I used to teach quality improvement to suppliers of a large corporation. I was repeatedly told that the OEM asked suppliers to produce quality product, yet constantly provided poor quality specifications-mistakes in specifications, old versions, incorrect specifications and poor communication.

Since the 1950s expectations for quality have been increasing because of domestic and global competition. In the 1980s Motorola envisioned quality requirements for the year 2000 and realized virtual perfection would be the norm. Competitive benchmarking and requirements for virtual perfection led to development of the new methodology called Six Sigma.

Achieving excellence means producing units virtually defect free. I was practicing the target-driven manufacturing at a manufacturing company. As usual, the company has opportunities for improvement in different areas. For example, too much verification and inspection, too much variety in sample sizes or measurement frequency, high non-conformance rate, high defect rates, customer returns, excessive cost of customer service and the list goes on.

Sustaining profitable growth must be the mandate for every business in order to create opportunities for employees, value for stakeholders and contributions to the community.

Corporations have been striving for manufacturing excellence through continuous improvement, Six Sigma and Lean-type methodologies. There are scenarios that as companies improve their process-reduce their defect levels, for example-they increase the level of inspection or checks. As a result, the savings a company might realize in the improvement activity could be countered by additional verification resources. Of course, when we redesign the process, then we simplify the process and eliminate some unnecessary process steps. In most cases the inspections and verifications stay put.

The United Stated has been losing its manufacturing edge for a number of years to global competitors. Research shows that we continue to use the 1950s product control principle, PDCA (plan-do-check-act), to manage processes.

During the past 25 years I have seen manufacturing migration and service degradation in the U.S. economy. We first transferred manufacturing of parts or products to our offshore subsidiaries due to our inability to solve problems. Some of the problems could be solved at offshore facilities, while others remained puzzles.

When we go on vacation, we want the best. When we go shopping, we expect the most for the least amount of money. When we ship to our customers, we give only acceptable product or service. I wonder why we love to receive excellence, yet prefer to give acceptable performance. There is a gap between expectations and delivery.