It is very similar to what is written in the New Testament: suddenly the Holy Spirit descended upon the unbeliever. Suddenly, it had sunk in!
At the beginning of the Christian era, people suddenly began to understand and practice to love one's neighbour; at the end of the 20th century, we learned to love our clients as we love ourselves..!
When something sinks in it is a very obvious phenomenon. It brings a lot of attention. If in your company it hasn't "sunk in - in the sea of Quality" yet... read some examples of other people's experiences.
Maybe they will help you realize that some boats are not sailing well in their environment and understand where they have to go to fix the sails...
THE OVEN'S VAULT HAS COLLAPSED - In an electric oven with steel heated to 1600 degrees centigrade, the firebrick vault wouldn't last longer than a week. People learned how to make the most of it: when it collapsed, the maintenance staff would make other repairs, while the bricklayers remade the vault. Since firebricks were very expensive, the production team kept hoping the vault would last a bit longer, as this meant the cost per steel ton decreased. When it finally collapsed, the maintenance team would be called in the middle of the night to save time: the earlier the oven began to produce again, the better the steel mill results at the end of the month.
One day someone decided to interrupt the vault's life every Thursday at 8 a.m. A waste of firebricks, which could endure a few more hours? The stop being well organized, with a relaxed staff and the material at hand, it took way less time and the repairs were made with greater quality. Production increased, firebrick costs decreased. Doing it right was - so people realized - cheaper!
RHYTHM OF SLAG REMOVAL - During the same period there was another surprising finding. The practice was to always remove the slag as fast as possible. A consultant (a retired American) asked how much time was necessary to do it, he was told 80 minutes, but by examining the records he verified that the actual time varied between 75 and 160 minutes! He managed to standardize the time at 90 minutes. But 90, 90, 90, always 90. When the first removal of less than 90 minutes occurred, it wasn't poured - it was left ready and they waited until the 90 minutes was complete - it all began to sink in. When the process of 90 min was mastered, it was decreased to 85, then 80.... I don't know how long it takes today, but 20 years ago a removal was ready in 60 minutes. It was learned then that is faster to do things without haste.
ROLLING MILL INTERRUPTIONS - if a machine is producing for longer, the production increases, which, of course, is good. This is why the time of rolling mill interruptions was carefully examined. When it stopped, repairs were necessary to make it work again. This happened many times a day. The team was trained, engaged and agile: they were able to make it work again in less and less time and the total time of interruptions at the end of the month,... increased!
The indicator was changed. The number of interruptions started to be measured instead of the total time of interruption monthly. The rule was then to repair without haste, and well. The time
spent repairing increased, but the number of stops dropped drastically and the total downtime decreased a lot. We learned then that doing things carefully, even if it means spending more time... make us lose less time!
THE CHEAPEST WORK: I learned with Fúlvio Petracco, and relearned with my son, almost 40 years later: the cheapest work is the one that is not done; the second cheapest work is the one done well!
Doing things with quality is faster, cheaper and it ends up being better.
When the majority of the people who make the decisions in a company learn that and make their decisions accordingly - we can say that, in that company, it has finally sunk in - in the sea of Quality!
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