|
Vision—Integrity—Commitment |
|
Quality Control Systems |
|
Preparation is the foundation for all actions. Even the Boy Scouts’ Motto is “ Be Prepared”. The use of a Quality Control System will help provide a systematic approach to evaluating and assessing the quality of your goods and services. A Quality Control Plan provides a methodology for assessing and correcting contingencies, logistics, communications, performance and product output.
QCP Development—An Introduction
All professional organizations should have a Comprehensive Quality Control Plan (QCP) in-place which addresses the organization’s criterion in significant detail. Obviously, your QCP needs to be as adjustable as your approach to your delivery of goods and services. Whenever you receive a Request for Proposal (RFP) and notice a new criterion in any of the components, you should evaluate whether or not your model conforms to the criteria and if the criteria could apply across-the-board in other future contracts. Ask two questions, “Is the criteria adaptable?” and more importantly, “Is it adoptable?”
Your Comprehensive QCP should be generic. Use terms like “Client” or “Product” and “Client Representative”. Those terms can easily be replaced in Word documents with the appropriate designations. You need to note here that when you use generic terms, replacing them should not replace other intended terms that you need to leave in your document. The word “product”, as an example, may occur throughout your QCP. In order to specify areas where the product should be specifically identified use replaceable terms that may include capital letters or other variants, such as “Product”. This will help you provide a copy of your company’s Comprehensive QCP to any Client requesting it in short-order.
It is important that you don’t load your QCP with unobtainable goals. Discuss the functional aspects of the QCP carefully with those responsible for executing the plan. Don’t indicate your QC Inspector (QCI) or QC Monitor/Manager (QCM) will verify compliance with contractual obligations on a weekly basis when at best your QCI/QCM can only make the rounds once per quarter.
Bidding on contracts can be a daunting task, but a significant portion of any RFP share similar requirements. The criteria for Management Plans, Quality Control Plans and other oversight, operational and delivery of service components are usually pretty clear and straight-forward. The sequences will usually differ since the RFP, Performance Work Statement (PWS) or the Statement of Work (SOW) may be written by different clients. RFP solicitations from Government organizations typically specify requirements with a number and letter system, e.g., 7.1.B(1). When you write your proposals in response to the RFP which has component designations, utilizing the specific designations are paramount—it demonstrates your clear understanding of the RFP/PWS/SOW.
By-passing some components outlined in the RFP may be appropriate. As an example the client may provide an outline of their own QCP, chain-of-command or other data that is not directly relevant to your bid proposal. However, buzz words need to be noted and integrated into your proposal. It would be interesting to know how many times submitted bids referenced their “Contract Manager” somewhere in their solicitation when the client calls them the “Project Manager”. Attention to details often requires an individual who has been totally detached from writing it to review your proposal.
Only a handful of U. S. companies and government agencies give any credence to the international standard dictates of the ISO 9000 and other ISO standards, but some may still require you to use them as a reference in your QCP proposal. So far I haven’t seen any requirements to be ISO certified, which indicates U. S. companies and government agencies recognize the uselessness of the international certification. However, in developing your QCP, it is recommended that you at least review the measurements and standards and glean the worthy characteristics and adapt them to comply with your own QCP.
The Delivery of Service—Developing QCP Concepts
The QCP will contain several key components. Building a good QCP requires deliberation in order to properly sequence those components into a plan that not only responds to the needs of your organization but to the needs of your client. While QCP gives writers the tendency to lay the responsibility of an effective QCP on the shoulders of management, it may not always be the best approach in having an effective QCP.
As an example, if you’re building a new building to house a retail business in a small city, would you ask the City Manager to review the architectural designs to determine suitability for security and fire safety or would you be further ahead to ask an officer that works the street and a local firefighter to review the design? The closer a person is to the intimacy of the operational aspects of a project the better. In other-words, certifying management in Quality Control concepts won’t mean squat if those who are responsible for executing the deliverance of goods and services are left out of the mix.
In the real world of Quality Control Plans there needs to be an inversion on how it is approached. While management typically remains tucked away in an obscure office, those who deliver your goods and services not only provide the image for your organization, they ARE the image of your organization. When you see the words UPS what immediately comes to mind? Chances are you visualize brown trucks and brown uniforms, but the image includes clean brown trucks and highly recognizable and clean uniforms. While the USPS is losing money, UPS, FedEx and other organizations are taking over the delivery industry. So what makes the private organizations shine while USPS continues to dim? Is it just image? Of course it’s not just the image; it goes much deeper.
Although USPS had attempted to compete with private delivery services, even putting out television ads in hopes to retain or garner more business, the private companies accelerated. Quality is at the forefront. Contrasting the increased costs of stamps, burdensomely slow deliveries, a high percent of damaged packages and the demeanor of government employees with more positive aspects of private organizations, it’s relatively easy to see why private companies are chosen over the inefficiencies of government. Don’t get me wrong, private companies have their problems as well. FedEx finally delivered a pay check sent out to me in May from DC and arriving at my doorstep the first week in August. However, it’s the numerous other on-time deliveries that outweigh the very rare snafu that creates loyalty.
To color within the lines, organizations like UPS and FedEx are comprised of thousands of employees. We usually only see those who pickup and deliver; they’re the productive line-personnel. They are the most visible and have the greatest amount of contact with the public.
Next there are those who process packages in hundreds of warehouses across the country; they’re the productive support-personnel. They ensure the packages not only head out in the right direction, but they make sure they’re handled and loaded properly to prevent damage—when you receive an undamaged package that also creates an impression.
Third in line are the managers who oversee the delivery and warehouse crews; we’ll call them productive line-supervisors. They’re the ones people complain to when necessary, but they’re also those people floating around in the background ensuring things are done according to policies and procedures, people are actually showing-up to perform their job, write schedules for assignments and training and are they resolve conflicts up-close-and-personal. They’re the coordinators, interventionists and problem solvers.
Not yet last, we have those who collect time-cards, billing records, provide human resource management, travel around to inspect the previous elements of the organization and provide services to your productive staff; let’s consider them Administrative-personnel. They’re the people that keep your organization out of court by paying bills, following DoL requirements and performing numerous other tasks that are essential in the management process.
Now, last on the chain are the corporate managers, including the CEO. Let’s call them the macro-personnel. They are responsible for getting financing, contracts, collections so there’s money in the bank to pay the personnel and the bills and are the investors in the company. If the company fails to perform, it is laid on their laps. Not only are the macro-personnel in charge of ensuring the company remains viable and solvent, they are directly responsible for ensuring the needs of the client AND those up and down the ladder at met.
On the next page we’ll discuss some key components of the QCP.
Questions concerning any of the information?
If you have any questions regarding the information provide in this web site or would like to bounce some things off of me, please drop me a line: james@hafeman.com—Please feel free to provide me feedback as well. |
|
QCP Overview |
