Interview: quality lessons from 25 years on the factory floor

Q. You started as a quality auditor in 1998. What has genuinely changed since?

A.The tools changed, the discipline did not. We have inline data capture, digital measurement, better washing control. But a factory with excellent equipment and weak standards still ships defects. The change that matters is that quality is now discussed before the first cut instead of after the final audit.

Q. Where do most quality failures actually begin?

A.In the approval stage — an unclear specification, a fit sample signed off with a comment nobody translated into a shop-floor instruction. By the time it shows up in a final inspection it is expensive. The cheapest quality work happens before bulk starts.

Q. What single habit would you give a new quality manager?

A.Go and look. Read the report, then walk the line and check the same thing yourself. Numbers tell you where to look; they do not tell you what is happening.

Q. How much of this transfers between countries?

A.Nearly all of it. I have worked in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and the technical answers travel. What changes is the way you introduce a standard to a team, and how much you invest in explaining why before you ask for compliance.