Hidden Costs
A lot of
organizations have started to include the cost of quality in their Root Cause
Analysis exploration. But a cost of quality calculation often forgets a few
important things that add up. For example, has your organization considered the
costs associated with:
- Fielding
the phone calls
- Documentation
- RCA
- Back
and forth communication with customers
- Initial
investigations
- Revisions
to documentation, processes, measurements, testing, purchasing and design
- A
first attempt at corrective action
- Second,
third, and fourth attempts at corrective action
- Retesting
- Shipping
- Follow-up
communication with customers
And so it goes – so
many hidden costs that never make it to the profit line. Not only that,
everyone involved can’t do their ‘real’ work generating revenue, either.
Mislabeling the
Root Cause
Not only can some
organizations miss the hidden causes of some nonconformists, but they can also
run into financial trouble by mislabeling
the root cause. Looking back at your non conformance, you may notice you've
used the term 'operator error' as the root cause. If this is the written cause
of all of your non conformity, you would be right 6% of the time.
We must remember that operators work within the environment you provided for
them and with the processes that you have given them. Try to exhaust the other
root cause options before settling on operator error. Keep asking yourself, "What is the weakness in our
system that allowed this to happen?"
The impact of a perspective shift from "who's and what to blame"
to the question above is huge. Instead of diving under their desks,
people are more likely to get involved and work together to find a solution.
It’s amazing how powerful ‘collaboration’ is when it comes to fixing a problem.
This way, the system gets better, people get engaged, and often the ‘team’
solution really solves the problem.
User questions & answers