Get the TRAC Solution For Most Companies Biggest Problem

One of the most common issues among manufacturing companies is the inability to permanently solve quality issues. Click here to download the program outline.

How many times have you put a solution in place to correct a quality issue only to have it pop back up weeks, or months later? Probably much more than you wish to share. Whether internal scrap and rework, customer returns or process improvement, this issue crosses all industries, but the more complicated the processes involved, the bigger the issue. The primary “root cause” of this is the lack of formal training in the process of root cause analysis. TRAC has created a customized RCA & 8D training program that will be branded to your organization and pay for itself in 30 days.

Reach out to schedule this root cause analysis and 8D training for your organization and start saving money and increase customer satisfaction.

Steve

920-841-3478

Steve@tracQMS.com

 

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Steve Williams’ new business strategy book Notorious now available & in stock! Foreword by Eric the Red.

Press Release: Autographed copies of “Notorious: Business Lessons from History’s Most Ruthless Leaders” now available for immediate shipment at https://tracqms.com/shop/

Hundreds, if not thousands, of books have been written about the great leaders throughout history that have served as role models for generations of business executives, students and the everyday person that just wants to learn and apply the behaviors that made these leaders successful. That is easy.

Countless books have also been written about evil deeds done by the worst of the worst in history, including most of the characters included in this book. But what about the lessons that can be learned from the dark side, the names you won’t typically find in the business section of your local book store; history’s rebels, outlaws and femme fatales? You can call them many things: thugs, barbarians, savages, criminals, etc., but what you most definitely can’t call them is stupid. The warriors I have chosen to include in Notorious may be some of history’s most ruthless, but they are also some of the most successful leaders in history, and much can be learned from them.

Learn business lessons from the Notorious cast of characters: 

  1. Sun Tsu on Strategy
  2. Attila The Hun on Leadership
  3. Freydis Eiriksdottir on Overcoming Adversity
  4. Genghis Khan on Power
  5. Blackbeard the Pirate on Building your Brand
  6. Catherine the Great on Leading in an Imperfect World
  7. Napoleon Bonaparte on Planning
  8. Al Capone on Exploiting Your Niche
  9. Sonny Barger on Extreme Leadership
  10. Steve Jobs on Insane Success

Foreword by notorious pirate Eric the Red. Purchase here at https://tracqms.com/shop/

 

 

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Guerrilla Tactics to Pass any QMS Audit – Tactic 9 Tips To Avoid Audit “Dings”

Williams’ Law 9

Teach it, preach it, and audit to it! Prepare so that no question should be able to be asked that an operator does not know the answer to.

Guerrilla Tactic 9: QMS Documentation Tips To Avoid Audit “Dings”

Tip 1: KISS

Keep It Simple Steve; the goal is to develop a system that is:

  • Value-adding to the organization
  • Easy to understand
  • Flexible
  • Reducing opportunites for error
  • SIMPLE

Tip 2: Standardization

Develop standardized QMS procedure template

  • Standardize sections e.g.:
    • Scope
    • Responsibilities
    • Terms & Definitions
    • Instructions
    • Reference Documents
    • …etc.

Facilitates:

  • Ease-of-use
  • Training
  • Recall
  • Memorization of “structure”, not procedure
  • Time-to-retrieval

Tip 3: Verbiage

  • “Functional Vagueness”
    • Precise enough for functionality
    • Vague enough for practicality
  • “Shall/Must”
    • Critical
    • Non-compliance would jeopardize operation
  • “Should/May”
    • Non-critical
    • Non-compliance would not jeopardize operation
    • Leaves room for external circumstances

Examples

“Bath pH shall be verified and logged onto form 203-004 every 2 hours.”

“Workplace should be kept clean on a continual basis.”

Designee

  • Try to always use this term
  • Don’t: “The Molding Supervisor shall review & sign-off on the daily SPC results.”
  • Do: “The Molding Supervisor, or his/her designee, shall review & sign-off on the daily SPC results.”

Contact TRAC

Contact me to start your Quality Management System Guerrilla Training before your next audit.

Steve: 920-841-3478

Steve@tracQMS.com

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Guerrilla Tactics to Pass any QMS Audit – Tactic 8 Old Dogs

Williams’ Law 8

You CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

Guerrilla Tactic 8: Learned Behaviors

Many of the QMS audit concepts discussed in this blog series may seem unconventional and may not come naturally. That is to be expected, but the good news is that they are easily learned with practice, diligence, and continuous positive reinforcement.

A learned behavior is a behavior observed by someone that they find beneficial to them in some way. There’s a motivating factor behind it. Unlike innate behavior, a learned behavior is one that you make a conscious decision to learn; in other words, nurture rather than nature. Think about writing; when you first began to learn to write it required constant thought and attention. Now, when you jot down a note it is automatic; second nature. That is how all learned behaviors are developed. The below list is a way to initiate and reinforce the learned behaviors that will be required to foster the culture needed to get the full benefits out of all the concepts, techniques, and methodology discussed throughout this book.

Prepare all employees much as a trial lawyer would prepare a witness

  • Coach responses
    • Not just answer, but tone, eye contact, politeness, etc.
    • Confidence (a learned behavior)
  • Script for common questions
    • Where is your procedure?
    • How do I know you are trained to do this operation?
    • Where are your training records located?
    • How do you contribute to the QMS?
  • Memorize Quality Policy and Battle Cry
    • Teach and practice with internal audits & rally’s
    • Query employees with every interaction
  • Operators MUST understand procedures
    • Don’t teach memorization, teach structure
    • Content & Structure
      • Importance of standardized sections
      • Know where to find answers
    • Operator certification: open book test
  • Train operators not to guess at auditor questions
    • Teach “Please let me refer to my procedure”
    • Supervisor or ISO Rep can assist in guiding employee to correct answer
  • Practice response time to Steve’s 15 Second Rule
  • Must be comfortable with 100% of employees ability to deal with auditors/customers
    • Condition employees through internal audits
    • Practice, practice, practice
  • Cheating is not acceptable; facilitate applied learning!
    • Character & Integrity are everything!

 

Contact TRAC

Contact me to start our Guerrilla Training before your next QMS (Quality Management Systems) audit.

Steve: 920-841-3478

Steve@tracQMS.com

 

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Guerrilla Tactics to Pass any QMS Audit – Tactic 7 MBWA

Williams’ Law 7

You can’t manage from your office; if you don’t constantly monitor the pulse on the shop floor it is easy to lose control.

 

Guerrilla Tactic 7: MBWA

My good friend Tom Peters, author of the “Excellence” series of books and one of my favorite management consultants, coined the phrase MBWA (Management By Walking Around). This is another of those concepts that seem so obvious, but how many of us actually do this?

This powerful technique applies equally to the leader of a quality management system as it does to a Fortune 500 CEO. This is a rhetorical question, but really, how often do we go out on the shop floor and just observe what is going on? I don’t mean tracking down orders and making sure people are working, but how does the facility look? Do the workers look happy? What are they saying? Are we working smart or overcompensating by working hard? What would I think if I were the customer? You can’t answer these questions sitting in your office!

Contact TRAC

Contact me to start our Guerrilla Training before your next audit.

Steve: 920-841-3478

Steve@tracQMS.com

 

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Guerrilla QMS Tactic 6 to Pass any QMS Audit: Train, Train & Train Some More

Williams’ Law 6

If an auditor waits longer than 15 seconds for a response, they will wander around and invariably find something you don’t want found.

Guerrilla Tactic 6: Train, Train & Train Some More

  • Don’t focus on QMS procedural memorization; key is ability to quickly retrieve information from procedure
  • Certified Operator Program
  • Simple Training Records
  • Utilize proficiency tests
    • Demonstrates understanding and competence
    • Rev change recertification
  • Visible training status
    • Make it easy to verify that auditee is trained and certified to task being performed
  • Badge, color coding, training matrix card, etc.
  • Clearly identify Temps and Trainees
    • Auditors will typically not question these employees

 

Contact TRAC

Contact me to start our Guerrilla Training before your next audit.

Steve: 920-841-3478

Steve@tracQMS.com

 

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Guerrilla Tactics to Pass any QMS Audit – Tactic 5

Williams’ Law 5

Every time you volunteer something not asked for, you will end up sharing something you don’t want shared.

 

Guerrilla Tactic 5: QMS Audit Tactical Strategies

Don’t volunteer anything!

Teach all employees to:

  • Listen to the question
  • Be polite, courteous & helpful

But…

  • Answer the question, and only the question!

 

Teach it, preach it, and audit to it!

 

Develop a QMS Audit Vacation Policy

  • No vacations for “key” positions
    • Procedure approval signatories
    • Department supervisors/leads
  • Mandatory vacation for “suspect” employees

 

Get In & Get Out

  • Job One is to get the auditor out of each department as quickly as possible!
    • Every manager, supervisor and operator must be proficient at this
    • Efficient, informative, polite, professional
    • Employees must be comfortable dealing with auditors
  • Practice Steve’s 15 Second Time-to-Retrieval Rule
    • Within 15 seconds any operator should be able to:
      • Physically secure procedure
      • Find answer in procedure
      • Provide proof of operation (completed form, history, log, etc.)

 

Teach it, preach it, and audit to it!

 

Contact TRAC

Contact me to start our Guerrilla Training before your next audit.

Steve: 920-841-3478

Steve@tracQMS.com

 

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Guerrilla Tactics to Pass any QMS Audit – Tactic 4

Williams’ Law 4

Find your own dirty laundry.

 

Guerrilla Tactic 4: Internal Audit Strategy

While a robust Quality Management System (QMS) internal audit system is a bit of a given in a good quality program, there are some strategies that, if employed, will provide a number of intangible benefits during any quality systems audit.

The key with audits is to find your own dirty laundry; you don’t want your customer/registrar to find things that you should have discovered during internal audits. The other “soft” benefit of audits is that every single one is an opportunity to properly condition the workforce. It is easy for the management representative or department supervisor to have all the right answers, so encouraging auditors & customers to interact with the employees actually doing the job will demonstrate the strength and competency of the workforce, and the quality management system. The internal audit program should be used to help condition employees to be comfortable in this situation.

  • Audit trainer should be formally “lead-assessor” trained
  • No “conflict of interest” auditing
    • Cannot audit your own process
  • Train auditors to “see as the customer sees”
  • Complete system cycle each 6-months
    • Calibrate with 6-month surveillance audits
  • Closed-loop follow-up audit for findings
  • Develop procedure specific audits
  • Integrate common system level questions into every audit
  • Audit employees ability to recite the Quality Policy and Battle Cry
  • Audit line workers, not supervisors
    • Supervisor can assist, but not answer for employees

 

Contact TRAC

Contact me to start our Guerrilla Training before your next audit.

Steve: 920-841-3478

Steve@tracQMS.com

 

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Guerrilla Tactics to Pass any QMS Audit – Tactic 3

Williams’ Law 3

First Impressions Count!!!

Guerrilla Tactic 3: QMS Visual Management

The Japanese word for visual controls is Andon, and QMS visual management is a key to success in any system. One of the mistakes many organizations make is to cultivate an environment of secrecy when it comes to organizational performance, as if this knowledge is dangerous to share with employees. Quite the contrary is true; displaying accurate, timely metrics on a Visual Management Board will both engage employees and instill a sense of ownership in the company’s performance.

Key visual management metrics:

  • Quality goals
  • Revenue
  • Internal quality defects/yield
  • External customer returns and survey results
  • Kaizen Events
  • SPC data
  • 6S successes
  • PIT Crew activity and successes
  • Continuous Improvement Awards
  • Rally schedules, minutes, pictures
  • Audit (customer visit) schedules

Contact TRAC

Contact me to start our Guerrilla Training before your next audit.

Steve: 920-841-3478

Steve@tracQMS.com

 

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Guerrilla Tactics to Pass any QMS Audit – Tactic 2

Williams’ Law 2

When things are fun, things get done!

Guerrilla Tactic 2: Make it fun!

QMS: Why Make It fun?

  • Fun is free
  • Fun enhances communication & builds relationships
  • Fun makes people want to perform well at work
  • Fun energizes creativity and problem-solving abilities
  • Fun pleases customers, team members, and co-workers
  • Fun makes boring tasks easier to do
  • Fun breaks down enormous undertakings into manageable tasks
  • Fun lets people relax and perform better while under audit/customer pressure

Develop A Battle Cry

  • A common theme for the Quality System
  • Hold a contest to develop the Battle Cry
  • Memorize along with Quality Policy
  • Print it on T-Shirts
  • Put it on posters & plaques
  • Give out as ISO rewards
  • Wear during major audits/customer visits

Benefits of Making It Fun

Customer’s Notice Employees that:

  • Enjoy their job
  • Like their company
  • Embrace the quality policy
  • Believe in the culture
  • Talk the talk, walk the walk

Contact TRAC

Contact me to start our Guerrilla Training before your next audit.

Steve: 920-841-3478

Steve@tracQMS.com

 

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