The "counter - intuitive" choice of cross - century graduates: The "foundation course" from the budget desk to the workshop
At the beginning of 2000, I walked out of the school gate with a diploma in budget management, a national budgeter qualification certificate, and a transcript that placed me in the top 5% of the entire department. That was the year when the aura of "cross - century talents" shone the brightest. My classmates either squeezed into state - owned design institutes to calculate infrastructure budgets or joined foreign - funded consulting companies to do project quotations. Their starting salaries were three times that of entry - level positions, and they always boasted about being "white - collar workers" in conversations. However, I chose a small mechanical processing factory and took up the position of production statistician. Every day, I squatted in the corner of the workshop to check raw material consumption and record working - hour accounts. I rarely even touched a computer. My master laughed at me, saying, "You could have a decent job but instead choose to get your hands dirty with machine oil." I didn't explain. At that time, I vaguely felt that the "budget models" in textbooks lacked a touch of "real - life flavor," and the sound of milling machines and the smell of cutting fluid in the workshop were the places where "practical problems" could truly be addressed.
The starting point of the quality journey: The "right - taste" opportunity in the spring of 2006
In the spring of 2006, I stayed at home for half a year. It wasn't that I couldn't find a job; I just always felt that my previous positions were like "scratching an itch through one's boots." It wasn't until my mother waved a job advertisement in front of me and urged me, "A car parts factory is recruiting a quality assistant. Go and give it a try." That private enterprise made engine pistons. At that time, the automotive industry was on the rise. There were newly - arrived aluminum alloy raw materials piled up in the factory area, and the workshop was filled with the fresh and bitter smell of metal cutting. I stood at the door and was stunned. Those rough - cast parts on the ground and the slogan on the wall that read "Each piston must go through three inspections" suddenly made me think of what my master had said when I was in the workshop: "Do your work solidly." This was the "vigor" I had been looking for.
Enlightenment Mentor: The "Practical Combat Codes" Not Found in Textbooks
When I first joined the company, I did the "odd jobs": binding incoming inspection records, marking the version numbers on the drawings, and occasionally going with the IQC to inspect castings. The first time I used a vernier caliper to measure the diameter of a piston, my hands were shaking so badly that I couldn't even see the numbers clearly. It wasn't until I met Brother Zhang, a quality system maintenance staff member. When he took me to conduct my first internal audit, he pointed to a pile of old records on the table and said, "Documents are not waste paper. They are the 'clues' left for problems. One day when a customer makes a complaint, if you can find the raw material batch of the supplier from the records three years ago, that's what 'quality' means." In the half - month before he left the company, he worked one hour overtime every day to teach me. He taught me to use FMEA to analyze the potential risks of "piston pin hole deflection", and said that when writing a non - conformity report, I should "write 'improvement' as 'actionable steps'". He even taught me how to communicate with the production manager, saying, "Don't say 'You violated the rules', say 'This change can reduce rework'." Those skills are not the formulas in textbooks. They are the "survival manuals" he summarized after experiencing setbacks and being scolded.
From "odd-jobber" to "expert": The "quenching" of TS16949 and the work site
After Brother Zhang left, I single-handedly took on 80% of the work in the Quality Department. I learned "5S" from Toyota's consultants and rearranged the toolboxes in the workshop according to the "frequency of use". The production workers said, "Now it takes two minutes less to find a wrench." I assisted Mazda's technical support in trial assembly verification and took three notebooks of notes on "the roughness of the piston skirt". Finally, I understood "why a roughness of 0.8μm can reduce the engine noise by 30%." One month before the TS16949 audit, I stayed up late to organize three years' worth of supplier audit records into electronic files. Even the auditor flipped through the computer and said, "Your traceability chain is clearer than that of many state-owned enterprises." During that period, I got off work at 2 a.m. every day, but I could still go to the workshop full of energy at 7 a.m. the next morning because solving each problem was like cracking a puzzle. For example, I found out that the "air holes on the piston top surface" were caused by a 5℃ difference in the aluminum alloy casting temperature of the supplier. For another example, I used the "Three Actuals Principle" (actual site, actual object, actual situation) to persuade the production department to reduce the "stacking height of blanks" from 1.5 meters to 1 meter, which reduced the bumping and scratching. These tasks didn't come with any "lofty" titles, but they really made me understand that quality is not about "standards", but about "nailing down every detail".
Leave the "comfort zone": Find a battlefield where you can "stir things up"
However, the limitations of that company became increasingly obvious: The boss thought that "quality costs money" and was reluctant to hire more people. I wanted to promote "process quality control", but the production department said it would "affect the output". In the summer of 2008, I left the company with the organized TS16949 materials in my arms. It wasn't that I didn't want to stay; I knew there was no place for me to exert my "strength". What I wanted to do was not to "maintain the status quo", but to "make quality everyone's business".
The second company: Plant the "quality awareness" in every corner of the workshop
The new company is engaged in automotive interiors and is half the size of larger ones. However, the boss slapped the table and said, "Without the scale of big factories, we can only survive by relying on quality." During the third week of the probation period, the company sent me to Shanghai to study "Six Sigma Green Belt". In class, I used my experience in piston manufacturing to analyze the case of "wrinkles on the interior ceiling". The teacher praised me for having a "sense of on - site experience". When it was time for the confirmation of my employment, the general manager held my "supplier scoring system" and said, "You've helped the company reduce the return rate by 15%. You'll be directly promoted to a full - time employee without going through the normal process." In the following three years, I did three "down - to - earth" things:I. I promoted the "workshop quality bulletin board", which updated the daily defect rate in real - time. Workers would stop and take a look when passing by.II. I carried out "employee quality training". Even packers could explain that "AQL0.65" meant "a maximum of 1 defective product is allowed in 100 products".III. Once, a customer complained about "pilling on the ceiling flannelette". I led my team to stay in the workshop for three days and finally found that the problem was caused by a "2℃ difference in the hot - pressing temperature". On the day the problem was solved, Lao Zhou from the production department patted me on the shoulder and said, "Previously, we thought quality was the responsibility of your quality department. Now we know it's everyone's business."
The "underlying logic" of quality professionals: The "universal key" to solving problems
Later, I found that the thinking of a quality professional can "penetrate" all problems. When the refrigerator at home was frosting, I used the "fishbone diagram" to analyze it. Was it because the door seal was aging or the temperature setting was too high? When helping a friend choose a decoration company, I used the idea of "supplier audit" to check their "standards for plumbing and electrical work". Even when educating my child, I would use the "PDCA cycle". First, I tried the method of "reading books for 10 minutes every day", then adjusted it to "reading after breakfast", and finally made it a fixed habit. Quality is not a "dogma", but the ability to "calm down and find the root cause". This ability makes me stay calm no matter what happens.
Words to quality professionals: Our path is "worthwhile"
Looking back on the 11 - year quality journey, from a fresh graduate squatting in the workshop to record ledgers to a quality manager capable of leading TS16949 audits, every step has been worthwhile. Those ledgers stained with engine oil, the records sorted out through sleepless nights, and the days of arguing with the production department have ultimately become the "confidence to solve problems". I want to say to myself and to all quality - related people: our path is not "arduous", but "worthwhile" - because every time we make a product more reliable and every time we make a worker understand "quality", we are adding a brick to the quality foundation of China. In the future, I want to do more: provide quality training for small and medium - sized enterprises, write articles about the "practical codes" taught by Brother Zhang, and even take my son to the workshop to see "how to make a piston correctly". The quality journey in China is long, but as long as each of us "releases a little energy" - for example, teaching a worker to understand the "Three - Actuals Principle" and helping a boss understand that "quality doesn't mean spending money", this path will surely become broader and broader.
Finally, I'd like to say: Quality is not a "lofty" word, but a perseverance in "doing every little thing solidly". May we all become "people who can solve problems" on this path. After all, what China's quality needs is not "slogans", but "hands rooted in the field".