What To Do When No One's Listening to Quality
I’ve met plenty of quality professionals who feel frustrated. They want a seat at the table, but when they speak up, no one listens. Or worse, leadership smiles politely, then ignores them.
That’s not a leadership problem. It’s a quality problem.
Ed Rocha, Director of Quality at Schaeffler, doesn’t mince words. He’s led global quality teams, coached plant leaders, and worked across every layer of manufacturing. When he joined me on the show, he put it bluntly: If leadership doesn’t take quality seriously, it’s your fault.
Not because quality doesn’t matter. But because quality teams are often speaking the wrong language. When directors present a wall of metrics, R&R studies, CPK charts, control plans, they may feel like they’re showing value. But to executives, it sounds like noise.
Leadership hears cost, risk, and delivery. If you’re not speaking in those terms, you’re not being heard.
Fix the Problem, Don’t Just Work the Problem
Ask any quality leader what their day looks like, and most will say the same thing: nonstop firefighting. A line goes down, a customer complaint comes in, and the whole day disappears before lunch.
Ed’s been there, too. He compared it to “five-year-olds playing soccer, everyone runs after the ball.” Without discipline, the entire team gets pulled into today’s problems and no one works on tomorrow’s solutions.
His advice: protect time and people for improvement. “If you can spare one person, make them responsible for how tomorrow gets better,” he said. “Don’t pull them into every fire.” If your team is small, that might mean blocking time on your own calendar for strategy. Either way, someone has to own the future, not just the crisis.
Otherwise, as Ed put it, you’re repeating experience, not building it. “You can work twelve hours a day and still spend 100% of your time on the past,” he said. “Twenty repetitions of one year.”
To escape that cycle, Ed narrows the focus to two tools that drive real improvement: 8D problem-solving and process audits.
The first, 8D, forces teams to look beyond symptoms and fix root causes. It’s structured, measurable, and repeatable. Firefighting is none of these. The second, process audits, keep the system healthy by catching weak points early. “If I started fresh in any company,” Ed said, “I’d start with those two. They keep you focused on what matters.”
When teams use both, they move from reacting to predicting. Each audit becomes a learning moment. Each 8D builds the muscle for durable problem-solving. Do the right things with intention.
Build Layers, Not Silos
Too often, quality teams expect everyone to do everything. A single engineer is supposed to lead customer calls, fix line issues, perform audits, and manage long-term improvements. That expectation burns people out and buries opportunities.
Ed took a different approach. At Schaeffler, he structured his team into three distinct levels, each with a clear role and purpose.
At the top, he has what he calls the “Black Ops” team. These are senior professionals who handle complex escalations. They don’t live in the weeds. “They’re like me,” Ed said. “They jump into the fire when something’s escalated. They’re strategic.”
Then there’s the “Peace Corps.” These team members visit customers regularly, support on-site efforts, and build trust when things are calm, not just when things go wrong. They’re not as tactical as Black Ops, but they maintain trust and contain problems before they escalate.
Finally, Ed uses part-time, embedded team members when a customer is isolated or volume is high. He calls them “mercenaries” to clarify their role, not to downplay their value. “They’re inside the customer, but not just for us. Sometimes 20 suppliers use the same person,” he said. “They’re operational. They watch, report, and respond.”
The value is clarity, not labels. Each layer knows its purpose. No one is stretched too thin. The structure makes space for strategic action without losing touch with the floor or the customer.
You might not need three formal layers, or be able to support them. Ed’s point applies: Quality isn’t a one-person show. Build roles that match the work, and define what each contributor owns. If everyone’s responsible for everything, nothing moves forward.
Your Real Job? Voice of the Customer (and the Company)
Every quality professional talks about customer focus. Few practice it with balance.
Ed defines his role this way: “Our job is to be the voice of the customer inside our organization and the voice of our organization when dealing with the customer.” It sounds simple, but teams often lose that balance.
“It’s easy to go too far either way,” he said. “You can do everything the customer wants and hurt your company, or play hardball and make the customer miserable. The real work is in the middle.”
That middle is where leadership happens. Inside meetings, Ed often plays the customer before the real one ever joins the call. He asks his team the tough questions first. “If the customer asks for evidence, what will you show them?” he asks. “If they challenge your data, how will you respond?”
By doing that, he forces his team to prepare, not react. “I’ll be nastier in internal meetings than any customer ever will,” Ed said, laughing. “If I fail to anticipate something they ask, that’s on me.”
The outcome is confidence, not fear. Teams walk into customer conversations ready to handle anything. They’ve already answered the hard questions and backed up their claims. That preparation builds credibility, which builds trust.
For Ed, that’s the real measure of quality leadership. The goal is making both sides stronger.
Quality leaders who take that dual role seriously hold their organizations together. They anticipate friction, keep teams aligned, and prevent surprises inside or outside the plant.
Don’t Waste the Seat at the Table
Leadership comes from how you show up; not from a title.
Ed’s point: quality teams already sit close to the most important problems in the business. They just need to start acting like it.
Cut through jargon. Focus on root causes, not noise. Build structure instead of relying on heroes. Speak for the customer and the company with equal conviction.
Quality shapes performance. Stop waiting for permission. Want the seat? Take it and earn it.
Listen to the full episode of The Shop Floor, Top Floor Talk Show to hear more from Ed Rocha.
