I was recently retaught a lesson that, ironically, I teach for a living. The consulting firm I work in covers not only lean, but also consults and guides clients along with building and improving their quality management systems.

The cost of quality isn’t discussed much. More often, the cost of poor quality hogs the limelight and the headlines. Cost of poor quality costs are believed to be 100% avoidable, and thus are assigned resources to expend extra attention and efforts to eliminate. 

“Lean isn’t going to help you if your quality is bad. Why just make bad stuff faster?”

Although it’s not exactly a new problem within industry in the United States, there has been a definite uptick in the overall attention being given to the “lack of qualified personnel” issue we are experiencing.

Let’s take some time to recognize the problems that never happened. Be thankful for those people in a plant or in an office somewhere who spent the extra time and effort to ensure the quality that you don’t see.