Usually a title such as this is an introduction to an esoteric discussion of supply chain theory and its relationship to quality; today’s blog is much simpler.
This past week we had a water supply line under a vanity come loose and flood a new home that had been in place, with water connected, for about a week. It was a mess but fortunately no major, permanent damage was done. I visited the site and the builder handed me the culprit – a polymer line which relies upon a compression fitting to seal and provide pullout resistance. Evidently the fitting was tight enough to hold but worked its way loose over the week.
As a company, we could respond in different ways to this situation. We could ignore the matter and hope it was an isolated instance, we could reprimand our plumber (who regularly does a good job) or we could reexamine our materials and processes. As you may guess, the first two options are insufficient. Ignoring the matter just continues the chance of another problem and reprimanding focuses upon the person and not necessarily the problem. Instead, we looked at our material and processes.
Immediately, we changed away from compression fittings. Yes, the new lines cost more but we know they won’t have the specific problem because the line is attached to the fitting in a more positive fashion. We didn’t hem and haw about; we just did it. Secondly, we reexamined our processes to determine if additional checks were needed. The bottom line – we focused on continuous improvement.
While this may sound like a simple and silly example, I am reminded of a phrase from my high school Latin teacher:
Inch by inch, life’s a cinch; yard by yard, life is hard; mile by mile, life’s a trial.
We are working to continually improve inch by inch. It will put us far ahead of our competitors.
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