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22 The PCB Magazine • August 2015 a regular basis for which a person or persons is responsible and accountable—who will do what by when. On a process improvement team, it is imperative that the team be a working team and that everyone on the team has some right action for which they are responsible and ac- countable. If a person cannot keep his or her word in completing action items, he or she must leave the team. Measuring and Monitoring David Chambers, W. Ed- wards Deming's right-hand man and probably the coun- try's most esteemed statisti- cian, said it best, "Focus on what you measure and how you measure. If you get these right, everything else will follow. If you don't get these right, it's impossible to im- prove and control a system or process." In other words, it's impossible to create qual- ity systems unless we know what to measure and how to measure. This is an area where many well-meaning quality advocates fall down. Leaders should also realize that the only things that are important to an organi - zation are those things that are measured. We can disre- gard what leaders say about the company's vision, mission and values when these culture/ operational critical aspects of the organization are not measured in some way. It's the same for quality and customer satisfaction, including internal customer satisfaction. These things must be measured, correctly answering the question, what and how are we measuring? At some point, you will want to have control charts for your critical 20% variable measure - ments so you will know when a process or sys- tem has changed in some way. It's much bet- ter to catch problems early as opposed to later and, worst of all, when they show up in the field or with your customers. Now let's look at the second question: How do we train employees about quality? As stated above, two significant obstacles to training employees in quality are: 1. a pro- gram mentality and 2) tools that are difficult to teach and apply for both front-line workers and managers. I might add a third that might be even more important: Is the leader willing to grow and change, too? It's mindboggling how many leaders are unwilling or unable to look in the mirror and see that unless he or she is will - ing to grow beyond what has brought the company to its present state, little can be done to improve the orga- nization. This is because the mindset of top management shapes the mindset or culture of the company. When top management has a robust quality/systems mindset, we transcend program mental - ity and begin to move the company into a quality state of being. Without this shift in thinking, we're more or less stuck wherever we are or with incremental improve- ment only. In looking at how best to train employees about quali- ty, one strategy has proved by far to be most effective—teach them to improve the systems in which they work. As I stated, a process improvement team is a working team. It is also a learning team. In the process of improving systems, employees learn to use the tools and even facilitate. They are turned loose to contribute to the process, ap- ply the principles and be accountable. We learn the most when we teach. Once trained in a real work situation, the team, with some support, moves on to resolving its next critical 20% is- sue. Average people can easily become extraor- dinary in process improvement in only a couple of months of actually doing this work using the indicated methodology and tools. THE WAR oN FAILURE continues FeAture Focus on what you measure and how you measure. if you get these right, everything else will follow. if you don't get these right, it's impossible to improve and control a system or process. in other words, it's impossible to create quality systems unless we know what to measure and how to measure. this is an area where many well-meaning quality advocates fall down. " "