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" Stage 7: Can develop a quantifiable model
" Stage 8: Completely procedural
Stage 0: Total ignorance
Fortunately, few firms operate at this level for long. Occasionally new product
development starts at this stage. The first vulcanized rubber came about as an
accident. After the accident, the researcher and others in the firm probably operated at
this level for a while. Another way of describing this stage is to use an example of
giving a small child a cookie and asking if the child likes the cookie. Assuming we get
an affirmative answer we then ask the child what makes the cookie good. We might
get the answer: I don t know. This would be operating at a stage 0 level. Not many
of us have to work in stage 0 companies.
Stage 1: Can tell the good from the bad
Many customers operate at this level with regard to your product or service. They
know quality when they see it, but cannot tell you why they feel as they do or what
contributed to the feeling.Ask people to taste several cookies. Each person can tell you
if the cookie is high or low quality compared to some past standard or personal taste.
They may not be able to tell you why.
Stage 2: Can list the variables which comprise a good result
Think of a child in stage 0. As the child grows up, his or her knowledge of cookies
might improve. If the child is in stage 2, then he or she could tell you that some
cookies are good and some are bad. The child could also tell you that there are several
variables that contribute to a cookie being good. These variables might include
ingredients like sugar, butter, flour, salt, etc. as well as variables like crispness or
cheweyness and whether or not the cookie is cooked just right or burned.
However, this is the extent of the child s knowledge. Knowledge exists, but little
understanding about relationships occurs.
Stage 3: Can prioritize the variables from most important to least important
This stage shows some understanding of how the variables interact to cause quality
perceptions and ratings. While not all the relationships are clear, there is an
understanding of which variables contribute the most. Carrying our cookie example a
little farther, the child begins to realize that regardless of the combination of
ingredients, if the cookie is burnt then it is never any good. Thus, the child realizes
that above all else, the baking temperature and time must be watched.
52
Lesson One - Introduction to TQM, Management Thinkers, Deming and his Management
Principles
Stage 4: Can measure the variables
This next stage seems simple, but it is not. For example, in education we know that
student commitment and feedback are two key variables to the improvement in
learning and the satisfaction of the student. However, few people in education really
know how to measure the variables. Deming mentioned this dilemma many times
when he admonished managers not to rely on visible numbers alone. He did not
advocate not measuring, but rather, that although you cannot measure a variable at
the time you must still consider it. I would add that managers should continue to
identify the variables and strive to understand how to measure them. The next stages
cannot occur until you can measure the variables.
Stage 5: Repeatable performance
Stage five is marked with repeatable performance as the name implies. Let us re-visit
the cookie example. Imagine the child growing up and deciding that their cookies are
quite good and could possibly be a success in the market. Perhaps this is another
Famous Amos® case. Our cookie entrepreneur knows that for these cookies to be
successful every batch that comes out of the oven and into a bag or display case must
be consistent with earlier batches or customers will not be satisfied. You might find an
example of this when you visit your local sandwich shop. Many food service firms
added a franchise cookie process to their menu. The franchise provides a small table
top cookie baking oven and premixed dough with instruction on how to cut and shape
the dough to produce the same cookie every time. Customers come to trust the cookie
vendor because the customer always knows what to expect.
This stage is important because until you can repeat performance, control charts make
no sense at all. Later in this text we will address special and common variation.
Special variation implies that the system is not predictable so any change in the
process or the system would not produce improvements, except by random chance.
When all common variation is removed, the system is said to be stable, or it produces
repeatable performance within a range of normal distribution.
Stage 6: Understand environmental variables and their impact on the process
If you have ever lived in high altitudes you understand why so many cookbooks and
boxed cake mixes tell you to adjust your cooking time and temperature for such a
condition. This stage is characterized by the understanding of how variables outside
of the process might affect quality.
In my experience in commercial printing we learned that temperature in the press
room at different heights affected the performance of different inks. After considerable
studying of poor ink performance on one of our presses we discovered that the air
temperature near the ceiling was 15 degrees higher than the temperature at the six
foot level. (The press room had a 12 foot ceiling.) The press that we had problems with
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