“How well understood and embraced are the contributions of the quality professional beyond what is traditionally thought of as the quality function?” asked Paul Borawski in his October discussion blog post.
From my experience as Quality Assurance Engineer in the software field, quality has been seen as “a bunch of processes to follow (or delay our schedule) in order to get certified our Quality System CMMI compliant, with the only purpose to enhanced credibility to our customers and suppliers“. Sad, I know.
But answering Paul’s questions, I think that it is well understood what Quality really means and embraces. The dark side of that is that not everyone put it in practice, not everyone get to the point of realizing that Quality is the partner in your way of success.
Over the years, the supply chain has changed.
“Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the integration and management of key business functions that promote the flow of products downstream from raw materials to the end customer, and the flow of information upstream from consumer to supplier.“
Broadly, years ago the SCM was simpler than today. Because of Internet and globalization, companies started to work with suppliers from around the world, outsource part of their functions, and sell their products/services to customers in the entire planet. After that big expansion, our nature, society, poverty started to calling and let us open the eyes to see what is happening around and to not only focus our gaze in making money at lower cost; so the concept of social responsibility emerged. More or less details, I’ve made a simple diagram to show how it looks a SCM today: (Please, click in the image to enlarge)
So, the big question is “Where is Quality? Is it just another link in the chain we are missing?” No, Quality is beyond that; Quality is in every single link of any SCM (process, tools, standards, etc); Quality is in the people not only as workers but also as customers and human beings; Quality is in the way people interact in this globalized world; Quality is in our actions to become responsible socially.
However, to use Quality as a partner/framework instead of as an obligation, companies have to want to embrace Quality and that begins with a mindset change from the top managers; without their commitment Quality will be remaining as a simple bunch of process to follow. That is where we, as quality professionals must to work on. Don’t you think?
