Case Study: SMB Quality System Transformation

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SMBs are resource constrained and often don’t have personnel with external experience to draw on. A transformation project manager brought into this type of situation needs to provide governance, project management techniques, tools and templates that add immediate value to decision making and project execution. 

This company needed to quickly reduce wasteful testing and improve overall quality so our first step was to hold workshops to identify root cause issues:

• The manual entry of testing results in the quality management system allowed human error. 
• When individual parts in a lot couldn’t be matched to corresponding test data, extra testing for the lot was required. This increased cost and introduced redundant data into systems. 
• A lack of governance for data entry and data transfers between quality systems introduced inconsistencies in test data being stored and allowed test results to be overwritten. 

They needed to transform their quality program, manufacturing process and information systems so two strategic goals were proposed. 

• Better collect, report and archive quality data through changes in the manufacturing process, more disciplined test file structures and technology improvements.
• Assess inspection requirements to reduce testing effort (and data) without sacrificing final product quality or cost.

To successfully meet these strategic goals with limited resources, the transformation program approach and structure would need to be efficient. 

We established an overarching project management office (PMO) to monitor the multiple projects and workstreams needed to accomplish these goals. We created a regular program cadence with bi-weekly team meetings and workshops. Finally, the CEO and senior leaders would be updated during normal staff meetings to stay aligned on the transformation without extra calendar time. Other important considerations for the governance structure were:

• Function over Form: Don't over-engineer the project structure or the status reporting process. Use simple, useful, visual templates for describing the scope of work, project plans and status reporting. 
• Clear Ownership: Establish transformation workstreams that can be assigned to specific owners or champions deeper in the organization to maintain momentum. 
• Detailed Work Breakdown: Communicate required work at the task level with clear deliverables, by owner, and by week. This focuses teams on critical work while giving them the flexibility to schedule tasks alongside their daily responsibilities.

Resource constraints can make it difficult to focus SMBs on long-term transformation goals, however, SMBs are extremely agile when compared to larger organizations. They often have a single location so communication flow is rapid and they are innately more focused, responsive and efficient in completing critical work.  One key element then to successful SMB transformation is to leverage these strengths and focus teams on the most important work. 

 When day-to-day activities consume an organization’s attention, they struggle to make time for in-depth discussions to resolve complex issues and to communicate decisions to the organization. Transformation leaders can facilitate this engagement and transparency by providing a dedicated workspace where these conversations can take place and where decisions and progress can be made visible. 

This team space was used for all cross-functional team meetings and Workout Sessions. Through these meetings, we engaged stakeholders from multiple departments and utilized traditional process improvement techniques to document physical workflows and system data flows. We held design sessions to create solutions to the quality management system and process issues identified and we held Workout Sessions. These were targeted meetings with all the necessary team members to work through a specific problem or make a cross-functional decision. 

All documentation was posted on the walls or on whiteboards for team members to see. In addition, status reports for the overall project were updated and posted weekly so teams would be aware of what work had been completed and what was in progress. At any point in time, a team member could walk into this room and see what was happening with the project and what work was expected from them before the next workshop.

Although a SMB may not perceive value in documentation, the transformation project leader knows it is critical for aligning teams on the problems to be solved, the cross-functional solutions to be designed and the decisions to be made. Where possible, it is helpful for the project manager to take on the documentation burden to allow the team to focus on their tasks. Through our cross functional workshops, we created the following documentation:

• A physical testing swim lane workflow diagram of the testing steps, bottlenecks and points where errors were being introduced and then proposed ways to streamline testing. The solutions designed in these workshops became the focus of the Workflow team to implement.
• A data flow diagram across quality management systems including the data elements and process used to capture and move testing data from one system to another. Additions and modifications to data fields and field values were proposed. Then important data fields were aligned across manufacturing systems to establish continuity for quality information. The solutions designed became the focus of the Systems teams to implement.
• A current state and future state solution map with the changes needed to policies, procedures, and systems and how these changes would impact work in various departments across the organization. 

Once the future state solution was approved, we established several additional implementation workstreams. 

• Equipment Team: Enhancements in training for equipment operation and calibration.
• Engineering Team: Changes to engineering policies, procedures and part print documents to provide more information on part characteristics that required testing.
• New Release Team: Embedding new documentation, testing procedures, and testing data requirements into the New Product Realization process. 

The transformation project manager brings value by providing clear documentation of team findings and solutions, breaking work down to the task level, and sequencing tasks based on urgency, complexity, and dependencies between workstreams. This  supports a detailed plan  to focus team members on the critical tasks needed to be done at any given time. 

 Keeping progress visible is one of the most important roles for the transformation project leader in any organization, but especially in a resource constrained SMB. I consider this to be the key success factor for this specific transformation. Updates were provided to the CEO and senior leaders twice per month and included project status and discussions on solutions and decisions made through workout sessions. We used a consistent set of 4-5 slides which included:

• Key accomplishments during the past two weeks.
• A visual status report (red/yellow/green) for the overall project and each workstream. We highlighted blocking issues and discussed how leadership could assist in resolution.
• Recent cross-functional decisions made and the implementation progress on previous decisions. 
• A dedicated deep-dive slide, if needed, to ensure alignment across the organization (e.g., the design of a specific solution or communication plan). 
• A “Your Action” slide, highlighting immediate action needed by leaders.

The slides presented to senior leaders were also posted in the dedicated workspace for transparency and alignment. 

We return to our manufacturing teams struggling to meet quality standards and being informed that production is going to start ramping up. Team members were desperately looking for solutions. After our initial workshops, we focused on eliminating the test data chaos. Modifications to basic workflow and data entry procedures and quick win system improvements were made. These changes in the first couple months were crucial to stabilize the situation but still left the organization in an inefficient state. Manufacturing teams were still working hard.

We then tackled more complex work that required skilled resources and the implementation of new software. For this phase, we realigned the workstreams from 5 cross-functional teams to 3 workstreams reporting directly to senior leaders in Quality, Manufacturing and Engineering. This allowed senior leaders to prioritize and complete work independently while acquiring the software and skills needed. In areas where shared decisions were required, we used a cross-function forum.

Within six months, equipment calibration and manufacturing procedures were rewritten, the physical environment and workflow was changed, production waste was reduced and manufacturing teams were trained on the changes.  The pressure on Manufacturing declined substantially. The focus could now shift to more systemic issues in Quality and Engineering to support long term quality improvements and company growth. 

Within nine months, the company had updated Engineering policies and part print standards, implemented new Quality system software, and identified additional process and system enhancements. The transformation scope had been mostly been realized and the company had the knowledge and tools to make further changes: 

• Leaders had a PMO governance structure and experience is setting strategy, breaking those strategies into achievable business initiatives and building project plans.
• Employees had experience in cross-functional Workout Sessions and process improvement techniques for identifying issues, designing solutions and creating implementation plans.
• Everyone recognized the importance of creating space for teams to work and for tracking progress to meet project goals. 

Senior leaders had also learned how to better engage employees to find new opportunities and take the organization to higher levels of performance.