As the 21st century dawned, Germany was known as the “sick man of Europe,” with lower GDP growth and higher unemployment than peer nations such as France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Today, it is widely admired as one of the world’s strongest economies and the undisputed economic leader of the euro area.

Corrective action is often an effective means of identifying and correcting quality and compliance events within the organization that can arise through the result of complaints, audits, incidents, nonconformances, or any adverse events. Traditionally, the corrective action process is designed to handle systemic events—things that pose a major threat to the overall health of the quality management system (QMS) or environmental health and safety (EHS) system.

Your competition is no longer what it used to be. In this age of information at our fingertips, same-day delivery, and seamless payment options, customers now expect more from business than ever before. Companies must adapt to thrive.

Agile, the flexible way of working, has spread from software development to organizational change—for small startups and even large, traditional organizations. The Agile software methodology is iterative and collaborative; it ensures that small, autonomous groups work together to align with customer needs.

You have plenty of trended data on employee performance. You have a cutting-edge dashboard and seamless reporting capabilities. This makes you data-driven, right?

Not quite.

Markets and manufacturing practices continue to evolve, and companies now outsource to an increasing number of global manufacturing and supply partners. As companies have pursued this broadened supply chain strategy, the ability to manage both business and quality risks has become more challenging.

The importance of supply chain solutions relative to a company’s efforts to maintain and improve quality are almost impossible to underplay. When enacting quality improvement programs, any company would do well to examine its supply chain model and processes as a fundamental means of improving quality with suppliers, partners, and customers.

Traditional corporate hierarchies tend to rely on static design. There’s the CEO at the top, followed by directors and managers. Red tape and inefficient processes can bog down decisions. 

Volatile markets, challenging consumer demands, and the technological disruptions resulting from digitization and Industry 4.0 are producing unprecedented rates of change. In response, companies have worked to increase organizational agility, hoping to foster innovation and shorten go-to-market cycles. Yet organizational experiences and sociological conditioning often impede true agility.

You run a manufacturing business, so you know how it goes. The cost of doing business and manufacturing product never decreases. You know that your revenue must increase just to keep up. You also know that merely maintaining your revenue status quo will only ensure you get your lunch eaten by inflation. Or by your competition. If you aren’t growing your profits, you aren’t just standing still—you’re going backward. There is no such thing as “flat growth.” If your company’s revenue is not increasing year over year; it’s dying a slow death.