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The Quality Walk Essay

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The Quality Walk Beth Stuart went on a tour to evaluate a potential supplier’s facility before her company, Epic Communications, entered into a long term contract for 1.2 million high speed communications circuit boards. Her tour guide was Michael Spade, VP of manufacturing for PushTel. If the relationship proved beneficial to both parties, follow-up contracts would be negotiated each year thereafter. Beth noticed during her walk that employees were disappearing into their offices and down connecting aisles as she walked through the facility. Beth reflected how on another visit to a different company, the quality manager greeted each employee by name and the workers went out of their way to say hello. Moving from the office area into …show more content…

Looking closer at the form, the causes for the scrap listed were “operator error” most of the time. Beth knew that there was no way the company could possibly trace the causes and improve the processes with the data provided. Finally Beth asked to see the descriptions of the processes for how the company handles scraps. She was informed that the information would take a few days to gather the information and that it would be emailed to her by Michael. Michael stated at the end of the tour that the company maintains high inspection levels, usually 100 percent, to assure that you as the customer get the highest quality possible. What did Beth learn from her “quality walk? Beth realized that what a company may tell you and the certifications they received does not always give an accurate picture of what is happening at the production facility. Beth noticed that the supervisor did not respect the employees and did not value them. They were seen as workers and not as people. Beth also noticed that with all of the reworks and scrap being taken from the line and listed as employee error, the company would not be able to improve upon the processes to because the exact cause of the error is not known. This could lead to higher cost and possible delays in getting the orders out on time. Proper processes for handling inspections were not known so the employees could follow proper

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