| Author |
Message |
Hagrinas Mivali
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 6:02 am
Post subject: Re: Particular meaning of "quality". Since when (any OED use |
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Peter Moylan wrote:
| Quote: | Note that this is applicable to certain industrial processes where
uniformity of product is paramount. Nobody, to my knowledge, has
ever managed to find a comparable technique for any business that
involves any intellectual activity. It simply doesn't apply to
situations where "quality" means something other than mindless
uniformity.
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However, ISO9001 allows for it. I went through the exercise for a company
that consisted of engineers and scientists who never did the same thing
twice. In my area, we had a system of procedures and documents to show that
we followed a certain broad methodology with respect to anything we
developed, how it was tested, and how it was delivered to a client. There
were many more steps, and the parts that were "real" work were not really
covered, but at least we had a paper trail to show that we didn't skip any
steps or fail to get something reviewed.
| Quote: |
If, for example, you have a restaurant whose only product is a line
of hamburgers that look and taste like scouring pads, and they're
all exactly the same size, then by doing the right paperwork you
can get Quality certification for your restaurant. But if you then
decide to add some edible food to your menu you risk losing that
certification, because your food is no longer uniformly bad.
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That's exactly what we learned before we started the certification process.
It had nothing to do with the quality of anything, but with the consistency.
The real problem comes when you make good food by mistake. Then your quality
is gone. You can always develop a new line of food and redo your paperwork
to reflect that before you give it to customers. |
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Evan Kirshenbaum
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 6:06 am
Post subject: Re: Particular meaning of "quality". Since when (any OED use |
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peter@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au (Peter Moylan) writes:
| Quote: | When these ideas travelled to Western countries the part about
worker participation was obviously wrong, so that was dropped.
Instead we got things with names like Quality Assurance and Total
Quality Management whose primary goal was the production of huge
masses of paperwork, with the aim of achieving the holy "uniformly
bad" state, and whose corollary was an almost total separation
between workers and management.
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"Each of your departments will create an insanely boring, poorly
written document; I'll combine them all into one big honkin'
binder. I will give a copy to each department head, who will
treat it like a dead raccoon and foist it on the first passersby."
Scott Adams, "Dilbert"
This was a favorite of several of my friends as they went through the
exercise of putting together their company's own "big honkin'
binder".
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The great thing about Microsoft
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |dominating the world is that
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |there's no shortage of support
|opportunities.
kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com | Sam Alvis
(650)857-7572
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ |
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Skitt
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 6:06 am
Post subject: Re: Particular meaning of "quality". Since when (any OED use |
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Evan Kirshenbaum wrote:
| Quote: | (Peter Moylan) writes:
When these ideas travelled to Western countries the part about
worker participation was obviously wrong, so that was dropped.
Instead we got things with names like Quality Assurance and Total
Quality Management whose primary goal was the production of huge
masses of paperwork, with the aim of achieving the holy "uniformly
bad" state, and whose corollary was an almost total separation
between workers and management.
"Each of your departments will create an insanely boring, poorly
written document; I'll combine them all into one big honkin'
binder. I will give a copy to each department head, who will
treat it like a dead raccoon and foist it on the first passersby."
Scott Adams, "Dilbert"
This was a favorite of several of my friends as they went through the
exercise of putting together their company's own "big honkin'
binder".
|
Hey! I had a drawerful of "big honkin' binders" (about a dozen of them)
that I had put together and that I had to keep updated for the ISO 9000
certification inspections. Nobody ever looked at them. Ever.
--
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/ |
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