The New Year, The "New" You.

I know I know, another year, another set of resolutions that you may or may not follow. Why make them. I learned a long time ago, that resolutions do not work, and making them, at least for me, is nothing but an exercise in failure. Instead of making several resolutions, by yourself, why not make a covenant, or a promise to someone else of one thing that you feel you can accomplish, and that your spouse/partner, coworkers, employees, family can be a part of your success, or their success as well.

This goes for personal life and the life of your business. While we are not at the fiscal start of the year, we are at the new year, a great time to usher in improvement in whatever ways we can. We clean our houses, purge the stuff we don’t need, get rid of clothes, and kitchen utensils we bought off of infomercials. We work out for three weeks before we convince ourselves we are too busy to keep on. We stop smoking for 2 weeks before we say I just need one to deal with the stress of that last meeting with the boss. You get the idea.

By involving other people into our own plans and adding accountability, we are creating a situation that we are not only letting ourselves down, but letting others down as well. As much as we can live with our own failure, how much do you like to live with failing those you care about. I read recently in a book, “if you had a friend that constantly let you down, would you still be friends with that person, or would you excuse them out of your life”. Then why are you any different to yourself.

This mentality goes for your business as well. Setting goals for your company feeds down to your divisions/departments down to your managers/supervisors down to the people handling each individual task. With clear expectations at every level, individual and group success, and layers of accomplishment, you create a challenging and rewarding environment where the life of the company is on each individual and not just the shoulders of few.

Implementing a Quality Management System is exactly what your company needs to organize, implement, and sustain this success throughout your organization. By establishing clear expectations and direction you not only allow people to understand the details of what is required, but will allow for benchmarking the success, or the need for improvement that you need to meet your goals.

Check out the contact page to see how The Witwer Group can help you realize continued success and not just a failed resolution.

Quality Management System. The "Quality" is Silent

Why do we even call it a Quality Management System. I’ll tell you why, and I’m putting it on the internet so it must be true.

A long time ago, some guys with pocket squares got together and said, “Jim, I really think we need a standardized system of quality requirements for manufacturers to adopt and be held accountable.” Jim said, “Alejandro, I do say old chap, by jove your right.” And at that moment the ISO 9001 Standard was born. (Disclaimer: that may not be totally accurate, but I’m sure it was close.).

In brief, very brief, quality standards have been an ever developing, and more useful tool since WWII. I remember in my early days in warehousing and manufacturing a focus being on the more technical details of the products and testing itself. Today we look at it as a more complete overarching implementation to be applied to every aspect of your business or organization. Quality, that is direct product and service quality, and how we measure it, is only a part of the requirement.

As an organization the focus is on building a system of, as the standard refers to it, a Plan-Do-Check-Act, activities that:

• Identify those interested in your organization

• Establish Processes and the inputs and outputs of those processes, and the intended results

• Assess the Risks and Opportunities of those processes

• Evaluate the Performance of your processes to determined KPI’s or metrics

• Create Continuous Improvement Plans or revised KPI’s and metrics for sustained acceptable performance

• Create action plans when processes are not meeting expectations

• Providing leadership and input on processes and future expectations.

Now that is an simplistic view of an ISO 9001 system, but it is the general point. That’s not so scary, and what’s more, it doesn’t just have to do with quality, as many of us think of quality. I often times find myself lying awake at night, saying to myself, “ Why didn’t they just call it a Management System?” I’ll never know. But, my point is that it is a management system, for any business, organization, industry, sector, etc……..

I have known far too many managers, presidents, leadership role types that write off the ISO work to their quality managers and think they can wash their hands of it. I have also known the same in non certified companies to say “our product quality is great, we don’t need that”, or “our customers don’t really care, we won’t see any benefit for the costs”. REALLY?????

I challenge any such person that they would immediately see an impact from implementing an ISO 9001 certified quality management system. The accountability of process and position to the requirements and metrics you establish, along with the system you build around it will provide cost savings through increased product and service quality, reduced repetition and redundancy in processes, benchmarking, training, the list goes on and on.

So when you think about a Quality Management System, remember that the Quality is silent and the Management System is the part you want.

Need help evaluating your business, or implementing a Quality Management System? The Witwer Group can help. Go to the Contact Page and Give us a call.

Why Is Your Quality Management System Separate From Your Business Management System?

If you’re a quality manager you know what a quality management system is and how it functions. If you’re a manager in another area of your company, you at least know what a quality management system is for about 2 different weeks out of the year, one week for an internal audit, and one week during your surveillance or certification audit. If you are a specialist or production you get reminded constantly about the importance of the quality management system, especially if you produce something incorrect.

At any position within the company you know why you’re in business…..Right? Maybe everyone even knows the business plan, and goals for the department, plant, division, etc.

That’s good. If you do know why your company does what it does, and who it serves, than you know your quality management system. What you may not know is how to keep the business of the company and the QMS one system. What you may not even understand is that the QMS is not supposed to be something the quality people do and let you know how it’s going once a month and how many findings “they” had at the last audit.

Your quality management and the requirements of your system, certified or not, are the requirements of those that your company serves. What’s important is how you monitor, improve, react, and prevent the positive and negative results from your production, or services.

If you are running a quality management system that is separate from your day to day management system, let The Witwer Group LLC. provide integration so you are living in real time with one system and getting the maximum performance out of your company management.

How Are my Suppliers Performing Through the Pandemic?

Is it really fair to evaluate your suppliers performance during a national crisis that has affected everybody….. on a daily basis….. in new and unexpected ways….. that might change the shape of commerce and business for the rest of time?

Of course it is. I’m not saying that you should be cruel and not make concession that their supply chains have been compromised just like yours have. I’m not saying you should be dropping the hammer with an official performance review and a list of the myriad misses and possible supply integrity issues you’ve experienced.

What I am saying is that you should look at the response and ability your providers have, or have not shown through this crisis. This will show you not only the weaknesses of you providers, and your reliance on them, especially in sole source situations, but it could also make relevant your own weaknesses in your evaluation and supply chain practices in the past.

Time for a revamp. Use any lessons learned here to crank up the efforts of your sourcing department and the requirements your company puts on providers, or doesn’t put on providers. Either way, this is a good point in the life of your business to say “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore”, or “I’m mildly annoyed and I may do something about it”, or “I’m pretty indifferent about this and it’s not really my problem”. You get the idea.

Here are some things you can look into.

Response: Has this supplier been responsive to my needs, contracts, changes in needs?

Response Whys: Why did they respond that way, do they not have materials to fulfill? Can’t find transportation? Are they selling my supplies to someone else? Are they not willing to amend fulfillment Obligations?

Product Quality: Has the material changed? How many sources do they have for materials? Are they good sources?

Alternate Suppliers: Who else makes what you need? Can you use another material you haven’t yet considered? Can you get a different supplier to produce what you need?

Pricing: Did it stay stable? Are they trying to raise prices, or availability?

Your standard evaluation practice: is it adequate, does it have depth to it, or just skim the top? Are you looking at all of the factors that you are now, or are you just saying, your doing pretty good, lets go golfing?

Internally you can look at your sourcing and purchasing practices. Is your department proactive in finding more sources, and getting competitive pricing and lead times? Or are they just purchasing from the same providers and cutting po’s. What do they need to be doing? Do you have enough people in this department?

Whatever approach you take, and whatever situation you and your providers are experiencing. Remember, you are also a provider, and your customers are evaluating you and your abilities.

Imagine what we could accomplish.....

In my previous career, I was responsible for auditing and strengthening the QMS of a Fortune 500 Company with over 30 manufacturing and distribution locations. In almost all of these locations, the processes were based on reaction to customer demands, or mitigating . There was always a level of stress and dare i say hopelessness in trying to accomplish long term goals, satisfy current customer needs, mitigate supply and upstream production issues, and react to short term executive decisions, which were usually based on customer demands.

I used to say to the managers at these sites, “Imagine what we could accomplish if we didn’t have customers getting in the way of our work.” A ridiculous thing to say I know, since all manufacturing is based on customers. My point wasn’t that we should disregard the customer, it was more of a statement to get the wheels turning, of, What would you get done if you didn’t have to react constantly? What would it be like if you were ahead of all of the rush, and your Quality Management System and your crew were prepared for outliers, non conformance, and the “Great” executive leadership decisions that randomly get tossed in your lap for immediate response.

Now of course, some of these managers would explain to me why customers were important to our business. Oh really, if we didn’t have customers, we wouldn’t have jobs. Hmmmm. But others would actually get it, and they would start thinking of prevention and preparedness. The next time I would come back to audit, the location would be completely different. They would have the whole crew invested in their own solutions, they had developed cultures of change and innovation rather than daily stress and strife.

If you are experiencing a lull, or slow down in your production, or you do have reduced customer demands during this unprecedented time in our country, start thinking to yourself, What could we accomplish without customers? What can you be solidifying or revamping to mistake proof, to mitigate the outliers, to develop a process, or your crew?

More than likely when the world gets back to normal, you will experience an immediate boost to production. Are you prepared for it? Or will it be more of the same, working from behind, never catching up on what needs caught up?

If your not sure where to start, make a list. Start With:

What are the negatives that had the biggest impact on you in the last 6 months to a year.
Frequency
Magnitude
Internal
External

How skilled is your crew? Do you feel they all should be more trained and developed? Do you have the training and development material available?

If you are a sole location, meet with your leadership/ownership team. Is there one strategic goal for the company? Do all of the objectives and measurable goals relate to this goal, or is every department and manager doing what they think is right?

If you are a location of a bigger company, or division, is there a cohesive vision for your location or division? Does the corporate strategy even make sense for the company? Do all of the objectives and measurable goals relate to the strategy?

Is there too much change within the company? How often does the strategy change?

Take a look at whatever factors and areas that you feel have the most impact, not just to your customers and your ability to serve them as a reaction, but on a consistent regular basis, without going outside of your regular process.

Take a moment, while you might be in a down cycle, to imagine what you could accomplish if you didn’t have customers, so you when this is over and you are booming, you can be better than before. Your customers will notice the improvement.

Remote Internal Audits?

Maybe you were waiting until your resources were more freed from the everyday responsibilities that typically weigh them down.

Maybe you didn’t have any available personnel to conduct your internal audit.

Whatever the reason an internal audit didn’t get done, you may be stuck in this weird place where because of exceptional national crisis level circumstances, you just can’t get one done.

Remote may be the way to go. The Witwer Group has performed remote internal audits, and will provide them for your company.

Technology has provided us with the luxury to do everything else remotely, so why not include auditing within that.

Reach out to The Witwer Group Today. See how on our Contact page.

Thanks

The Closeness of Social Distancing

Stay 10 ft away! Don’t go to work! Don’t go to Church! Your life outside of your home has been CANCELLED…..until April 15th….and then until June 1st…….and then?

In this time of self quarantine, and creating personal space limits that make it hard to carry on a conversation, what do you see changing after we are back to “normal”?

We’ve already separated ourselves through our social media outlets that make it possible to stay involved with our friends and family without ever having to talk to or gather with any of them. But now, I can’t even go to a store, if they’re even open, without feeling like I’m breaking the law, and am going to infect everyone around me with a virus that I may or may not have, or become infected by all of the people around me. Now, I’m being told to have no social interaction within anyone, well maybe 10 people at the most.

How much farther will this extended time of seclusion and the recommended behaviors and habits we are now creating push us into a deeper state of isolation. Will we ever shake someones hand again, or will we just go around bumping clothed elbows with each other. Can you tell anything about character from someone’s firm elbow bump?

Within the workplace, how are you conducting internal communication, are you limited to phone, email, and other e communications? Can you go into someone else’s office? How much has been shut down, or off? What has been deemed as “non essential”?

While we overcome the obstacles of running businesses remotely, and with possibly less workforce and resources, take note of what is still working well. Take note of the processes and techniques that seem to be maintaining the same level of performance with less resource. Take note of what has fallen into such a state of emergency, or has caused other processes to diminish in quality or service level. Take note of how prepared you were for this to happen, and how well you were able to adapt or how ready your change management system was to handle this.

More importantly, take note of how your business and employees, despite possibly being separated and distanced, are coming together to keep the wheels on the bus, to overcome the obstacles, to keep your customers satisfied. This is where you will find the closeness, and effectiveness, of social distancing.