In the ‘Deming Dimension’ (SPC Press Inc 1990 ISBN 0-945320-08-6) Henry Neave introduces the chain reaction (page 33) with a reference to Quality Guideline 1 in an article by Joiner Associates “A Practical Approach to Quality”:
Quality Guideline 1: Quality Begins With Delighting the Customer.
“.... Your bosses may be ecstatic, the Board of Directors blissful and your company may be considered a legend on Wall Street. But if your customers are not delighted, you have not begun to achieve quality”.
Pretty direct wording – which I suggest is symptomatic of a strong belief that is an implicit fundamental of the chain reaction.
Whilst currently there are ‘shed loads’ of words and lots of activity around the importance of customers e.g. customer care initiatives, questionnaires, surveys etc, my experience as a customer is generally that reality comes nowhere near to me ‘being delighted’. I conclude from my experiences that in practice ‘delighting customers’ is not generally regarded as either the starting point for quality nor product/ service delivery. My personal experiences and observations, affirmed in conversations with others, strongly suggest that, in general:
· The actual prime focus in action is on ‘boss’ (I use this term in a VERY wide sense).
· ‘Quality’ is what we can ‘get away with’.
· Delighting the customer means we have gone too far – and given something away for nothing.
· The prime ‘aims in action’ are actually:
o Reduce cost.
o Sell more – of whatever you can manage to sell.
Regardless of the fact that I personally find the statements made by Tom Johnson & Brian Joiner (see part 1) both consistent & compelling, we are, however, still seemingly left with the reality that current practice does not, in general, appear to follow the Deming Chain Reaction. Maybe the way that the Deming Chain Reaction is presented may be a factor? This will be our focus in part 4
No comments:
Post a Comment