Sam has been the Quality Engineer at a plastics manufacturing company for five years. He reports to John, the Operations Director, and has enjoyed a good personal relationship with him despite the fact that Operations spends most of its time cost cutting while quality is focused on resolving customer complaints. The company President was never supportive of Sam or John’s initiatives to create a more robust quality program. Recently the company President retired and Sam is excited to once again start pushing his idea to build a robust program. John is preoccupied with production issues leaving Sam to fight on his own.
- How can Sam introduce his ideas to the new President?
- What metrics can he use to show that Quality needs a larger emphasis from the company’s leadership?
- How can Sam convince John to put higher quality controls in place when they contradict his cost cutting initiatives?