Risk of omission is a critical one in Quality

[Adam Fleming]

Omission is a very important, but often overlooked aspect of Quality. It is often not realized in most organizations that the risk not doing a thing right, or what may be termed risk of omission, usually outweighs and is far more dangerous than the risk of what they do wrong, or what is a result of poor quality. The best way to understand the importance of this paradigm is that poor quality generally comes out or makes itself known during inspections and tests, or when customers complain about it. These internal and external aspects are indicators of poor quality and show up, but the element of risk of omission does not have this option.

The silent killer

However, omission, on the other hand, is a silent killer, spotting which is extremely difficult. Who would have known, for instance, until Frank Gilbreth's non-stooping scaffold demonstrated, that such a quotidian practice as bricklaying, which was being practiced by man for millennia, was being done in such a way that the normal practice was ending up wasting an amazing two thirds of the worker's labor on non-value-adding motions?

It is when organizations equip themselves with the extra capability of spotting omissions like this that they stand out from the rest of the crowd and become world class performances. The ability to locate these otherwise invisible risks and opportunities is what distinguishes them from the rest.

Imbibe the skill for identifying the hidden

The ken for spotting this kind of small aspects should be cultivated into organizations. A hint of the ways of doing this will be the focus of a highly relevant and interesting webinar that is being organized by Compliance4All, a leading provider of professional trainings for all the areas of regulatory compliance. William Levinson, who is the principal of Levinson Productivity Systems, P.C., will be the speaker at this highly perceptive session. All that you need to do to enroll for this webinar is to visit http://www.compliance4all.com/control/w_product/~product_id=501033 to register.

Echoes in ISO

ISO 9001:2015 Clause 6.1 requires “actions to address risks and opportunities” with regard to the “context of the organization” and “needs and expectations of interested parties”. The standard also cites the SIPOC (Supplier, Input, Process, Output, and Customer) model, but the scope of this principle is not wide or deep enough to cover many existential risks and opportunities. The examples of Kodak, whose innovation outdated its own top selling product, and Toyota production system's Seven Wastes show application of this ISO 9001 approach focuses only on one particular risk –the palpable one –while many more, far more potent ones could be lurking in the shadows, so to speak.

This leads to corrective and preventive action (CAPA) to remove the root causes of the problems in question. It is in dealing with the asymptomatic risks that organizations have to sharpen their nous. An organization that fails to do this loses opportunities to grow and be the leader.

Looking beyond the obvious

This webinar will offer some insights into the ways of doing this. The speaker will bring to bear his accumulated experience to narrate ways by which organizations need to look beyond the obvious in zeroing on the less conspicuous Quality issues.

He will dwell on the four key performance indicators, as developed originally by Henry Ford, which make it very difficult for asymptomatic wastes to hide under. These are cycle time, waste motion, waste of materials, and waste of energy. It is physically impossible for the last two wastes to hide from what chemical engineers call a material and energy balance, and its application supports ISO 14001 and ISO 50001. Enormous waste, along with risk of interruptions, can also hide in the supply chain. These aspects will be explained in detail.