Quality and Accuracy

Someone commented to me the other day that if given a choice the quality of information/data is far more important than the speed of producing the output.  We are all continuing to adapt to ever increasing expectations for speed.  We spend time working on ways to make information available in real time – this is generally a good thing.  As the conversation went further it made me also realize that we all continue to take quality for granted in our ever increasing quest for speed.  The news has been filled lately with a couple extremely high profile items related to quality.  In a couple cases that come to mind, some folks may have been guilty of making a trade-off for speed vs. quality.  In the end, this is very costly.  We look for efficiency and need to be careful we do not take quality for granted.  The news of late is a great reminder for this. 

In our business, we all want increased speed for responsiveness.  We also cannot forget the critical point that the efficiency increases need to be predicated on precision and quality processes.

Greg Harper

President

Runzheimer International

Comments

[Peter Frederiksen]

This article and subsequent postings remind me of a very delicate balance that I have learned to respect and appreciate throughout my lifetime. This balance is between quality, time, and cost. We all highly value all three, and when we emphasize too greatly one of the three aspects, we lose something from one or both of the other aspects. I have evaluated many aspects of both my professional and personal life, and find that these three items have a definite and wonderful balance, and when utilized properly, they can propel any concept, product, person, or aspect to newer heights and greater accomplishments. The “trick” is simply understanding the balance and applying it to each circumstance. The information and technology age we now live in has given us greater opportunity to not only take advantage of this inter-dynamic balance and effectively make positive change in areas that we are currently familiar, but also to create new and exciting ways to accomplish that which has not even been dreamt yet.

[Cliff Shields]

Great comments! It is easy to succumb to the illusion that faster is better, leading to extremely dangerous activities...i.e. text and drive, email and drive etc. The point that speed doesn't automatically equate to quality, not only provides sound basis for safer practices, but also for truly more productive communications altogether.

[SleepBarn]

yes i do agree that the equivalent of your hard work should be equal to the amount of pay that you'll be receiving. though the technology is growing fast and we need to catch up before the robots would take our place. but still were on top of it..

Thanks,
SleepBarn

[SleepBarn]

This is awesome....

SleepBarn

[Denise R. A. Oemig]

It is critical that we do not confuse quality with speed. We all want things “faster and cheaper,” but we can’t forget “better.” While we work hard to deliver everything faster, we cannot afford to forget our clients’ unspoken, underlying assumption: In the process of making things faster, quality will remain the same or get better. If we fail to meet this critical expectation, speed will no longer matter because our product or service will have lost its value.

[Valerie Myer]

With the ever-increasing use of technology (PDA/Blackberry) in the marketplace, we feel the need to exchange data at lightning speeds as well. We text while we are driving because it is life threatening that our clients know we are driving down the freeway and they can receive help to their question by dialing 1-800-HELP.
We often mistake speed of response for quality of response as your blog mentions. This is the fault of both the sender and the recipient. When information is exchanged at this speed, neither party truly understands the very reasons for the question or the true solution.
Reaction is defined by a personal or emotional attitude toward something. True data exchange should be absent emotion and feelings and instead a relay of pure data. The word action can be described as “something done or accomplished”. If we slowed down our response speed and provided actionable items we would get more done in a shorter period of time because we would truly understand the question enough to provide a qualitative response.
It’s a painful lesson that I am learning. Speed does not equate to quality. It equates simply to speed.
It is as simple as the childhood story “The Three Little Pigs”- Do you build a house of sticks because it is the fastest way to construct a shelter or do you understand your environment, plan for the weather and slowly construct a solid, sustainable house of bricks? The choice is ours and the behavior change starts from within…..

[Genevieve]

I completely agree that quality is of the utmost importance, especially when the quality of the product is directly tied to an employee’s reimbursement or relocation payment/allowance. Employee payments are very personal. Each employee wants to know that he received each penny that is appropriate and deserved.

Paying close attention to all of the intricate details of these complicated costs is what makes Runzheimer a trusted partner.

[Doug Boone]

One interesting note is that, in many cases, organizations have access to neither timely nor accurate data. This creates an opportunity to architect a set of systems & processes to strike a balance between the two.

Of course, the longer a current process has been in place, the more difficult it is to "rewire" it so the output is more efficient or has better quality. That said, it's still vitally important to find that balance as effectively as possible, and sometimes it takes a major event to draw enough attention to the gap before it becomes a priority.