In the deep breath taken in the early morning lies the busyness of the whole day
In the early morning, I pushed open the window, and the wind, carrying the fragrance of fully - sunned osmanthus, sneaked in. It was another brilliantly sunny day. However, staring at the schedule on my phone, I took a deep breath first. I'm afraid the busyness of today will "knead" this nice weather into my work.
The boss's "learning session": It's not a task, but a "heart - wrenching inquiry"
Our boss is the kind of person who "has learning engraved in their DNA". Just last week, they gathered the senior management team to discuss "Cases of Quality Upgrade in the Manufacturing Industry in 2023". This week, they directly brought in three books: "The Gap" talks about the cognitive gap between enterprises and benchmarks (for example, "what we think is 'qualified' is actually 'barely acceptable' in the eyes of customers"); "The Role Model" is a practical toolbox of leading companies (for example, a new energy enterprise reduced its after - sales cost by 30% through 'full - process quality traceability'); "Mission Accomplished" focuses on the execution closed - loop ("Saying it doesn't mean doing it, and doing it doesn't mean getting it done").
Yesterday evening, he @everyone in the department group, saying, "The reading report on *The Gap* should be submitted before work today. There's no need to write clichés. I want your own 'eye-opening insights' - for example, when you were reading, did you suddenly think that 'the large - scale complaints our department failed to resolve last year were actually the 'cognitive gap' mentioned in the book'?" I stared at the "Unfinished" folder on my computer desktop. I worked overtime until eight o'clock yesterday, but I actually missed this. I must squeeze out time to finish it today, or the boss will definitely hold the report and ask, "The 'gap' you wrote about, is it the gap between you and this book, or the gap between our department and the 'zero - defect' goal?"
Meeting at 9 a.m.: Find the "root of the problem", not just "resolve complaints"
The meeting at 9 a.m. is more urgent: At 10 p.m. last night, the after-sales department sent a red alert – for a batch of products just shipped to South China, customers reported that the loosening rate of a certain plastic part exceeded 15%. I arrived at the company half an hour early and first looked through last week's process inspection records: The torque test data of this part were clearly within the specification of 1.5±0.2N·m. Why did it become loose when it reached the customers?
A meeting will be held soon, and representatives from production, R & D, and after - sales departments should be invited:- Did the supplier change the raw material supplier for last week's batch?- Have the tooling fixtures on the assembly line not been calibrated recently?- Did the stacking height during transportation exceed the specified 1.2 meters?The most worrying thing about batch - related problems is "not being able to find the root cause". We must figure out "why" today. Otherwise, the customer complaint calls will flood my phone tomorrow. What's even more terrifying is "making the same mistake again".
Improvement project at 1:30 p.m.: Data doesn't lie, but the tools must be used correctly
The company-level improvement project meeting at 1:30 p.m. is today's "brain-teaser session" — this is the "Reducing Product Defect Rate" project that we've been promoting for three months. In the early stage, we used the fishbone diagram to break down 17 potential factors: from the humidity of raw materials (RH
I just finished a comparative test of 26 products last week, and the data filled up an entire Excel sheet. I asked analyst Xiao Zhou to conduct a preliminary analysis first. But when I passed by his workstation this morning, I saw him frowning at the SPSS software. It's not that I don't trust him. I've been following this project for three months, and I'm very clear about the "weight" of each factor. For example, the 8th factor, "welding time deviation", had a fluctuation of ±0.5 seconds in the last test. If the wrong tool is used (for example, using analysis of variance when regression analysis should be used to examine the correlation between "welding time" and "defective rate"), the results will definitely be off.
Moreover, those who focus on quality can't be rusty with their skills. If one day you don't even know how to use data analysis tools, how can you argue with the R & D department about "whether this factor is significant or not"? After the meeting later, I have to sit down and analyze the data on my own.
Afternoon training: It's not a "mere formality", but "putting people in the right positions"
There will also be a "Job Analysis" training organized by the HR at 3 p.m. It's not just a formality. Our department has just expanded by five people, and problems have started to arise in the "blurred areas" of job responsibilities. Last week, a new employee asked me, "Should a quality engineer follow up on after-sales complaints?" Another SQE (Supplier Quality Engineer) confused the responsibilities of "supplier audit" and "incoming inspection."
The HR said that this training would teach us to use the method of "job description + process map" to transform "vague work" into "measurable responsibilities". For example, in the KPIs of a quality engineer, "the handling time of customer complaints ≤ 24 hours" should account for 30%, and "the resolution rate of process abnormalities ≥ 95%" should account for 40%. The key point for an SQE is "the qualification pass rate of suppliers ≥ 90%", rather than "how many suppliers are audited per month". I have to attend the training. Otherwise, the next time we recruit, we'll encounter situations like "candidates claim to be able to do SPC (Statistical Process Control) during the interview, but can't even draw the control chart correctly after joining the company". The efficiency of the quality department should start with "putting the right people in the right positions".
Weekend report: It's not about "reporting achievements" but "talking about problems"
There is also the work report for the boss this weekend. The boss instructed last week, "Don't show me PPTs with a '100% completion rate'. I want you to tell me 'the reasons for non - completion' and 'the actions that can be implemented next week'." I went through the recent department data last night:
- The pass rate of incoming material inspection increased by 2%, but the processing time for customer complaints exceeded the standard by 1 day (due to the slow response speed of the after-sales department).
- The improvement project's progress has accelerated by 10%, but the new employee training coverage rate has only reached 70% (due to the recent rush work in the workshop, there is no one available).
These imperfect aspects require us to clarify the logic in advance. For example, regarding the issue of slow complaint handling, I've made an appointment with the after-sales department manager to have a meeting tomorrow. We'll change the response process from accepting orders within 2 hours to connecting within 30 minutes. As for the problem of low training coverage, we plan to use the online + offline approach next week to let employees make up for the training during their off-work hours.
What the boss wants is not "nice-sounding numbers", but "whether you are solving the problems".
Those "unavoidable" routine tasks: not "trivial matters," but "gears of the department"
There is still a bunch of "routine work" to handle:
- At the supervisor's meeting at 10 o'clock every day, you need to listen to the key points of each group for the day. The incoming materials group said that they will review the qualifications of three new suppliers today, and the process group said that they will go to the workshop this afternoon to check the operation of the new tooling.
- Process approval: The supplier change application from last week is still in my system. I have to approve it quickly, otherwise the production line is waiting for materials.
- Document review: For the newly revised "Nonconforming Product Control Procedure", it is necessary to confirm whether the conditions for "concession acceptance" are clearly stated (for example, "Slight scratches on non - critical components can be accepted with concession but need to be marked").
- Cross - department communication: The R & D department issued new product drawings yesterday. I need to confirm the "tolerance range" (for example, if the dimensional deviation of a certain metal part is changed from ±0.1mm to ±0.05mm, can the quality inspection equipment keep up?).
These things may seem trivial, but if any one of them is missing, the operation of the department will malfunction — just like a machine. No matter how small the gears are, they have to be in the right position to function properly.
From "Junior Manager" to "Head of a Major Department": It's not about "Being Busier", but about "Knowing Better How to 'Do Things Well'"
Thinking back to when I was a junior quality control manager three years ago, I was only responsible for the QM (Quality Management) module. I spent every day looking at reports and modifying data, and I thought it was "unchallenging." Now that I'm in charge of the entire quality department, I finally understand what it means to "pull one hair and move the whole body"—in the past, I only needed to be responsible for "accurate data," but now I have to be responsible for "customer satisfaction," "cost reduction," and "team growth."
Yesterday during overtime, a colleague asked me, "Manager, are you tired?" I said with a smile, "Yes, I'm tired, but it's not the kind of tiredness from 'busy work for no good reason' — before, I wanted to 'do more', now I want to 'do every single thing well'. For example, today's reading report is not just for the sake of fulfilling a task, but to find my own 'gaps'; for instance, the quality issue this morning is not just about'resolving complaints', but about establishing a 'prevention mechanism'; like the data analysis for the improvement project, it's not just for 'producing a report', but to find the'real root cause'."
Busy as one may be, every task has a "direction" — perhaps this is the meaning of pursuing quality: it's not about "dealing with problems", but "solving problems in advance"; it's not about "pursuing perfection", but "taking every step solidly".
The sun outside the window has climbed to the top of the sky. I took a sip of coffee and opened the PDF of *The Gap*. First, I wrote the first sentence of the book report: "When I read this book, the most heart - wrenching thing was this sentence: 'The gap has never been about "being worse than others", but about "thinking you've done things right when in fact you haven't done them thoroughly".'"
Let today's busyness start with this "heart-stabbing remark".