Internal Customer: "That member of the organisation who receives the result of a previous process."(The person receiving our work).
"As a consumer DEMAND Qualityas a producer DA Quality". So said an old poster used in the industry years ago, to make staff aware of the importance of the human factor in Quality.
Indeed, it is up to us to do things "properly", or to do them shoddily, "to get by". Of course, the company pays us to do our job "well", but in terms of Quality, what does it mean to do things "well"?
It is generally accepted that:
"Quality is the compliance with specifications". (No more, no less).
Do things as they have been defined. Not worse, of course, but not "better" either. (Even if Ethics moves us to always try to do "the best we can").
Also in Quality, the "best" is the enemy of the good.
But is it really enough to "simply" meet the specifications?
Every worker has to be clear about what his or her job consists of. Not only "what" and "how" he/she has to do it, but also "how" he/she has to do it. what it is for y how it is integrated into the rest of the process. In short, he has to know who his Internal Customer is and, even if it is not written in any specification, think about the person who is going to have to work with what he is doing.
Let's take an example.
Let's imagine an activity that consists of scanning certain documentation and "uploading" it to the company's Management System. The mechanics of the activity is quite simple, isn't it? The sheets are taken out of their folders, scanned, "uploaded" to the system and that's it!
And that may indeed be the case... if we only look at the mechanical side of the matter. But if we don't put ourselves in the shoes of the person who will then have to work with what we are scanning, it could happen that we scan:
- Folded sheets
- Incomplete, unnecessary or even undesirable documents
- Post-it note sheets hiding information
- Pages in different positions (which makes reading difficult).
- Mixed, disordered, chaotic documents
- Misidentification or misidentification of the different parts.
- Etc, etc.
In other words, technically, everything would be scanned, but woe betide anyone who has to work with the result, or locate a particular document!
The amount of time that is wasted by not receiving the work properly (clarifying doubts, looking for data, making checks...).
Any activity, if it is well planned, however simple it may seem, has its importance and impact. Everything that makes it easier for the next link in the chain to work is contributing to the overall system efficiency.
The benefits of working with our internal client in mind are obvious, and easy to admit, when the whole process is carried out within the same Company. But what happens when we work as part of a larger project, and the immediate beneficiary of our work is not directly the Client who pays, but another of the auxiliary companies? When the result of our work facilitates the work of another company different from ours.
The very act of asking this question already demonstrates a short-sighted view of the issue. When we all work together to make each other's work easier, the efficiency of the system is optimised.
"Deliver your work in the same conditions in which you would like to receive it."
This is always important, but is particularly so in consulting firms, where you often work directly for the staff of the contracting company.
