You may have been promoted or recruited by the new company. Taking the role of the quality manager opens up the door to new opportunities and challenges. You may have thought that you knew enough to hit the ground running. Sometimes it’s better to take one step back and assess the new environment before taking any action. Steady approach at the beginning will pay off long term.

At the end of this post, you will find the set of document templates that will help you manage quality in your organisation.

Keep this checklist at hand

What people tell you is subjective and driven by their own agenda. It doesn’t matter what position they hold in the organisation (read – how senior they are) or how nice they come across. While the feedback from the team is invaluable, there are several areas you must review to get the accurate picture of the Quality in the business.

Here is the list of the vital information you should get your hands on:

1. Customer complaints
2. Aftersales cost
3. Product recalls
4. Supplier performance
5. Production FPY
6. Scrap levels
7. Audit results (internal & external)
8. Training and competence of staff
9. QMS (or equivalent)
10. Quality awareness (communication channels)

A different way to look at the list is this:

1. Customers
2. Suppliers
3. Internal affairs

Why do quality managers fail to deliver on their promise?

The sure way to fail on Quality is to pick and choose from the checklist. Focusing on a few topics (read comfort zone) and neglecting the rest will bite back. Forget about the limited resource, reduced data availability or resistance to change. It’s your job to make sure that all aspects of Quality are taken care of. This is not the same as if you were supposed to do all the work! You are smart enough to know that already.

Good luck!

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