When a System Failure Can Kill People!
When our business systems are bad we usually just lose money or customers. However, a recent front-page news story illustrates how bad systems can sometimes kill people.
Two people have died so far and hundreds hospitalized by peanut butter containing a deadly form of salmonella. The company, King Nut, sells their product to schools, nursing homes and hospitals in ten states. Maybe yours!
The consequence of this serious quality control problem is death and injuring to unsuspecting customers. It could also mean the death of King Nut.
From the customer’s viewpoint, certain things are “critical to quality” (CTQ). You must meet these customer CTQ specifications or expectations precisely or you will lose their business. Healthy food is always going to be critical to quality. Consequently, I predict that many of the schools, nursing homes and hospitals will not buy from King Nut again.
A spokesperson for the company said, "We just want everyone to know that safety is our highest priority." It may be. Mistakes happen. However, to the customer, King Nut's booboo may fall into the category of "unpardonable sin."
A news analyst said the solution to the problem is to hire more FDA inspectors. As a Systems Thinker, you know that it's always better to catch quality problems immediately at the source, not at a later inspection of accumulated inventory, or worse, after customers have had a bad experience. In addition, I doubt that we need to throw money at more inspectors. Instead, King Nut and others should improve its internal systems to catch food contamination earlier in the process
Do you have any systems that need closer attention to quality? Save yourself a lot of money and grief by building quality into every system.
Wishing You Prosperous Times,
Ron