Turn your Mind to Quality First

“ Various Indian industries have been having quality programmes had quality circles for about the last two decades” , a friend of mine once asked me “, : Yet the overall quality of Indian goods is far behind the world standards . What’s basically wrong with us ? Why cannot we as a nation produce top class goods even after 50 years of independence ? Why cannot we beat the multi nationals at their own game ? Why cannot we create so superior quality goods at such rock bottom prices that the Japanese and U.S.Industries are forced to ask for protection from their own governments ! Are we culturally inferior or their some other factors involved ? “

His anguish was very much palpable . He was a proud Indian who was deeply disturbed at the abject lack of not quality but of world class quality in our products. He was right in feeling so bad. After all , ours is an ancient land in which the general quality of the living was so high that it was once upon a time called the

 “ Sone ki chiriya” our sages showed us  the highest quality of living through yoga and meditation . We gave so much to the world in the fields of mathematics , health and economics. We were truly the world leaders then .

What happened to us thereafter  ?

Before I give the answer to all these questions , let me first share with you two sad historical facts :

 In the year 1747 , India’s share in total world trade was 25 – 30 % . Around that time , the Englishmen took over the political power of the country . For 200 years they ruled the Indians claiming that they gave a rule of law and modern thinking to the illiterate stupid natives,  and that the Indian society at large should feel grateful to sahibs that they did so much to bring some order to diverse and divided a society .

By the time they left India in 1947 , India’s share in the World trade had dropped down – hold your breath – 0.5 %  ! Yes , you read right , zero point five percent . A fall of 250 times in 200 years ! No wonder the British felt very proud of what they did to the Indian economy .

After all , when the Indians were claiming one fourth of the World trade , the Indian economy must have been in those days at the same competitive position where the American economy is today in the twentieth century . It was no mean achievement indeed for the British to destroy the World’s best economy in just 200 years .

 Our highest quality standards             

This position undoubtedly couldn’t have been reached by non quality products being produced by some illiterate and stupid native worker. Obviously , the Indian economy was strongly competitive . Our products were of the highest quality . This World class quality was not due to a few pockets of excellence here and there but because the whole land was inhabited with people who believed in giving their best to their customers .

India’s share in the World trade today

After independence , our share in the world trade did not go up . In fact , in 1997 , 50 years after the British left us , India’s share in the world trade was only about 0.25 %  - a further fall of 50 % in 50 years ! So what went wrong this time ? It was currently not due to socialism alone . After all , the same system has also done a very good job in the field of computer software , space , missiles and nuclear science , all at the cutting edge of modern technology , requiring extremely high level quality job . And don’t forget our achievement in becoming the number one producer of milk in the World , becoming self sufficient in food  ,  of having eradicated small pox and score of such other remarkable achievement .

No , we currently cannot put the blame of failure on the doors of the politicians . They are a product of the same society that has produced you and me.

The cause of our problem

The problem of our failing  share is only because of one reason . That in the highly competitive and quality conscious modern World economy , the majority of Indian goods of shoddy quality and did not sell so well as compared to other countries products .

But another question now comes to mind .Why the hell are Indian goods still non comparative and of poor quality even after 50 years of independence ? Why can not we do a Japan to our Quality ? What prevents us from doing a Singapore  to our  economy  ? What is “ that” thing ? the real thing , that stops us from occupying our rightful place under the sun on this planet ?

The cultural root of our problem

The final answer , the root of the problem , my friends , is not out their in the World market and our corrupt politicians . Its here , within you and me . Right here in our culture of today , in our mind set , in our lack of

Consciousness about quality . It’s the whole culture with a “ Chalta hai” attitude . A culture which worships poverty and glorifies suffering .

But then  , why do we have this “ Chalta – hai” anti quality culture  ?  The fact is that hundreds of years of subjugation and slavery have eaten away our self – pride like a cancer . That cancer of our mind has spread its roots so deep that we as a nation have a very low self – image and self pride . We have stopped believing in ourselves . We have even stopped dreaming that we too DESERVES to live in abundance , that we too deserves prosperity and a very high standard of living .

The “ Chalta hai” attitude of anti quality

That’s why when someone tries to bring some fundamental changes somewhere , our first reaction is ,        “ Sub chalta hai”  , “Nothing is going to happen here , Yaar” , “ Nobody is bothered , don’t worry” . Because somehow we don’t believe that we too deserves a very high standards of living  , hardly enjoy working . We “walk” to our work and “rush” back home .

Thus the fundamental reason is our culture’s and our nation’s basic negative attitude towards abundance and prosperity.

It’s this negative attitude towards work which has prevented 20 years of TQM programmes and training sessions from taking a majority of Indian products to world class quality standards .

Our slow rate of improvements

Oh yes , we have improved  the quality of so many products  . But at what pace ? If we have improved by 3 times  , then the world has already gone ahead by 10 times and at places  , even by 20 times . We seem to be perpetually lagging behind even teeny meeny countries . You see once again that today it’s not just sufficient to merely improve our quality  . It’s very important now to produce extremely high quality goods which are superior to the other countries product . Then only can we hope to complete in the world’s competitive bazaar . Otherwise  , it’s going to be the same old Indian story of too little , too late and for too few.

The role of training in Quality creation  : A – S – K triangle

World class quality can be created if we have world class training given to both our management as well as workers . Every quality training has got to have an “ Attitude – Skills – Knowledge” triangle . Creating the right attitude in our people is the primary thing to focus on . Then only the imparted knowledge and skills are useful in the long run.

What’s the basic solution ?

Giving training to our workers at the klnoledge level or at the skill level for a couple of days makes only a superficial difference to their productivity and quality . If there is no mental shift at the attitudinal level, then things soon go back to where they were before , with workers later becoming more demoralized and cynical as an extra burden.

The basic solution therefore is so simple and so obvious . It’s TQM itself : Think Quality in mind first . It’s A.B.C second . Attitude leads to Behavior and Behavior leads to Creation of Quality at source itself.     We have to start eating quality , drinking quality and sleeping quality .

It’s all in the mind

A right attitude is a state of our mind . It’s an intangible “soft” thing, unlike the tangible , “hard” statistics of stastical quality control ( S.Q.C) programme  . Right training for cultivating the right mind set ensures that the work force remains self – motivated to create quality at source  , do self – inspection and become self – reliant in making more and more continual improvements.

The difference that makes all difference

A small change can make an enormous difference to the quality conscisnious of our workforce . That change is first the training of the boss himself along with the senior management . Then comes the training of the middle managers , followed by the supervisors . the worker’s training is undoubtedly important  , but it can take place only after the senior management’s training , never before.

The commitment of the boss himself shouldn’t only be there , it should be there for all the workers to see .For nothing destroys the worker’s morale as quickly as the lip service paid to “the cause of quality” by senior management .Remember  , the speed of the train comes from the engine and not the other way round.

Neglecting “Follow – up”  - the bane of TQM training

No training  , howsoever well conducted , can remove years and years of  mental cobwebs in just 2 or 3 weekends . No manager , no worker , an imperfect human being that he is , can sustain his original motivation level after a couple of weeks of the training in the generally prevailing “Chalta Hai” atmosphere

.30 , 40 years of anti quality thinking cannot be washed away in a washing machine by any trainer in just

2 – 3 days  .

What we need is a system follow up in our TQM training programmes . The follow – up by the trainer has to be formal  , focused  and frequent  ( F –3 )  . Then only does the investment in the training pay off in the long run and a new mind set of “ Think Quality in Mind”  and “ Check Quality at source” can take root .

If our Indian industry has to stand up to the competition from the MNCs  , we have no choice but to stand up with national pride . We have to start believing in ourselves . We have to become prosperity conscious and not poverty conscious .

We not only have to desire high quality  , we first have to believe that we DESERVE  high quality output from ourselves .

It all begins in the mind . The competition is lost or won in our minds , not in the market place.

Aryan Viswakarma

New Delhi, India

Aryanv295@gmail.com                                           ALL RIGHTS RESERVED