Esteban was disturbed. His last conversation with the lead tech on the floor clearly indicated the line workers had no clue how their product was being installed or how it worked once in operation. They had been having quality problems, it seemed forever. Just this past month, they had added a third QC person to staff the last shift to catch the errors quicker.

“Everybody on the bus. We’re going to make a visit to one of our best customer locations to see how our manufactured equipment works in the field.” There was a sudden excitement on the floor, a conversational buzz. Esteban was sure it was because everyone was getting paid and didn’t have to produce any product while they were on the bus. It was like a vacation.

Once on the bus, but before they pulled away from the shop, Esteban distributed a dozen drugstore cardboard cameras and some pre-printed 3×5 index cards. On the card was printed, “I saw something today.” Esteban explained they were to look for specific examples of quality issues that had an impact on the way things worked in the field. It could be about the way something fit together. It could be about the speed of the units and the volume of production at the customer’s location.

I Saw Something Today became the central piece of their quality initiative. The team built a quality book complete with photographs of things that worked well and not so well.

What would your quality book look like if your team put one together? No typing allowed, just 3×5 index cards complete with pictures. -TF

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