Pillar 1 of our business transformation programme Refocus is about Quality. The quality of the vehicles we produce here at Solihull has never been more critical to our future - and the choices we make each day impact that quality.
Last year we implemented quality transformation activities such as our War on DFV where hundreds of you have made incremental improvements, positively impacting our levels of Divert Free Vehicles (DFV). Lots of you have also completed the Customer Quality Connection programme focused at raising awareness of quality issues to our customers.
As we begin 2022, we need to take our quality transformation to the next level. We need to build on the foundations we have set ourselves and ensure that every vehicle that leaves our plant delights our most discerning customers.
Lots of our quality issues we have seen have happened before. That tells us we’re putting sticking plasters over problems, rather than getting to root cause and fixing them for good.
Each of us can take steps to ensure we are transforming quality:
Associates – if you see a quality issue you cannot resolve, pull the Andon. Get involved in the problem solving to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Remember! You're the expert in your process
Group Leaders – please actively support your team and immediately contain quality issues. Any faults not repaired must be recorded on the History Card and escalated to your Production Leader. Our mindset needs to be no faults forward
Production Leaders – Containment, Containment, Containment. Stop the issue rolling forward, raise the issue if you can’t repair it and listen to your Group Leaders. Again, our mindset needs to be no faults forward (Quality at source)
Managers – Support your teams through the Round by Round and 5F. Find out the root cause and fix the problem for good. No more sticking plasters!
Senior Managers – We know that actions speak louder than words. Quality must take precedence over Volume – not just in what we say but the decisions we make. Support your teams. Encourage them to raise issues and deliver the quality improvements we need.
We still have a long way to go to meet our quality and DFV targets, and as one team we need to keep stretching ourselves and look at everything we do through the lens of improving quality.
Have you set your New Year Resolution yet? Why not set yourself the challenge to make sure no quality issues pass through your area? You could win yourself a Jaguar Racing goodie bag by emailing how you’re aiming to improve your area to solihull@jlr-colleaguecommunications.com.
Over satisfying our customers is what we all need to focus on. It’s not about reinventing the wheel; it’s about following our processes and having intentions to provide the highest levels of quality possible.
It’s been great to see teams coming together last year, but we now need to drive forward. We need to keep improving and we need keep delighting our customers. I urge all of us to be advocates of a total quality approach.
Sebastian JacquesSolihull Plant Quality Senior Manager