CPG Quality & Compliance as a Service | President & CEO at Qualitas | 🔜 SSW, let’s meet!
Many Quality Managers are simply thrust into the role Without the proper training, experience, or support That's a problem The path to becoming a Quality Manager may look something like.. -works 1-3 years in Production -eventually moves into Quality as an Inspector -spends maybe 6-12 months as an Inspector -is a pretty good Inspector, becomes a Team Lead -learns a bit more about Quality during their year as a TL -is ready for their next challenge -receives internal promotion/jumps ship to become a Quality Supervisor -is a Quality Supervisor for a couple years, sits in on a few audits -begins feeling confident in their Quality expertise -starts looking for a Quality Manager role -lands a Quality Manager role -50/50 chance of success This certainly isn't the case for ALL Quality Managers, but it's the case for a LOT of the QM's I meet every year And this evolution can happen over just a few years Many of the hardest working, head-down-get-it-done folks I know are Quality Managers And they're darn good at what they do On the other hand.. We're left with countless Quality Managers who THINK they know what they're doing, but actually have no clue This isn't their fault It's ours In manufacturing, we're known to promote people with strong work ethic And assume they'll figure out "the other stuff" along the way The trouble is, if you don't know what "the other stuff" they need to figure out is.. How will they know? We need to do a better job in providing the right resources so our Quality Managers (and Quality team!) can be successful After all, these are the people who share legal responsibility in ensuring the products you make are safe Let's make sure they can do their job and do it well #quality #manufacturing #compliance #leadership #qualitas #training
Nate, I think a huge issue is, similar to the focus on college overshadowing trade school, manufacturing and production and finance roles have overshadowed quality systems training and schooling. Curriculum with quality elements is limited or treated as footnotes to operations-centric learning. I am very interested in promoting quality curriculum development in trade schools and as professional college courses. It is quite odd given the enormous amount quality know-how and practice how it is so absent from standard professional learning paths.
Forrest Rattray - this is interesting. You and Nate should connect. - sounds like you'd have a lot to discuss!
Food Safety and Quality Extraordinaire I REHS/RS I HACCP Lead Instructor I FSMA Connoisseur
1yNate, you seem to ignore one glaring piece of it all: that we end up with individuals with liberal arts majors with no science background because they have a positive, can-do attitude, despite the lack of a strong understanding of science and microbiology. Upper management generally rewards this kind of behavior & promotes staff that probably shouldn't be promoted into decision-making roles. However, the reward for rewarding this attitude breeds a plethora of problems down the line. Anyone can check off a box and obtain a cookie-cutter program- it takes real, knowledgeable scientists to develop and manage an effective quality program. When management promotes unqualified people because they "can get the job done", it means management doesn't care much for quality and wants a warm body to do an activity. The end result is usually an ineffective quality program, which is a direct result of upper managements's actions.