Turn Mistakes Into Opportunities
Turn Mistakes Into Opportunities
Ever come across a company that has never made a mistake? Never let a customer down? Never got an order wrong? Nope neither have I.
The mistake is not the real problem – it is the attitude towards it that really matters. Is it a non-conformance to be solved once and for all? Is it something to be smoothed over or covered up? Will someone get the blame? Are mistakes thought of as bad? Or does anyone actually notice or care..? Now I guess all those involved or well-read on “total quality” – “lean manufacturing” and various other initiatives will be ready with a quick, clever and correct answer that each error is a potential opportunity to improve production and or service.
Still no one told my gym; One “high quality” and well promoted brand in the fitness club market continues to replace some hinges for a glass door with the exact same model of hinges. The hinges last about a month and then break and it takes about another two months to get replacement one made and fitted. In the three years I’ve been a member we have hardly ever had the door in place.
- If an error / problem occurs once it could be human error from a service point of view or a one-off poor result from a manufacturing stance; still it is worth noting and testing to see if it is part of something larger.
- If the same error occurs twice it is more likely to be a training problem if the issue involves people and is very likely to be part of something larger from a manufacturing point of view.
- If same error occurs three times it highly likely to be a process or design flaw. Somehow we’ve design that possibility in to the system and or the people.
As Einstein reportedly said – “you can’t solve a problem at the same level of thinking that created it”
If anyone cares – if anyone notices – if anyone investigates – if anyone has a mind to treat the error as an incredibly valuable piece of feedback that might improve things – maybe just maybe we could solve the customer issue, win back their loyalty and remove a bunch of costs / waste from our company…
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