Making a case for quality has always been one of biggest challenge for any quality professional, even before he/she can start a company-wide quality improvement project. Are there ways to gain traction?



1. Consider/Look for regulatory compliance arguments: Compliance to national, local statutory laws are mandatory for businesses, especially in regulated businesses like pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Avoiding warning letters, recalls and consent decrees make compelling reasons for quality improvement.

2. Understand and promote Cost of Quality: The cost of preventing and mitigating poor quality is estimated at 33% of the cost of addressing problems that brought along by poor quality. With the rising figures of legal compensation payments, cost to rework and scrap, COQ also makes good argument.

3. Divide and Conquer : fostering a quality-oriented business ethics takes lots of solicitation and negotiation. Its not always easy to hit up the management at the very early stage; start with a department that is receptive and in need of improvement. Achieve small wins and promote the success by words-of-mouth.