Engaging the Organization in Advanced Quality Planning

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I recently able to speak with Juan Loera, quality manager at MasterTag, about the basic tools used to support advanced quality planning (AQP) and how to engage the organization so quality efforts meet customer needs.

Juan will be speaking on our free webinar on October 22 at 11:00 a.m. CDT: Advanced Quality Planning - How Far in Advance, and Who Should Join the Party

In your experience what aspect of AQP do most organizations struggle with?

Juan: The most common challenge of AQP is related to stakeholder belize mobile numbers list engagement. Teams often struggle with capturing inputs from all stakeholders early in the process so all relevant needs are integrated into how the project plan is developed and executed. Though a structured process for stakeholder engagement may exist, it’s easy to overlook and engage all the appropriate team members at the right time.

What is the biggest benefit of AQP?

Juan: One of the key benefits of AQP is the ability to use a wide array of perspectives to mitigate surprises that lead to costly waste (e.g., redesign, rework, lost time, lags in delivery timing, and scrap). AQP uses cross-functional input and reviews to identify constraints, anticipate challenges, and plan ways to mitigate these risks early.

How do you get buy-in with senior management to use AQP?

Juan: Matching your business case with the pain points senior management cares about is always a good place to start. For example, use historical data on launches or projects that have gone wrong because they lacked a plan. In addition to the success or failure rate of these projects you should also include lost revenue or high costs that resulted from the lack of plan.

How do you integrate customer satisfaction and feedback into quality planning?

Juan: AQP stresses the importance of continuous improvement and setting up mechanisms to learn from previous projects. A lessons learned review is an integral part of the AQP process; any data or information collected from historical events that involved customer interaction are crucial to ensuring the voice of the customer has been established and is understood. The information captured in the lessons learned becomes a criterion to judge projects quality and progress and ensure outcomes are meeting customer expectations.