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a valuable tool in quality improvement for identifying the underlying causes or facts of a issue or incident so proper solutions can be identified and implemented. It is a tool designed to identify not only what happened and how it happened, but also why. When you truly able to determine the facts of why an event happened, then you be be able to apply workable corrective actions to prevent future events. Some organizations mistakenly interpret the term 'root cause' to mean there is one root cause of an issue.

How many handoffs are there within each process? How visible are the key performance indicators - cost, quality, delivery, and safety - to each person working in the department? Does each process have a clear owner? How much and how often do people have to rework the information that they receive from their upstream colleagues? How often and how long do people (or customers) have to wait for information? How many different ways are there of doing a job (i.e., do you have standard work for each function)?

This seems insane. Why would you go through the pain of removing the (relatively) low cost buffer of some extra parts? The answer, it turns out, is that without a buffer, you've lowered the water level and you can see the rocks below. Without a buffer, every supplier had to dramatically up his game. Suddenly, the quality of parts went way up, which, of course, makes the assembly line go faster and every car ends up working better as well.

The FMEA Tool (Failure, Modes, Effects, Analysis) is a powerful tool available to a Lean Six Sigma practitioner. The tool is extensively used where a safety critical environment exists, such as the aerospace or automotive industry. The tool allows a team the ability to design quality and safety into processes or products on the front end of the environment, eliminating potential problems before they occur.

I can't but think if a school teacher can use this technique to establish a morning routine for their students why so many managers feel weird doing so for their employees. Perhaps we have forgotten what we learned.  This is why I feel this example of quality improvement in an unexpected classroom is worth sharing.

This provides real time feedback to those in the cell where the defects are occurring.  Now the team can work to eliminate the root cause of the defects by starting with the highest impact defects.  The bin with the largest quantity of defects has the highest contribution to poor quality.  This is essentially a visual pareto chart where focusing on the vital few is possible.

An interesting article on how Toyota uses inspections to build-in quality.

Zero defects is a philosophy of Lean. It simply means that every process should be designed so that it is impossible to produce poor quality. The underlying premise, which is true in nearly every case, is that the cost of preventing problems is lower than the cost of fixing them.

5S is the systematic integration of all of the facets of manufacturing in the workplace in a manner that assures the best cost, optimum flow, perfact quality and absolute safety.  As this chart shows, straightening and sweeping is nothing more than a superficial, final step after the work place has been holistically designed and put in place.

Unclutterer.com is a fascinating, intensive site dedicated to improving personal productivity and quality of life by the elimination of unnecessary stuff.  The site's dozens of topics range from bedroom and kitchen, to college dorm, office, and general productivity and time management.

What do you get when you combine free and Lean?  Well, the FreeLeanSite.com. Jay Watson is the Lean thinker behind this site. It grew from a passion of implementing Lean on the shop floor at companies like Motorola, Honeywell, and General Electric. He started the site to make "lean thinking" concepts of continuous improvement highly accessible for practitioners in North America. Our primary focus is on accelerating the developmental process, sustaining the effort, and most importantly - driving for results. The majority of the training modules are absolutely free to download and modify as needed. A management improvement process focused on elements of Safety, Quality, and Speed of Execution provides a framework for action. The site has four major sections to aid in finding the right resource: Jay also provides some advice on implementing Lean by defining a Lean Roadmap.The roadmap consists of the following three phases: PHASE 1 (GET READY): PLANNING FOR IMPROVEMENT PHASE II (GET SET): CONDUCTING A PILOT PROGRAM PHASE III (GO!): TEAM PROBLEM SOLVING/ SKILLS DEVELOPMENT I have been truly amazed by the sheer amount of Lean related material that Jay has compiled.  This is a great resource for learning on your own or sharing with your team.