Symptom: Responsibility for quality is separated from responsibility for the work, as in "quality control" groups.
If people aren't motivated to produce quality solutions, perhaps they don't consider themselves accountable. When another group is there to check results, people become less concerned about their quality. They think their job is to get the work out, and the inspector's job is to look after quality.
As a result, they produce more defects, and the inspectors can't catch them all. So quality suffers. Costs also rise, since reworking defective products is much more expensive that doing things right the first time.
As is now widely understood among Quality professionals, everyone must be responsible for their own quality. Groups that focus on quality can assist them, but not inspect them or accept accountability for the quality of their work. From a structural perspective, this is part of the concept of "whole jobs," where people are responsible for every aspect of producing a product line.
Root cause:Structure, organization chart (whole jobs) copyright 2024 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc. All rights reserved.
