Quality control

Debra Shumar explains how the disciplines of Six Sigma and Lean can change the culture of a company to focus more on quality and efficiency in order to improve employee and customer satisfaction.

“Companies must also be willing to admit when a process is not proceeding as planned and make necessary adjustments.”
-Debra Shumar

How do companies sustain a culture of quality while maintaining a consistent level of customer satisfaction?

Debra Shumar. Creating a steady vision and getting people at all levels of the organization engaged with the idea of quality creates a culture that improves and enriches what people do, the knowledge they utilize and the products and services they produce. Promoting a culture of Quality that inherently embraces continuous improvement will achieve higher levels of employee and customer satisfaction. Assuring that in a Management Review Process (MRP), quality metrics are reviewed is also key to sustaining an environment of quality and customer satisfaction. It is important to understand what processes and or products need to be improved then apply the appropriate tool to the area of concern. This area is where 3P Partners' services such as Six Sigma and Lean are critical.

Quality is very critical within the Food Industry. How do 3P Partner’s Six Sigma and Lean tools help the organization to improve quality?

DS. Quality standards and regulation have been a key part of a company’s structure for years. But today, with so many companies buying, selling, downsizing and out-sourcing, assuring that quality is kept at to the highest level is a paramount concern. As the Food industry continues to improve costs and efficiency while maintaining compliance to regulation, it is important to provide a constant vision and focus about how our tools (Six Sigma and Lean) impact the workforce. Six Sigma and Lean are tools to assist the engagement of employees at all levels of the organization and are critical to improving operating efficiency and quality.

What do companies need to do to effectively use these tools?

DS. There are several key factors that can help any organization achieve success with the implementation of a Six Sigma or Lean initiative or program. Some factors to consider are the leadership’s commitment to assuring the vision aligns with the organization, a communication plan, skills and education training for all employees to drive improvement, profitability, return on investment, and an evaluation of the structure to support the realignment of resources and functions while trying to incur minimal risk to the organization and customers. Companies must also be willing to admit when a process is not proceeding as planned and make necessary adjustments.

How do companies sustain a continuous quality improvement focused culture using these tools?

DS. The formal elements of strategy, structure, systems and infrastructure coupled with the informal elements of people, competencies, behaviors, relationships and culture must move in harmony over the long haul if companies are to create a new culture of sustainability through the use of Six Sigma and Lean tools. The primary reason for doing this is so that the architecture behind Six Sigma and Lean initiative supports the new culture for the organization of ongoing continuous improvement.

Why is culture so important to quality?

DS. Culture is as important to quality as the effort it takes to solve problems, improve productivity, downsize, merge, acquire business or drive organisational change. But when the culture of the organisation does not embrace shared quality ideals, many organisations never fully utilise their resources, thereby diminishing productivity and improvement within the organization. Providing the who, what, why and how while providing steady vision and engaging with people at all levels of the organisation will create a “Culture of Quality” to achieve greater levels of employee and customer satisfaction. To change how an organisation’s culture drives quality, the organisation must require Future Quality to be the fundamental and pre-eminent focus.

Debra Shumar is President and founder of 3P Partners. Former positions include VP Global Product Quality for Whirlpool and SVP Quality, Continuous Improvement, Engineering and Technology at ArvinMeritor. These responsibilities included product and process quality, warranty, supplier development, continuous process improvement and business excellence initiatives with people supportive strategies. Debra is a certified Lean instructor and trained in the discipline of Six Sigma.