There are overall two types of problematic companies regarding Quality Assurance. These that do not do enough, and those that do too much (the former tending to evolve towards the latter). These two dark sides have a cost in terms of productivity, income and employee engagement. In this post, I am sharing how a systemic perspective can help you improve the situation.
Quality should be at the heart of everything we do. In some highly regulated environments such as the food and drug industries, quality is critical and highly controlled.
Tipping points
There are however tipping points between doing not enough, doing it right and doing too much even if not always easy to identify and quantify them objectively. In my career, I have been confronted with all these situations.
In both extreme cases, the impact will most probably affect your
- productivity,
- income,
- unexpected costs,
- employee engagement, etc.
My suggestion for improvement is to adopt a systemic approach both when measuring/auditing and when transforming/implementing solutions. As an example, the Systemic Resonance Model (SRM) will assess three main pilars (the core project, the human perspective and the governance) and how they inter-relate.
This will give a full picture including vision, strategy, well-being, willingness, trust, resilience, etc. with percentages and distributions. Super powerful.
For instance, a diagnostic through the SRM can highlight a disconnection between upper management and shop floor. As a consequence, some decisions might not make sense from a practical standpoint and therefore decrease productivity or even increase risk of accident.
Excessive bureaucracy
Also, excessive bureaucracy is often observed when doing too much. The reasons behind that might be a lack of staff training, a lack of self-discipline (as highlighted by Jim Collins in his book Good to great), or usually a mix of both.
Again this will be easily highlighted with the SRM when questioning e.g. if the action plan makes really sense and/or if employee feel valued (through continuous training notably).
Comment below and I will be happy to interact and/or to plan a diagnostic within your organization.