Is (or was) North America behind the Quality Assurance Management efforts and related principals in relationship to other countries and continents ? (i.e.:Europe and South America)
It seems to me that North America is about 10 years behind several other countries in regards the effective use of quality practices, tools and principals like 5S, Kaizen, ISO, TQM, DOE, TPM, you name it .
Several training sessions and consulting work that I am performing today in Canada and USA were sessions and activities that I went through in Brazil in the 80’s and 90’s.
At that time we were forced to keep the standards higher than North American market to allow us to be competitive . At the same token the North American market didn’t seem to find necessary to maintain the same level (generally speaking) to maintain their market share.
After 12 years living in Canada, this is only an observation based on my past professional experience.
I am not saying that I am right or wrong.
But ………. whats your take on it ?
Edison Reis
www.qualityassurancemanagement.com
November 19th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
The US was well behind ROW on Quality Management Systems. It is catching up but very slowly.
James Mackenzie
November 19th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Hi Edison.
In mid 90’s I worked in Gas Turbine industry in Dallas (TX), closely working with General Electric and their Jack Welsh World Class Manufacturing. In western Europe we now see a strong influx of Lean / Six Sigma work in all industries. From my observation we are only now starting with concepts that were very well implemented in the many GE factories that I visited. Morale of hte story: I believe it is very much company dependent. Some supply chains are well in line with process theories; others are way behind. Still lots of work to do. Our process improvement tool Engage! Modeler sees lots of interested companies that are way behind the GE’s of the 90’s.
Ted Twaalfhoven,
November 19th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Most US operations have outsourced or reduced their quality efforts… The US invented the process but we are letting everyone else use it….
I believe the father of these QA/QC procedures was Dr. W. Edward Deming of the United States. Unfortunately, as it seems to be with most of our “MBA” educated Business elite they did not accept his concepts in the USA. So he went to Japan, where they started the process that has kicked the butts of our Auto companies.
Douglas Story
November 20th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Hi
I have no doubt that the theories behind TQM and other related topics in use throughout the world today stem originally from the North American Guru’s but I also feel that because they were not embraced at the time, 50′ sand 60’s, NA are behind the rest of the world. I am in Europe, and feel that Europe is certainly ahead of North America in Quality Techniques. I think also, that some areas of Asia are far ahead of the rest of the world and had America embraced the thoughts of those guys all those years ago, they would be without doubt leaders in Quality.
John S.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Seems to be that we have to same idea, There are philosophy, concepts and practice of quality applied in different levels, depending on the countries where they are applied. The big issue is in the discipline of application of the tools of quality and the maintenance of this applications. I have carried out diverse visits and evaluations in manufacturers of automotive components in USA and in many of them verify the utilization of tool kits that in Brazil they would be condemned to the trash. You also can imagine the quality of the product produced by these tool kits
Andres Aparicio
November 29th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Douglas and John are right on the money ! Andres experience also matches mine.
In the bright side things seem to be moving faster now so we might be able to overcome past mistakes and prosper.
All the best as always
Edison Reis
http://www.QualityAssuranceManagement.com
December 4th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
What I have seen is the drive for other countries to meet the standard that was set a couple of years ago. On the other side I seen quite a few systems with a great gap between documented and real actual system.
Guillermo Haza