Stop Measuring and Start Improving

There’s a tipping point after which measurements become avoidance maneuvers

If that title caught your attention, it was meant to. Let me begin by saying I am not advocating that businesses do away with measurements, especially customer- and quality-related measurements. However, drowning in data, as illustrated by the following story, is counterproductive.

Some months ago, a company realized that a significant percent of a particular product was defective; the company’s internal measurements showed this. To keep the story simple, “defective” here means products having quality defects or products that reach the customer late, or both. Not surprisingly, customer complaints were also high. In fact, competitor-benchmarking data showed that this company was getting more complaints than any of its competitors.

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Someone, No-one, Everyone

There are too many cases of companies' severe failures where it is to be observed that "someone asked for something that everyone could do but no-one did". Measures are complex yet all too easy-going management tools: it's no news that companies spend more money in buying expensive measurement devices than in training their people - to use those devices, too. It's the same old story: we give toys to the kids, believing that they want a toy to play with; but, in fact, what they want is TO PLAY, instead - they don't only want "toys". That is, they want to interact, with their own fellows, and with adults. A striking example: ISO/TS 16949 dedicates two full pages to "control of monitoring and measuring equipment" but just one page altogether to "internal communication" and "human resources". I don't mean this is a "measure" of what probably is one of the best ever selling Standard, but it makes one think. Thank you.