Our company is continually growing. In the last ten years, the number of employees in Germany alone has almost doubled. In addition to its headquarters in Olching, the LC Group now has four sales offices and three production facilities abroad. With this development, the demands on quality management have also increased. Questions that used to be answered through a quick exchange of information now have to be clarified with numerous participants, some of whom do not even have their offices on the same continent. Pius Perko has been on board as chief quality officer since January 2019.
But what exactly is his job?
Let’s ask him ourselves.
Photonics News: Let’s start with a question that may seem trivial at first glance. What is quality?
Pius Perko: This question is anything but trivial, and there are many correct answers. In good administrative German one could put it this way: “Quality is the long-term fulfillment of agreements with our customers.” A sales representative would perhaps paraphrase Hermann Tietz: “Quality is when the customer comes back and not the goods.” Others take a more critical view of the issue and are of the opinion that “quality assurance primarily means more bureaucracy and paperwork.” And some managers are simply of the opinion that “quality is a result of ISO 9001.” All these statements are correct, and it is easy to see how complex and exciting the tasks of a quality manager can be. My job could perhaps be described as follows: It’s about making quality tangible and establishing it sustainably in every area of a company so that it can be “produced” in a repeatable manner.
Photonics News: How do you recognize good quality?
Pius Perko: A sense of good quality has as many facets as the question above. In any case, the profitability of a company is closely linked to its quality results.
Let’s assume we define the quality target as the “good rate” of our delivered products at 99.9% …
Photonics News: That sounds pretty good.
Pius Perko: Do you think so? Let me describe with examples from daily life what that would mean. An error rate of 0.1% would mean that every hour in the world about 22,000 times money is withdrawn from third-party bank accounts, and 1,600 mail items simply disappear. In every newly delivered car, there are about 80 errors, and every week 500 operations are carried out incorrectly in hospitals. Do you want to be affected by such an error rate?
Photonics News: No.
Pius Perko: The goal must, therefore, be “business excellence,” and this is exactly where sustainable quality management comes in.
Photonics News: So, how would you describe your work?
Pius Perko: First of all, quality work means working with people every day, and this work never stops. Imagine quality is an elephant that has to be eaten, but: “How do you eat an elephant?” We have to cut it into easily digestible slices. This requires structures and rules, i.e., procedures, guidelines, processes, goals, checklists, templates, and so on. These quality standards form the basis for a quality culture, ultimately you achieve measurable quality results that determine success. I see my role in the company as a juggler and trainer who coordinates these tasks worldwide and ensures that a cross-company quality culture is established.
Photonics News: How do you do that?
Pius Perko: We break down the three thick slices “structure,” “culture,” and “economy” into thinner slices. This is how we come out with all the quality issues that ensure and increase the success of our company in our daily business life: cooperation in the form of communication and discussion culture; the clarity of specifications and work instructions; the identification of waste in our business processes; the reduction of rejects in production and administration; the quality performance of our suppliers; the avoidance of customer complaints; the smooth integration of new employees into our company; the evaluation of data; risk management; measurable and implementable target agreements; and so on
Photonics News: That sounds very exciting – and like a gigantic elephant. Let’s take a look at some of the slices in the following issues and give some insight into how we can cut them into digestible pieces at our headquarters and across the entire Laser Components Group, production facilities and all, shall we?
Pius Perko: I would be happy to do that.
