Who inspects the inspector?

We all sometimes run into quality issues. Try as we might, sooner or later, one way or another, in spite of our best efforts, some sort of undesirable quality defect will rear its ugly head. Why?
You have probably already answered that question in your head. Perhaps you said “we are all human” or something similar, “human error” or perhaps you said “s**t happens.” In all seriousness, those are, indeed, the right answers. The reason that we still can get easily annoyed by the appearance of any type of quality defect is because we have all sorts of stop-gaps to prevent them. Why do they fail? And that is especially disconcerting when you continually observe your “stop-gaps” hard at work. Your pressers find stains, the drycleaning checks his work and re-cleans items, the washman scrubs collars and re-washes shirts. We have a procedure to touch-up shirts. They are there to make sure that only good quality goes out to the customers. Good move.
Everywhere along the line, someone checks the work of the previous garment handlers. If the wash person fails to add sour, the pressers discover it and there is a call to action. If the presser doesn’t do a great job, touch-up is there to perfect it. And the inspector acts as the final authority.
In the drycleaning department, the chain is similar. The drycleaner will inspect the clothes for stains. He may observe that the mark-in people failed to identify a stain, a stain type or its location. Hopefully management steps in and rectifies this and any other malady. When the clothes are hung after cleaning, there is a quality inspection, perhaps merely a casual one, but nonetheless some sort of inquisition; “How well did we clean these garments?”
The pressers continue observing how well the previous team members have performed. Their work is, in turn, inspected by the inspector. How could anything possibly go wrong?
If a customer returns a pair of pants with a double crease and a stain, surely you must conclude that every person in the plant is blind!
We are really trying hard to double-check every person’s work, but still, we must occasionally deal with a customer that has a bonafide complaint. Why? We have covered every base! Or have we?
Throughout the entire assembly line that is your plant in operation, everyone has the occasion to observe and evaluate previous employee’s work. Except one.
I ask you this: Who inspects the inspector? Who monitors his or her quality? Did they assemble the orders correctly? Did you check? Did you do a spot-check of the garments that they have passed? Do you open up orders hanging on the conveyors from time to time to see what the customer sees? I bet that very few of you do this. It’s not about distrust, it’s no different than your touch-up girl checking the shirt pressing quality. It’s about what you said to yourself a few minutes ago; “It’s human error.”
I’m sure that your inspector is someone that you trust. I’m sure that she is someone that you evaluate as a good employee that has your interests in mind. But I bet that you have many employees that you would evaluate that way. Even those that have been “caught red-handed” making some sort of minor mistake.
I am very often in the position where I must double-check the work of an inspector/assembler. This happens when I am training them on the intricacies of the Tailwind System. I double-check their work as far as assembly goes, but I very often stumble upon obvious quality defects that were approved by the inspector. This teaches me that inspecting the inspector will pay big dividends as far as customer satisfaction is concerned.
Now quit goofing off and take a walk through your plant and double-check everybody’s work. Everybody’s.
Don’t forget to catch somebody in the act of doing something right, but if you don’t find anything wrong, try again and look harder this time.
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got!”