Dear Quality Professionals,

I have been receiving a long string of communication on the role of a quality professional in the global economic meltdown.

The discussion is philosophical and academic, by and large. We need to get back on track with actionable points.

Businesses, your customers, need “cost reduction”. Our posture should be “without sacrificing quality”.

Top and upper management speak the language of “money”. Please convert the chronic waste in business processes into the language of management. This, as you all know, is the cost of poor quality (COPQ). COPQ is, on an average, 25% of total cost. This ratio is much larger than the profit to total cost, in most cases.

For those of you alarmed by this figure, help is at hand. I have developed a tool for assessing these wasteful costs - the Cost Benchmarking Tool. The tool has its limitations, but can surely get you started. Most important…it is FREE.

The subsequent steps will now be a cake walk for all of you. Start by prioritizing the opportunities locked in chronic waste. Next, work with a structured quality improvement methodology.

You can deliver dramatic bottom-line results as a by-product of quality improvement.

Quality professionals can be the saviors in this global recession.

Warm regards,

Suresh Lulla