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Vision—Integrity—Commitment |
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Quality Control
Systems |
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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. |
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QCP Overview |
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Systems |
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Components |
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Components |
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Systems |