The Quality Curmudgeon

Asking the Obvious

Scott Paton — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:06:32 +0000

Why is it that whenever you call your bank or credit card company or utility that they have you confirm your phone number, address, and e-mail? I understand that sometimes these questions are asked for security reasons to make sure that you really are who you claim to be. However, I think most of the time, these questions are asked for no good reason. In their attempt to be sure to have accurate data, companies are annoying the hell out of their customers. This may seem like a minor annoyance but if you ever have to call the same company multiple times, it’s particularly annoying.

It’s surprising that large corporations that spend millions of dollars a year on computer hardware and software apparently don’t have the ability to recognize the fact that you called them 10 minutes earlier and you already verified all of your contact information.

In this world of voice recognition, data mining, iPads, and Google, I expect more.

Bad News: Productivity Is Up

Scott Paton — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:02:13 +0000

We’ve been stuck in an economic funk for the past three years now. Call it a downturn, a recession, depression, or what have you. Whatever you call it, there’s no denying that this has been a tough time for a lot of businesses and people.

One rather misleading economic indicator continues to rise: productivity. Business productivity is at an all-time high. Good news? Not really. This just means that employees are doing a whole lot more work. In addition, they’re doing more work for less money. Basically, businesses are just like you and me: doing a lot more work with a lot fewer resources.

Here’s the latest (third quarter 2011) U.S. productivity numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 2.3 percent annual rate during the third quarter of 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, with output and hours worked rising 3.2 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates.) From the third quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2011, output increased 2.4 percent as hours rose 1.4 percent, resulting in a 0.9 percent increase in productivity.

Manufacturing productivity surged even higher, particularly in the durable goods sector:

Manufacturing sector productivity grew 5.0 percent in the third quarter of 2011, as output rose 4.6 percent and hours decreased 0.4 percent. Productivity jumped 9.5 percent in the durable goods sector and edged up 0.1 percent in the nondurable goods sector. From the third quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2011, manufacturing sector productivity increased 2.9 percent. Unit labor costs in manufacturing fell 5.1 percent in the third quarter of 2011 and decreased 1.9 percent over the last four quarters.

High productivity is OK in the short-term. It helps businesses survive these economic downturns. However, artificially high levels of productivity in the long run start to have a serious impact on quality, customer service, and profits. There’s just so much work you can wring out of your employees before they start to wear out, ignore procedures, cut corners, and make sacrifices to meet deadlines. Businesses save money in the short-term but are soon faced with higher employee turnover, increased training costs, higher product returns, increased customer dissatisfaction, and higher inventory costs.

Just one example of this is in the latest Consumer Reports Reliability Survey. It shows that after steadily rising, U.S. auto manufacturers’ quality has started to decline again. You can read more about it in a recent New York Times article here.

I wish there were a magic bullet for our economy; there isn’t. Until our politicians start caring more about their constituents than getting re-elected, we’re going to have to continue to make do.

The Quality Curmudgeon Lives!

Scott Paton — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 06:41:36 +0000

The Quality Curmudgeon has been resurrected. As you may know, I wrote a column in Quality Digest for more than 20 years when I served as editor and later as publisher. When I left the magazine in 2006 to devote myself to my growing family and my own business (Paton Professional), my writing slowly tapered off.

The good folks at Quality Digest have been after me for some time now to resurrect my column in print and as a video commentary for their weekly news show, Quality Digest Live. I hope to begin that in 2012.

As part of bringing the Quality Curmudgeon back to Quality Digest, I have decided to bring back this blog, where I hope share not just my musings about the state of quality today but also helpful tips, techniques, links, resources, and more.

I welcome your feedback and contributions to this site. Please don’t be shy about telling me where I went wrong or where I should devote more attention. I hope you’ll share your news, information, tools, tips, links, and resources too.

Finally, a site like this is of no use if no one visits it. Please share the content you find here using the share icons you’ll find on the posts. You’ll be able to post from here directly to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You’ll also be able to print posts and e-mail them to friends and colleagues.

I look forward to blogging and writing about quality again, and I especially look forward to hearing from you.