Her pencil turned over and she erased some of the marks in the picture of her system.

“It’s funny, as I look at some of the steps in this system,” Denise explained, “I remember we put them in because it just seemed like a good idea. But when I look at the goal, especially the quality standard, I can see two steps that are not necessary.”

“How long ago did you create those steps?” I asked.

“Three years ago. One is a part that we buff up, makes it shiny. It gives you the impression that it is a higher quality part. It’s not, it’s just shiny. Then we put it inside the unit, so no one ever sees it again.”

“Why did you make a decision like that in the first place?”

“Four years ago, we had some failures in the field. The service techs would take the unit apart and then badmouth the “low quality” of the part. The failure had nothing to do with the part, but with a seal that was leaking.”

“And when you buffed up the part, what happened?”

Denise smiled. “Well, we fixed the leaky seal about the same time, but we actually got feedback from the field telling us they were happy that we started using higher quality parts. They were the same parts, just shiny.”

“So, someone does see the parts?”

“Not anymore. We have only had three failures in the past two years over 300,000 units. We don’t fix them anymore. With only three failures, it’s cheaper to replace the whole unit. We don’t have to train a field technician to take it apart.”

“So, we can simplify the system by looking at the goal?” -TF
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