Unofficial Quality Tips
by Pam Walsh
Hi! I’m Pam Walsh and I’m the Team
Leader of the ExcelErs at UICI Insurance Center in
Dallas. My job position is Manager of General
Accounting. We’re the ones who pay the bills,
count the cash, balance the systems and track the
commissions.
Our team was the first team to make the
“Bronze Level” in our company—an
internal reward system based on the implementation of
ideas rather than dollars saved. Since then,
we’ve implemented ideas ranging from a savings
of $7.13 to over $60,000. Our other claim to fame is
that of all of the ideas logged onto the
“Quality Idea Tracking Program,” 10
percent of them belong to our team. So, I’m
here to share some “Unofficial Tips to
Quality” with you.
WHAT BUGS ME? about my job. One team
member complained about a box of spoiled checks that
she stored under her desk, cramping her legroom. Why
was she keeping them? Because we always had. Was it
necessary? No. Not a huge thing, but it made her more
comfortable and eliminated a box of stuff.
THE FILE THAT WENT NOWHERE. Figure out
how things really work. One process we looked at had
been designed for our North Dallas site to mirror the
North Richland Hills’ process. The only problem
was that—due to differences in the way the two
bank systems work—one step literally was
sending a file onto the mainframe bank that went
nowhere—a daily job function that had no
purpose.
WHO DOES WHAT? Accounts Payable: a pretty
straightforward process—right? You pay the
bills. But there were glitches. We invited members
from two other teams for cake and flow-charting, and
after covering the walls with white paper, defined
the nine major functions to the process of cutting
something as small as one check or as large as a
batch of 200 checks, with eight different people
involved in the process. We documented it, analyzed
it, laughed at it and then eliminated two of the
steps that were totally redundant and
unnecessary.
IT’S AN ATTITUDE, NOT JUST A
PROCESS. It’s important to remember that
the team meeting time is not just when you “do
quality.” Quality needs to be part of how we
think—constantly challenging ourselves to make
things smarter, easier, faster, better. One of the
ways we’ve done this is to congratulate team
members for every idea and input. We don’t wait
for the next team meeting to bounce ideas off each
other. Some of our ideas have come as one of us is
working on something, has a brainstorm, calls another
team member and plays the “what, why, how, why
not” game.
REMEMBER THAT GROUP PROJECT IN HIGH
SCHOOL? You know, two people did all the work and
these other group members sailed along to get the
“A.” Sometimes, it can feel that way on a
quality team—that some members aren’t
contributing or pulling their weight. But the
important thing to remember is that results are what
count. If you get caught up in, “Who did what
on a team,” then you lose sight of the goal and
have a lot less fun.
HAVE FUN. This is a great opportunity to
get ideas heard and enacted and to make a difference
and improve the company. It can be contagious and
exciting—and it can be fun. We have some
healthy competition going on between the teams in our
department.
As for our team—we hang our flags, pick
up our awards and are planning a team meeting at the
new ice cream place across the street as soon as the
weather gets better. And we enjoy coming to work
because quality works for us!
May
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