Specifications as Goalposts

Conformance to specifications assumes a highly polarised world view. All pieces which fall between the specification limits are seen as uniformly good. This has serious implications for the quality of the product, some of which will be addressed more fully in the section on Reaching New Heights. In this section, however, we are interested in the phenomenon of 'benign neglect'.

If a process, more by good luck than anything else, is achieving a high proportion of conforming product, there is a tendency to leave well alone, and just hope that it continues to maintain such a high standard. Or to put it another way ...if it ain't broke - don't fix it. The problem is, what do you do when the process does break down?

With no concept of the relative 'goodness' of the product, and thus no data on precisely how well the process has been performing, the task of trying to fix it becomes an impossible one. Unfortunately, many people are entrenched in the specifications approach, and it is an approach that is absolutely antithetical to any process improvement activity. Only by continual monitoring of the process can one hope to understand what is really going on, and what action should be taken to correct the problem.