Manufacturing quality – the result of a whole of business approach

Manufacturing quality products are not made by accident. Quality processes are needed to make them. These quality processes are not confined to the shop floor.

Being in the business of manufacturing, it’s fair to say the overwhelming focus for improvement in our sector tends to rest on production cycles. Placing the focus on how to design and make the best products makes sense. But how often do you hear industry commentators, peers or colleagues talking about the operational side of business?

In our industry, we call the production setting the “shop floor” and the operational setting the “top floor”. It’s only a means of distinction, but it shows that these two vital aspects of a manufacturing business are at poles, treated entirely separately, disconnected.

By taking a whole-of-business approach that embeds quality across all of your departments and all of your sites and facilities, you gain multiplier impacts from across your operations, ecosystems and departments with gains compounding at every stage. This whole of business approach is vital to the creation of a seamless, symbiotic system of constant improvement.

Shift left then head to the first floor

Right now, many manufacturing businesses are seeing the opportunity of new strategies. Shift left, is a perfect example. Manufacturers are fast realising that the answer to their challenges doesn’t always lie in the ‘make’ phase of the value chain and that further quality gains can be found in the concepting and design stages.

Shift left takes the focus away from the comfort zone of production, but it only goes as far as the design department. The overwhelming focus of our sector is on the business of manufacturing rather than manufacturing as a business. Quality in the truest sense is the result of a business running at peak. Quality organisations involve all stakeholders. It includes listening to the designers, production staff, quality management team, suppliers and most importantly, customers.

With the whole of business approach, we treat production and operational cycles as one connected part of a seamless, circular data flow. Operational efficiencies can drive production efficiencies and vice versa.

You can deliver top-floor business objectives such as quality, productivity, time to market and agility via connectivity on the shop floor. On the flip side, quality-centric approaches on the shop floor improve things like the timely arrival of high-quality components.

Creating a connected digital ecosystem for quality

Right now, you have your operational ecosystem and your production ecosystem. Digital information is likely to sit in silos, untapped. Connecting the insights that sit within systems is vital. You then need to connect your ecosystems which will give you an unrivalled view of operations.

Manufacturers need to build quality up from the shopfloor with purpose built tools, high fidelity data capture, master data controls and connectivity of sensors and software. We then build down from the top-floor by streamlining everything from resource planning to customer fulfilment. This encompasses customer feedback loops and orchestration of quality processes outside the perimeter of the factory.

Enterprise-wide visibility is essential to monitor supplier as well as in-house manufacturing quality. A Quality Management System (QMS) can deliver in-depth insights into the entire supply chain helping to identify quality issues even earlier, alongside delivering efficiency improvements.

We can deepen this business wide connectivity further by linking technology across facilities and networks for full enterprise alignment in a digital reality platform. This completes the loop and turns connectivity into oversight and action creating a system that exists for innovation, collaboration and data leverage. It’s about making better products in better ways.

Quality is for people – so focus on the customer and culture

At the highest level, manufacturing quality is a measure of how well your organisation satisfies its customers. When an organisation has a strong customer focus, it will be sure to design and manufacture products and services with an emphasis on quality.

Customer focus ensures that we develop strategies based on customer demographics, trends and behaviours. This improves the quality of everything from product design to product marketing – making your goods much more appealing to consumers.

Building on this, businesses are composed of people, run by people and they exist to solve the problems that people face. It stands to reason that a whole of business approach to quality must start and end with people. The first priority should be a solid cultural foundation. Do your employees have the “quality mindset”?

Is your pursuit of quality evident from the shop floor right up to the top floor? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, there is no amount of technology that can fix it for you. With a strong culture of quality, you can then progress and build on a solid foundation.

Use technology to your advantage

Quality control and process improvement should be key aspects of operations management. Every business activity, internal or external, will always have a benefit to the customer.

The latest technologies can reduce the chance of human error and improve the quality and consistency of output, from almost any department – not just production. A Quality Management System (QMS) spans the entire organisation, involves all key players, ensures consistency and compliance. It brings key technologies together in a single package that makes it simple to access, understand and act on all the data an organisation collects and monitors.

Modern, cloud based QMS platforms use advanced data analytics, AI, real-time reporting and often a tailored collection of other complementary technologies to maintain high-quality standards across the business value chain. An effective QMS leads to improved product quality, better efficiency, less waste and most importantly, enhanced customer satisfaction.

Implementing a collaborative quality-driven approach across the value chain