I always wanted a two-seater German sports car. A few years ago, I finally checked that item off my bucket list when I found a great deal. I was the owner of a beautiful, champagne colored, road-handling machine. It was a dream come true. Until my dream broke down.
Just a few miles from home, my dream car started smoking, and flashing messages told me that I was having a catastrophic transmission failure. I spent an hour waiting by the side of the road for a tow truck and then waited weeks while the dealer fixed my new car. The waiting, expense, and inconvenience were irritating. The irritation made me angry, and the anger made me bitter.
And at the end of the day, the bitterness was caused by a broken, small, and inexpensive aluminum bracket that made a transmission fluid line disconnect.
I recalled a saying a friend of mine learned early in his career: The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
This is an important idea to remember when developing your operational excellence strategy. But how does a company design a program that ensures reliability? How can your organization ensure that whatever product or service makes you money will be available when called upon?
There are five features to a superior reliability program. These aspects, when properly applied to your internal product production and asset strategy, and when applied to your supplier network, ensure your customers and clients will not experience the bitterness of poor quality.
It's important for your employees and suppliers to understand that reliability will not be compromised. Recent examples have shown how easily an organization will take the path of least resistance when it perceives management doesn’t care (airbags from Japan, diesel emissions from Germany, etc.). One step to setting the right tone is to ensure quality-related concerns are addressed thoroughly and rapidly when they arise.
Inspections alone will not guarantee reliability. Quality must be promoted through the following:
Research shows that an organization working on less than three enterprise initiatives is successful. When that increases by one or two more, the chances of success drop significantly. Focus on and prioritize where reliability will have the biggest impact on the bottom line, and work on that first. Once these reliability items have been conquered, move on to the next challenges.
Use data to take emotions out of the equation and get the right answer. There’s an old adage: Ask five experts what the right answer is, and you’ll get fifteen different opinions. Don't neglect the data.
An excellent reliability program never ends. Continuous improvement must be incorporated into the organization’s culture. Once this spirit of continuous improvement is established, the challenge will shift from motivating employees and suppliers to think about reliability to ensuring focus on the right priorities.
Don’t leave your customers and clients stranded on the side of the road, tasting the bitterness of poor quality.
This is the third in a series of articles on operational excellence. Trenegy helps companies successfully manage operational excellence that ensures reliability.
Alan Quintero is the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Rowan Companies. Immediately prior to joining Rowan, he was a Partner at Trenegy. He previously served in executive leadership positions at Transocean and Atwood Oceanics.
