Quality Apathy
I’ve written extensively in the last year about the state of quality today. I’ve recounted my customer service horror stories from Wal-Mart, Target, AT&T and others. Not surprisingly, I’ve received many letters and had numerous postings to my blog that question my motives. Readers complain that I’m too hard on a particular company or I don’t understand a certain industry or tell me that I shouldn’t let one isolated incident frame my perception of an organization. Although I acknowledge that I am not an expert on many things, I am expert on how I expect my quality requirements to be met. I may not always know how to define poor service or bad quality, but I sure know it when I experience it.
The letters defending the poor service that I received are indicative of a general quality apathy in this country (and most of the Western world). Consumers are either afraid to speak up when they receive poor service, defeated in their attempts to counter it or don’t have an alternative. Unfortunately, this same apathy is shared by organizational leadership. Therefore, we expect poor quality and we are given it.
This apathy is pushing us toward a tipping point that may strip us of our ability to effectively compete with the rest of the world. Thomas Friedman points out in his excellent book, The World Is Flat, that technology, innovation, capital and free enterprise systems around the world are converging to make doing business in India as easy as it is in Indianapolis. (By the way, if you haven’t already read The World Is Flat, buy it now. It should be required reading for anyone who works for a living.) We’re losing not just manufacturing jobs to places like China and Mexico, but we’re also beginning to lose the high-paying white collar jobs that are the engine of economic growth. Jobs like tax preparation, software engineering, project managers, and administrative assistants can now be done in India for a fraction of the cost of doing them in the United States.
If you read my column regularly, you probably know that I am a staunch advocate of free trade. I believe that free and open trade will benefit our country in the long run. However, we’ve got to start paying attention to what’s going on in the rest of the world. There is no quality apathy in China. The government and the people are passionately committed to it. They know that a commitment to quality is vital to success of their economy.
Unfortunately, I’ve received many letters from readers who believe that China is one big slave labor camp. This is nonsense. I agree that the Chinese people do not have the same liberties and basic human rights that we do. However, the Chinese are desperate to catch up with the rest of the world, and they are doing it. The transformation of China is nothing short of miraculous. And China is just one example. India, South Korea, Malaysia, and others are following the same model.
Our country has always thrived in the face adversity. Competition will make us stronger, if we meet it head on. Some people believe that trade barriers are the only answer to save our industrial base. I believe that trade barriers only prolong the evitable and make the consumer suffer with high prices and poor quality. The only solution is to improve the quality of the products and services we deliver.
For corporate America the time has come to wake up and smell the coffee, perhaps literally. Take Starbucks, for example. What could be more mundane that selling a cup of coffee? Starbucks has raised it to an art form. It delivers a consistently good product with terrific service in a welcome environment. And, guess what? Starbucks is thriving in China. A U.S. company doing terrific business in China for the same reason it does well at home.
We’ve got to reverse the quality apathy, and it has to start at the top. Senior management has to be passionate about designing, building, delivering, and servicing products that people are excited about. Apple Computer’s Steve Jobs is a perfect example. Apple dominates the portable music player market because it built a really cool product that works exceptionally well and is easy to use. Jobs’ latest coup, a Macintosh that runs both the Mac OS and Windows, is another stroke of genius.
General Motors and Ford have got to start designing and building vehicles that people actually prefer to Hondas and Toyotas. Chrysler has had some success with its PT Cruiser and the 300M, but it, too, has a long way to go. It’s absolutely inexcusable that nearly 30 years after we rediscovered the works of W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran that Detroit is still losing market share and building vehicles that can’t compete with the Japanese, South Koreans, Germans and (soon) the Chinese. It’s time for Detroit to stop obsessing over the latest quarter’s financial results and to start focusing on quality.
What do you think? Is quality apathy rampant? How is the flattening world affecting your business?
posted by Scott Paton @ 12:13 PM
20 Comments
20 Comments:
Here, Here!! Every time I demand quality service, I'm branded as a 'problem' or 'difficult' customer. Attitudes about quality do not start at the bottom and work their way up. They come from the very top of an organization and worm their way down to the front line of sales and customer service reps.
The very issue is deep rooted fundementally in our school systems , government social economic systems , we accept failure and less that adequte effortand we as consumers , parents, workers tolerate it every day. Instead of allowing failure and a bit of pain we push children through unprepared to do battle at the next grade level eventually on a global business scale. In many of the countries listed in this article either you work or you starve , yes a harsh reality but when taken into account when one does get a job in china they give 110% every day. Remember the pilgims did not come to this country and ask the Indians for jobs , they came here to create opportunity and hope for thier families , the very same opportunity and hope the globalization has given the rest of the world.
These people know who is paying thier salary it is us as consumers , the very same consumers that complain about job loss in america yet shop at wal - mart one of the largest product sources in china. They are thankful we pay thier salary from starbucks, to KFC to Guess you are greeted with a warm smile , a handshake and people that want to serve enthusiatically.
The differnce in these countries is simple , they have no preconcieved notion as to how a business should run , they do not have years of EXPERIENCE holding them back from embracing technology and the thought of success, for the first time in thier lives they are giving an opportunity to compete for better paying jobs and willing to do whatever it takes to win.
I recently got back from China a 3 week event touring many organizations, As a note , All but one were at least as tech savy as the organization I work for and a few were far further advanced than our organization in thier manufacturing and systems Infastructure , Scott is correct , if you have not read teh world is Flat read it , if you are not scared about your future and beleive the Government and social systems will be there to help you , you better be scared . America is imploding while the rest of the world is exploding.
In ending one more fundamental difference I have noticed in my travels , the chinese people have hope in thier eyes hope for a better life , we in america have anger and discust in our eyes ,very few look at the good in america and much like the NEWS focus on the bad in america which is taking hope away.
America never wakes up until it is too late. I for one do not want to wait until it is too late but I am in the minority. From the home to the CEO we have come to expect less then quality, and that is exactly what we get.
Excellent post! You are absolutely right about the poor quality in America, but I think there's a big exception, and that's the American small business. The independent business can't afford to give bad service because it's the one thing that diferentiates him from the corporate giants.
The independent business owner is right there, on the front line, every day. He has to take the time to find out what his customers want and give it to them.
As I point out on my blog, Starbuck's is great, but I know a dozen locally owned coffee shops that are better.
I don't believe Quality is the main issue. Simply put, your article does not address the issue of what a Chinese worker makes per hour. Goods can and are being made so cheaply that there is no longer any competition. Americans are not the only one losing jobs to Chinese workers. So are other countries. So the question becomes, "how do Americans compete against the massive army of low paid Chineese workers?"
Poor service quality seems to be the focus of most of this ire, rather than the quality of manufactured goods. While I agree that it is annoying and should be improved, lack luster service is probably common to prosperous societies. People in service jobs aren't just low on the wage scale - they're not respected in our money-focused society. Lack of pride is a major demotivator to most people who's other basic needs are met. I'm confident that finding a way to motivate people in those positions to feel better about their lot would bring about great improvements.
Also, poor service quality doesn't move jobs overseas (except perhaps call centers). I'm not going to fly to China for a better experience when buying a cup of coffee. Cheap manufacturing, capable of producing just high enough quality, does. Industry analysis studies indicate that quality is important, but after a certain level it has marginal utility. Zero defects isn't going to save us (even if it were possible). The only way to compete in this race to the bottom is to be willing to live on as little as a person in India or China (or whatever other 3rd world place), and have as little social safety net. I'm not eager to do that. I enjoy the fruits of Western civilization too much to willingly live like a coolie. I'm a fan of the idea of free trade, too - with other free nations, and on a level playing field. For us to endure shameless currency manipulation, heavy govt. subsidy of export industry, technology theft, intellectual property piracy, and protectionism by our opponents (enemies, really) is NOT free trade. It's trade suicide.
The solution to the issue probably doesn't exist. Western civ has lost it's spine, its morality, and its will to resist. And to think that a mere 100 years ago the US and the European empires had most of the world nicely in hand... Such a waste.
In response to your article I have several issues that you hve not addressed. First customer service in America is not the problem, the problem lies in where the employee is located, if you do get lucky enough to end up with management personel in America you will get the problem reolved quickly. Secondly you state that American car companies do not build what Americans want is that why GM and Ford are leaders in sales and is that why Mopar had the best received cars at the American shows, and what companies have the best ratings at the factory level. There is a definite media bias against our manufacturers since Iaccoca told Consumer Reports to buy a car because he was not going to give one away when he owed money to the American goernment. It is not a quality issue but rather a media and public relations battle that is being lost and not quality or design problem. And lastly the world is not flat because if it was we would have equal access to world markets and not be shut out of ownership in other countries. If you want to sell a car in Japan the taxes and tarriffs would almost double the cost of the car and in China we are not allowed to own a company that is deemed important to the government. Any company operating in China has to give up intellectual rights and patent rights to anything done there. If that is a flat playing field then I am not seeing the same things you are. Lastly if you ask any person who works with his hands he will tell you if you want quality then buy American because anything else is second best or worse. The cost is the driving force and it is not in the control of the consumer in most cases but rather the companies themselves and how much profit they can earn before we drive America into a level playing field known as Mexico because without a middle class we are Mexico with a richer upper class.
Quality is absolutely the first step to a successful business. Without it, what is there to strive for? Nothing makes a customer happier than a nice, neat, working product coming from a clean worksite. ‘Quality before Quantity in all cases’.
A diagnosis of quality apathy isn't all that bad. Maybe people can be energized. But suppose that overriding this malady is a deeper malignancy--irrelevance. The 8 May issue of Forbes list 7 main articles. Most of them are about the total concern, nay, umbilical, of CEOs with the shareholders. Customers? What's that?
As long as the executive suite and operations march to discordant drums, US business will continue to founder.
Bill Stimson
I agree that quality is a mindset. But the unfortunate truth is that we are, in general, arrogant about the quality we produce. Talk to managers and they will tell you that the quality their company produces is "world class"; talk to the workers and they a will tell you that they produce only the highest quality product and that the 'junk' coming in from overseas is poor. Both have blinders on. When put to a side-by-side comparison with products made overseas, I'll bet a bundle that management or labor cannot pick the US made product. The US auto industry has fooled itself into a corner. They continue to build a product that does not encompass latest technology nor does it have curb appeal. The philosophy must be that the consumer will accept what is given to them. Wrong. The consumer wants a quality product that gives value, looks good and will last. But the driving force seesm to be the bottom line rather than value to the customer. Until this changes, the auto industry will continue to lose market share. They give lip service to systems like QS9000 or ISO9001:2000. Until and unless they embrace the fact that quality sells cars, the imports will continue to increase market share.
Is quality apathy rampant? I don't know about the rest of the country, but in my company it is. Daily I fight the apathy by walking around and complimenting our workers on the good job they do. Weekly I teach a classes to new and returning [from seasonal layoff] employees. Every week different employees ask when our jobs are going to be sent to China. Every week I tell them we are going to stay because we are going to produce good quality products and continually reduce waste.
Every week the employees collect a paycheck that is insufficient to cover the necessities of living. Every week the employees are told that the company cannot pay them more because we are competing with ourselves in China. Every week then gains we make against quality apathy are forgotten, ignored, drowned with the rest of the worries in a beer or 12.
We cannot compete with China on their terms! We are Americans. We thrive on adversity. We invented cars, telephones, and peanut butter. We can compete with China, but not by reducing the wages. Poverty encourages quality apathy. We need to improve manufacturing and service quality and we need to pay our workers a living wage. Reduce costs elsewhere (as I work in an mostly empty factory with all the lights on). We can do it! We need to rally to improve quality, increase wages, and find an innovative way to compete in the flat world.
Quality Apathy -- I don’t think so.
It’s great we strive for Six Sigma quality in our TV remote controller – but what about Quality in Mass Transportation systems, Health care, Environmental Protections and Worker Rights? If we can’t get Quality Government everything else is just trivial. Starbucks coffee consistently at 186.5 degrees F is trivial. Yep, even those customer/clerk interactions at Wal-Mart are just trivial. Please don’t mistake lack of courtesy for lack of quality, and remember – you can take your business elsewhere.
Zoom out and look at the big picture.
Realize much of the Quality “movement” in now just a Madison Ave PR tool. They got you worried about variations in paint thickness while slipping a gas hog into your garage.
Since the publication of Shewharts book The Economic Control of Quality in 1931 leaders in American Organizations have struggled with the message of quality to the exclusion of all else. Many organizations as well as various quality gurus’ have suggested that if you have the best quality then economic success is sure to follow. There isn’t a single CEO in America, or in Japan for that matter, who will buy into this “hypothesis”. The educated and seasoned CEO knows that quality, productivity and profit must work together to assure successful performance. Cost reduction must always accompany any discussion of quality.I can assure you that Toyota is focused just as hard on cost reduction as on quality. Toyota has also been very successful synthesizing every executable concept that will help them achieve there overall objective of perfection. Not just perfection in quality, but perfection in every aspect that drives market share and profits. Perfect quality is the result of perfect execution. In spite of all the quality initiatives like Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing the typical CEO has doubts because they instinctively know that their entire system must be in alignment with strategic goals, quality is just one of many results. Quality must be implied and is an absolute necessity. Cost reduction must be implied and is an absolute necessity.
I agree there is “quality apathy”. But I believe that the root cause is that we as a nation have not synthesized the key executable concepts that will turn apathy into a passion for excellence. We don’t have a model that will develop the passion in the nations CEO’s to “take it all back”. Ironically, we as a nation, are the best at anything that we do that instills a passion in top leadership.
I think that quality apathy is only rampant in our expectations of our public services; elementary education, post office, DMV, etc. This occurs because of the monopoly these institutions create for themselves using politics and public ignorance and fear of the benefit of the free market. Complaining about service quality where there are alternative suppliers is a luxury few have time and energy for (Scott excluded).
Manufacturing is about the last place you'll find poor quality. From a quality perspective, to lament the big 3's demise seems silly to me. I'm sure we can all find a quality car that fits our budget (if you are willing to ignore nameplates). This is an ECONOMIC or POLITICAL issue not a quality issue. Any manufacturer that needs Scott Paton to remind them that quality matters will probably be trampled underfoot as the market passes them by ... unless the market is not allowed to act freely. Which is why, as a consumer and a small businessman, I get very uneasy when I see a manufacturing executive with his arm around his congressman.
mb
I think any time you mention Toyota or any foreign automaker we make the mistake of thinking all forces are equal. Primarily I would like to see what the big three could do with now facilities and local infrastructure paid for. When Toyota built their first factory it was with the cooperation of federal and local government to the tune of $16000.00 per job created. If you can run your business without the overhead of wages for four to five years there is much that can be done in the new factory to improve production and quality without adding cost to be passed on to the consumer. Add in the lack of enforcement in the area of OSHA and EPA and the savings are tremendous. The Kia and Hyundai plants will cross over state lines and the states are paying for roads in addition to the other savings they are given to the tune of over $200000.00 per job created. We are all paying these companies to take their earnings out of America and not paying corporate taxes here. Cheaper cars and quick copies of any improvements will not make up these costs from other automakers. We need to look at how these costs affect all of us now and ten years down the road. These may not be direct quality issues but the costs involved do affect quality in the auto industry. See if you can buy or establish a company in Japan, Korea or Japan. You will not and you may see how these countries keep the loyalty of their employees for generations instead of the way our employees are treated as temporary workers, this will affect quality and improvement.
I can see by your picture and biography that you are near my age and most of your respondents are much younger than us. Try to remember in the sixties when the Japanese electronics industry was making inroads to the U.S. and our electronic industries were begging for help because they were not able to compete with the government backed and American financed overseas companies. The costs were so cheap that you could not help but buy Japanese consumer products and pass by the superior but "overpriced" American products. Sure there were some people who would buy the home products but they were made to feel cheated because the difference in costs. Now flash forward forty years and where do our electronic companies stand. They are for all intents and purposes gone and not because of quality issues. The Japanese have beaten them without investing in better quality but by making them seem irrelevant. They are doing it with the auto industry in the present day. They convinced our government that their cars being assembled here that it was just like an American car. But with the advantages they have with tax issues and bypassing tariff laws they have also gotten money from their government to build here and from our local governments also to build here. They have also been able to work around patent laws by taking advantage of our weak court system and take credit for advances that were done by others. That has been done in other industries as well so I will not dwell on that. We see that they will lose money to put our automakers in a bad light, when the used car market was glutted with cheap imports, the Japanese automakers with the blessing of our government paid out a lot of cash to buy tons of pitiful cars and raise the resale value of their cars by almost thirty percent. That stands as the prime reason why resale value is so much higher than it should be on those cars. If you think it is false look when you are out and count how many old Japanese cars of twenty to thirty years old are on the road. You will find more of the MOPAR K cars that "our" auto critics said were junk and yet there they are and still doing their job. We are losing a war and if we do not win this now our children and grandchildren are going to be living in a third world country.
As for your comments that we have to compete on an even plain with places such as China and India, I think our standard of living precludes us from doing so, but I am sure that if our CEO's can give up their salaries and the perks than we will have a chance to become Brazil of the north. Any country that loses its manufacturing base will lose in the world economy, the highest class will be fine but the rest of us are in for a hard life if there is anything left at that time.
If you do not believe that China is a giant labor camp than you have not been listening to the workers and only to the government propaganda. They are paid roughly one dollar per hour in the high tech industry and are working six to seven days per week for months at a time. They do not have any life but the company unless they leave it and go back to the abject poverty of the other areas of the country that do not make enough to eat. The communists still do not allow open discussion of work conditions and the harmful effects on the working class. Indians on the other hand are working for U.S. companies as customer service reps; these are the people we have the most problems with. Most are engineers who can't find work as engineers in India and will work for much less than we will for the same job. They have twenty percent unemployment for engineers and they are not happy about listening to complaints from "rich Americans". As long as we outsource our customer service then we will have great problems, the best people I have found are the ones that understand the English language and do not mind helping people, not outsourced reps who do not have a clue about our culture. As for your comments that we have to compete on an even plain with places such as China and India, I think our standard of living precludes us from doing so, but I am sure that if our CEO's can give up their salaries and the perks than we will have a chance to become Brazil of the north. Any country that loses its manufacturing base will lose in the world economy, the highest class will be fine but the rest of us are in for a hard life if there is anything left at that time.
This article and its type should be required reading for all upper managers. JM Juran stated in his "Juran's Quality Handbook," when addressing the poor results of the quality initiatives of the 1980s, "Poor quality results were largely traced to the limitations of leadership by upper managers who lacked training and experience in managing for quality."
It seems that on many levels, American business still does not get it and you point that out very well. I sincerely hope American leadership, at all levels, opens their eyes and gets back on the quality track.
Poor quality and poor service are a combination that should put Ford out of business.
Imagine purchasing a brand new truck, finding a problem with it, sending it to the dealer for repair only to find that 6 repairs later, the problem is still there and other problems have arisen from the experiments performed on the truck.
The response from the dealer and the Ford district manager is essentially "oh well".
Ford needs to take responsibility for their vehicles. Ford needs to listen to the consumer and respond appropriately. There are consumers out there that know auto mechanics (some better than the Ford mechanics).
Now let's move to the Customer Service Center who does not answer questions. They must have a script. The customer asks question #1, respond with answer #1. If customer asks a question not on the list, either find the closest question# and respond with the scripted answer or just thank the customer for buying the Ford product.
No wonder the foreign car manufacturers are winning!!
I agree!!
"The World is Flat" is an excellent book and should be required reading. I also believe the "The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences" by Louis Uchitelle should also be required reading. Read it, it is a fascinating look at American companies and how easy it has become dispose of workers.
Steve Jobs also knows when to apology to customers, even when she shouldn't have to!!! See my comments at http://www.curmudgeoncritic.blogspot.com/
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