From Police Force to Partner: Transforming Quality Culture

Episode overview
Quality departments often get viewed as the company police force, creating tension and conflict across manufacturing organizations. In this episode of Shop Floor, Top Floor Talk Show, host Josh Santo speaks with Steve Povenz, former Director of Quality at Shape, who breaks down why this perception develops and how to fix it.
Steve explains the root causes behind adversarial quality relationships. Competing metrics between departments create natural conflicts. When manufacturing gets measured solely on throughput while quality focuses on corrective actions, teams work against each other instead of together. Poor engagement from quality professionals who stay at their desks rather than on the shop floor makes the problem worse.
Steve demonstrates how vulnerability creates partnership. He transformed a struggling plant by telling the operations manager that her problems became his problems. Steve joined every safety investigation and improvement effort, proving quality adds value beyond finding problems. The partnership delivered a 60% drop in customer incidents and major cost reductions.
Listen to the full episode here:
Transcript
[00:00:50] Josh Santo: Our next guest brings over 30 years of hands-on experience in tier one automotive manufacturing, leading quality from the plant floor to the global level. He’s spearheaded corporate transitions to IATF 16 9 49. Built quality teams across multiple sites and developed systems that reduced defects. Cut costs and elevate customer satisfaction.
[00:01:12] Josh Santo: Known for blending strategic leadership with a boots on the ground mindset. He now runs Boost Quality, helping manufacturers turn quality into a competitive advantage.
[00:01:21] Josh Santo: Please welcome to the show, Steve Po.
[00:01:24] Josh Santo: Steve, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here.
[00:01:27] Steve Povenz: Hey. Thanks Josh. I’m, I’m
[00:01:28] Steve Povenz: Happy to be here.
[00:01:29] Steve Povenz: Thanks for the invitation.
[00:01:30] Josh Santo: Of course, happy to have you. we got connected some time ago, interviewed you, just to learn a little bit more about your experience as a director of quality. We met up at A-I-A-G-I think it was last year, wasn’t
[00:01:43] Steve Povenz: did, we did last, last October. It was,
[00:01:46] Josh Santo: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:01:47] Josh Santo: Well, I’m looking forward to continuing that conversation, and we’re chatting today about a topic that is top of mind for quality leaders and for really everyone within a plant. But before we get into that topic, I’d like to start with some of your background. You were most recently the director of Quality for Shape.
[00:02:05] Josh Santo: What did a typical day look like for you as a director of Quality
[00:02:10] Steve Povenz: Yeah,
[00:02:11] Steve Povenz: Typical day?
[00:02:12] Steve Povenz: was, you know, in the automotive space and being a director over several sites, typical was pretty, pretty hard to define, right? But, most of, you know, the attention, it’s on, it’s on the customer. Where are we at with the customer? Do we have any, do we have any hotspots with a customer that need attention? does anyone need, need help? And making sure that we’re taking care of, anything that might have flared up and we’ve got the appropriate responses. from there, it’s into any other types of, improvement activities that we have. Any other, you know, reviewing KPIs,
[00:02:49] Steve Povenz: helping teams, achieve their goals and leaning in,where needed to drive the organization in the right direction?
[00:02:58] Josh Santo: you mentioned KPIs. Were there specific KPIs that you were directly responsible for, or at least felt ownership? Over
[00:03:08] Steve Povenz: Absolutely, absolutely. And in, in the quality space, we, there’s three areas that we, we really zero in on the first one, as I mentioned. And that’s, that’s the customer, it’s the customer satisfaction.
[00:03:22] Steve Povenz: the second is our cost of quality gotta be looking for where there’s waste in the system driving the cost down
[00:03:31] Steve Povenz: and then we have the development, and that’s development of people and processes. So we build KPIs around those. And, you know, The development of the people and processes is really the foundation that drives drives. The reduction of the cost of quality drives, the improvement in customer satisfaction. So those are the three areas we always wanna be focused on.
[00:03:58] Josh Santo: With that last one, the development of people in processes, what were some of the specific. KPIs that you were actually looking at
[00:04:08] Steve Povenz: For people, it’s about
[00:04:10] Steve Povenz: development hours, right? So we Look at the development hours and we would, have targeted plans that would be around where you know, where the development is needed, and that could be,
[00:04:25] Steve Povenz: should be aligned with the organizational priorities, right? Are we looking to improve,our problem solving capabilities? Are we looking to drive down. Scrap other process improvements? So we want to make sure that those people development, opportunities are based upon the capabilities of the team to help achieve the organizational objectives. Around the processes. Again, it’s really all of your processes should have effectiveness and efficiency metrics, and we need to look at those, holistically as well as inside of each
[00:05:04] Steve Povenz: contributing site. And, target, target those areas for improvement.
[00:05:10] Josh Santo: Okay, got it. Yeah, I asked because you know, when you mentioned customer satisfaction, cost of quality, my mind immediately goes to common metrics in, in KPIs. But when you called out the development of people in process, that immediately stood out as something that might be a little harder to measure and maybe something that varies for each organization.
[00:05:31] Josh Santo: So I appreciate you breaking that down to us a little bit further.
[00:05:36] Steve Povenz: Okay. Yeah. Yeah,
[00:05:36] Steve Povenz: that is,
[00:05:37] Steve Povenz: it
[00:05:37] Steve Povenz: can be a little.
[00:05:38] Steve Povenz: tricky, right? But it’s, it’s,I wouldn’t over complicate it actually. Right, because you are ultimately driving your. Development, towards those greater goals for the organization. So if you align them in that area, in improving your capabilities, it will start to make sense for you.
[00:05:57] Josh Santo: Hmm.
[00:05:58] Josh Santo: So you have an overall goal either for the entire organization, maybe that’s just for a site, maybe that’s just for a specific team, depending on what level of leadership you’re in. And there’s these known pursuits within the organization. Customer satisfaction you mentioned was number one. And we’ve got metrics to measure customer satisfaction.
[00:06:22] Josh Santo: We want to keep the cost of quality, sustainable, right? Ideally, you are eliminating waste. You don’t have scrap rework, et cetera. You’re keeping that to an acceptable threshold. And so I, what I’m calling out is that you’ve got these operational targets and you’re saying make sure to think of this separate category, this development of people and processes and how you can.
[00:06:47] Josh Santo: Ultimately tie what you focus on from people development and from process development to those, those harder top line, bottom line metrics that have been prioritized by the company
[00:07:01] Steve Povenz: Yeah, it, so for example, we could have identified that we are, we have a negative impact on customer satisfaction due to recurring problems due to recurring quality issues. And because of that, we’ve, we’ve identified poor problem solving. So we will then put together a development plan to improve our capabilities around. You know, root cause problem identification, root cause analysis, verification of the effectiveness of those actions, right? So you can begin to see there how that foundation of the development on, you know, the people side, the process side then feeds into those greater organizational priorities.
[00:07:49] Josh Santo: That’s right. You’re identifying what are the reasons in which led to whatever the, the issue is. You mentioned recurring issues, so why are we having this recurring issue? Well, it’s because our team is inexperienced with problem solving methodologies, or even you, you broke it down. Problem identification.
[00:08:08] Josh Santo: Maybe the problem comes down to identifying the specific problem. Therefore, in order to prevent these recurring issues, we want to upskill our team on this specific topic so that they’re able to then tackle these recurring issues and,
[00:08:24] Steve Povenz: Yes. Right. Yeah, you’re right. And part of the, going back to what does a typical day look like for a director? A lot of it is in that, that area, right? Looking at, looking at the data, looking at the metrics, diving in and seeing, you know, where we have, where we’re not meeting performance targets, where we maybe have trends that aren’t favorable.
[00:08:46] Steve Povenz: Why is that occurring? And putting in the plans to, to rectify that.
[00:08:51] Josh Santo: Got it. Great. Well, I appreciate that, that breakdown of your overall responsibilities in a day to day, that’s a common sentiment. When I ask what does a day look like for, for the folks that have been on the show, the response is it differs every single day. And, it’s, it’s, it’s interesting in a, especially in an industry in which standardization is key, how often a day might not be standardized.
[00:09:17] Josh Santo: You know, there’s only so much you can do. ’cause like you said, it depends on what’s happening. What’s the latest thing that we requires? The attention, it’s all hands on deck. The customer complaint, there’s an audit coming up.
[00:09:29] Steve Povenz: Yeah.
[00:09:30] Steve Povenz: Yeah.
[00:09:31] Steve Povenz: And that’s why it’s good to keep those three areas in mind, right? ’cause things can get hectic. But am I working in those three areas of customer satisfaction, cost of quality and development? And am I driving the organization forward?
[00:09:47] Josh Santo: Ruthless prioritization. Absolutely. Well, let’s talk about quality. You’ve got a significant amount of experience in manufacturing and you’ve held multiple leadership positions in quality in manufacturing. From your perspective, what do people typically get wrong about quality in manufacturing?
[00:10:11] Steve Povenz: That’s a, that’s a really good question.
[00:10:13] Steve Povenz: i. All too often uh, quality is seen as that. You know, the police, right? That they’re gonna come around and they’re going to, identify when things are, letting people know when they’re not doing things correctly. you know, and consequently it can be seen as kind of a punitive,department, right?
[00:10:33] Josh Santo: They go around and they punish people, they sign hand out corrective actions for people to, to complete and, you know, maybe come out and there’s a perception that they’re gonna slow down the process because they’ve identified something That’s right. Right? So, you know, that’s a, that’s a very common theme in, in many organizations, unfortunately. You mentioned a few things there. The idea that quality is like the policing function, that they’re gonna come around and catch you doing something wrong, punish you as a result, or just get in the way of you doing your job. That’s the concept that you’re bringing up.
[00:11:16] Steve Povenz: There you go. Yep. Here. Yep. Quality’s just showing up. When, right. To let us know. That, you know, something, something’s not right. It’s a disruptor. Right. And, just leave me alone. Unfortunately, that’s, seen that all, all too often.
[00:11:33] Josh Santo: Leave me alone. You’re gonna get in my way. I know how to do it. You’re not adding any value in this case. Those are, that’s a pretty strong perception to have and I bet a, a pretty strong perception to break. When you think about that perception. Who typically tends to view quality as a punitive police force within the plant?
[00:11:56] Steve Povenz: So, well, I guess anyone. Who’s probably, if I’m fully transparent and talk about, my, given profession, anyone that’s been on the receiving end of exactly that, right? So, there are cases where quality has been their own worst enemy and, you know, but, I would say the most common recipient would be,at least perceived as manufacturing right?
[00:12:23] Steve Povenz: Where, where, quality is maybe not that value add that value add resource they’re not seen as the, the problem solver. More of a problem, identifier.
[00:12:36] Josh Santo: problem identifier, making more problems for me in that case. Yeah, I think it’s interesting that you started with this phrase, you said quality is their own worst enemy. What do you mean by that?
[00:12:52] Steve Povenz: yeah. So, sometimes that, that reputation has been, has been earned. you know, there’s some, you know, I came up through manufacturing, manufacturing roles for the first 10 years of my career. Production supervisor. Production manager, various other roles, and I’ve always said
[00:13:13] Steve Povenz: that I lead through. Looking through the lens of operations or manufacturing, right? I get it When the, you know, the truck is at the dock and, I’ve still got another a hundred parts that I’ve gotta produce, you know, to fulfill that, that requirement. And I think leading with that mindset, and being willing to jump in and to help and be part of the solution and to provide, you know, solutions.
[00:13:44] Steve Povenz: So we’re just not always in with situations. Right. you know, so, so quality, I think there’s some professionals, too many,maybe that I’ve, I’ve encountered, and I don’t mean to speak, ill will of, of my own profession here. Right. But there are some that need to take that step back. Understand, you know, what is the impact. That they’re having when they do engage with manufacturing or the other functions in the organization? Are they, are they adding that value? Are they being detrimental to, to improvement? I.
[00:14:21] Josh Santo: I imagine this is a tough frame of reference to change. I I putting myself in the position of someone who is tasked with ensuring that quality is being met. And when you see someone not doing what they’re supposed to, not doing it the way that they’re supposed to do it, and you call it out, you are.
[00:14:40] Josh Santo: Living up to what you are being tasked to do, right? You’re flagging an issue. This is a problem. We can’t do this this way. You need to stop that. But you know, that’s s not enough, right? That’s what gets perceived as someone coming in and, and, not helping, right? Not being that value add, getting in the way of meeting goals.
[00:15:03] Josh Santo: Why do you think there is this, this gap between here’s how we’re supposed to be doing it. I’m calling out that it is not being done the way it’s supposed to, and the reaction of this is not helpful to me.
[00:15:23] Steve Povenz: Yeah, and I, I think there’s some dual responsibility in this situation that I’ve called out, right? And some of it is with, as I mentioned, with the, quality professional and their ability to, engage in appropriate way to understand why somebody is maybe not following a given process, you know, there could be that they, fully don’t understand what’s expected.
[00:15:53] Steve Povenz: It could be that there’s an obstacle in their way. So taking that time to understand what’s going on, before we just come and pass blame, let’s, let’s, let’s have an opportunity here to, to, get some feedback and understand, the situation. there’s also.
[00:16:13] Josh Santo: Also
[00:16:14] Steve Povenz: Situations where. you know, quality, quite frankly has encountered, where they’ve been overruled, right?
[00:16:23] Steve Povenz: They’ve come in, they’ve identified a problem, a risk to a customer, and, for whatever the reason is, there’s a leadership decision make to overrule and just to proceed with things, the way that they are. So, you know, you get a little,you know, burned by that and, you know, it can cause some real, real tensions in the organization. And, people dig in a little, a little, deeper Into their position. and that’s really when, when conflict, conflict can ensue.
[00:16:58] Josh Santo: Dual responsibility. I like, I, I do like thinking about it that way. I’m a big fan of this idea of extreme ownership by Jocko Willink and you know, it’s really thinking about what can you as the individual control. And when you talk about that dual responsibility, it’s on the quality individual providing the feedback.
[00:17:17] Josh Santo: It’s on the manufacturing individual receiving the feedback, both have responsibility and, and contribution to the situation. Now, kind of the scenario that we talked about, this idea of, well, quality’s kind of getting in the way they’re preventing me from accomplishing my goal. One of the things that you called out as part of the responsibility of the quality professional is to take the time to understand the why.
[00:17:42] Josh Santo: But we often know that time is, is in short supply in a lot of these situations. So is it always realistic for someone to take the time to understand the why? Right there in the moment, at the point of. Delivering the feedback or intervention?
[00:18:03] Steve Povenz: Well, well certainly if, if it’s an unsafe situation, we need to, stop it immediately Right. And, you know, that, that goes without question. but yeah. Yeah, certainly there are times where we, do need to, stop if we’re, we’re continuing to, you know, maybe it’s a recurring effect that we’re making, right?
[00:18:24] Steve Povenz: we’re gonna need some level of, of intervention and be able to stop, but, you know, we can’t walk away from the situation. It can’t be a a stop admonish. Correct. And then leave, right? Even if it’s a situation where we’ve gotta get through something, as I mentioned earlier, right? The truck’s at the dock, let’s get through this shipment. but let’s come back to that. let’s, regroup after we fulfill that order. Let’s, let’s, what did we learn from what we just went through
[00:18:58] Steve Povenz: and how can we get, better, next time? So we’ve gotta, maybe in that moment. Yeah, there, there, might not be the, time. There’s a bit of a scramble, but we, we certainly. Have to, come back to it and revisit, the situation. I.
[00:19:14] Josh Santo: Yeah. I think that’s an important distinction is you’ve got the option of tackling something in the moment and then how do you follow up with it and breaking that up or being intentional about what you cover when can also impact this relationship that we’re talking about. I.
[00:19:31] Steve Povenz: Yeah. So you’re Gonna leave people confused if we just stop. Right? Correct. Here’s what we need to do you know, this is what the standard says, but we really don’t give them the why, the opportunity to provide feedback, on the process. ’cause, you know, nobody knows the process. Better than those that are working directly in it, right? So, we’ve gotta work with them, on a continual basis.
[00:19:57] Josh Santo: Well, let’s think about that concept of quality being seen as this punitive police force. I think we’ve gotten a little bit into it, but I think it’s important to call out what might be signs or symptoms that folks listening to this call can think about whether or not they see that in their organization that would indicate that quality is viewed as the police force within their operation.
[00:20:27] Steve Povenz: Okay.
[00:20:28] Steve Povenz: there’s probably several of them, but I think one, real indicator you can get is by, by walking around, and listening. so when you enter a room or go to a process on the shop floor, what is the response that you get? How are people welcoming you? Are they welcoming you? Or is it,oh, you know, who messed up now? Or what did we do wrong?
[00:20:57] Steve Povenz: You know, if those are the responses you’re getting. and you know, sometimes maybe they’re made in jest, but other times, they’re not. So that’s probably an indication that, hmm, am I only showing up when, when there’s, a problem and I’m not here to here to help. Right. So,you know that that’s one another is where do you find quality? do we find them at their desk? or just doing whatever, right? But they’re not engaged in the process. They’re not going and seeing, again, when there’s no problem, when there’s nothing too, you know, negative to report. Are they just, you know,
[00:21:37] Steve Povenz: Where are they? Can they be found? And you know, then are they being asked? For if they’re not. Around? is it they, Hey, where. Where are you? We need, you in this meeting.
[00:21:50] Steve Povenz: We need you in this process improvement. Are you being, asked to be engaged because of the value that you can offer to, to the team at, at large,
[00:22:04] Josh Santo: So ultimately there’s some three top signs that may indicate that. Quality in your organization is not seen as a partner. They’re seen as the police and the ones that you called out. first thing you said was listen, and you’ll hear it. So if someone, if when you walk in the room, when Steve walks in the room, if someone says uhoh, someone’s in trouble, that could be a sign that you are seen as this punitive force
[00:22:31] Steve Povenz: side.
[00:22:32] Josh Santo: definite sign.
[00:22:33] Josh Santo: If, if you can’t find quality on the floor, if, if most of your time is being spent at your desk, people are gonna see that you’re not engaging. And that kind of leads to some perceptions of this is not someone I can engage. Which brought you to, to your last point, people not proactively engage in quality.
[00:22:55] Josh Santo: So not inviting them to be a part of the, the problems they’ve identified that they need to solve, because that perception is there, that quality makes the problems. That we then have to deal with.
[00:23:10] Steve Povenz: Yeah. That’s a Great. That’s a great summary. I think those are three real key indicators that to look for and, and listen for.
[00:23:19] Josh Santo: now, for the record, when, when you hopped onto the call, I did not have that perception. I did not see, okay, Steve’s here. That means I’m in trouble. I saw Steve’s here. We’re gonna have a great conversation about a variety of different topics.
[00:23:34] Josh Santo: So
[00:23:34] Steve Povenz: It’s good to hear Josh
[00:23:35] Josh Santo: you’re, you’re not the police to me. now let’s, let’s talk a little bit about why this happens. There’s a reason why over time, qua gets viewed as this punitive police force. I’m curious about your perspective and your experience as to why you think that this typically happens. You mentioned one thing already.
[00:23:57] Josh Santo: You mentioned in the past, they may have been overruled. Let’s take some time to break down the why behind this.
[00:24:13] Steve Povenz: in organizations were driven by what we’re measured on, right? so we could very well have measures of what it means to be successful,
[00:24:31] Josh Santo: So
[00:24:31] Steve Povenz: right? So if I am in production and I am only being measured on my numbers, my throughput, right? Did I get the parts out to the customer and on time and I’m not being measured on on the quality of those parts, right? Because they really they’re, they’re only, they only count if they’re, good. And likewise in quality. If I am only being measured on the corrective actions, getting those turned around for the customer, like the number of correct corrective actions that we have.
[00:25:12] Josh Santo: we,
[00:25:13] Steve Povenz: As opposed to the overall effectiveness of the process, right. Being, having a, stake in the safety quality, delivery, and cost. Right. Having a equal share in that. So when we have these competing goals we’re gonna have. Conflict.
[00:25:40] Josh Santo: So in, in this case, you are. Describing the measurements of which you’re used, which are used to evaluate whether or not you are performing to our organization’s expectations are in some cases, in conflict or at least leading to a conflict because what the independent teams end up prioritizing don’t align and inadvertently cause this conflict
[00:26:09] Steve Povenz: Yes. Yeah. So is is so when there is a quality issue. Right. Is it go, you know, give, give Steve a call he’ll take care of that. We’re gonna keep making parts or is manufacturing or wherever, wherever the, it was a design issue. Is design, are they engaged? Are they owning that problem? Right? root cause analysis, the corrective action, right? you know, it’s, we’ve got to, all be in it together. It can’t be just seen as that quality, quality responsibility. When things, when things don’t go right.
[00:26:50] Josh Santo: Yeah. So in this case, the system has inadvertently been set up to incentivize the behaviors, in which case we do want these behaviors, but they’re just not aligned. And that reminds me of a, of a conversation I was having with a quality manager. He quoted dimming, which was, your system is perfectly designed to get the results that you are getting.
[00:27:12] Josh Santo: And even in that, there’s a, this element of extreme ownership, right? If quality is being seen as a punitive function, what’s happening within your broader system
[00:27:25] Josh Santo: that’s leading to these circumstances?
[00:27:28] Steve Povenz: yes, yes. So, exactly. So if there is a
[00:27:32] Josh Santo: a
[00:27:33] Steve Povenz: a tension in the organization between quality and the other functions, right? that is a result of, of your system, right? And the way that you you have set it up. So you’re, you know, what’s the definition of an insanity? You know, keep doing the same thing again. and Again, and expecting different results. Right. You know, just,if we don’t change things. Just,saying it louder,
[00:28:01] Steve Povenz: Right. you know, repeating it more often isn’t going to drive change.
[00:28:06] Steve Povenz: We have to look at the system and why are we getting the results that we’re getting?
[00:28:11] Josh Santo: So if you look around and you do observe tensions within your organization, just know that that is a result of the system that you have in place today. So you have to look at what you can do about that.
[00:28:22] Steve Povenz: 100%.
[00:28:24] Josh Santo: Now, one of the things you mentioned earlier was this idea of previously being overruled and how that can sometimes put quality on a path to becoming this type of police force.
[00:28:40] Josh Santo: Can you talk to us a little bit more about that idea of how being overruled may lead to this situation?
[00:28:50] Steve Povenz: I think when it’s human nature that when anybody is,challenged, right? And when they’re, you know, even though they, have a, a good, a good point and they may be right. and a decision is made without a mutual agreement, without a mutual understanding. you know, there. they tend to get, maybe a little, a little resentful, a little hurt by that and it can come out in, in their behaviors, right? So um, I think that that goes back to some of that mutual responsibility. That engagement, how we engage those situations. Things aren’t as much as we always want them to be black and white, and as much as quality tries to make them black and white, they’re, they’re
[00:29:36] Steve Povenz: not always that way. So when we have those situations where we need, to move to a resolution, you know, it’s not just about quality.
[00:29:47] Josh Santo: Quality
[00:29:47] Steve Povenz: I mean, coming to the table, and understanding why what do we need to do? How do we get better, how do we make the right decision for our customer, for the organization, right? That’s, that’s a, that’s a management responsibility as well. So, you know, here, I’ve, I’ve called out a lot of my quality professionals,
[00:30:05] Steve Povenz: today I am gonna call out some of my you know, operations professionals as well, to be leading with that quality mindset in that, that, that understanding and taking the time to come to that, that agreement that satisfies the needs of the organization and our customers.
[00:30:23] Josh Santo: leading with a quality mindset. I think that’s an interesting way of putting it. How would you define the quality mindset?
[00:30:36] Steve Povenz: Yeah, that’s a, that’s, that’s an amazing, that’s a, that’s a really good question, Dennis. Right. and I think that we have to understand that our customers don’t just expect, they demand that we are meeting, their requirements. That our, you know, the expectation is we are going to deliver quality product you know, safely, deliver quality. Product on time every time. And We need to we need to live up to that.
[00:31:07] Josh Santo: to that.
[00:31:08] Steve Povenz: So if something isn’t isn’t quite right, doesn’t meet those, those, requirements, we are obligated to take the, take right to take, the right action to, to deliver on that just as much As we are to take the action to deliver on a safety, for our, our associates, and to to make that truck. Right. We’ve gotta hit all of those those requirements.
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[00:32:48] Break: So what happened actually in that manufacturing process, did I failed to detect the third leg is more tough. The third leg is, where did we miss it upstream because whatever happened. I failed to catch it either in my production process, in my product design, my process design or my supply chain, perhaps somewhere else.
[00:33:14] Break: But those are the common issues. But where upstream did we really miss capturing that this opportunity could occur? So that’s a Three Legged 5 Whys. I wish you a lot of luck in executing them. I find them powerful and effective. Thank you.
[00:33:29] Josh Santo: so that quality mindset, really putting the customer at the center and the customer’s perspective is we want what meets our needs. We want it consistently on time in full. And you, you broadened it a little bit there at the end when you talk about safety, that to me brings up the, the idea that your customer isn’t just the person that’s receiving your product or the group that’s receiving your product.
[00:33:56] Josh Santo: Your customer is also the people within your organization. Right. For, so for safety, it’s, do I put them in? It’s,
[00:34:04] Steve Povenz: it is. And, you know, and yeah. ’cause a a lot of organizations have the, yep. Safety’s number one. Right. You know, we’re, if it’s not safe we’re, you know, make sure you stop and you let somebody know
[00:34:16] Steve Povenz: And that’s, that’s great. but as soon as we don’t do that, as soon as we, we change that priority input something else.
[00:34:29] Steve Povenz: ahead of it. Maybe it’s a cost, maybe it’s a delivery. we’re gonna lose the confidence of those that work in our organization, and we’re gonna be viewed as hypocritical.
[00:34:38] Steve Povenz: And the same thing can be said, about our quality. Process and our quality standards. They’re. All built around, you know, our, delivering, consistently, delivering a quality product, whether that be a physical product or information as it flows throughout the organization. And when we begin to allow for those deviations right, then the perception within The organization internally is gonna be, well then they must not. Be that important. It’s okay to go. Around this,
[00:35:16] Josh Santo: So the controls that we have in place, or the methods in which we utilize in order to make sure that we are satisfying all of our customers. When people stop putting the priority on those, when it becomes okay to skip it or not do it just once even, then there’s a perspective that builds up of, okay, this is not as critical as I thought.
[00:35:42] Josh Santo: Clearly this is optional and I am not gonna do it because it’s optional.
[00:35:48] Steve Povenz: Right, right. So and that’s where we need to throughout the organization. We need to be disciplined and, you know, process. Centric that, that we’re going to follow the process. But when, of course, when, when, you know, this comes from the quality side, from the operation side, from whatever function side, but when we, when we have a better way, when, when we run into a problem, right?
[00:36:13] Steve Povenz: we we collectively rally around that and, and help each other, help each other through it and to to find a better way. So that we’re not compromising, the, the quality and you know, our systems. So we’ve gotta be, we have to be process process centric as an organization.
[00:36:33] Josh Santo: disciplined, process centric. Uncompromising on quality. And if any of those at any point is deemed optional, either in verbally or through action or inaction in some cases, and that leads to that perception of, I don’t actually have to do that. I don’t have to live by this. That is setting up the quality team in this case to be that punitive police force because they’re responsible for calling it out.
[00:37:02] Josh Santo: Hey, we’re not, we’re not actually executing to the process. We’re not staying disciplined there. Hey, Steve, doesn’t really matter. Okay, organization proved it to me. You’re just kind of getting in the way right now, so it doesn’t matter. So I like that, you know, you’re really bringing this into culture at that
[00:37:21] Steve Povenz: Why do I have to follow it now? Right? or you know, the last time I didn’t have to, I was told this was okay. Right? So, yeah, that really, that is, then, yeah. I like that you brought josh, you brought culture into it, right? ’cause the culture is the sum of our our behaviors. And, if that is the behavior. It will get rooted in our culture. I.
[00:37:47] Josh Santo: So then would it be fair to say that if quality is seen as this police force, this is a cultural issue within your organization?
[00:37:58] Steve Povenz: It’s absolutely, it is a culture. And I’ve seen it very deep rooted within, within organizations where it’s a, a cultural, expectation. Right. And sometimes it’s more subtle. Right. You know, I’ve given a lot of examples where it’s kind of, you know, very, very blatant, right? But sometimes it, it might be
[00:38:17] Steve Povenz: just in other subtle ways that, don’t have as large of an impact, right? But if we allow that to continue to, be the way that we operate. over time, right? It can build into a, a much larger problem.
[00:38:32] Josh Santo: Yeah. If we allow it. And I want to focus in on that term weak. ’cause culture is a, it’s a, that’s a big topic. That’s, it’s a tough. Almost intangible, you know, if you’re like, change your culture, it’s like, well, wow, what do I do? So I, I’m curious from your perspective, one, who’s responsible for enabling this culture and then two, how would you go about starting to change that culture?
[00:39:00] Steve Povenz: I always tell, people, just like i, I mentioned earlier, quality is, or quality. My culture is the sum of all of our behaviors. If you want to change the culture? Change your behavior, right? You’ve got a choice you can either, meld into it. And become a part of it and just say, Hey, that’s the way things are done around here. Or you can change your behavior and be a force for an acting change.
[00:39:34] Josh Santo: That, that statement, that’s the way things are done around here. Has that ever really been a positive sign whenever someone gives you a response? Well, that’s the way things are done around here. I’ve, I’ve never been in a conversation where it’s like, oh, okay, we’re doing the right things then.
[00:39:54] Steve Povenz: Yeah. Yeah. That’s, well, I guess it’s, it’s how it said, right i’ve been in organizations where,
[00:40:02] Steve Povenz: you know, leadership really does,and leadership has that commitment to process and to people, and when they walk the talk, and they, they back it up by their actions. Right. I have seen that as well where, yeah, you know what, that wasn’t that a great situation.
[00:40:27] Steve Povenz: Right.
[00:40:27] Steve Povenz: you know, because that’s the way things are done. Around here. And that’s why I like working here. You know, the last organization I went th worked at. struggled like a lot of organizations, through the COVID Pandemic, and there were some difficult decisions to be made, But in all of those decisions, the employees were put, number one, and the
[00:40:55] Josh Santo: be
[00:40:56] Steve Povenz: I heard time and time again, well, that’s the way things, are done around here. so, you know, it’s, it, it sometimes, you know
[00:41:05] Steve Povenz: Yeah. It’s the way things are done around here that comes with an eye roll. It’s probably not a good thing, right?
[00:41:11] Steve Povenz: But, yeah, let’s make, that’s the way things are done around. Here. a positive, a positive thing, right? Because We’re being watched every day. In our behaviors.
[00:41:22] Josh Santo: Yeah. Tie that, tie that to, less of a reason, either not to do something, not to change or as an excuse.
[00:41:30] Josh Santo: And tying it more to that idea that you called up before of putting the customer first of the discipline, of the process-centric approach of the uncompromising focus on quality. That’s the way things are done around here, as opposed to why are you doing this thing this way? It’s causing this defect. And it’s, that’s the way things are done around here.
[00:41:52] Steve Povenz: The way it’s done,
[00:41:53] Josh Santo: Context is key. Well, let’s, let’s dig into that, idea of the we of the culture, of the extreme ownership pieces of personal responsibility as well as collective responsibility. When, when you think about quality professionals who have observed that, they’re seen as this policing force and the system with within which they’re working reinforces that concept over and over, how can people, what are some of the actions they can take to change this perception?
[00:42:31] Steve Povenz: So this really goes back to what we talked about. Earlier, and it’s, it’s taking that, time and engaging, engaging with others. You know, i’ve I’ve got a, i’ll I’ll even, I’ll give you, I’ll give you an example, of something that when I was a quality manager, and quality engineer prior to that, you know. I used to tell people when when I would bring them a new procedure or a work instruction, something new that I wanted them to, wanted them to do. I would say if, if you feel as though that this is being done to you rather than for you, I want you to take the paper that it’s printed on, sprinkle it up and toss it back at me, right? Because if, if there’s this feeling that, that it, that what
[00:43:29] Steve Povenz: I’m doing and who I’m engaging with them, is being done to them, then a couple of things probably haven’t happened. One is that, I didn’t engage them from the onset, right? Because as I stated earlier, nobody knows the process better than those that are working in it. And, it didn’t. Take the time to engage them for what the problem really is and how to best solve that problem. The other possibility is I may not have explained myself very well, right? What,
[00:44:04] Steve Povenz: what the reason is, why, i’m asking them to do what they’re doing, what the benefit is, right? What are we, what are we gonna get out of this?
[00:44:12] Steve Povenz: What’s the desired outcome? So, you know, just again, taking that, that, that approach, to, you know, and it’s, it’s a case by case
[00:44:24] Steve Povenz: It’s, it, it know again, you know, an encounter one at a time. And you will begin to change that culture and others will see how you do them. Right? And people will speak of that.
[00:44:40] Steve Povenz: Hey, I want, I want Steve, or I want Josh to be a part of this because. they’re, going to listen to me. Right?
[00:44:49] Josh Santo: did anyone in that time actually crinkle it up and throw it back at you?
[00:44:54] Steve Povenz: I did have one,lady that actually took me up on that. and, I think I caught her the bad time. And, she was, busy and
[00:45:05] Steve Povenz: I just came out, of course, at the worst time, and, you know, here, I need you to do this. And, she, she did, she wrinkled up the paper and tossed it at me
[00:45:15] Steve Povenz: And,
[00:45:16] Steve Povenz: it was all in good humor. we both burst out laughing. And in the moment. And what I actually did is, we high fived Sarah on the moment and, it wasn’t a good time to approach her. but when would be a better time to come back
[00:45:31] Steve Povenz: And, lo and behold, she did have a much better in more effective way to implement what I was asking. Her to do. then, you know, it still was at some added work, for her, but in the long, run it was, of benefit and she had some really good input. So, you know, that’s, we’ve gotta be open to that, that feedback. you know, ’cause at times things will, it’s not always the best time.
[00:45:56] Josh Santo: Absolutely. Well, one of the key themes in, in what you’ve shared just now was you’re not necessarily responsible for solving problems on behalf of other people. In this case, what you’re describing as being the effective approach is solving problems with those people, engaging them in the process, not making these decisions in silos.
[00:46:19] Josh Santo: Instead, here’s, here’s what we need to accomplish. Here’s how I think we can do it. You’re the expert here. I’m not thinking of everything. How can we solve this problem, even if that means a little bit more work for you? ’cause in the long run, it helps us live up to those goals that we’re all aligned on
[00:46:39] Steve Povenz: Yeah. And I, I, I can come, if I come forward with, you know, an understanding of what the problem is, frame that problem, and also the parameters, in which we.
[00:46:50] Steve Povenz: need to solve it in. And we may have some, we. Customer requirements, some, some procedural requirements. if we’re, you know, certified to I, ISO 9,001 or I TF 16 9 49 in the case of automotive, you know, there Are certain parameters
[00:47:07] Steve Povenz: that we need to, work within. you know, if we can, if we can help set that up or maybe offer some suggestions, you know, and, and we can certainly, well most of the time, our team members will give us, give us some really good answers in the best way to achieve it within those, within that framework.
[00:47:28] Josh Santo: Yeah. Establishing those constraints, I think are pretty critical. So not only here are the problems that we have to solve, but whatever solution that we identify, it must satisfy these different requirements or these different limitations that we’re working with.
[00:47:43] Steve Povenz: Yes. And, and Again, it’s not just because that’s the way. It is. Helping understand, hey, this is why we have, have these requirements, right?
[00:47:53] Josh Santo: Well, great. Well, Steve. With your experience, I would love for you to share a story with our audience. Do you have a story for us today?
[00:48:03] Steve Povenz: I do. I do. I have a lot of stories I could, I could choose, I could choose from. but I’d love to share a story, that occurred, oh, Probably about five or six years ago,when I was the director of quality. and, and,
[00:48:20] Steve Povenz: it, it occurred at, well, at the time I had responsibility for, a significant number of sites,
[00:48:28] Steve Povenz: So, you know, responsible for customer satisfaction. All the. Process improvements. you know, Everything that we talked about. talked about earlier. We had one, particular site that, happened to be our largest, our largest site, and there was a fair amount of instability,
[00:48:48] Steve Povenz: we’ll say, within the quality department. And we had gone through, oh, like maybe four or five quality managers. In a three year, a three year period. so it was really a hotbed of activity and some instability, and we had just, parted ways with a quality manager and I decided that I was gonna go in and, see what was, see what was going on, what was driving some of this instability. so I decided to camp out in this, in this plant and sit where the quality manager was. Seated. And, I just wanted to listen and observe and just gain an understanding of, of the environment, of the culture. and it didn’t take long to figure out.
[00:49:40] Steve Povenz: There was an adversarial environment between quality. And the manufacturing team. So if you, if you can imagine if you will, a large office, open office area, maybe 15, 20, pods of people. And we had quality and manufacturing sitting together. And what I had, was beginning to just hear as
[00:50:05] Steve Povenz: I sat. There
[00:50:07] Steve Povenz: was
[00:50:07] Steve Povenz: was a little, was a little
[00:50:08] Steve Povenz: unsettling and hey,
[00:50:11] Steve Povenz: you know, quality would
[00:50:12] Steve Povenz: say,
[00:50:13] Steve Povenz: Hey, why am I
[00:50:15] Steve Povenz: bothering
[00:50:15] Steve Povenz: writing this
[00:50:16] Steve Povenz: procedure or Work instruction,
[00:50:18] Steve Povenz: when it’s not gonna be followed? Right.
[00:50:21] Steve Povenz: Manufacturing would say something to the akin of, Hey, you know, we, we, we rejected a container of
[00:50:28] Steve Povenz: parts last night? Don’t let
[00:50:29] Steve Povenz: quality know,
[00:50:30] Steve Povenz: ’cause they’re gonna
[00:50:32] Steve Povenz: wanna lock down the entire,
[00:50:34] Steve Povenz: The entire,
[00:50:35] Steve Povenz: the entire plant, right? So you, you know, it, it just
[00:50:39] Steve Povenz: wasn’t, wasn’t a good
[00:50:41] Steve Povenz: a good,
[00:50:41] Steve Povenz: situation.
[00:50:42] Steve Povenz: So,
[00:50:43] Steve Povenz: after listening to this for a couple of days, I
[00:50:47] Steve Povenz: decided to
[00:50:49] Steve Povenz: approach the,
[00:50:50] Steve Povenz: the operations manager
[00:50:53] Steve Povenz: And, this was a little more initiative than what I was planning to take initially. But I
[00:50:59] Steve Povenz: knew something
[00:50:59] Steve Povenz: needed
[00:51:00] Steve Povenz: to be done. So
[00:51:01] Steve Povenz: I went into her office
[00:51:03] Steve Povenz: and
[00:51:04] Steve Povenz: I
[00:51:04] Steve Povenz: said,
[00:51:05] Steve Povenz: effective immediately,
[00:51:08] Steve Povenz: I am
[00:51:08] Steve Povenz: your, if you
[00:51:10] Steve Povenz: have a problem
[00:51:12] Steve Povenz: it’s my problem. So
[00:51:14] Steve Povenz: tonight.
[00:51:15] Steve Povenz: if Somebody gets hurt
[00:51:16] Steve Povenz: on third shift.
[00:51:17] Steve Povenz: and You need to come in
[00:51:19] Steve Povenz: and in investigate
[00:51:20] Steve Povenz: that that
[00:51:22] Steve Povenz: accident at six or seven o’clock in the morning. Tomorrow
[00:51:26] Steve Povenz: I’m gonna be
[00:51:26] Steve Povenz: with you. If you’ve got
[00:51:28] Steve Povenz: an OEE issue, a scrap issue, a delivery issue.
[00:51:31] Steve Povenz: I’m gonna be
[00:51:32] Steve Povenz: right there with you. Helping you solve that.
[00:51:34] Steve Povenz: problem. And oh, by the way, the entire quality team is
[00:51:41] Steve Povenz: at your disposal.
[00:51:43] Steve Povenz: so
[00:51:44] Steve Povenz: they are gonna help you.
[00:51:45] Steve Povenz: solve those problems. the response that I got you can imagine was maybe a little, Hey, you know what, what do you really want here? And, I said, I
[00:51:56] Steve Povenz: want the exact same thing you do.
[00:51:59] Steve Povenz: right? Your
[00:52:00] Steve Povenz: goals
[00:52:01] Steve Povenz: are, my
[00:52:01] Steve Povenz: goals, right? Quality is gonna share, share in these goals.
[00:52:06] Steve Povenz: We’re going to
[00:52:06] Steve Povenz: safely
[00:52:07] Steve Povenz: ship on time
[00:52:09] Steve Povenz: No
[00:52:10] Steve Povenz: every time
[00:52:11] Steve Povenz: to our customer.
[00:52:13] Steve Povenz: a quality product. So you. I had to live up to that.
[00:52:19] Steve Povenz: right? So
[00:52:20] Steve Povenz: I
[00:52:20] Steve Povenz: joined
[00:52:21] Steve Povenz: her on, all of
[00:52:23] Steve Povenz: her gemba walks.
[00:52:24] Steve Povenz: and, was, you know, Tried to keep up with her.
[00:52:27] Steve Povenz: There was a lot going on in the plant. And,
[00:52:30] Steve Povenz: when I saw the problem that I knew somebody on the quality team
[00:52:34] Steve Povenz: could add
[00:52:35] Steve Povenz: some value to,
[00:52:36] Steve Povenz: get ’em on the phone
[00:52:37] Steve Povenz: call ’em up,
[00:52:38] Steve Povenz: and ask them, come out and join us, and, and,
[00:52:42] Steve Povenz: had them.
[00:52:42] Steve Povenz: be a part of that quality, improvement. So it was a, area where I had to, you know, decide.
[00:52:50] Steve Povenz: All
[00:52:50] Steve Povenz: right, here it is, Steve
[00:52:51] Steve Povenz: Walk the talk. You always tell people
[00:52:53] Steve Povenz: if you want to change culture,
[00:52:55] Steve Povenz: change your behavior.
[00:52:57] Steve Povenz: So I had to step in
[00:52:59] Steve Povenz: and, to do that.
[00:53:00] Steve Povenz: and lead
[00:53:01] Steve Povenz: with That example.
[00:53:05] Josh Santo: Yeah. So you, you got met with some skepticism, right? Because you, there’s a change here all of a sudden. This, this guy that I don’t really know, you know, we’ve already had issues within quality.
[00:53:16] Josh Santo: Like you said. Not only is there, issues within the, the quality of the product that was being shipped, but issues within just, the personnel. A lot of turnover happening, particularly at the leadership level. So there’s probably already some lack of faith, if you will, in in quality. You mentioned you come in, you hear some things like, like, don’t tell quality about.
[00:53:42] Josh Santo: This thing that we’re overlooking because they’re gonna have a fit. And you also hear from quality. I don’t, I don’t even know why I’m doing this. Nobody’s gonna listen to me. No one’s gonna follow it. So there’s already some red flags when it comes to quality. So now you’ve got this guy that comes from corporate, I’m not sure if you had
[00:54:00] Steve Povenz: I’m here to help.
[00:54:01] Josh Santo: That’s right.
[00:54:02] Josh Santo: Right. I’m, I’m here to help. I’m here to mess everything up and catch you doing things wrong. For sure. I, I would imagine you didn’t have a previous relationship with, with a number of these folks. So you, you’re a stranger as an individual as well, and you approach them, and you, and you say, Hey, I’m your partner.
[00:54:23] Josh Santo: I’m here to help. Whatever you gotta deal with, I gotta deal with. And there’s probably a little bit of like, what’s this guy talking about? And also, I don’t need somebody getting in my way. I’ve got enough to deal with. Right. But you took that opportunity to demonstrate. Action by action. Here’s how I’m gonna help you.
[00:54:45] Josh Santo: If I can help you, if my team can help you. I would imagine you also approach it of like, no problem’s too small, right? So if this operations manager said, we’re struggling with Blink, you’re not like, well, that’s not something we need to, that I need to get involved with. It sounds like you took the ownership of, let me help.
[00:55:04] Josh Santo: How can I help? Here’s an idea.
[00:55:07] Steve Povenz: Yes, absolutely. Right. So it wasn’t steve, just as a qua. Yes, of course I’ve got you know, my, I’m director of quality. I’ve got my Quality hat on and everything that that goes with that, right. but I was, I assumed in this all the responsibilities that this opera, the and, and goals of this. Operations manager. Right.
[00:55:33] Steve Povenz: I wanted to show that we could, quality can be your partner in hoping you ob achieve, your objectives. No matter what it might be, right. inventory, movement throughout the plant. Right? There were cases where we got involved in that five s scenarios. as I mentioned, safety, of course, lots of quality issues came up in the process, as well.
[00:56:00] Steve Povenz: But it was not just, you know, we’re gonna, I’m gonna single out and zero in just on quality, right? But we’re going to improve, make the improvements as they need to be made, as they, as they, come up.
[00:56:15] Josh Santo: I would imagine that over time as you delivered and stayed true to your word, you established trust and started to see some cultural changes as a result.
[00:56:27] Steve Povenz: Yeah, it did. It did take some time. Right? There was skepticism. you know, I was having to, you know, try and try and find the operations Manager from time to time. Right. you know, to make sure that, you know, I was living up to, my commitment. there was also some skepticism when I announced to the quality team of what, what I had proposed. you know, and why would we do that? And, you know, just because there’s that history of that lack of trust. But over time, and once we
[00:56:59] Steve Povenz: started. Solving problems together, I noticed that the operations manager was looking for me every morning before she would start the gemba walk. Right. Hey Steve, I can’t stop unless you’re with me. That
[00:57:16] Steve Povenz: Started to tell me that things were turning there, was getting that, that trust there, you know, that the guard could come down. Steve’s not here to judge. He’s here to help. Right. over time, some members of the quality team, the quality engineers started coming to me and telling me how they were doing a similar practice with their partners in production, the production managers, and they Were working on different projects.
[00:57:43] Steve Povenz: So um, you know, it took time. You know, it wasn’t just, Hey, I’m here to help and oh, Good. Finally and, you know, you know, we had to overcome a lot and there were some step setbacks along the way, but slowly interaction by interaction day by day, you know, we worked on improving that, that culture.
[00:58:05] Josh Santo: and you became a partner and it became
[00:58:07] Steve Povenz: became a partner, right?
[00:58:08] Steve Povenz: Yes. That was the key, right? It’s, it’s a partnership, to, you know, to achieve the same, the same ends, right, same, the same goals.
[00:58:19] Josh Santo: Yeah. What a great win. The, the fact that it’s, I gotta go on my giba walk. Steve, where are you? Like we gotta go on our, our giba now.
[00:58:28] Steve Povenz: I loved hearing that, right? Yeah.
[00:58:30] Josh Santo: I’ll bet
[00:58:31] Steve Povenz: Yeah,
[00:58:32] Josh Santo: that had to be just a great moment. Yeah.
[00:58:35] Steve Povenz: became
[00:58:35] Steve Povenz: became a lot of fun. And, yeah. the work started. Going from kind of being a grind in the beginning and where there was a lack of trust to, to actually having problem, you know, solving problems and having fun in the process, and doing it, and getting those wins.
[00:58:51] Josh Santo: Mm. It can’t be understated. That idea of having fun because there’s so many jobs out there, right? There’s so many things that you can build a profession on, and I used to have a boss that would tell me that at the end of the day. What you really wanna look for is being surrounded about by people that you wanna work with and that you can have fun doing it.
[00:59:12] Josh Santo: ’cause you could be digging a ditch and have the best time of your life. And it’s because the people make the difference. And Steve, what I, what I take away from your story is that you came in and you showed that, hey, I’m not just a quality professional, I’m a person and I’m here with you and I got your back and your problem’s, my problem.
[00:59:32] Josh Santo: And that is what became the partner. That’s what established the relationship that allowed that fund to happen. And it caught on within the organization.
[00:59:41] Steve Povenz: Yeah, it did right. And it’s, you’ve gotta take that, that step, and you’ve got, now there’s a certain level of vulnerability. In that. You’ve gotta be willing to be vulnerable to take that step. I. Right, and understand that it’s, it’s gonna be a little bumpy and maybe a little, a little painful, and you’re gonna maybe get some feedback along the way.
[01:00:05] Steve Povenz: That’s gonna be tough to hear, but that’s all part of the process. So you’ve gotta have that long view, long view in mind. Otherwise you’re just going to, you know, just be a part of that culture. And that’s not, it’s just not a fun place to be in, as you mentioned,
[01:00:19] Josh Santo: Now, I would imagine that you also saw some, some measurable impact as a result of this work.
[01:00:26] Steve Povenz: we did, We did. So, in the first so the, that I was,it turned out to be, you know, where I was just gonna hang out for, you know, a few days or a few weeks maybe until we got a quality manager. This turned into a little bit more of a, a long-term, gig for me and doing a, a dual role in addition to my director responsibilities. So in that first year, we saw year over year a 60% improvement in our quality, incidents. The number of reported incidents from our customers dropped by 60%, without any, you know, magic initiative or anything other than really just that the big push was that integration, of quality and operations, solving.
[01:01:21] Steve Povenz: problems together, and not allowing things to just, to just fester, you know, having that shared responsibility. We also saw I would quote it, but, I, I, it was a significant drop. In our cost of poor quality as well. as you.
[01:01:41] Steve Povenz: can imagine, right number of incidents means less containment activities and sorting, and right, you’re driving, you get more time to work on process improvement and reducing scrap, and then you begin to see your other metrics improve as well because of a consequence.
[01:01:59] Steve Povenz: So, you know, we saw for, you know, it was year over year for, you know, a few years even after I was able to get out and we got somebody, I shouldn’t say get able to get out, but we were able to backfill with a permanent, quality manager, somebody that could continue, with that theme. that plant has continued to improve, in those, in those areas of, of performance.
[01:02:26] Josh Santo: So by, by taking the time to make specific efforts to change how quality was not just viewed, but quality functioned. ’cause it sounds like quality was probably functioning as a bit of a police force and, and changing that to that partnership approach you saw, the whole organization saw not just how the team worked together, that how the impact and culture started to change and manifest within the organization, but actual tangible benefits to the overall profitability of the operation, 60% or so, drop in customer incidents, plus reduction in the overall cost of poor quality so that it’s not just this.
[01:03:07] Josh Santo: Benefit of getting people to work together and work together better, but it’s actually helping to run a more effective business at that point.
[01:03:16] Steve Povenz: It’s, yes. And that’s when it really, that’s, when it got fun. Right. You know, and people were asking, what’s going on? How are you doing? What is the, you know, what’s, what’s the secret sauce here, if you will. Right. And it’s, it wasn’t
[01:03:30] Steve Povenz: Anything, magical. you know, per se, there was a, lot of hard work, a lot of swim it, no. In long hours. Yes. Right. And, and implication of all the, all the quality tools for sure. That we could talk about. But it was a, that, that first step, that had to be, that had to be taken. I.
[01:03:52] Josh Santo: well Steve, I feel like I’ve certainly learned a lot from you in this conversation. I know that this topic of quality being seen as a police force has come up. From other manufacturers that I’ve spoken with, so I’m glad you took the time to talk with us about your experience with it, about where it can sort of stem from, what it could indicate and a real life story about how you dealt with it so that our listeners can have some tangible actions that they can take on their side in order to improve their own situation if they’re experiencing that.
[01:04:26] Josh Santo: Now, this doesn’t have to be the, the last conversation that the, the folks listening to this have with you. How can our listeners continue the conversation?
[01:04:36] Steve Povenz: I am. I, I would love, that. I
[01:04:38] Steve Povenz: love connecting with new people. the, I’m very active on LinkedIn.
[01:04:43] Steve Povenz: You can find me Steve Povenz, on LinkedIn. Send me a, a request. I would love to, connect, connect with you. you can also find me at, Boost Quality. That’s the name of my business. If you have a website there. yeah, and you can interact with me there as well. So would Love to connect with anyone.
[01:05:05] Steve Povenz: that, would love to continue the conversation.
[01:05:08] Josh Santo: There’s certainly a lot to learn, so please take Steve up on his offer. It’s all about that community. It’s about learning from each other, and Steve’s got plenty of experience and stories to share. Steve, thanks for being here.
[01:05:21] Steve Povenz: Josh. It was my pleasure and it’s always,
[01:05:23] Steve Povenz: an enjoyment to talk to you.
[01:05:25] Josh Santo: same to you.
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