In previous articles posted I have written about ways to measure and monitor quality. In this article I will cover some fundamental methods for measuring and monitoring quality that covers the following business functions:

• Sales quoting, including proposals, and contracts through to fruition of an order from a customer.
• Purchasing, including the request for quotes, issuance of purchase orders, receiving and verification of products purchased and the inspection process.
• Manufacturing and/or production processes, including assembly and configuration.
• On-time delivery and/or shipping.
• Customer Satisfaction Surveys.

Of course, there are many ways that an organization can measure and monitor quality related processes, which may be effective. Therefore, I hope to provide you with an understanding of how to get started with an effective quality measurement and monitoring process that may be most applicable to your situation.

Checklist

I am an advocate for the use of checklist, especially in Sales, Purchasing and Manufacturing/Production processes. For example, you might consider one or more checklists that are used during various phases or checkpoints in each process. For the purpose of this article the word product is used for products and services. Here’s fundamental list for the use of checklist.

Sales Process

• Compare RFQ to a Quote offered
• Compare Customer Purchase Orders to Quotes offered
• Check quantities, prices, extended prices, lead times and product options.

Purchasing Process

• Compare Quotes received to RFQs.
• Compare Purchase Orders to bill of materials received.
• Compare Purchase Orders to Invoice received.
• Check quantities, prices, extended prices, lead times and product options.
• Include a simple check list for the verification and inspection of received goods.

Manufacturing or Production Process

• Compare production planning, configuration and work instructions against orders received.
• Use a traveling checklist document or computerized program to monitor essential steps in complex production, configuration and assembly process.

Simple examples for Measuring and Monitor Quality

To effectively measure and monitor sales, purchasing, manufacturing and production quality you may be required to identify specific products (or services) and the customer or supplier. Therefore, your quality measuring and monitoring tool (journal, spreadsheet, database, or other computer program) may need an entry for specific part or components, plus the customer or suppliers name or identification.

Sales Quality Journal (view journal)

• Record the appropriate date of the recorded Sales data.
• Record the gross quantity of orders accepted.
• Record the quantity of orders cancelled prior to delivery.
• Record the quantity of returns.
• Record the quantity of replacement orders.
• Derive the net quantity of orders accepted from the information above.
• Compare the gross quantity of orders to the net quantity of orders accepted and report the comparative as a percentage.
• Communicate your Sales Quality score to your customers, personnel and affiliates.

Purchasing Quality Journal (view journal)

• Record the date of the recorded Purchasing data.
• Record the gross quantity of products ordered.
• Record the gross quantity of products received.
• Record the quantity of rejected and, or returned.
• Record the quantity of reworked after concession.
• Derive the net quantity of products accepted from the information above.
• Compare the gross quantity of products to the net quantity of products accepted and report the comparative as a percentage.
• Communicate your Purchasing Quality score to your vendors, personnel and affiliates.

Manufacturing and/or Production Journal (view journal)

• Record the appropriate date of the recorded Production data.
• Record the gross quantity of products made or produced.
• Record the gross quantity of products rejected.
• Record the quantity reworked.
• Record the quantity scrapped.
• Derive the net quantity of products put into inventory (or ready for customer use) from the information above.
• Compare the gross quantity of products produced to the net quantity of products available and report the comparative as a percentage.
• Communicate your Production Quality score to your personnel and affiliates.

On-time delivery and/or shipping (view journal)

(Two methods of record On-Time Delivery described below)

• Record the appropriate date of the recorded Delivery data.
• Record the quantity of orders delivered or shipped.
• Record the product and customer as needed.
• Record the ‘ship by date’ (SBD), which is typically identified in pre-sale negotiations or through order processing.
• Record the ‘actual ship date’ (ASD), which will allow you to compare the SBD the ASD to determine if the delivery is expected to be early, on-time or late.
• Record the ‘customer due date’ (CDD), which is typically identified in pre-sale negotiations or through order processing.
• Record the ‘actual received date’ (ARD) (must by verified in the shipping process to know the date the customer actually receives the product). Once you know the ARD, then compare the CDD to the ARD to determine if the delivery is was actually early, on-time or late.
• Option 1, use the SBD vs. ASD tallies: Measure on-time delivery by comparing the total shipments to the total on-time shipments (or early + on-time shipments) and report as a percentage on-time.
• Option 2, use the CDD vs. ARD tallies: Measure on-time delivery by comparing the total shipments to the total on-time shipments (or early + on-time shipments) and report as a percentage on-time.
• Communicate your On-time Quality score to your customers, personnel and affiliates.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys Journal (view journal)

• Record the appropriate date of the recorded Customer Satisfaction Survey data.
• Make the process of Customer Satisfaction Survey as a perpetual process as opposed to a periodical or occasional process.
• If possible, include a ‘Customer Satisfaction Survey’ with all communications with the customer, which includes correspondence, invoicing, and deliveries.
• Keeping the survey as simple as possible, include up to 10 customers satisfaction elements and ask your customer to rate the element on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a poor rating and 10 being the best rating.
• Hone your survey questions so they can best add value to your quality process.
• Record the quantity of surveys received or recorded.
• Tally the score of each question and each survey, and derive the Customer Satisfaction as percentage.
• Setup a running or real-time journal for recording Customer Satisfaction.
• Communicate your Customer Satisfaction Quality score to your vendors, personnel and affiliates.

Over-all Quality Score (view quality dashboard example)

Assuming that you implement a quality measuring and monitoring process for the above described business functions and metrology, then you can derive an ‘Over-all Quality Score’ by summing the percentages of each function (filtered by an appropriate date range); divide the gross percentage amount by five (or by the quantity of quality measurements that you have elected to use). For example, during the past year a business scores its (1) Sales Quality at 95%, (2) Purchasing Quality at 92%, (3) Production Quality at 93%, (4) On-time delivery at 96%, and (5) Customer Satisfaction at 91%; the sum of these scores is a gross number of 467 divided by 5 equals 93.4% Over-all Quality Score.

Once again, there are many ways that you can measure and monitor quality. This article is to provide a method that may cover your essential business functions and is easy to implement with a spreadsheet, or database or computer application.

Over the years, I have developed all three of these tools and recently incorporated these metrology techniques into QMSCAPA software, which is currently available free of license fees. Also, to aid in the measuring and monitoring of an organization, I have developed what I am calling a ‘Quality Management System Dashboard‘ so at a glance one can visualize an organizaton’s over-all quality effectiveness.

Your feed-back is always invited and welcomed.

Jack Bogle, President

Access Business Communications, Inc.

International Management Systems

16835-236 Algonquin Street

Huntington Beach, CA 92649

Referenced Links:

ISO Quality Training

ISO Certification and Registration Services

ISO Consultants

Quality Management Systems Software