Ten years back, the Quality manager seemed to be a person with an agenda and obviously the most wanted person in the board room. ISO and TS standards had got the attention of the management and tools and techniques like the six sigma were getting more and more popular. People wanted to ask for his views on new products and even recruitment. But, it appears that the dream run is over. The tide has turned now against his much admired status and position. Suddenly he seems to be a wanderer in the lobbies of corporate office and a person without purpose. For the Quality profesionals, this is a bad sign and once we think about this development, a feeling of discomfort and sadness creeps in. Has Quality lost its sheen? Has the "Quality manager" become a position without a future?
In a company where I consult, The Quality Manager has become a kind of "event manager". Whether it is the launch of the special issue of house magazine, or the function for recognising a supplier team, he is there, to do what the management wants. He accompanies the VIPs, presents the mementos, does the job of Master of ceremonies with ease. He says he is happy though I am afraid he might have almost forgotten the PDCA cycle. It is true that he is in the lime light and is present in all the photos published in the house journals but where has the "torch bearer of Quality” gone?
Some Quality managers have become coordinators of consultant driven initatives. They have put on the caps of procurement managers with a vengeance. They consider the Quality consultants as suppliers and lord over them for organising training sessions, haggle over prices and expenses, negotiate the scope of work and administer the programmes. But they are no more the zealous champions of the Quality movement in which once they were the vanguards.
The third group has become "in house" revenue generating resource. These Quality Managers do not serve the company but opt for outside assignments-assessments , coaching and training sessions for other group companies -or teaching in academic institutions and bring in valuable money for the company. They are respected because they earn revenue but so far as their contribution to Quality within their organisation is concerned, it has come to a naught.
If this is the situation, we start wondering where the profession is going. Do we need a "Quality manager" at all now? Coordinating with certification bodies and arranging various special programmes can be done by many others in the organisation and one does not need to study Deming or Juran for it.
Should the Quality Mangers not look at their jobs, their roles and introspect about the basics of their profession at least now? By running around to please all the people, have they not eroded some of the values of the profession ? Do we have some non-negotiable aspects of the profession and if so can they be inscribed in rock for us to follow?
As a Quality professional but not a serving manager in Quality, let me propose some basic ingredients to a value system for the Quality managers if they want to survive.
1. Serve the Customer : Never hide behind the QMS certificates when the customer comes charging. ISO system cannot be your shield in front of the customers. Please stand up for the customer and argue for him within the company.
2. Be a diagnostic expert: Enough of managing compliance audits and your memos on NCRs. Take up a course on Process Management and become an expert in diagnosis.
3. Be among the workers: The important constituency which served us was our workers. Be among them. Improve their outputs and serve to educate them in statistical skills.
4. Shun event management and decorative functions: Refuse the assignments of managing events and newsletters. Do not opt to have dinner with every one who visits your company. You will end up doing only that till the time company fires you for a kid from the nearby event management school.
5. Complement consultants' work: Do not treat consultants as suppliers. They have some knowledge and experience and you have the advantage of being an insider. Do not work at loggerheads and lose the game in front of everyone.
6. Read and Write: Take up a book and if you can, write one. This profession needs some intellectuals badly. Otherwise, it will end up as a lowly paid end of the road job for retirees and under performers.
I trust that this advice come in time and hope it is not too late and too near the day of extinction!!
No comments:
Post a Comment