Introduction

Lingchi, was a torture technique used in China in the 1800’s and ended in the early 1900’s, that involved making small slices into a person’s body over an extended amount of time, until the person eventually bled out and died.  Lingchi was a slow, lingering death, known as “death by a thousand cuts” and was typically reserved for crimes viewed as heinous. Many organizations are slowly dying due to, “death by a thousand nonconformities.” Nonconformities cause a slow, lingering death over an extended time and in many cases the nonconformities are so small that the organization does not notice, until they’ve bled out. In this article we will discuss how small nonconformities kill your company, examples of overlooked nonconformities and how to stop the slow death.

How Nonconformities Slowly Kill Your Company

A nonconformity can be thought of as a person or process under the control of the organization, which is not meeting requirements, including your suppliers. A nonconformity is also your organization not meeting requirements of external parties, such as customers and regulatory bodies. Requirements provide an established and reliable method to accomplish an activity. Requirements also provide an  operational foundation and reduces risks. Each time there is a small or big nonconformity to established requirements, it’s like a small cut into the body of the organization. Organizations tend to focus on the traumatic big cuts or nonconformities that cause major pain, such as: product failure, employee injuries, warranty claims, regulatory fines, penalties, loss of customers revenue and profitability. These are big slashes to the body that are felt because they cause obvious trauma. But what about the small nonconformities that are happening more frequently, that are causing a slow lingering releases of organizational blood, that is slowly killing the organization over an extended time.  Let’s discuss some examples of slow killing nonconformities.

Examples of Slow Killing Nonconformities

For every traumatic nonconformity, there’s probably a thousand preceding small nonconformities that go unnoticed and often not even thought about. Let’s take the example of the requirement for employees to start working at 8am. In many cases employees arrive to work at 8am, which is often confused for starting work at 8am. To start work at 8am, typically one should arrive to work at 7:45am, to allow 15 minutes for their prework routine, so they can start working at 8am. When an employee arrives at 8am, they typically don’t start working until 8:30-8:45. Typically these same employees leave on-time, causing a leakage of approximately 2.5hrs per week or 130 hrs per year per employee that practices this behavior. This one small nonconformity literally happens thousands of times, causing major slow death in productivity, poor on-time delivery and the need for overtime costs.

Another example of a slow death nonconformity, would be a salesperson that is required to obtain accurate information, so that the organization can provide a competitive and profitable quote. Many organizations suffer from this slow death nonconformity, that slowly bleeds the life right out of the organization. The person quoting the job is depending on the salesperson to provide accurate information, so that the organization quotes based upon its profit target. Often the customer accepts the quote, provides a purchase order, that organization accepts, only to discover the salesperson missed a major item now the project is no longer profitable. In many cases the organization has even gone a step further and purchased material or hired staff. Now the organization will only break even and worse, lose money. Any organization that is only breaking even or losing money on project(s), is definitely suffering a slow lingering death. These are two good examples of death by a thousand nonconformities. I could provide many more, but the point is that organizations should pay attention to the small nonconformities and not just those that cause obvious and immediate trauma. Here are a few tips to stop these types of slow death nonconformities.

Stop Slow Death Nonconformities

The first step in stopping the bleeding of any cut small or big, is to identify the source of the bleeding. This means the organization must assess its people and processes, to identify where the leakage is coming from. This assessment may involve stepping all the way back, as we did with employees’ arrival to work, the sales process and work through the organization in a systematic and methodical manner. Many people are good at spotting big cuts, but fail to identify the small cuts. The focus should be on finding the small cuts that are contributing to the slow death of the organization. Just like in the body, it does not do any good, to simply identify the source of bleeding without investigating, why you’re bleeding. Why are employees arriving at work at 8am versus starting work at 8am.  Why are sales people not capturing accurate information, so that a profitable quote can be provided? The organization should investigate why these small nonconformities are occurring. Once the source of the bleeding is identified, then the organization can apply triage to assess the urgency of the need for treatment or corrective action(s). A thousand slow nonconformities all leaking at once can be detrimental to the life of the organization.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we see that organizations may be suffering a slow death by a thousand nonconformities. Many times these types of small nonconformities tend to go unnoticed and attention is placed on nonconformities that are more traumatic. The small thousand nonconformities, must be assessed to determine the source of bleeding and why you’re bleeding. Then the organization should apply the necessary treatment or corrective action(s). Breathe life into your organization by stopping the small thousand nonconformities.

We look forward to helping your organization stop nonconformities before they start. Contact us to improve operations and reduce risk at 832-326-9796.

Author

Oscar Combs | Senior Consultant

Oscar Combs, Senior Consultant of The ISO 9001 Group, a management consulting, auditing and training firm based in Houston, Texas.  Oscar has over 27 years of experience working with management systems.  Oscar has worked with clients throughout North America, South America, Europe, The Middle East, Asia and Africa helping companies manage risk and improve their business operations.  Oscar holds an MBA from the University of Houston.  He is certified an IACET Management System Consultant and Lead Auditor. Oscar is also a Senior Member of the American Social for Quality and has served as the Programs Committee Chair for ASQ’s Houston Chapter 1405.