QUALITY - A departmental solution, or an enterprise objective?

Quality is a strategic objective!

Organizations that treat Quality-as-a-compliance-necessity view such initiatives as a cost at the department level.

Shift that reality to Quality-as-a-strategic-objective that delivers significant value to the bottom line and captures the attention of the C-suite.

Notice the difference!

As an asset management professional, I see everything though this lens. For example, I see Quality as an outcome of good asset management practices.

Recently the COO of a software tool company and I had a conversation about Quality. Their past success is partly based on ISO 9000, the management system standard for Quality. The company now finds itself limited by departmental applications of its tool. The Quality Department’s job is to seek compliance to ISO 9000, for example, in asset intensive organizations. The C-suite sees these compliance activities as a cost, not a benefit. The vocabulary in the conversation between the Department’s and the C-suite is not aligned. The Department’s speaks the language of compliance (a cost) and the C-suite speaks the language of finance (low cost producer, sustainable benefits, customer satisfaction, consistent quality product). Did I say “quality product”?

The tool vendor’s contacts are in the Quality department. They don’t have contacts in the C-suite. And they’re reluctant to ask for a conversation with the VP of Operations. I think this conversation would be of great interest!

What if the established expertise in Quality at the departmental level were leveraged over to Operations? The technology, infrastructure, and subject matter expertise are in place …

What if Quality made a huge impact at the organizational level as a measurable strategic outcome of great asset management processes, procedures, and practices?

What if Quality were embraced as an organizational value? Like Safety!

This is a Hot Topic among asset management professionals that see the opportunity to take Quality to the next level to achieve significant bottom line benefits in asset intensive organizations.

Join in the conversation. Contact me! I’d love to chat with you about how we can assist your organization make this significant shift.