Quality Manufacturing Article of the Week: The balance between production, product safety, and speed
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I read this article today in ASQ Quality News Today: “Toyota’s Safety Blitz May Delay Product Plan”.
Read this excerpt and then think about it for a minute: “Some analysts warn that product development will slow as Toyota takes more time to review its quality and safety processes, and diverts resources to those areas.”
Is “warn” the right word of the day. In TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis Training we teach problem facilitators not to be judgmental when writing down facts…. it is best to keep a root cause analysis objective and nonemotional. Of course most of us are all human so what did you feel or infer when you heard the word “warn”?
My thoughts? Isn’t the rapid pace of new products tied to the current massive recalls? “Warn” sounds like there is worry that new products in the pipeline may now have to be delayed which $$$ people feel may be bad for future return on investment based on expected delivery dates?
Now the good news is the great response to the quote above from project general manager for vehicle safety Seigo Kuzumaki. He stated that shifting resources to safety was the right compromise at the right time. “Toyota needs to move faster to respond to customer needs,” he said.
..any comments?
Category: Accidents, Current Events, Pictures, Quality, TapRooT
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Toyota still doesn’t ‘get it’ – “….shifting resources to safety was the right compromise at the right time…” – safety is not something that one should ever compromise on, and therefore there is no right time to compromise. Safety must become an inherent value, not a priority for which emphasis can be switched around as needed by management. I think we are seeing a similar approach with the revelations about the short-changing of safety that may have led to the Deepwater Horizon deep-well failure. You can’t simply turn safety on or off as needed to meet timetables or budgets or to ‘save face’.
Comment by Steve Yandle — June 15, 2010 @ 11:12 am
I agree Steve… but if you never turn safety on then it will never become habit, institutionalized and then “inherent”.
There are many leaders as you pointed out that have compromised too many times and been rewarded. It is a shame when it takes a major incidents to start change.
Comment by Chris Vallee — July 6, 2010 @ 7:37 am