Is 99.9% Good Enough?
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I recently saw an article about companies throughout the world that have established quality goals of 99.9% for their products and service. In other words, they only allow a one tenth of one percent margin of error in production of products and customer satisfaction.
At first glance this quality goal seems impressive. After all, consumer expectations are pretty low these days. But do our customers deserve less than 100%?
Here are some startling statistics that help to remind us that we should always aim for 100% when it comes to delivering an acceptable level of quality for our products and service.
If a 99.9% quality goal was good enough, then:
-12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
-2.5 million books will be shipped with the wrong covers.
-2 planes landing at Chicago’s O’Hare airport will be unsafe every day.
-315 entries in Webster’s Dictionary will be misspelled.
-880,000 credit cards in circulation will turn out to have incorrect cardholder information on their magnetic strips.
-5.5 million cases of soft drinks produced will be flat.
-291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly.
-3,056 copies of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal will be missing one of the three sections.
Set a goal to deliver excellent service 100% of the time and customer loyalty will grow. Remember, customer loyalty is created by exceeding not meeting customer expectations. Loyalty is earned when customers can depend on consistent, outstanding service.
From India, Mumbai
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I recently saw an article about companies throughout the world that have established quality goals of 99.9% for their products and service. In other words, they only allow a one tenth of one percent margin of error in production of products and customer satisfaction.
At first glance this quality goal seems impressive. After all, consumer expectations are pretty low these days. But do our customers deserve less than 100%?
Here are some startling statistics that help to remind us that we should always aim for 100% when it comes to delivering an acceptable level of quality for our products and service.
If a 99.9% quality goal was good enough, then:
-12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
-2.5 million books will be shipped with the wrong covers.
-2 planes landing at Chicago’s O’Hare airport will be unsafe every day.
-315 entries in Webster’s Dictionary will be misspelled.
-880,000 credit cards in circulation will turn out to have incorrect cardholder information on their magnetic strips.
-5.5 million cases of soft drinks produced will be flat.
-291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly.
-3,056 copies of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal will be missing one of the three sections.
Set a goal to deliver excellent service 100% of the time and customer loyalty will grow. Remember, customer loyalty is created by exceeding not meeting customer expectations. Loyalty is earned when customers can depend on consistent, outstanding service.
From India, Mumbai
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Hi Devender,
Your post is very thought-provoking. Well illustrated. But there should always be room for improvement. Only then will the drive inside us force us to pursue what seems to be afar. You are here discussing the quality part in manufacturing and services industry. Think about 99.9% in HR. If the HR department is 100% perfect and there are no suggestions and complaints, do you think that makes a perfect organization? I feel the organization is alive and kicking only when there are suggestions and scope for improvement. Else, it might become stale. Let 100% be ideal, a non-achievable one, yet our aim shall be that. Let there be an exponential growth, i.e., let the perfection be 99.9% to 99.99% to 99.999% to 99.9999% and never 100%.
Thanks for the post again.
Sree
From India, New Delhi
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Your post is very thought-provoking. Well illustrated. But there should always be room for improvement. Only then will the drive inside us force us to pursue what seems to be afar. You are here discussing the quality part in manufacturing and services industry. Think about 99.9% in HR. If the HR department is 100% perfect and there are no suggestions and complaints, do you think that makes a perfect organization? I feel the organization is alive and kicking only when there are suggestions and scope for improvement. Else, it might become stale. Let 100% be ideal, a non-achievable one, yet our aim shall be that. Let there be an exponential growth, i.e., let the perfection be 99.9% to 99.99% to 99.999% to 99.9999% and never 100%.
Thanks for the post again.
Sree
From India, New Delhi
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Hi Mr. Sree,
I totally agree with you. 99.9% can only be applicable in manufacturing. HR can never be 100% perfect because you keep on learning and improving your processes. Feedback is really important for HR, whether it is positive or negative.
From India, Mumbai
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I totally agree with you. 99.9% can only be applicable in manufacturing. HR can never be 100% perfect because you keep on learning and improving your processes. Feedback is really important for HR, whether it is positive or negative.
From India, Mumbai
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Hi, I also agree with Mr. Sree. However, in the manufacturing process, one can never achieve 100%. It will make both stable. No suggestions, no ideas, no creativity if 100% is achieved. And 100% can never be possible as human wants are unlimited, and they can never be fulfilled 100%. Changes occur frequently. Practice makes man perfect.
From India, New Delhi
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From India, New Delhi
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