Understanding the Mostly Importance of Quality in Manufacturing and Services

Why it should be foremost given the current political atmosphere.

It's something that's heard all the time now: "They don't make 'em like they used to" or "Another product made outside of the United States." Indeed, to some degree, there's a ring of truth to these sentiments; unfortunately, many areas of commerce - notably the aforementioned electronics sector - are being outsourced to countries such as China on a widespread basis, so much so that many consumers feel value has paid the ultimate price. Case in point: 

The home audio enthusiast market saw a resurgence of turntables over the past decade or so, driven by a millennial demographic just getting their feet wet in the "vinyl resurgence" pool, but in the mad scramble to compete and churn out these record players as fast as they were being purchased, many major companies outsourced their specs to Asia-based entities that ended up cutting corners to meet a price point.

As a result, more than a few series of turntables from this particular brand suffered from poor build, unreliable drive motors, design snafus such as warped platters and more - all of which compromise a vinyl playback system's performance in critical ways.

Of course, this is just a broad, random example, but our point is that quality in manufacturing and services, especially in our current somewhat heated political atmosphere, should be first and foremost - a sentiment that has not been lost on President Donald J. Trump, who has given US manufacturing representatives a different viewpoint to consider when it comes to consumer manufactured products.

In short, President Trump wants American manufacturing to step up to the plate, and it begins and ends with "the Q word."

Why should this be first and foremost when taken in a manufacturing context? It is easy to falter in an optimistic market and revel in manufacturing optimism; to be blunt, it is the only sustainable pillar that drives excellence in business. Value in a company that manufactures goods not only helps the economy meet customer and industry expectations, it can keep costs down. 

Managing excellence is crucial for small businesses in particular, because well-built products help to 

maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty while reducing the risk and cost of replacing faulty goods.

Let's take a quick look at the primary elements of this subject:

• Meeting Customer Expectations - Customers expect a company to deliver great products, and when it doesn't they quickly look for alternatives. Distinction is critical to satisfying customers and retaining their loyalty so they continue to buy in the future. 

• Managing a Reputation - Excellence influences a company's reputation, as poor build or a product failure (like the turntable example we mentioned earlier) can create negative publicity and damage a reputation. 

• Meeting Industry Standards - Accreditation to a recognized standard may be essential for dealing with certain customers or complying with legislation. 

• Managing Costs - Poor characteristics increases costs, as we alluded to, because without an effective control system in place a company may incur the cost of analyzing nonconforming goods or services to determine the root causes.

For manufacturing firms, it's important to ramp up process training, management commitment and involvement in all teams when improving purity control, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a look at suppliers, as well. Researching, studying and evaluating alone will improve this area - and parts - and top-shelf products equal sales for the long-term, all while eliminating consumer mistrust in manufacturing.

President Trump has set us on the right course... now we need to all do our part to improve US manufacturing.

In need of help because you don't know where to start? CALL ME!

Qualaco, Inc. is a Houston consulting company that focuses on providing clients in the in manufacturing and service with quality management systems. 

The experienced and knowledgeable professionals work closely with clients to help them achieve ISO 9001 certification, and many other standards, the company's primary mission in working with clients being to help businesses understand the value of aligning to an International Standard and the importance of Quality. The batter for business.

Global Network And Manufacturing Businesses

Around thirty five years ago China's transformation towards being the world's supermarket began. Back then as today it was possible to command almost any price but finding the right factory with the right quality procedures and adequate testing facilities was and is a whole different ball game.

As the world has become ever more globalized so margins have become ever more squeezed and product prices ever more elastic. The rush to take advantage of world prices offered by China, India (and more recently the BRIC countries) is something akin to the California gold rush.

In 2013 100s, if not thousands, of businesses have taken the leap and moved all or most of their manufacturing overseas. Up and down the country purchasing managers and buyers are slapping each other on the back at the cost savings they have gained, or at least think they have gained.

 

Take a walk down the hall to quality or supply and the story may not be so rosy. One may even witness the air turn blue as the quality guy inspects yet another reject, trusted spectrometer in hand. All was well at sample stage so what went wrong. Well self regulation never did and never will work. Quality teams, on the ground in the manufacturing country, carrying out regular in process inspections, is essential to ensuring quality is consistent.

Setting up an office in the host country is one option but the cost and timescales for doing so will be prohibitive to anything but log term cost savings. In the short to medium term increased costs and reduced margins are the more likely outcome.

However a network of highly vetted factories, regularly inspected by qualified engineers, can be the answer. Sourcing high quality products at world prices is the modern day global challenge.

The challenge is not just a global one but also an internal one that can very easily lid to organizational conflict, if not handled correctly. In many companies purchasing, accounts and logistics work in splendid isolation. All working according to their own KPI's with no over reaching solution for tracking project costs.The result is the supply chain becomes fragmented.

 

What is needed is someone with an eye on everything and a foot in every camp. Often this challenging role is left to the hapless product manager, who cuts his own throat no matter what decision he makes and so makes non. The product manager becomes a professional politician of such cunning as to put Downing Street to shame. So the solution becomes to outsource everything to a third party.

Maxim Industries Ltd use an established network of factories around the world to source products, components and sub assemblies for manufacturing businesses across Europe and the USA. With ISO accredited quality procedures in place.