Philip Crosby famously said, “Quality is free.” He is well known for his focus on defect reduction through the concept of zero defects. You could say his philosophy predated Lean thinking.
I’m going to use a true story as a case study to illustrate this concept.
Recently, I ordered takeout cheeseburgers from a small franchise restaurant called Moo-yah. When I arrived, I discovered that an employee had given my order to a food dasher. There had been two orders with the same first name, and the staff didn’t bother to check the full name. The restaurant handed my order to the wrong person — there was just a one-letter difference.
The manager initially tried to blame the food dasher, but I pointed out that the real issue started behind the counter. The employees hadn’t double-checked the names.
Because no one verified the orders, the restaurant had to remake both orders. The original food had to be thrown away because it was cold. In effect, the order had to be made twice. I also asked for a discount since my order was mishandled and my time wasted. The general manager was kind enough to give me $10.
Let’s recap the costs:
- Food, labor, and overhead for the original order
- Food, labor, and overhead to remake the order
The assistant manager on duty didn’t understand. He didn’t grasp the concept. You fail as a manager when you embrace excuses and fail to understand costs. It’s easy to see that the business didn’t make any profit on these orders. And to make matters worse, the replacement order was still incorrect, meaning they failed to learn from the mistake.