QUALITY
HELIX
1. Quality is not something which can be imposed on the
production process; to be successful it has to be something which is inherent
in the system itself. So ingrained in the system that from outside it is not
evident at all but becomes apparent when you are inside the system. From
outside it may appear to you as no logic or at best a fuzzy logic but actually
it is so much part of the process that to experience it you have to be inside
the production process.
2. TQM or quality circles are something which is imposed
from outside and hence require constant efforts to reinforce their beliefs and
procedures and after that constant monitoring, audit and checks. By introducing
checks and audit you take away the individuality, creativity and the inherent
desire of the individual to create things and the passion to make it better and
better. Of course it has its own plus
points and own advantages, but I believe that the creativity of innocence,
continuous evolution of the organization as a living organism are more important
than these rules and audits.
3. A quality circle is a two dimensional figure and if you
take any point and start from it you will ultimately end up in the same place
after going around it in periphery. You can not add or subtract any thing from
it, otherwise the circle will have to be changed or broken and a new one formed
in its place. This is a major drawback which inhibits its continuous evolution
as a living organism and to readjust itself to the changing environment of
production process. It is difficult to change your quality requirement or
process of doing it every now and then and put into place a new one. The
process itself should have the capability to modify and readjust itself. This
is the essence or a very brief basis of what is called a quality helix.
4. The requirements therefore are:-
(a) The system
to be a living organism of the total production process.
(b) It should be
inherent in the system itself, and becomes visible or evident when you are
part of the
process.
© It should not
be imposed from outside or bound by rules and audits.
(d) It should continuously evolve itself or
upgrade itself as the requirement arises.
(e) It should allow people to have a creativity
of innocence.
5. Nature has given us five senses that are, touch, smell,
taste, hear and see. When we can decide very effectively what is good for us to
hear, what is good for us to eat, what is good for us to smell, what is good
for us to touch and lastly more important what is good for us to see then I do
not why we can utilize these thing effectively to decide what is good enough
for us to produce and what not to produce. We are very good consumers , we know
what to buy and what not to buy, how much we should pay and what quality is
good enough for us. Why can not we take these concepts to the production
process itself?
6. Why helix? A helix is a three dimensional figure as
compared to two dimension of circle. It has no beginning and no end and
therefore we may call it an infinite structure. We can add anything to it or
remove anything from it without altering it basic structure and it will still
remains a helix in structure. This addition or deletion may create a new entity
but its structure will remains the same and with same qualities. In essence it
still remains the same living organism capable of evolving improving and
capable of absorbing any new information that is fed into it and becoming
something new which is better.
7. In order to make
the system a living organism all that is required to make sure that certain
basic concepts are introduced in the system. These arise from the following
considerations, with human body as a living example:-
(a) The human body is a perfect filtration
system. We eat things, the body decides what is good and retains it and throws
out the unwanted. A normal filtration system works on the same concept. You
have successive filters to remove unwanted or bad things and out come pure
water.
(b) We take shots in order to
immunize ourselves from the diseases. It is done by introducing live germs into
the body, the white cells generate antibodies to fight this small amount and
hence the body develops an immunity to fight the disease effectively.
© Every person is an excellent
customer, so why he can not decide what is good to produce and what is not good
to produce, so that he can buy what is good
8. It is when these basic concepts are introduced into the
manufacturing process then the process becomes alive and develops an ability to
evolve and reinvent itself. The beauty of the concept lies in its simplicity.
We are very good at complicating things, adding new rules, new procedures, new
equipment, checks and audits but do we ever get down seriously and work in a
deliberate manner to simplify thing. Simplification is too easy to talk about
but it is also the most difficult part to practice.
9. In practice this process will involve:-
(a) Each stage of the manufacturing process acts
as the inspector of the
previous
stage with the power to reject the product if it does not meet
the
required specification as input to that stage.
(b) Deliberately introduce a faulty product into
the system at random but
identifiable intervals so that the efficacy of the system (man and
machine
both) is checked for optimum efficiency. This will also allow the system
to
develop its own detection and immunization system.
© Give the operator of that stage of
manufacturing process an authority
commensurate with the responsibility to function effectively and utilize
the
system to the best of his ability.
(d) Not only give credit for good performance
but reward mistakes, so that the
faults of the system are out in the open and persons not only know how
to
catch mistakes without any fear of punishment but also how to rectify
them
and
improve their own performance.
(e) Have faith in the system and the persons and
give them sufficient time to
absorb
and establish a starting point.
