Introduction to QCDSM
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The first step – towards excellence
The performance of the people in your business is the one criterion that leads to the achievement or non achievement of your business goals. The people within your company are your greatest resource, your greatest benefit, but they can also be your most serious liability. It all depends on their performance against the laid out goals or key performance indicators you have established for the business. Of course you will institute procedures and protocols to ensure that there is communication between the departments. However, and this is a very big however, how do you do that?
The Business Plan
Controlling the interaction between your internal and external customers and suppliers is the key to your success. Many efforts are expended to ensure this control. Many are successful but there are even more that are not.
The root cause of the failure is that often there is no built in structure to control this inter-relationship. It is often piecemeal and dependent on the attention of a department leader. In many other cases it is simply an out of control effort.
What if you could use a very simple but powerful tool to assist you in maintaining this control? The tool is the QCDSM process.
The interaction between customers and suppliers is a difficult exercise at times and needs to be explained further. The QCDSM definition of control is the ability to ensure that the goals set for the company combined with the protocols and procedures that are put in place to achieve those goals are, in fact, obtained. Management of the goals, therefore, is the secret to this success.
The QCDSM System
Though implementing the QCDSM system it is possible to achieve the following:
- direct involvement of the people doing the work in their specific areas with the mandate to measure their performance on a daily or weekly basis
- your employees become involved in problem solving based on their daily or weekly measurements
- your employees manage their areas of responsibility to achieve their quality, cost and delivery targets
- your employees are responsible for ensuring safety within their areas
- your employees are the main authors of their procedures
QCDSM is the process to assist you in achieving these goals and many more.
The QCDSM System is built around the simple concept of involving the people of an area who do the work in the day to day management of their area, not only by just working in the area, but by actually taking control of their area. In many instances this enables them to reach out to both their external customers and suppliers to resolve issues, which ensures a good relationship.
QCDSM does this by establishing a structure within the company known as the Green Room Meeting process. This is not just another meeting protocol. It is much more than that. The Green Room is designed to be the data center for the group. Your employees will meet in this center either daily at the beginning of each shift or weekly in service areas and management areas, for the sole purpose of examining how well they did during the period after their last meeting. By establishing a series of data charts set up in accordance with their goals they examine what is going right and what is going wrong. They are able to develop trends, look at intermittent occurrences and use their expertise to contribute to the solutions.
Whatever cannot be resolved within their areas is passed up to what is termed the “Second Level” meeting and then on up the line to the management team meeting. This up/down communication process is the critical key in keeping the control. Everything that is needed to be known before a shift begins or in a weekly meeting is revealed in these meetings. Action steps, suggestions etc. are all recorded so that after the meeting, however a company decided to deal with it, this information becomes the TO DO list for the company that day. Whatever caused problems the day before or week before needs to be addressed.
It’s a holistic process
There are three key elements that form the basis of the QCDSM system.
These three elements are the Green Room Meetings, the establishment of what we call Detailed Process Sheets (procedures) and the Try Z Seminar.
Once established and working, these processes enable your staff to control all the activity that occurs within an area or department of the company. Databases are set up to record incidents and occurrences including the ideas and suggestions of the people. This results in a complete process for managing the day-to-day business of the company.
The Implementation Process
So often companies hesitate to begin the process of empowerment because the task seems too big for them to tackle.
QCDSM is a simple, step-by-step process whereby, according to the wish of the company concerned, the key players are trained to begin the process of visual management within groups or teams and transfer the methods of empowerment to those who will be the leaders.
This step-by-step process is clearly laid out and trained by us using the organizational structure within a company. These areas will then begin the process of transferring this expertise to their own situations.
You can view a full description of all areas of the QCDSM process here on the website, however we will be privileged to visit with you, at our expense, to further explain the process, its implementation and to answer the questions you may have. Contact us here.
We also invite you to order our manual/book entitled ‘The Next Step’ which features all the principles and methodologies of the QCDSM Program.