Quality in the First Person

BY Marcia M. Weeden

Show and Tell

How do quality professionals explain their jobs?
I have A confession to make. One of the most frustrating things I have encountered during the course of my quality career is trying to explain what I do for a living to people who have no idea what quality is or what it does. You would think that somebody who has spent a career dealing with specifications, root cause analyses, corrective and preventive actions, and regulatory agencies could handle this, but it has not been easy. People just do not get it. I see the sideways glances seeking escape. I cringe as their forced, pasted smiles become more forced and pasted. Sometimes, if I am lucky, somebody might guess, Is that like quality control? You inspect things? I have hope. At least they know that much. Usually, though, theyve never heard of quality insurance. It goes downhill from there, typically a nanosecond or two after I start nicely explaining it is assurance,

Quality profession

/ figure 1

How can I ever show them the whole picture? Quality is huge.

not insurance. Thats when the pained expressions start appearing.

Regulatory Corporate Audits

Socially, were all being pleasant. It was an innocent inquiry about what I do for a living. Im trying hard not to be rude by answering their question, and
Six Sigma

Quality engineering

Compliance

theyre suddenly remembering someplace else they have to be.

Reputation

Training Specs, SOPs, and owcharts Benchmarking

The quality professional in me is horrified. I am not meeting the customers expectations and nobody is walking away satisfied. While other professionals enjoy instant recognition, my quality

Continuous improvement

Voice of the customer Quality management and TQM Risk analysis

Customer service

brain is switching to overdrive. I am losing my audience. Explaining really shouldnt be this difficult. I have even had trouble identifying where to begin. Because the responsibilities that fall in quality are so numerous,

Statistics

Quality costs Supplier management CAPA Contractors

Inspection and test

FMEAs

Ive wondered, How can I ever show them the whole picture? Quality is huge. I cant simply go out and take a photo of what I do. No, but I can draw it and approxi-

Complaints

Warranty issues and recalls

CAPA = corrective action and preventive action FMEA = failure mode and effects analysis SOP = standard operating procedure TQM = total quality management

mate it. How? With illustrationsshow and tell. So often the best solutions are the simplest ones.

48 QP www.qualityprogress.com

One problem, though. I cannot draw a straight line regardless of my intentions. Lucky for me, though, there is clip art. I came up with three illustrations to use as springboards to explain what I do for a living. 1. The quality profession (Figure 1). I used a circle because the profession encompasses a lot. Some of the clip art lies outside the circle to illustrate that quality involves factors apart from our work locations. 2. The manufacturing environment (Figure 2). Its easiest for people to follow because of an obvious path from start to finish. 3. A services environment (Figure 3). I used the example of a health insurance company dependent on computers and various demands put on it by providers, customers and regulatory agencies because everybody has had some experience with these areaspeople can relate. It also demonstrates how complex those systems are, how quickly they can become complicated and how much there is to take into consideration. The clip art? Its easily recognizable, non-threatening and simple to understand. Using these figures, people finally get what I do for a living. Maybe they dont understand the particulars, but at least the confusion is gone. There are smiles and acceptance, and we all walk away happy. QP

Manufacturing environment

/ figure 2

Product idea

Marketing and sales

Contract

Design and engineering

Set-up

Receiving

Purchasing

Customer order

Manufacturing

Packaging

Packing

Order fulllment

Shipping

Picking

Warehousing

Skidding

Customer service

Services environment (health insurance company) / figure 3

Mental health Medical transport Students away from home

Clinics and walk-in ERs

Physcians

Hospitals

Single member Surgeons Group Dentists Specialities Couples Dependents Families

Physcial therapists

Patients

Pharmacists Medicare

ADM and applications

Systems

Work station

Laptops Federal Corporate Stockholders Security Employees

marcia M. weeden is a quality consultant and owner of Quality Excellence Services, in Barrington, RI. She has masters degree in textiles, clothing and related art with specializations in quality and adult training from the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. Weeden is a member of ASQ and a certified engineer and technician. She is also the chair of ASQs Olde Colony Section in southeastern Massachussetts.

Medical equipment Off-shore Extended care

Help desk

Legal

Membership

Customer service Chronic conditions

Remote computing

Cloud computing

Mail

Claims

Finance

ADM = application development management

March 2013 QP 49