May 10 2013
Michelin’s Obsession with Quality | Pete Selleck | IndustryWeek
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
“…It’s brand image,” he explained. “There is tremendous value to the perception of trust—customers don’t want to worry about the products they buy; they want it to be trouble free. We can offer them that….
We all use the same equipment to make tire, so we know it’s not the equipment that makes the difference. It’s the interface between the equipment, the material and the person—the training and the qualification of the person—that makes the difference.”
Michel Baudin‘s insight:
I see two key statements in this article, both quoted above:
- The first is an acknowledgement that the company’s reputation for quality is its crown jewels. It’s priceless, and worth any burden to nurture and protect, and the classical “cost of quality” calculations based on the direct costs of failures, appraisals and repairs are irrelevant.
- The second is that the key is the way people work with machines. Selleck does not reference jidoka, but his thinking is in line with it and, unlike the bulk of the American literature on Lean, puts the spotlight on production engineering
See on www.industryweek.com
July 22, 2013 @ 6:17 am
Michelin’s tires are terrible and their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.