Green Quality Solution

As Qualitists we all know that to Manage for Quality, we need to work with the Quality Trilogy:

• Quality Panning
• Quality Control
• Quality Improvement.

Simple.

What should we Plan for? What is important to the customer.

What should we Control? What is important to the customer.

What should we Improve? What is important to the customer.

So, who is the customer?

We have a whole cast of characters as customers. A simple answer is: Anyone impacted by the product / service, or process, is a customer.

How do you satisfy this chain of customers? Answer: By understanding the needs of customers, segment by segment.

All this is relatively simple, when we are addressing external and internal customers, to understand their primary and secondary needs. Then, comes the challenge. We must translate customer needs from their language to our technical language. This enables us to define product features and goals, as well as process features and goals. For this to happen, we need to work with the Quality Trilogy.

But society is also our customer.

Society allows our organization to exist in a specific area. The basic needs of members of society are jobs, food, housing, water, clean air, healthcare, education, and safety. Do we factor these needs? Answer: Seldom.

And then there is the mother of all customers, Mother Earth. Do we understand her anguish with our habits that result in soil pollution, water pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, etc. She cries.

For example, we have destroyed her forests. Precious forest trees that absorb carbon dioxide, pump out oxygen, transport water from the soil back to the air, keep the soil in place, nurture biodiversity, and support occupation. This is only one example.

To date, the selfish order of our customer focus has been: External Customer / Internal Customer / Society / Mother Earth. This myopic approach has got us into a Covid Vortex. Climate Change is Mother Earth’s way of speaking to us. Are we listening to her voice?

There is a Green Quality Solution. Apply the Quality Trilogy to the reverse order of our existing customer focus: Mother Earth / Society / Internal Customer / External Customer. If embraced nationally, we will survive.