Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1259453
JUNE 2020 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 29 From a business perspective, I don't think the current environment changes much. You always have to find ways to reduce your costs and not produce waste. In particular, you don't want to produce bad products that go out to your customer, whether it's a cosmetic defect, a functional defect, or a defect that could af- fect long-term reliability. That's still there and doesn't change at all. This is an industry where the cost always has to go down every year because the price goes down every year. That's the way it has been and will be forever. "How can I save money?" is always on the lips of everyone. Part of this is retaining employees. One way to save money is not having to replace people. Retain them instead, and avoid going through the learning curve again with a new employee. Every year, you have to tighten your business up, use your assets well—which are people, equipment, and dollars—to make sure you stay in business along with keeping up on the technology curve as required for your business. Johnson: That gives us a great perspective. Do you have any final thoughts? Korf: When you first contacted me about talk- ing about TQM, I thought, "Wow. That's a huge topic. TQM covers a lot of stuff." Fundamen- tally, TQM is more of a mindset. You have to have the mindset that you must produce good stuff. It's a full team approach, and it starts with the customers. If they gave you bad in- formation, you have to find out before it gets to the production floor, down to what a defect is in your customer's mind. You may not agree with it, but that doesn't matter; it's what they want. TQM is an underlying philosophy. My key point is not to get stuck on the pro- cess of collecting the data and documenting it. Look at the measurable impact. If you haven't made a measurable impact, then you haven't done a good job. Always focus on whatever you're doing in the quality system to make things better, have a real impact, and evalu- ate everything you're doing. If it doesn't make sense, stop it or change it; don't keep going down a path if it doesn't make sense just be- cause someone said that it was what you had to do. That's where you have to rely on the en- tire team to be honest with each other. If they are, you get excellent results. I've been through this many times. Johnson: Dana, thank you. Korf: Thanks, Nolan. PCB007