08
CASE STUDY
2
CONSUMER GOODS COMPANY:
RE-ORGANIZATION HELPS MANAGE
COMPLEXITY
The global quality group in a consumer
goods company shows what that looks like.
The group was re-organized to support the
entire value chain, from research & development,
procurement, and manufacturing to
marketing and distribution. Resources and
activities were “left-shifted” toward supplier
development and product development;
preventive activities were set up as a separate
unit to strengthen QA capabilities and
to avoid a default to QC. The re-organization
enabled the group to accommodate the
company’s strong growth and manage increased
complexity while running with a
fairly flat budget.
END-TO-END VALUE
GENERATION
World-class quality organizations add value because they have an
end-to-end view of their companies’ value chains and increasing
influence up and down those chains, from their suppliers, through
production, all the way to the end customer. Far from being seen
as cost centers, they are recognized for generating tangible value
by working to delight customers at every possible touchpoint on
the customer journey.
One example of that: those leading organizations “left-shift” so
that the whole production process gets more attention upfront.
Such initiatives involve all the departments that drive the cost of
the value chain – departments such as R&D and procurement, for
example. As part of the shift, quality groups move their activities
upstream, to the supplier side and toward product development.
But they use downstream data – drawn from customers – to guide
and improve those activities. By engaging in critical QA and testing
activities earlier on in product development, companies can preempt
many more errors and mitigate risks, minimizing CoPQ.
goetzpartners has also seen that the quality leaders embed quality
disciplines into the heart of value creation. They know that their
quality management methodology must be deeply integrated into
their companies’ value processes. Their higher objective is making
in-process improvements as opposed to fast-tracking fixes, and
they work across the company to help make quality part of everyone’s
working “language.” (See also Section 4 below.)
At the same time, the quality leaders look (and work) far beyond
their company’s four walls. They acknowledge that there is a quality
ecosystem; they are adept at working with external stakeholders
all the way from suppliers’ suppliers to customers’ customers. They
see external stakeholder alignment as critical – a valuable opportunity
not only to improve product and service quality but also to
combat the rising complexity of the supply chain and remain agile.