Читать книгу NEXT STOP: UNSTOPPABLE - Malte Stöckert - Страница 15

Most Problems About Quality Arise Because Risk Is Not Properly Assessed at the Beginning

Thomas spends the weekend thinking about what his Uncle Willy advised him to do. The longer he thinks about it, the more it rings true: he’s not living in isolation, so he can’t work in isolation either, in his own silo. Besides, nothing is better than seeing that special glow in the eyes of the person you’ve brought joy to. It’s more blessed to give than it is to receive. Thomas knows this, in his heart.

Come Sunday, Thomas decides to completely change direction. He’ll have to revise the task bank in front of his team again. That’s kind of embarrassing. But what’s a bit of embarrassment if he can’t contribute to the success of the strategic project? Long-term consideration prevails here. Mr. Mueller’s threat to relocate production to Southeast Asia is still ringing in his ears. Thomas definitely doesn’t want to be the cause of that.

On Monday, Thomas stands in front of his team and tells them that the tasks from the task bank need to be reviewed and treated as active tasks again. Some of the team disagrees and tries to torpedo the decision, but in the end, Thomas can push his plan through because he explains how the orders are coming from the top, from Mr. Mueller. He candidly tells the team about the last meeting with the department heads and the awkward silence that followed. The whole thing still feels like an anvil on his shoulders. But Thomas doesn’t voice that. Instead, he emphasizes how he, at least, doesn’t want to see that happen again, so neither should his team.

Following the team meeting, Thomas knocks on a few colleagues’ doors and asks them to help him bring the muddled project back to an acceptable state. Two of his colleagues immediately throw their hats in the ring, but the rest keep a low profile.

Over the next two weeks, Thomas endeavors to reach out to the other team leaders to work with them on a battle plan for getting the strategic project back on track. More get involved and under Thomas’s direction, they forge a road map on how to make up for the lost time.

Thomas becomes so engrossed in his personal endeavor for the project that he hardly finds time for the other tasks within his department. He also comes to the office on Saturday and doesn’t go home until the work is done and he’s satisfied with it. Back at home in the evening, he falls into bed completely exhausted. He doesn’t even go for his runs anymore, and he doesn’t take the time to go shopping either. The cafeteria ladies become his surrogate mothers, kindly putting something out for him in the evening too when he asks for it after lunch. They’re starting to notice a pattern, though. The ladies behind the counter shake their heads and ask, “have you been at it again? Pulling the long hours? Don’t you have a girlfriend or anyone else at home?” Thomas just laughs it off, not really answering.

A very important milestone will be going from prototype to series production, which will require the cooperation of many departments and they’ll all have to perform their tasks on time. Thomas worked with the other department heads to create a deviation analysis and presented the activities they needed to catch up on at the Thursday meeting. Mr. Mueller was initially reluctant but then ultimately persuaded to support the plan.

It’s decided, then. Thomas is proud he took some responsibility for the team and headed the analysis. Satisfied, he returns to his department and meets up with Steffen, the most reliable member of his team.

“Look who it is,” Steffen begins, somewhat reproachfully. “We’ve continued to maintain the task board in your absence, but we need your support with some upcoming decisions. Are you going to be joining us again sometime soon, or?”

“Yes,” Thomas answers with a grin. “There’s just a lot to do for the new product.” He quickly disappears into his office so as not to ask any unpleasant questions or make any decisions at the moment.

Later in the week, a rumor spreads that something didn’t go right during prototype testing. What exactly it was or what impact it would have on the schedule hadn’t leaked yet. But on Thursday morning, shortly before the meeting with the department heads, the bombshell bursts. Two critical components don’t fit together, so the rudimentary function of the product cannot be ensured. In principle, this means the end of the project, which dawns on everyone immediately. It can’t be fixed, corrected, or even glossed over in the short term.

Thomas is devastated. All the work he put into the project over the last few weeks had been for nothing.

The meeting with the department heads then proceeds very calmly. Mr. Mueller explains in detail what happened, and they still try to find solutions to avert the disaster, but it quickly becomes clear that it can’t happen. An injection molding tool didn’t have the right dimensions and would thus have to be completely remanufactured. Even if they rushed it, there would be at least a twelve-week delay. This is a disaster for Mr. Mueller and the entire company. Everyone was counting on the market launch of the product and had high hopes that the recent years’ negative trend could be reversed. Mr. Mueller adjourned the meeting with the words, “we should all go home and rest now. Maybe someone will come up with a miracle. In the meantime, I’ll inform the executive board and by tomorrow, we’ll see what can be done.”

Everyone files out until it’s just Thomas and Mr. Mueller in the room. “Well, that’s a tough one to swallow, don’t you think?” asks Mr. Mueller.

“Yes, I’m very disappointed. I just don’t want to get the idea in my head that we can’t do anything. All the work we put into the project over the last few weeks and now it’s all been for nothing. It’s rather surreal to me.”

“You see,” says Mr. Mueller, “it’s better that we noticed it today. Imagine what would’ve happened if this had come to the attention of our customers and not us first, i.e., if we had already been fully on the market. That would’ve been a huge blow to the company’s image. We probably never would’ve recovered from it. But not only that, imagine what would’ve happened if the product had failed and it had injured a person? Definitely possible. We’d inevitably have to do a recall. That would have been extremely costly for us, not to mention the litigation costs, and so on. In that respect, it’s good we noticed it now and it didn’t stay as a hidden defect.”

Thomas is speechless at first. How can you take anything positive from this catastrophic situation? He admired Mr. Mueller for his consistent management style, but now this? This doesn’t seem to fit at all with the managing director Thomas thought he was familiar with.

Mr. Mueller continues, “problems with product quality don’t just come out of nowhere, they don’t suddenly appear like a natural disaster. They are usually an expression of the fact that risks were handled carelessly at some point, usually at the beginning of product development. The less attention paid to risk assessment during the initial development phase, the greater the potential defects that can arise during production, which means more customer complaints and a higher risk for recall. You’ve probably heard the phrase, ‘shit in, shit out’? If you start with something bad, you’ll just end up with something bad. It’s that simple, in the end, even though we always make it very complicated for ourselves. And if there’s one thing you can learn from this,” continues Mr. Mueller, looking Thomas directly in the eye, “it’s this: think about the risks as early as possible because everything we do has consequences.”