Ben Compton asked:
>1) What have you done, in your work with implementing ISO 9000 quality
>systems, to get people in an organization to document, in the corrective
>action system, not only the problems that have been corrected, but also
>the innovations that help the organization? Especially, when the
>innovation is a shift in thinking, not a procederual change?
First, I have to tell you that I've been in the quality profession for a
long time, so I don't read the standards for minimum compliance, but for
systemic intent. The corrective and preventive action elements are
directly related to management review, quality planning, training, and
statistical methods (sounds a little like Deming's System of Profound
Knowledge, eh?). One of my first preventive actions is to look at the
training procedure and see if it is designed to both describe and explain
knowledge resources required. I then look at management review and its
outputs to see if knowledge is addressed in the planning process. The
strategic and business plans are preventive action items and should be
captured as learning history. Both correction and prevention are really
"things we've done to improve". This should also include records of
training and education, reorganization/redesign of processes and
organizations, etc. Results, too, must be captured. Because ISO does not
look directly to results, I incorporate the Baldrige criteria into the
appropriate clauses in the policy document and tune the processes they
affect.
>2) Have you actually used a collection of corrective actions to tell the
>story of how an organization has evolved? I spent a lot of time thinking
>about this as Quality Manager. . .I think it definitely has a lot of
>possibilities.
In a company I once knew and loved, we used a database to capture all of
this information, including our annual Baldrige Self-Assessment and our
plans for the future. We received several quality awards during this time
and raised the level of performance, spirit, and joy throughout the
organization. A new ownership, however, thought we were being extravagant
and eliminated everything but "the basics" (read minimum compliance). This
created a drain on the knowledge base (downsizing, migration to greener
pastures) and an unlearning history: they have rewritten our path of
financial and organizational growth to reflect their current failures. The
true story is sitting in a couple of brains and unattended database
somewhere.
It can be done, it should be done, it works. It is unfortunate that there
are corporate level managers who still don't understand "The New Economics"
and the value of the human spirit in attaining it.
I am just starting a new journey in a large plant in a very large company.
I'll report on my progress. I appear to have the resources and support to
make it happen.
--John Zavacki jzavacki@wolff.com http://www.wolff.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>