I have a great story. And this type of story happens all the time. It’s about moving to a new company, a new position, and starting all over again. As little kids, we called it a “do-over.” On the golf course, we refer to it as a “Mulligan.”
It’s about building your
credibility from scratch (again) and making a recognizable mark at your new job. Most of all, though, it’s about knowing yourself, what you can do, and putting your stamp on something new to make your name known…to be a hero—sometimes all over again.
Change for the Better
The people I’m talking about, in many cases, have been heroes before; manufacturing is full of them. They made changes that saved their company money, or reduced waste, or scrap, reduced customer complaints and returns, or whatever, and were therefore viewed as quality heroes. The company valued them because they brought positive, and recognizable, changes.
So here they are, moving to a new company, maybe a new town or state. They’re starting all over, in essence, and need to start off on the right foot. They need to make an impact—but not just any impact, it needs to be a
visible and
positive impact, and as quickly as possible. The faster the impact is recognized, the better they look; the bigger the impact is, the better they look. And after all, who doesn’t want to
look good, especially at a new job
?
So the change they bring to their new place of employment is something that’s not particularly new to them. But it’s new to their new employer. It’s us. It’s InfinityQS. It’s the technology,
and their expertise of how to leverage it —to find and prioritize the problems, and fix them—fast.
How Can We Help? Let Me Count the Ways
First of all, it’s not that easy. Moving yourself, and maybe your family, to a new place. The new job. The new people, and all their personalities you need to understand. And you probably had to leave your credibility at your last job.
And, certainly, it’s not easy selling your new company on a new product…new to them anyway. When they come to their new company as, say, a Quality Manager, or maybe even at a Director, or higher level, and they’re looking to make their mark, build their reputation, gain the much-needed credibility—namely some very
visible and measurable improvements—they generally think about using our software. It can be a quick fix. The magical elixir, the genie in the bottle waiting to come out and explain how to fix all those problems, and create a
visible and measurable impact (which the CFO can easily see). That’s where we come in.
I’ve heard it many times. The person is at their new job and they start thinking, “Maybe this time I can get upper management to spend the money, get InfinityQS in here, and do it right.” Perhaps the previous employment situation didn’t have the budget, or the foresight, to set up their quality system to find and make the improvements they needed and wanted.
So that’s the mindset, or so I’ve heard. And it makes sense. If they get InfinityQS in there, then quickly start gathering the info they need to find and make big improvements, they could be a savior, a hero, maybe even a superhero.
New Guy to the Rescue!
The best story I heard was the following: Joe was a Quality Manager at his company. He was new. Maybe 8 months on the job. He was able to convince his boss to allow him to implement a small proof of concept with InfinityQS on one line, and had it up and running within the first three months. After six months, the results were good enough to convince his boss to approve adding the next two lines. He was sitting in his office one afternoon looking over reports, and there was a loud knock on the door. Before he could say anything, in bursts the CFO. Glaring down at Joe, and in a loud gruff voice he says; “What the hell have you been doing down here?” Joe’s face drops. His heart skips a few beats, then starts racing. His palms start sweating. He begins thinking: Okay, this is it. I’m out. This job didn’t last very long, now did it?
This one very short moment felt like it lasted an hour, and his head was just spinning (remember the movie
The Exorcist?).
So, Joe gathers himself, takes a deep breath, gulps, finds some words to put together, and asks, “What do you mean, sir? Is something wrong?”
The CFO’s straight face breaks into a big smile, the glaring turns into a gleam, disarming Joe, and after a long pause he says, “Everything you’ve done has started saving us money! A lot of money. I’m seeing a direct correlation to your start date and the bottom line. I want to know what you’re doing, because we need to do it everywhere in this plant, and across all the plants in the company! I’m listening; start talking.”
Well, Joe just about falls out of his chair. That’s the kind of impact InfinityQS can have at a company, if the new guy decides he wants to be a hero, and can find a way to just get a foot in the door (starting with a small, minimal investment, minimal risk to your boss, and his budget, but where an impact can be made).
So, How Does this Happen?
Here’s the thing, our customers are loyal. Many say, “I use InfinityQS. Wherever I go, you’re going, too.” What they’re saying is we can make you look good. If you know what to do; if you put the effort into getting one of our quality systems set up effectively, engage your operators to become your partners and champions, we can make you look good, too. And who doesn’t want to look good? It can create big bonuses, and/or raises.
The key is results. InfinityQS will give you results. The system will gather the right information, and you will gain visibility across your lines, plants, even your enterprise that will enable you to make the kind of improvements that get noticed. Very noticed.
Think about the huge quantities of data that you may already be gathering on the shop floor—maybe on paper, in an Excel spreadsheet, in historians, OPC Servers, or other databases. Our systems can help you, the new Quality Manager, roll up and aggregate that data. Listen to what it’s telling you, and then act upon it. And that’s the power, right there. Real power!
That aggregated data can give you and your new company the ability to see problem areas, things that may have existed for a long time, but previously went undetected, and can show you the way to react accordingly.
Details, Details
Our quality systems are designed with a centralized data repository. If all your data resides in one place, you can easily roll it up across all your shifts and production lines, across multiple plants, or different products, and gain a big picture view of quality for your operation. Compare and contrast almost any data,
on one single report, regardless if the data represent different units of measure, different characteristics, different spec limits—it just doesn’t matter. NOW you can really start prioritizing what to fix first, and that’s when you start putting on your cape.
You roll up that data, collect your thoughts, and then show upper management where the problems are (or better yet, the potential problems), and work with them to formulate a plan for improvements.
Then when the changes you make start effecting the bottom line, you have achieved your goal. You are a hero! And in our world of manufacturing, heroes get paid more!
Learn more about
InfinityQS quality solutions.