My wife is a Quality Engineer. She works for a huge telecom company here in SD. Along with her job title, she owns a number of professional certifications including Certified Quality Engineer, Auditor, and Six Sigma Black Belt to name a few. What does this have to do with music? Not much, but she is a genius at sampling plans Statistics, and TQM (Total Quality Management)…Oh yeah, she can sing too.
All this leads me to an article that she forwarded to me about Santa Cruz Guitar Company. It is published in this month’s Quality Progress, and goes over how Richard Hoover managed to swerve into a TQM and never really realized it. His process mirrors Deming’s 14 points of management.
1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service.
2. Adopt the new philosophy for economic stability.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
4. End the practice of awarding business on price tag alone.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines do a better job.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between departments and individuals.
10. Eliminate numerical goals, posters and slogans, asking for new levels of productivity without providing methods.
11. Eliminate work standards that prescribe numerical quotas.
12. Remove barriers that rob hourly workers of pride of workmanship.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everybody, including top management, in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.
The Article is proprietary, and I don’t feel like I should post it.
In our house, we strive to do our best at everything. Quality is not an accident, and I’ve come to learn (by osmosis) that there are deliberate steps that can be taken to improve the process, and therefore final result.
Granted, I’m not making a huge amount of instruments, frankly, I can find the time to work on the ones I’ve started. But if I were to ever get into a manufacturing situation, I would know where to start, and who to turn to…My wife. She puts quality in everything she does.
For more information on the article, e-mail me
erichasissues@truevine.net
Filed under: Demings 14 points, Guitar, Guitar Building, Santa Cruz Guitar Company, Woodworking | Tagged: Guitar Building, Musical Instruments, Santa Cruz Guitars, Total Quality
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I’m very familiar with this subject matter as I’m responsible for software and ensuring that works correctly across enterprises. At first I would think guitar making is an art and I’ve never equated TQM and music. But, I’ve just contradicted myself because art is about continous improvement. TQM is a great platform that ensures it can flourish more quickly.
It seems you really appreciate your wife contribution. I say this because mine is also more organized than me (“the artist of the family”) and it is always a good thing to have somebody beside you to set the standards somewhere high