'In the last 15 years, I sense that a lot of quality professionals feel like there has been a change and that they've been sidelined and relegated to more of a role of a gatekeeper, forced to prevent a bad product from leaving the shop, but without the mandate to actually influence and control their destiny. What's causing that shift?'
For our most recent webinar, we've partnered up with Quality Magazine to understand the shift in quality management roles and how quality is perceived and integrated into business processes. In the engaging session, industry experts Gerben de Haan and Nils Nugteren from AlisQI talked about trends, issues and root causes of the current state of quality management. They elaborated on the concept of little q versus Big Q and shared practical tips that quality professionals can use to take charge and influence organizational change.
This blog post is a summary of the webinar's key topics. To view the entire session and access all the practical tips and ideas, sign up here.
Why this shift in Quality Management roles?
As we discussed in our webinar, the role of quality professionals has shifted in an unwanted direction. Why unwanted? Because as 'gatekeepers', quality professionals are often sidelined. Proof of this are famous documented cases such as Volkswagen, Boeing, Samsung, Harley Davidson, or Ford. But you don't need to be making headline news to see that it's no longer a strategic position.
Rapid globalization brought increased competition and with that, leadership's focus is on short-term growth and profit, often at the expense of longer-term benefits. In other words, leadership is focused on getting product out the door and capturing market share - very important goals. However, when the focus becomes too short-term focused, the organization's culture of quality is at stake. Quality professionals are forced to take a narrow view on quality, really just focus on product quality and less on the systemic quality in the organization. And, while people want to do more and have more of a real impact, there just doesn't seem to be room for that.
Can quality professionals do something about this shift? The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is that they will need to make a compelling business case, help leadership understand that investing in quality management makes sense. To do this, they need to speak the language of dollars and cents. They need to quantify quality and translate how transforming from little q to Big Q will increase profitability while aligning with the company goals perspective.
'It's important to understand that we, as quality professionals, we're responsible for leading the change here. It's not okay for professionals to lean back and blame leadership. We have to take accountability as well. And I'm yet to come across a leader that is not willing to take an initiative that will increase profitability and growth.'
From little q to Big Q: making quality a strategic differentiator
Gerben and Nils proceeded to explain the concept of little q versus Big Q. This has everything to do with the focus of the organization - "little q" represents the traditional view of quality management, primarily concerned with inspection and defect reduction. In contrast, "Big Q" is about embedding quality into every process, ensuring that the entire organization is aligned with quality goals.
Embracing "Big Q" means shifting focus from just catching defects to preventing them through design and process improvements. Big Q means being more than a gatekeeper. It involves understanding the entire cost of quality, including hidden costs that may not be immediately apparent but have a significant impact on the organization's bottom line. Only then will they be able to get their message across, and their proposals justified. Three concrete examples on how to illustrate the full picture of cost of quality and highlight the significance of hidden costs were shared in the webinar.
How to take the lead and drive the change
Transitioning to a "Big Q" approach requires the right tools and strategies. It requires communication - but a communication that is backed up by metrics that resonate with decision-makers. Only by demonstrating how quality improvements can lead to cost reductions, enhanced customer satisfaction, and increased market share, quality leaders can secure the necessary support and resources. So where do you start driving the change?
To empower quality professionals, Nils looked at the steps to creating a compelling business case.
- Start by exposing the cost of doing nothing and show what it costs to manage quality
- Divide quality management activities into prevention, appraisal, internal failure and external failure and quantify the cost of quality
- Use a maturity model to assess current quality practices and identify areas of improvement
- Calculate the impact of positive change on the Total cost of Quality
- Use benchmarks to justify anticipated savings
To this, Gerben added practical tips on how to achieve these five steps. He talked about using a maturity model, an ROI calculator and the AlisQI Cost of Quality framework - all instruments that are readily available for quality professionals to define the problem, quantify the problem, and build a compelling business case that they can pitch to leadership.
Watch a full session of this webinar to learn all about the tips and tools shared.
Register for our upcoming webinars
If you found value in this webinar, you might want to check out other presentations in this series. Register for free, and send us your questions, recommendations, or suggestions on what you'd like to see more of. We're thrilled to foster a community and evolve together in quality management!
