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In their long-overdue rush to address fundamental quality problems, US manufacturers are creating a division between "manufacturing quality gurus" and their own shopfloor personnel.
Certainly the gurus-whether they are outside consultants or inside staff-have promoted some marvelous tools: JustIn-Time delivery, worker empowerment, total quality management. But these tools often do not connect to the shopfloor process know-how upon which much of the company's success has been built. The result is that many quality programs become ends in themselves, and manufacturing problems become even more politicized and difficult to solve.
Management may argue that shopfloor personnel are impeding change and need shaking up (and out). Shopfloor personnel may reply by arguing that all they hear is more "quality BS" when they have to concentrate on turning out product.
A case in point is a major metal parts manufacturer. Seven years ago, top management decided the company needed to upgrade its product quality and modernize its plant. One manager championed the factory-within-a-factory concept, which, by separating tasks more clearly between different groups within the shop, aimed to increase the responsibility and performance of each group and thus the factory as a whole.
But the strategic planners failed to communicate with their existing shopfloor staff (despite a worker empowerment program) about the detailed engineering changes that...