Case study · Quality culture
One day to bring meaning back to Quality: 96% satisfaction among operators
After several significant deviations, this site wanted its shop-floor teams to truly understand what is at stake with Quality. We trained production and quality assurance together, in 5 one-day sessions, to create a shared experience and vocabulary.
The results
The starting point
- Several significant deviations had shown that shop-floor teams weren’t always aware of what is at stake with Quality and why it matters.
- About 50 to 60 production staff (manufacturing and packaging) and 10 to 15 operational quality assurance staff to align.
- A site working in 2 × 8-hour shifts: sessions to be organised around the shifts.
What we did together
- Give meaningThe Pharmaceutical Industry Fresk: understand the site as a whole, and why each rule exists.
- Experience errorA 5-round activity that deliberately leads people into error, to understand the mechanisms that cause it.
- Understand the causesError mechanisms explained with our human error analysis tool.
- Leave with toolsThe VAK check, the pre-job briefing and collective proactivity, tried out during the session.
- Decide what changesEach participant leaves with what they will change at their workstation the very next day.
A highly acclaimed training day
Participants’ average ratings, as a percentage of the maximum score.
What participants say
“with fun, concrete role-plays”.
“to realise what needs to be improved”.
“training given by someone who knows the shop floor”.
production and quality assurance trained together.
Our takeaways
Quality culture can’t be decreed; it has to be lived. By experiencing error, everyone understands that it isn’t deliberate and that it can be anticipated. The next step proposed to the site: shop-floor support for supervisors, to embed the approach in day-to-day work.
The approaches used
Our advice if you’re getting started
- Train production and QA together: the shared vocabulary matters as much as the content.
- Plan the follow-up on the shop floor: one day raises awareness, day-to-day work embeds it.
Do your teams see Quality as a constraint?
Let’s talk about a Quality Culture day for your teams, or longer-term support.