We all see the effects of good and bad quality. Whether we are in the hardware product flow or the information product flow, the level of quality of the inputs to our part of the process can impact how effectively we can perform our value-added tasks. Occasionally we see glimpses of good quality inputs and can go straight to performing the work to change the product closer to what the customer is paying for. Other times we have to rebuild everything to get what we need, thus delaying delivery and leaving the customer with a desire to find another supplier. This "rebuild" requires labor and material beyond what is calculated in the base price. The more "rebuild" you perform, the more your variable costs increase (hint, hint... the faster you will go out of business).
Looks like one person knows what I'm talking about....
Everyone has a supply chain they must work within, and information workers are no different. They are still producing a product that must be built in progressive stages, reviewed for accuracy, and then delivered to a customer. The product may go to an internal customer or to an external customer. Either way the expectation for perfect quality is the same. And by the way, it was needed yesterday.
Hopefully you can see where you are in the flow and are not accepting that reworking the inputs is just "how we do it around here." While a harshly-worded email may make you feel better in the moment, this will only find you in HR with your manager and the offended team member (and a paper trail... ouch). A good place to start would be asking yourself if you know the product requirements or what the customer wants. If the answer is yes, and it matches everyone else's understanding of the requirements, then it may be time to get out of your chair and go talk with the supplier (team member) about the rework you must do to perform your value-added tasks.
At this point I expect some of you to be thinking, "I could just send them an email and skip the uncomfortable conversation part." You're right send that email, it will be ignored with all the others and nothing will be accomplished. No, please, go ahead. I'll be right here.....
For the rest of us, we'll just have the conversation over lunch or coffee. Use non-accusatory language with plenty of team-based thinking, we're all in this together. You will probably find that your supplier is going through the same thing and just assuming what you want and how you want it. I would venture to bet that if you talked with your internal customer they would be experiencing the same problems.
When you decide to get everyone together to talk about how the product flows through the process steps pay close attention to the hand-offs. Make certain everyone knows exactly what the customer wants. Avoid solving World-Peace until you really know why the rework happens and have some solutions in-hand that the team agrees upon. Try some stuff and then go for full implementation. I'm not going to go into Levene's Test, but you should know if the solution is really fixing the problem. To keep from going back to the disruptive and chaotic (but comfortable) flow, determine how to keep everyone on the improved method. This could be a memo from the boss, some training for new team members, and metrics so everyone has a common understanding of the current performance.
Change is hard, but making it in small steps can make a noticeable difference in on-time delivery, capacity, and stress.
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