Setting an Operational Focus on Quality Output

A respected presence in the Farmington Hills, Michigan, community, Philip Calhoun leads Total Quality Engineering, where he focuses on developing solutions for the automotive industry. Building on leadership experience with several major carmakers, Philip Calhoun held responsibilities with Nissan Motor Company as a senior director of manufacturing from 2017 to 2018 and the Vice President of Manufacturing from 2018–2019.

Ensuring high levels of manufacturing quality constitutes a powerful competitive advantage. One aspect of this centers on decreasing order cycle times and ensuring that quotes, prices, and customer approvals are all coordinated within a unified, integrated system.

This reflects a reality in which many product quality issues have their roots in incomplete or incorrect orders that do not reflect an accurate price or the desired configuration and delivery instructions provided by the customer.

Actively fixing this involves tracking progress toward quality goals in real time. This can be accomplished through technologies that allow active monitoring, with the efforts and levels of quality achieved by production teams displayed on a daily basis. Setting in place a ranking system helps place teams in productive competition with one another.

With real-time quality data at hand, areas of continued weakness can also be evaluated and aspects of the production process in need of improvement identified. The proper level of intensity and urgency required to address issues can be calibrated, and team results can be incentivized.

For many companies, implementing this involves a combination of Six Sigma methodologies and real-time data toward quality audits. Ideally, customer expectations, as well as manufacturing performance, are encompassed within the evaluative matrix.