Process Capability Explained Through my Daughter

My daughter is a basketball player on a very good team. She plays some but not as much as she wants to. When she does not play, she will get in the car steaming mad after the game. I hear her complain about the coach and lament that she does not understand her lack of playing time.

I take a deep breath and try to have a rational conversation with her. I think she hears me but I never know. I ask her if she is doing everything she possible can do to get on the court. Is she lifting weights? Is she hustling in practice? Is she trying to be first in every wind sprint? Is her method for getting on the court as good as it will ever get? Has she worked hard enough to earn her way on to the floor?

So now she has to answer the questions. If she can't answer yes to every question, then she must go back and work harder and/or practice more. If she feels she is doing all that she can do and can't squeeze an extra percentage of effort out , then she has two options-
1. Go to the coach and demand more playing time. If she knows her best is being offered so will he and may honor her request.
2. If the coach says sorry but no more time, then her best is not good enough. Either sit on the bench, quit, or change your work ethic to draw the coach's attention.

How do you think this story applies to process capability?

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Another Example of Poor Quality: This One Comes Close to Home

I have talked about NASA's poor quality and how their quest to improve is no different than what most of us work on everyday as Quality professionals.

In today's newspaper, I found another organization called out for its poor quality: The American Red Cross.

First, let me define the SIPOC model. The model is a component of the six sigma tool used to plan projects.
S=Suppliers
I=Inputs
P=Process
O=Outputs
C=Customers.

The Red Cross scenario clearly fits the model:
S=Blood donors
I=Procedures and quality control for blood donation, Blood from donors, etc.
P=Receiving and distributing donated blood
O=Donated blood
C=Recipients of donated blood

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fined the Red Cross $4.2 million for poor quality control of its blood supply. The penalty was the largest blood related fine (ever) levied by the FDA. (It should be noted that testing of several suspect units of blood revealed no contamination)

The article doesn't say what failed in Red Cross' quality system. The reporter mentions that over the years, the FDA has fined Red Cross $9.9 million over its quality control practices. Wow!

$9.9 million dollar fines for a poor quality system. Can you imagine if the big three punished its suppliers this way for poor quality? We would not have an automotive industry. (or maybe failing suppliers would get their act together)

Red Cross management issued a statement assuring their commitment to improve (link below). We'll see. www.redcross.org

Let's watch the news and Red Cross' website to see what they do to improve their quality system.

GM Banking on 100,000 Miles of Customer Love

From Fast Company's blog site:

Toyota and Hyundai Motor Co. gained market share last year, contributing to GM's $10.6 billion loss. Looks like GM's trying to get customer religion by attaching a 100,000 mile warranty on 2007 cars and trucks - including those already sold. It starts effective today and has no deductible and is transferable to new owners. This move, in addition GM's actions to redesign and improve quality, such as reworking the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, is targeted at getting back into the hearts and minds of its customers and lost customers.
Kudos to GM for picking up the pieces and being aggressive on resolving the issues. The question is...how did GM let themselves get here in the first place? And as a customer, will this new warranty prompt you to give them a second chance and forgive any past quality and experience let-downs?

Perfect Quality to Some is Poor Quality to Others

If you follow football, you know that referees came under much criticism this year for making too many mistakes. Not only were the number of mistakes too excessive (this was the perception), they seemed to occur at the worst possible times. For example, there were several "bad" calls during the Super Bowl.

Most of the evidence is anecdotal. But what does the data say? I ran across this statistic in Saturday's paper. In the recently completed college football season, there was a total of 88,500 plays run. There are seven officials per game so there were 615,500 opportunities for officials to make mistakes (7x88,500). A total of 103 plays were overturned by replay. Interesting! Now we can make the evidence more objective.

For the non-football fan, every plan in a football game is subject to review. If a coach feels a referee made a mistake, he can ask for the play to be reviewed. The review is made by looking at the video recording of the play. If the call was obviously wrong, the decision will be changed.

So, the officials made 103 mistakes. Convert this into a conventional rate (let's use parts per million defective, PPM), and we have a rate of 167 mistakes per one million opportunities: (103/615,500)x1,000,000

How does this rate compare to your industry? In the automotive world, a 167 PPM rate doesn't keep you in business for long. The expectation is zero mistakes and the accepted performance is single digit PPM rates.

The data above came from an article written by a college football referee in defense of his profession. It was not explicitly stated but was strongly implied that 103 mistakes out of 615,500 opportunities was acceptable and does not warrant the abundance of criticism.

There are multiple definitions of quality. In it simplest form, quality is what the customer expects. The buying public wants defect free cars that will reliably operate over time. These expectations trickle down through the automotive makers to the mutliple tiers of the industry. If football fans want zero mistakes, then the bar is set. The system of officiating must respond accordingly.

When Poor Quality Hits Close to Home

Last week, two acts of poor quality affected my family. I write this as the roar of fans and de-humidifiers deafens my ears. These are related to the first issue.

Last Tuesday, my wife called me at work in a panic. The water company had shut our water off claiming lack of payments since October 2005. No warning or heads up. The water was shut off. As we talked, she was in route to the utility to pay a $250 fee. This made no sense as I pay the bills and had recently seen the cancelled check for November's bill. I told her to go back home (she did) and look through the checkbook. She called back with the cancelled check number.

Next, she called the water company and informed them of the check number. After a brief investigation, they replied that our payments had been credited to another account. So, it was an error on their part. No harm. They said the water would be turned back on some time that evening. Feeling better, we left to go see my son's basketball game. Well, unbenownst to us, our seven year old had turned on an upstairs faucet after the water was shut off. When the water was restored, the faucet ran full blast and eventually overflowed. We returned home to find water leaking onto the first floor. End result: We are now drying the walls to prevent mold. The walls must be replaced. Total cost: appoximately $2000.

This is the classic five why scenario: Why are the fans in my house? Because I have moisture in my walls. Why is there moisture in my walls? Because a faucet overflowed. Why?... Why?... Eventually this leads to the water company's quality error as the root of my problem.

So what do you do when a public utility's poor quality affects you personally? Well, what do you do at work when a supplier ships you defective product? You ask for corrective action. And that's what I did. I'll expect them to pay for the damages and explain to me why this error occurred and what they will do to prevent it from happening again.

Second issue: During the water fiasco, I recieved a threatening letter from a collection agency saying I owed $1700 for medical treatment received in October. Yes, I received the treatment and had been seen previous letters informing me of the balance due. But, my wife and I have insurance and I did not expect to have a balance for this procedure (I had the same thing done two years ago and owed nothing after insurance). I was steamed. The letter changed my frame of mind. I snapped at my daughter for no reason. Long story made short: Turns out the hospital made a billing error. The error was corrected and we owe nothing.

Are the quality Gods trying to tell me something? It sure seems like it.

For years I have lamented at the lack of customer orientation in service industries. What do you do when poor service impacts you? You can call and complain but how do you know that the root cause was discovered and eliminated? Noone from the water company, DMV, bank, or hospital sends you a corrective action report.

They should and maybe we should demand it as customers.