THE NOT SO HIDDEN COSTS OF IGNORING QUALITY CONTROL
All organizations, irrespective of their industry, have a vision. This vision is often fueled by the organizations’ financial position. An effective quality control system ensures that a company’s financial position is strong and helps it ascend the trajectory of success. This also assists businesses ensure customer satisfaction, build a strong brand image, and improve their processes.
If a business is content with its financial position, and is least bothered whether its product will be viable 50 years down the line, then the quality management system in this scenario is redundant. It is rendered useless if the organization does not have an aim to leave a legacy behind, or to create a long-lasting brand.
However, in the scenario where an organization aims to grow its market share, and create an impression on its customers as well as investors, then a quality management system becomes a vital tool in its arsenal. Experts advise that once you are aware of the quality management system, do not spend a day without it. Take advantage of this system to be a step ahead of your competition.
An effective system of quality management has 8 important principles:
- Strong leadership
- Customer focus
- Process approach
- Involvement of people
- Continuous improvement
- System approach
- Creating value for suppliers, clients, and the company
- Decision-making based on actionable insights
In the absence of a formal quality management system, a majority of the organizations lack most of these key principles or elements. Unless these 8 principles are employed in unison, organizations will not be able to realize the entire benefits of the quality management system. Employing a few of these principles, and ignoring the rest will not assist an organization bring about efficiency in its processes.
RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH IGNORANCE OF QUALITY CONTROL
Here are a few examples of partial engagement of the quality management process, and the risks faced by organizations:
- The absence of a continuous improvement system hinders the growth of a product, and causes it to lag behind its competitors who continue to improve and enhance the functionality, and quality of their products. An effective quality management system identifies deficiencies in a product, and, at the same time, ensures that the products delivered to customers are defect-free. A continuous improvement system can alleviate the manufacturing costs of an organization by reducing the number of defective products. It can also assist in increasing the production via refinement and continuous analysis of the manufacturing process.
- The absence of a customer satisfaction system will encourage customers to look out for other options, and organizations which value their needs and requirements. An effective quality management system needs to have a continuously improving customer satisfaction program at its core. An organization that does not value customer satisfaction is liable to lose customers to its competitors who respond positively to the demands of customers.
In today’s hyper-competitive world, the products that will win the hearts of consumers will be the ones that continuously improve their quality. Such products will continue to garner a larger audience, thus reducing the market share of its competitors.
- The absence of a document control and management program will hinder the growth of an organization, as it will lack a formal point of initiation. An effective quality management system lays down the requirements of periodic review, approval, and development of procedures that govern the organization’s operations and processes. In the absence of detailed documentation, the workforce has to operate as it deems fit, with a not recognized method of product control, and no accountability.
Employees who leave the organization after working for long terms take vital information with them, which leaves other employees clueless, and the business in jeopardy. Without documentation, it becomes impossible to pinpoint the cause of defects in the processes, thus making it highly difficult to employ corrective actions. This incurs the company extra costs, as they may have to scrap the entire process anytime.
CONCLUSION
An organization can be affected adversely in the absence of a formal quality management system. It can also prevent a business from attaining new contracts, and collaborating with top-tier companies. An effective quality management system requires the suppliers of a certain business to have a defined quality control system of their own. When companies adhere to the guideline mentioned in the quality management system, they expect their suppliers to comply with the same.
