Expert article · Lean & cost · 2 min read
The magic triangle: how to break the vicious circle of cost, time and quality
Dr. Klaus-Jürgen Wolf, Founder & Managing Partner
Cost, time and quality are seen as opponents. That only holds once all three are optimised. Before that, there is usually a root cause that can be fixed.
Cost, time and quality pull against each other. More quality costs money and time, less time usually costs money or quality. But that only applies once all three are already maxed out. In many companies they are not.
Quality problems frequently stem from time pressure, and time pressure from poor planning. As in Lean Six Sigma, it pays to ask “why” six times.
A typical chain of causes
Time pressure arises because there is no production plan. There is none because there is no production planning and control system. And there is none because no professional operations manager is in place; instead the longest-serving employee does the job on the side. This person is reliable and an excellent shift supervisor, but has never had management training.
Behind this there is often financial weakness from low profitability. Its origin: customers leave because of recurring quality problems. Sales wins new orders, which fall away again for the same reasons. The circle closes.
Breaking the circle
A vicious circle has to be broken effectively at one point. At a medical device manufacturer, that point was a properly run production planning system under new operations management. It created time and capacity, took pressure off the team and made room for quality. Scrap fell to at most 1 per cent, on-time delivery rose to 95 per cent, and sales stopped losing orders.