Cost-of-Quality: COQ is a relative term!

Components of the Cost-of-Quality in Kaizen parlance are as follows.

1/ Costs of external-failures incurred due to failures at customer's end.

2/ Costs of internal-failures incurred in order to handle failures at supplier's end.

3/ Costs of appraisal incurred in order to inspect/audit the adequacy and compliance of quality and quantity of work, and the workmanship as well, as per standards/procedures.

4/ Costs of prevention incurred in order to undertake improvement or failure-prevention activities (as preventative/proactive measures) & corresponding education/training for the same.

First two components are the 'cost-of-poor-quality' (CoPQ) that are incurred after failures. 

Last two components are the 'cost-of-good-quality' (CoGQ) or you can say 'investment' required to prevent a failures in the first place.

The components, rather it's terminology, is relative and hence the  term Cost-of-Quality itself is relative! Use of the components may depend upon the context of the situation.

Is the statement: "If the customer needs to administer incoming inspection on his inputs received from the supplier then that's typically the 'cost of appraisal'!", made by a participant in one of my sessions, 'true' or 'false', for instance?

The statement is 'false'!

It's actually the 'cost of prevention' for the customer. Because she wants to prevent defective inputs from going into the next process. Engaging into inspection activities on the customer's own processes or processing activities, although it's a NVA (non-value-activity or waste) however, is the 'cost of appraisal' for the customer in order to prevent the 'cost of internal failure' in the customer's processes.

Whereas the incoming inspection on his inputs may be is the 'cost of external failure' for the supplier. This is particularly so if the customer engages into 'inspection', a NVA (non-value-activity) 'forced' on to her by herself, because of lack of trust (past dissatisfaction) in the supplier's quality and hence in the supplier's brand image.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Force Customers To Quit
In-a-problem ? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Customer or Custo-Mer ?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Do you keep curing your brand ?  
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!  
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value ?  
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?  
The Business Of Businesses 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
That's How Morons Work
Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

Appraisal or Prevention! What's better?

In-process inspection inside a company is typically a 'cost of appraisal' for the company. 

Is the same true for a supplier, for her 'visit to customer for in-process inspection while installing the supplies' at customer's end as a part of the supplier's process!?

It's True, the said installation being a part of the process of the supplier company. 

It's, however, a 'cost of external failure' for the supplier if installation is customer's responsibility and she finds a defect/error in supplies while doing so. Otherwise, it's the 'cost of prevention' for the customer. 

In either of the cases, be it appraisal or prevention, it is a COGQ (cost of good quality) anyway as a part of the COQ (cost of quality)!

One may have to strike a balance though, while deciding upon spending on the latter, meaning on the visit to customer as a part of the process itself, especially in case of high-impact high-value industrial products. 

In any case, the COGQ in general and the other 'costs of prevention' in-house, in particular, may prove to be most beneficial and highly profitable at that.

Why not try validating this statement by calculating the components of Cost of  Quality, for a failed item that reached your customers in past!

Calculating the Cost of Quality (both the COPQ & COGQ), classifying the corresponding components as Tangible (Visible) Costs & Hidden Costs, and comparing them might help.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Force Customers To Quit
In-a-problem ? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Customer or Custo-Mer ?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Do you keep curing your brand ?  
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!  
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value ?  
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?  
The Business Of Businesses 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
That's How Morons Work
Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

Sir, water for you?

Water rationed at 200 liter per day per family!

That's what the above picture (that was making rounds on WhatsApp) means in Marathi language.

It shows that finally the shortage of water has taken its toll in some parts of India.

How much do we contribute to this menace?

A little consciousness on our own experiences should be able to answer this question.

I often stayed at this hotel in Koregaon Park Pune, for instance.

As a good practice, each table in the restaurant in this hotel has a glass bottle filled with water enriched with Basil (Tulsi) leaves. The Basil leaves are normally used as a herb in India.

First time when I stayed at this hotel, I was surprised that, in spite of the glass bottle being there on the table, the bearer would still fill the glass while I would go to refill my food from the buffet table.

Waste!!! ... if I didn't drink it in full! Normally, I drink water after an hour of finishing food as a yogic practice.

Hence, I usually maintain a practice of keeping my glass upside down to avoid having it inadvertently refilled. And yet, in the few times that I have forgotten, the bearer, as if engaged in a game of cat and mouse, has rushed to refill my glass in my absence.

I told the bearer so; as also put it in my feedback form while checking out.

This was not to complain but to make the management aware about their good practice of 'glass-bottles' on table but short of training their staff 'not to fill glass without asking'. Continual training is particularly important since the staff keeps changing with the inflow of fresher trainees.

Good that the manager noticed my feedback & made efforts to 'understand' it in real-time (Genjitsu). Many merely 'file' the feedback forms ignoring opportunity to capture essence of the 'voice of customer'.

The manager however shared his experience that some customers ridicule this practice as the 'misery' of the staff on as 'trivial' a thing like water!

Very few see a scope to not only be innovative in saving water** but also in communicating their so-called 'idiosyncrasy' to 'Save-Water'!

**Do you know that an average 200 ml cup of Latte actually needs over 200 litres of water to produce in terms of the water used to produce the Plastic cup with lid, the Milk used, the coffee powder itself, the Sugar used, etc.!

Read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Change is a hearty game!

Rise-n-Fall in the Rain-Fall 

Take Habits For A Ride 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

How To Make A Difference

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Poverty-to-Power of Poetry

Bird that just chirped

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save ! 

Soon-waste-to-eat, Sea-to-drink !

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green

Not-Soon, Says Monsoon

Rise-n-Fall in the Rain-Fall   
Water-matter

Sponge! Shield!! or a Sword! !!

Are you a Sponge, a Shield or a Sword!

This was what I asked the audience when I was checking their homework.

During our assignments, we do PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) on the MOM (minutes of meeting) agreed upon with the target company.

It's but natural for anyone to get embarrassed if s/he gets a feeling of being 'checked'.

But coaching does warrant finding out if the things are going on as planned (studying rather than 'checking'). That's why PDCA cycle is sometimes called PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycle!

Course correction during the study cycle is the natural sequel.

How do people respond then!

Some try to defend why they couldn't do what they were supposed to do.

Some come out with swords to argue out how that what was agreed to itself was wrong.

Some others confess if they did not do it, while few of them ask for help having tried but 'failed'.

The last category is the real learners!

I call such a learner as a sponge. When someone comes with an attitude of absorbing new learning (a sponge), s/he ends up getting more of it (more of the better).

In the learning field, both the former categories, the shields that defend, and the swords that come out, are ultimately the losers. Because they think they are the best!

The sponges think that there are better ways than what they tried. There's no the best in their dictionary. Only better!

Because better is always better than the best!!

Former is a moving target heading towards excellence!

Because of complacency the latter may end up being stagnant!!

So it's upto us to be a Sponge, a Shield or a Sword!

Being Sponge is a More-Win-and-Less-Lose!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a value-adding comment or consider sharing this post.

Being Perfect! 

Waste-to-eat Sea-to-drink

That's How Morons Work

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

How To Make A Difference

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

Performance ... Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily

Kaizen, even in air!

Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !!

In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it!

Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up?

Need maintenance sense as well!

Many-injured-as-escalator-in-thane-moves-in-reverse-direction.

Eight-escalators-at-thane-station-to-undergo-check-this-week. This was supposed to be in May 2018.

Five-hurt-as-thane-station-escalator-stops-moves-in-reverse-gear.

And now at the end of July 2018 I read that, each of the escalators on each of the platforms at Thane railway station don't work almost every alternate day. That's what the loksatta daily reported in July. (See the picture.)

The above news items remind me of my earlier blogpost titled 'need-basic-civic-sense-to-use-technology'!

Don't you think apart from the 'civic-sense' the service providers need a 'maintenance sense' to handle technology! They need to be sensitive to the costs associated with the poor quality of service (CoPQ) such as above.

The recurrence of the problems as above makes it obvious that problem solving needs to be to uproot the root level causes rather than mere first aid treatments.

Users and proponents of technology need to appreciate that it is just an enabler.

By itself technology can't help if we can't help ourselves by an appropriate 'civic-sense' and 'maintenance sense'!

India won! But Indians lost!

Time to celebrate for Indian cricket team!

The team had completed a mission!!

India had won the 20:20 international series 2-1 against England!!!

The team had completed their tasks over-over-the-over, over-on-over I mean!

Forgetting their own assigned duties and tasks over-on-over, the restaurant staff however in a star hotel seemed to have got distracted by the over-on-over excellent performance of the Indian cricket team.

Most of them gathered around the TV watching the prize ceremony instead of being around customers, except a trainee female staff alone catering to a couple of tables.

Indifference of the manager and staff was strikingly noticeable especially when it was an a-la-carte day instead of a buffet dinner.

Couldn't they've been a little proactive each by a smiling eye-contact with customers! Hardly a  couple of tables were occupied though!

Looking at the TV screen following in the footsteps of her leader seniors, even the trainee staff was found to be filling water in the glass or picking up yet-to-be-finished plate without the consent of the customer! A Waste!!

Can you imagine the Cost-Of-Poor-Quality (COPQ) or rather the Cost-Of-Poor-Service (COPS) of such behaviour in the industry such as Hospitality where the behaviour itself is more important along with the hard quality of course!

Staff busy watching match

Customer fetching her own batch

No one around to catch

That's my Haiku poem dedicated to such Lose-Win behaviour where Indians lost while India won!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Force Customers To Quit
In-a-problem ? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Customer or Custo-Mer ?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Do you keep curing your brand ?  
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!  
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value ?  
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?  
The Business Of Businesses 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
That's How Morons Work
Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

Mission Zero-Plastic!

Are dustbin bags, sticky bags, half liter water bottle, etc. banned?

Political posters in flex material are not penalised! So does it mean flex material is exempt selectively? Or is political fraternity exempt from discipline?

Do you mean to say citizens should carry steel vessels to buy milk, meat, fish, etc. all the way to their workplaces so that they can shop on their way back home after a long day?

Don't you think exempting branded packaged goods and foods in plastic is discriminatory to small businesses?

Such and many other doubts began circulating on WhatsApp as the plastic ban was announced by the State of Maharashtra.

If such confusion was expected by design as a strategy then it's a good move by the administrators.

Good because such confusion forces people to think intentionally as it has happened already. As a result, people have at least begun thinking of alternatives out of fear of punishment though.

But targeting to achieve any (Zero-Plastic kind of) result measures without enabling the corresponding processes in place always have had serious implications with associated costs. Time and again this has got proven by itself.

In Nagpur, for instance, out of fear some people got rid of banned plastic bags by dumping them in rivulets.

If such confusion, however, is by chance then there's a bigger worry.

Bigger worry because it might mean, there's a lack of well-designed time-bound plan, also lack of the design to execute the ban itself holistically expecting it to aim Zero-Plastic target! In fact, adequate design learning from others (especially from countries successful in handling the plastic menace) is the first step in any such project. Bigger worry because lack of meticulousness in such initiatives usually leads to sub-optimisation harming the nobility of the purpose itself.

Unless every stakeholder gets mindfully engaged in averting the plastic-pollution-menace and the forthcoming disaster therefrom, the costs of the short term approaches towards it will get out of control. There's a need to take a relook at it in order to scrutinise the blanket-ban, if any, if not done so already.

Better also to be innovative on making the recycling more effective. Not only does the arrest of the plastic need to be at manufacturing level but also at desire-based or want-based consumption level. A pictorial do-don't will go a long way in preventing the confusion among the users and the administrators.

In any case the Zero-Plastic target is an arduous task at least in near future since for some applications cost effective substitute is yet to get invented.

Sustainability of the planet is the priority number-1 but the ban itself needs to be sustainable for that!

Here's my 140 character Tweet plan of action (POA) revolving around the Kaizen technique: *MISER!

Be a MISER stakeholder on Plastic!

MINDFUL of enabling process to evolve Zero-Plastic result!
INNOVATE packaging!
SCRUTINISE blanket-ban!
ELIMINATE production!
REDUCE, REUSE! Collect to RECYCLE!

(*MISER: Minimise. Improvise. Simplify. Eliminate. Reduce.)