Srujit Biradawada

KARLEE: BRINGING QUALITY PRINCIPLES TO LIFE

hi@biradawada.com

Karlee is a customer-focused and process-driven contract manufacturer responsible for delivering a variety of products and services to the end client. The Baldridge Award speaks for their practices, processes, and approach to implementation in the business and for performance measurement. Every step speaks to how carefully they implemented the steps and defined the process to streamline it for the customers to be satisfied with the service, support, and product they needed.

The best service they provide for the customers is to be able to create a prototype so the end customers can look at the product for themselves before it goes into mass production. Karlee is providing this with the “Process Approach” and by properly documenting the process with a Quality Assurance team member working with manufacturing teams.

First, there shouldn’t be any stress or pressure for the employees to work on tasks (which could be for a product or a prototype). For this to happen, the requirements should be clear, pre-defined, and well-articulated, and the workers should know the end-to-end steps connecting all the dots required in terms of delivering the product. Second, maintaining good relationships with internal customers (suppliers) is also important for parts needed during the process of making the product. Third, within the company, in the product, making different teams work together, bringing multiple pieces together, and handing off is key for smooth delivery.

Once delivery is done, support and service will kick in when the customers need help. Karlee is providing 24-hour support with 3 people working during the time frame, and proper hand-off is transferred with proper documentation so the customer doesn’t feel cut off if multiple calls are made. The issue is resolved with the first stab, but there will be times the issue needs multiple looks or needs to come back again, so proper documentation and keeping track of records of issues the user is having are a must to address the issue the right way. When an issue persists, the company offers a service to better deal with it.

All these steps are properly defined in their framework using “Customer Focus,” “Involvement of People,” “Process Approach,” and “Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships.”

Within this product, service, and support process, the leadership needs to look into employee and customer satisfaction and check if business goals are met by employees. Employees are involved here at every step, and it is the business of leadership to find out whether the employees are satisfied, whether they are providing qualitative output, how the process can be enhanced, and how to get the facts for faster Decision-Making for improving the quality and the process. All of these have been addressed with “Leadership,” “System Approach to Management,” “Continual Improvement,” and “Factual Approach to Decision Making.”

Employee Reviews were conducted, employees were made involved at most steps, and they were made to know what they were delivering at every step (open engagement), everyone’s ideas were listened to and recognized well for their contributions, proper training was provided, and the company was continuously improved. “Environment shapes a lot of behavior, and more” (Karthik, 2022). Another critical step is to find out how often the issues are found, what kind of issues are found during the process and after the delivery, how often customers call for the same product, for the same issue on multiple products, for the same user on multiple products, and all this tracking and record-keeping will help to enhance the product much better.

All of the steps involved in the framework are very important. Karlee follows the combination of three philosophies where needed, utilizing the power of three philosophies.

  • Deming’s philosophy is driven by the leadership of top management and focuses on multiple areas (Indeed, 2023), like
    • Reducing uncertainty and variation in design with more attention to requirement gathering,
    • Manufacturing, and
    • Service processes.
  • Juran’s philosophy, consists of (KnowledgeHut, 2023):
    • Quality Planning,
    • Quality Assurance,
    • Quality Control, and
    • Quality Improvement.
  • Philip Crosby’s philosophy speaks more about behavioral change than the use of tools and techniques suggested by Deming and Jura (Opex, 2019). For quality, Crosby suggests
    • Quality Management:
      • Attention to requirements gathering,
      • If the job is done best from scratch, there is no such thing as a quality problem,
      • Cost of quality measurement, and 
      • Zero defects as the only performance standard
    • Quality Improvement through basic elements like:
      • Determination,
      • Education, and
      • Implementation
Conclusion

For Karlee, Quality means following the framework they have designed and implementing Deming’s, Juran’s, and Crosby’s philosophies at every step. Karlee implements Deming’s philosophy with “Leadership,” “Process Approach,” “System Approach to Management,” and Employee engagement; Juran’s philosophy through their “System Approach to Management,” “Factual Approach to Decision Making,” and “Continual Improvement.”; and Crosby’s philosophy by making teams involved through proper communications with customers and involving teams at most places.

References