My first job in quality was in 2001 as a quality coordinator, and it was a job that nobody wanted. It was offered to many people that turned it down before it was offered to me. Most people thought it was a blame game and a scapegoat position as I was handed a stack of unanswered customer corrective actions (8D). I accepted the challenge and shined like a diamond in the rough. One thing that I have learned is that quality is meeting and/or exceeding customer requirements and doing things right the first time. Customer corrective action is an example of poor quality, losing both customer satisfaction and profit. The blame game is the opposite of accountability. Accountability is taking ownership of the results.

One of the quality issues I dealt with is that the customer did not receive the correct material they had ordered and would return the product. The return was never communicated to the accounting department and the customer was upset again that they did not receive their credit on their account. In the meanwhile, the return was buried in the inventory racks and never to be found again. This in turn messed up the inventory and could not be trusted. The finished goods department would mis-apply the new inventory to the wrong rack location since the system said the rack was empty, but the rack was full of the returns, compounding the problem. Then shipping would pick from the wrong rack and send the customer the wrong material thereby repeating the same mistake. One definition of insanity is doing things over and over and expecting a different result. Corrective action requires doing something different, but before you solve the problem you must clearly define it (DMAIC).

I took ownership instead of shifting blame. President Harry Truman famously said, “The buck stops here.” Working together as a team to solve problems is better than a culture of blame. Working with the IT department, we were able to improve the communication and receipt of customer returns. Together, working with accounting to identify the past returns and working with the finishing department to clean up the inventory mess, we were able to solve the problem of wrong material with a new return material authorization and inventory system. This new process returned to an extremely high inventory accuracy which can now be trusted and returned $750,000 back to inventory of lost returns. We worked with the sales department selling the correct material the customer ordered.

A spiritual truth that is still applicable today is to build on a rock (cornerstone) of solid foundation.

W. Edwards Deming famously said: “Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does.”

In order to meet customer expectations, one must understand what customers want and how to achieve these goals by identifying interested parties and stakeholders (Ref. ISO9001:2015 Clause 4.2), assigning roles and responsibilities (RACI) with process approach, value stream mapping and evidence-based decisions. This requires leadership, customer focus and engagement of people (Ref. ISO9001:2015 Seven Quality Management Principles. Also “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John Maxwell.)

One should have S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, attainable, resources, and time ref. ASQ Smart Matrix) to achieve these objectives. For this, one needs good data. Data forms the foundation, and is evaluated to make decisions. Learning from the decisions over time forms experience and from experience comes wisdom by developing best practices (Ref. DIKW pyramid).

Alexandre De Vigan says, “Data quality is emerging as the defining factor in AI development, shaping model accuracy, real-world safety, and regulatory resilience.”

 In my current position as a quality engineer, I am responsible for PPAPs (Production Part Approval Process). One of the skills needed is data quality and critical thinking.

Be proactive and begin with the end in mind from “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. I have learned to review the customer drawings with critical thinking before I begin to balloon the drawings. There is PPAP software out there that will automatically balloon the drawings. Some use OCR and machine learning. I have not yet come across (or am aware of) one that can do what I do manually and may be an opportunity for AI assistance in the future.

One customer had a family of parts (parents) with approximately 50 variant part numbers (children) that have common characteristics and features with some ±deltas. These separate drawings were legacy drawings designed by multiple engineers over a period of years and were not consistent in the scale or views. I was able to automate the first Parent part balloon drawing. The Parent part is usually defined as the one with the most features or with the highest EAU (Estimated Annual Usage). I can create a template and overlay the parent balloon drawings on the variant parts and manually re-arrange the ±deltas and/or views. I would like to keep the balloon number consistent with the feature. It would be a great opportunity for improvement if AI could assist by analyzing all 50 variant drawings to pre-determine the most common features and assigning those balloon numbers to all 50 variant drawings simultaneously and then the next common and so forth.

Critical thinking skills are critical in today’s world. Making good decisions based on good data. Learning from experiences, both positive and negative. Benchmarking and developing best practices by engaging people, understanding customer needs and process approach using SMART goals and leadership by bringing value and meeting and/or exceeding customer requirements, thereby increasing customer satisfaction. (Ref. QFD House of Quality & Kano model).

It has been an honor for me to write this article. I hope that some of my experiences and insights were beneficial. Great leaders inspire and develop new leaders. May each of us be a servant with an attitude of gratitude.