Quality Journey Made in China

"The superior doctor treats the early disease, the traditional Chinese medicine treats the beginning of the disease, and the inferior doctor treats the serious disease", which is called the triple state of the doctor. Obviously, "preventive treatment" is the highest state among them.

Quality management is very similar to this - at the beginning of the product problem, it is solved within the company, which can be regarded as "the beginning of the disease". This is the work of quality control and quality inspection, and when the quality causes customer complaints, it will be dealt with later. , that is already "severely ill", and it can easily turn into a crisis of trust if you are not careful, causing a headache for managers. The best way is to rule out possible "causes" before the product "sicks" and deliver the product to the customer in a healthy and healthy way. This is also the highest state of quality management: establishing a quality culture.

This is actually the view of a generation of quality guru Philip Crosby, who stated: "If a company wants to be permanently free from trouble, it must change its corporate culture to The reason why the service does not meet the requirements."

How is quality culture different from general quality management?

Quality is in line with customer requirements, and culture is the value that everyone in the company believes in. Quality culture is to make quality the common belief of all the company. This also means that the quality culture is not the quality control on the production line, but the quality awareness of each person in each department of the company; it does not attach importance to post-mortem inspections like general quality management, but does things right from the beginning and does not Let the problem arise; not a phased action such as ISO or TQM, but a long-term habit, as Crosby said, "Getting ISO 9000 certification is like getting a car driver's license, and all those who have a driver's license are still They will collide with each other."

Many excellent Chinese companies have successfully put the concept of quality culture into practice.

Leadership

"Managers are both the question and the answer to the question." - Crosby

On the eternal topic of corporate culture, managers are always both the question and the answer, and quality culture is also No exception. As Crosby puts it: "The culture of an organization is created by managers, whether they like it or not. People look at the boss's eye and act - they know what the boss likes and doesn't like, and they try to pick the boss. Do what you like... So, the manager is both the question and the answer."

Quality culture is the responsibility of the manager, on the one hand, how the attitude of the manager directly affects the direction of the employee's work, and on the other hand, the company Policies are formulated by the leadership. Whether the policy setting is clear or not and whether the quality requirements are clear or not depends on the leadership.

Therefore, in order to establish a quality culture in the company, leaders have two things to do: one is to show their determination to quality; Implementation of quality options.

Show determination. Interestingly, leaders of Chinese companies have a similar approach to how to express their determination to quality. They often express their anger at substandard products to clarify their position. Therefore, there have been cases in many companies like Zhang Ruimin. A sensational "iconic event" like smashing a refrigerator. Liang Wengen, chairman of Sany Group, once destroyed substandard parts in front of thousands of employees, destroyed a pump truck and a trailer pump that had just been produced, and proved with actions, "Quality is the starting point of corporate value and dignity. It is the only thing that cannot be compromised."

Gree Electric Appliances, whose mission is to manufacture the best air conditioners, set up a quality supervision team more than ten years ago, when Zhu Jianghong, the general manager at the time, personally served as the team leader, specializing in supervision and inspection. Quality issues in each link. The supervision team went to the production line to inspect quality problems every day. If they found that they did not operate in accordance with the regulations, they were either fined or fired. At that time, the employees jokingly called the quality supervision team the "gendarmerie team", and Zhu Jianghong was called the "gendarmerie team captain". Zhu Jianghong asked the quality control department to smash unqualified air-conditioning products with a sledgehammer. He also hung a sledgehammer at the entrance of the quality control department to show his determination to wake up and improve product quality.

Events like "smashing products" are sensational and effective, but only occasionally. The construction of quality culture is a matter of long-term development, which requires long-term and patient construction, and punitive actions are not conducive to giving full play to the initiative of employees in quality improvement.

Compared to smashing low quality, it is more important for leaders to build high quality pursuit, which can better signal to employees what is the right way to do it.

In order to eliminate hidden quality problems from the beginning, Gree has established a screening branch with more than 1,000 people. Every component that makes up the air conditioner has to undergo various tests here. Capacitors can not be spared. Gree has also spent tens of millions to build a simulation laboratory, such as realizing anti-interference of air conditioners, studying how to heat in the Arctic, cooling in places with 40-50 degrees in the tropics, etc., unremittingly breaking the limit of high quality.

The chairman of Chery, Yin Tongyao, did everything possible to find suitable quality management talents. In 2003, when he went to Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation for inspection and negotiation, he took the opportunity of going to the toilet to ask for his mobile phone number from Shinji Terada, an on-site management expert he liked, and then asked him to do the work. In the end, Terada became the quality management officer of Chery. core members. Later, "Shinji Terada Production Line" became a model sample of Chery's on-site management.

The company's top leadership must also be directly responsible for quality. When customers complain about quality problems, Foxconn President Terry Gou will personally come to apologize. In Sany Group, the 800 complaint telephone was installed directly in the chairman's office, so that the senior management can fully grasp the needs and ideas of customers and improve product quality in a timely manner.

Develop policies. Another thing leaders need to do is to define quality policies.

If there are several companies with high reputation in China, Haier is indispensable. Haier has a consistent quality policy: "A defective product is a waste product", which is clear, direct, and leaves no room.

Foxconn's Terry Gou has a 99.99 philosophy, that is, the quality must be precise, precise, and accurate, like the purity of gold, even if it does not reach 100%, it must reach 99.99%.

Gree has 14 clear president bans. The ban was originally drafted by Zhu Jianghong and strictly enforced in all branches of the company. Later, it was supplemented by another Gree leader, Dong Mingzhu, and evolved into today's "president ban" .

The "President's Ban" makes seemingly inhumane regulations on the most common and prone process, and imposes the most severe penalties on employees who violate the operation.

For example: Violating nitrogen filling welding process, forging quality records, reducing processes and changing processes without authorization, changing technical parameters and process parameters without authorization, transferring uninspected or unqualified parts to the next process, beating products and Parts, forcibly pulling the wires of motors and electrical appliances, violating the dustproof and waterproof operation specifications of the refrigeration system, violating the vacuum helium inspection process, changing and adjusting special tools and testing instruments without authorization, violating the sponge sticking process, chasing and making trouble in the workplace, and capillary repair welding, Any employee who violates any one of the behaviors such as threatening supervisors (inspection) personnel due to quality problems will be dismissed or dismissed.

The fourteen prohibitions are posted on each workbench. An employee who was once rated as the company's advanced individual violated Article 8 of the ban because he did not provide dust-proof parts for the condenser and evaporator, and unfortunately walked out of Gree's door.

Education

“The corporate culture of a company can only change when all employees agree on quality and understand their role in quality improvement.” — Crosby

Crosby has a wonderful analogy for educating employees: "Most diseases today, with the exception of cancer presumably, can be prevented or greatly alleviated. All you need to do is adjust your personal life and receive professional guidance. . Most of the products today do not meet the requirements, except for some unknown phenomena, which are preventable. All you need is some organizational discipline and professional guidance." Crosby's point is that as long as the employees of the enterprise are With new education and guidance, all non-conformity can be quickly eradicated. The purpose of education is to get everyone in the organization to agree on your management philosophy and to make them understand their role in specific practices.

The work of educating employees actually includes two levels: one is the attitude level, so that each employee can understand the importance of quality from the mind, and cultivate employees' active and continuous improvement work attitude; the other is the professional ability level , so that employees have the corresponding technical capabilities, familiar with product problems, understand the corresponding workflow and the real expectations of customers.

Attitude education. Of course, attitude always comes first. Building a quality culture is not about teaching employees a bunch of new technologies, but about changing values, which must start with basic attitude changes. With the correct attitude, the improvement of professional ability can often be a matter of course.

The right attitude is often delivered by the right people. After the on-site management expert Terada Shinji arrived at Chery, the most important job is to teach those very young workers to change themselves in terms of consciousness and working methods through his own practice. Let them accept the concept of "serious, punctual, and refined".

Sany Group attaches great importance to the importance of indoctrination. They have compiled the "Basic Knowledge Question Bank of Quality Culture". He Zhenlin, vice president of Sany, wrote in the preface for this question bank, "Quality culture is the core culture of Sany. "The purpose of compiling and printing this question bank "is to make the concept of quality culture melt into the blood of every three people through continuous instillation and learning, and become their conscious actions."

Experience sharing and skills training. From an operational point of view, the training of professional skills is easier to implement. Chinese enterprises often achieve the pursuit of quality by continuously strengthening the training of specific work skills, and improve the quality of products by improving the quality of employees.

In addition, the company can also organize mutual learning among employees and share experiences. For example, Foxconn has a monthly failure experience exchange meeting. In the past, it was carried out in a centralized manner by the group, but later it was organized by each business department. The business department holding the conference must show its quality problems at the conference, and conduct specific analysis to find out improvement plans. Guo Taiming believes that the purpose of sharing the wrong experience with everyone is to let everyone learn from it and not make the same mistakes again.

Practice

"Ideas are the foundation, and education is the only way to understand them. But if no one actually does something, it's all just talk." —Crossby

Culture Form, and ultimately to be implemented in action.

Full participation. Establishing a quality culture is not a matter for the quality department, but for all employees and everyone.

Chery, a local Chinese car brand, grew up amid countless doubts. Yin Tongyao once said: Because it is made in China, others may have more doubts. So, we are extra careful and well prepared. We should go above and beyond in design, testing, and service preparation, because people are overly skeptical. Even when people look at us with tinted glasses and it's hard to pick out the fault, then we're ready.

More than two years ago, Yin Tongyao issued a general mobilization order for "Quality Leap", not only the production and purchasing departments, but also the automobile research institute, business research institute, planning institute, and sales company must set up a quality control team to ensure that all Improve product quality in all directions.

From the leadership to the quality management department, to the workshop and then to each team, the specific system for ensuring quality has been formulated in great detail. At the leadership level, quality assurance measures are implemented on every leader of the Chery Economic Management Committee, quality responsibility indicators are set for leaders, and assessments are conducted regularly; in the workshop, in addition to the establishment of a sound quality management system, results are released quarterly At the meeting, individuals who have made outstanding achievements in quality innovation will be brought to the front desk to introduce their experience and give rewards. At the same time, individuals with the worst quality will be selected every half month, and individuals with the best quality will be selected every month. Punishment; in the team, through the evaluation of the QC group, let everyone do it and practice the whole process of quality innovation. Chery has mobilized all the innovative enthusiasm of its employees.

Yin Tongyao said: "It is necessary to go beyond the management stereotype of only focusing on quality control on the production line and comprehensively improve product quality along the entire value chain, which requires fundamental improvements in key business processes, including product development, supplier management, Production process management and sales/after-sales service and many other links."

Gree's pursuit of quality began earlier. Since 1999, Gree has invested millions in the implementation of the "zero defect" project. Instill the quality concept of zero defect, and vigorously promote zero defect in design, manufacturing, procurement and other links. Since then, zero defect has become the work standard of every employee.

Rewards and punishments are well-founded. During the execution phase, management's commitment will be tested again and again. Crosby said that at this stage, everyone watched with wide-eyed eyes, some with expectations, some with skepticism, and everyone eager to see if their promises would hold up when the test came. Has it softened? Will quality policies crack under pressure?

Haier's implementation requirements can be represented in one sentence, "Whoever produces unqualified products is an unqualified employee." Each Haier employee has a Quality Value Voucher Handbook, which lists the previous production in detail. Various problems occurred in the process, and then for each problem, the responsibility value and penalty amount that should be borne by the three links of self-inspection, mutual inspection and special inspection are clearly defined. After the quality inspector finds a product defect, the value voucher is torn on the spot and signed by the responsible person; after the defects found in the mutual inspection of the workers are confirmed by the quality inspector, the discoverer will be rewarded on the spot, and the workers who missed the inspection and the quality inspector will be fined. .

For a period of time, Sany's products were severely in short supply, and workers sometimes relaxed their adherence to quality in order to hurry up. It happened once that after a drag pump was ground, it was about to enter the next process - painting. However, after testing, a part of the distribution valve of this pump is unqualified and needs to be replaced. At that time, there was no spare parts supply in the warehouse, and the customer was in a hurry. The leader in charge of production decided to spray paint first, and then replace it when the parts came. Liang Wengen was very angry when he found out about this, but what made him embarrassed was that the leader in charge of production was an old superior of the arsenal where he used to work. This leader is also in a hurry to do so in order to grab time and deliver on time. After thinking about it, Liang Wengen finally decided that violating the quality standards had nothing to say, he must be severely punished, and took the lead in punishing himself.

At Foxconn, if there is a quality problem, the cadre will be awarded the blue flag. If a business unit has frequent quality problems, the new product will not be made for it, and the existing products may also be sent to others. Year-end awards and annual performance awards of the year are also linked to quality.

Insist

“Quality awareness should be gradual and continuous—it’s a continuous process with no real beginning and end.”—Crossby

A company that takes quality seriously, soon There will be tangible improvements, but it will take years of hard work to become a culture, a value that people share in their beliefs.

It's like swimming, just buying a swimsuit and making up your mind to learn to swim goes a long way from actually being able to swim. We have to study hard, spend a long time, practice, and even go through real competitions to become good swimmers. There are many parallels in the company's efforts to improve quality. It cannot be done overnight, but must be carefully planned and considered, and implemented over a long period of time, to form a cultural change that becomes part of the employee’s lifestyle.

And in this process, never let up your attention. Just like the philosophy that Haier adheres to, "Quality improvement is a continuous activity with no end, and stopping means starting to go backwards."

In fact, Chinese companies with good quality now, such as the above-mentioned Gree, Haier, Sany, and Chery have all been troubled by quality, and even lost face in front of customers because of quality problems.

For example, more than ten years ago, Gree exported a batch of air conditioners to Italy. During the test machine, one air conditioner made a rattling sound, and the customer requested to return it all. When the technician turned on the machine to check, they found a sponge stuck to the exhaust fan. A small sponge cost the company millions and lost a major customer. After more than ten years of quality improvement, Gree has become the most proud brand in China's air-conditioning industry.

In the past, Chery's management was deeply stimulated by "Chery, Chery, car repair queue", but by 2007, Chery's passenger car sales were 381,000 units, with a sales revenue of 20 billion yuan, ranking first among domestic passenger cars. Top 4 (the other 3 are joint venture brands).

Sany Heavy Industry used to give its products to customers to try out, and then pay in installments after they are satisfied. Now, customers must pay 30% of the payment before placing an order with the factory, and all Sany products are priced at the same price. It is more than 10% higher than domestic competitors...

These companies have only formed a quality-oriented culture within the company after more than ten years of persistence, and have gradually formed a good reputation for their products. market.

The investment in quality culture brings much more returns to the enterprise than the investment. It's like Crosby's famous point: "Quality isn't just free, it's a real cash cow."

Using Lean R&D to Improve Quality

Lean R&D is developed by the world's leading product lifecycle management company A new concept launched by PTC and Toyota, the idea is borrowed from lean manufacturing.

Lean product development can improve the quality of products through the following aspects.

One is to try to find and solve problems in the early stage.

Lean product development thinking means getting things right up front. However, some quality problems may not be manifested when the real object has not yet come out. At this time, it must be realized with the help of technology. PTC provides a tool for simulation and testing. For example, a product requires anti-corrosion for 15 years, but it is impossible to test for 15 years and then go on sale after passing the test. This kind of tool provided by PTC can solve similar problems very well.

The second is real-time data sharing.

The "big house" format used by Toyota, where engineers from various functional departments gather in one large room to live together. Here, they print out the information on the product development status (including key issues such as various data, cost, quality, progress, etc.) and stick it on the wall, so that everyone can easily view and discuss. Simple, yet effective.

The PTC technology can realize real-time data exchange, so that even designers, manufacturers, marketers and users who are not together can participate in the sharing of these data, which can also improve the ability of collaborative design.

The third is to get feedback from customers faster, and faster feedback can bring more quality that meets the requirements. Don Reinertsen, a well-known expert in the field of global lean product development, believes that the market and customers are always changing. In lean research and development, it is possible to process data as quickly and as little as possible, communicate the results with customers in a timely manner, and get the results. Their feedback can be modified at any time once it is discovered that the customer does not like it.

Thomas Shoemaker, vice president of product marketing at PTC, said, for example, to design a mobile phone, from the perspective of lean product development, there is no need to complete the entire model, and then show it to sales and customers, ask them Whether you like this thing, but make the main part, show it to sales and customers, let them understand what you want to do, get their feedback quickly, and then move on. If you spend 3 to 5 times the time to design this thing, all the details are done, get to the client, the client may not like it anymore.

Reinartson believes that companies with shorter product life cycles are better suited to adopting lean product development.