The cycle of never ending improvement starts with improving quality. Using the tools of process improvement just to cut costs may seem like a good thing to do. But it is a trap! Although it may seem like a small difference, doing so can lead to ruin for a company. Cutting costs does not lead to better quality. Costs are not causes, but the effects of one or more causes. And cutting costs often leads to worse quality and, in time, much higher costs; perhaps ultimately the loss of customers, the most expensive loss of all. Even very large companies have been driven to bankruptcy by a misinformed focus on cost cutting. While this happens all the time the management of companies who lack this understanding blame everything else except their own actions and beliefs for their failure.A second danger is that unless you are well versed in Deming’s principles, quality may not be what you think it is. Understanding quality requires some time, and to master it, it is helpful to be guided by someone with real world, in depth experience and a solid foundation in the principles. This allows you to avoid common pitfalls and saves you years of effort and lots of money.
Improving quality, as experienced by the customer, and improving internal quality have a dramatic effect on increasing sales, and lowering costs. But what is less understood is that combined these two have a dramatic effect on profitability. We are left with a seeming paradox, in business. By focusing on others, your customers, your people, company processes and the beliefs prevalent in your company, you dramatically help your self—But only if it is done the right way. A third caveat is the danger of focusing on improving parts as if they are not all interconnected. All the parts of a business are related; if you focus on optimizing one part, other parts may suffer. You have to understand how they relate to each other, and the overall business.
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