8 Clear Signs Your Quality Program Needs Help

The MOST COMMON complaint I hear about having a "Quality Program" is that all the work and aggravation just isn't paying off.

Whether your quality program is failing, your business isn't realizing better quality even though you have a quality program, or you're looking for ways to see more improvement, these are 8 clear signs that your quality program needs help. 

1. You Lack In-House Resources - your business, like countless others, may have grown its quality program organically, by recruiting competent administrative personnel to take on the challenge of creating a quality program or "getting ISO certified".  But, now it's time to take the program to next level by optimizing the actual performance and realizing real improvement and better results which requires comprehensive expertise and knowledge.

2. You're Not Meeting Your Goals - you built a program, but it's not working, or you're not realizing better quality, fewer defects or a better customer experience.  You want the effort to pay off with benefits.

3. You Need an Impartial Opinion - your business is experiencing the very common disconnect between "quality" and "operations" and you want more synergy between your work groups.  You want quality to be more than just a "necessary evil".

4. You Can’t Keep Up With Emerging Trends (you want to try something new, but don't YET have the right staff) - you've been able to implement a quality program, but there are more options out there that you just don't have the bandwidth to explore without a little extra help.  (Or you'd like to try something on a smaller scale to prove it will work before jumping in with both feet!)

5. You're Lacking Inspiration or Perspective - you've heard about a lot of new ideas, but you honestly don't even know where to start or just don't know how to focus on which thing might work best for your business and give you the boost you're looking for. 

6. You're Working Outside Your Expertise - similar to number 1, but you need not only a bridge to the "next level", but also how to tie your business systems together to optimize all your processes for lower costs and less waste.

7. You Have Tunnel Vision (or visions) - like thousands of businesses, the generational differences within the workforce have created tunnel vision in favor of "the way things have always worked" versus the preference to "change and update everything, because it must be obsolete".  Finding a delicate and customized balance between what should be kept and what should be improved can be tricky to find.  

8. You're Working on a Time-Sensitive Project (and just need more hands on deck) - (but honestly, when are we not working on a time-sensitive project?)

The great news is that there's help out there.  Now, it's time to choose the right partner to help you get started.

As a veteran quality professional, I know first hand what it's like to be recruited into quality by being "volunTOLD" to tackle building a new quality program.  That's how I got started.  But I was fortunate enough to follow a career path that availed me to working in and gaining experience in all aspects of business management.  So, I have a unique perspective on how to leverage all the moving parts and processes together to achieve real improvement and enjoy real gains.

The secret sauce is having a clear understanding of how each group operates, thinks and works to find the best way to leverage all processes to work more seamlessly together, to reduce duplication and eliminate waste.

And my niche is small business.  I'm passionate about helping small business, startups, emerging technologies find their way into their target industries. 

A lack of a quality program or compliance with international or industry standards such as ISO9001, ISO14001, ISO45001, AS9100, IATF16949, etc can be barriers to entry into industry.  And there are a lot of large consulting firms who offer complex and expensive solutions which may obtain certification, but can be impossible to sustain over time.  These systems are often boilerplate and not customized to the size and complexity of the small business.  And the internal team responsible for maintaining the system after the consultant is gone may not understand the system well enough to keep it going.

My first commitment is helping small businesses implement simple and sustainable management systems that CAN be easily maintained and that DO deliver results.  I believe in less documentation and easier to use, straightforward systems that achieve certification, but more importantly, help the business get better quality and a better customer experience with simpler processes.

My second commitment is being accessible and value-added by understanding the challenges small businesses face, like limited resources and limited time to dedicate to the effort.  

If these points sound like the challenges your business is facing, give me a call.  We'll talk about your needs and I'm happy to provide references from businesses like yours who've partnered with me to help them create systems that are way more than just a "necessary evil".  My biggest and most common compliment is that I make things "surprisingly easy for everyone to understand and even FUN!"