Qualitätssicherung. German manufacturers run quality assurance as a function with its own department, its own reporting line and its own authority to stop production. The person who can halt the line does not report to the person responsible for output.
The crafts ordinance
Die Handwerksordnung. German law reserves fifty-three trades to those holding a master qualification, on the stated ground that improper execution endangers health, safety or life. Quality in these trades is not a market outcome. It is a condition of being permitted to work.
Quality asserts itself
Qualität setzt sich durch — quality asserts itself, prevails, gets through. Said in German about a product competing on something other than price.
Auf Dauer setzt sich Qualität durch — in the long run quality prevails. The addition of auf Dauer is the concession: it may take a while, and it will happen anyway.
The claim inside the phrase is that quality is a force rather than a feature.
Zero defects
Nullfehlerstrategie — the zero-defect strategy. A standard term in German automotive manufacturing and a stated supplier requirement, measured in defective parts per million. The target is not a low rate. The target is none, and the number is tracked against it.
The grade that moves the market
Around 80 percent of Germans read Stiftung Warentest reports at least occasionally, and only 17 percent never do.
Two thirds say a negative verdict influences their purchase — 12 percent say definitely, 54 percent say probably. Only seven percent are unmoved by one.
The foundation was created by a decision of the Bundestag in 1964, and around 200 tests are published a year. A single graded verdict, issued by a state-founded body that takes no advertising, moves German sales figures.
How the work is done
Germans are results-driven. The strength of their economy underscores this. For Germans work results and work processes are synonymous, inseparable, integrally linked with each other. Germans focus on the details of how the work is done.
Processes are, therefore, results. They are how the work is done. If something does not function properly, if a product has an imperfection, the Germans analyze rigorously how the work was completed.
All problems, product deficits, signs of diminished quality are from the German perspective a failure in work processes. If something new has been developed, Germans not look first at its benefits for the user, but how it is made. How something is done, processes, craftsmanship, approach is always the focus of Germans.
Thinkers and Tinkerers
The German state of Baden-Württemberg boasts an unusually large number of local companies that have made it big on the global market. That’s in large part due to the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of its residents.
Made in Germany takes a look at how so many local companies have taken little-known products and turned them into export hits.
Listen carefully to what the head of Stahl says about training their people, retaining them at any cost, and giving them the freedom to constantly innovate. And most importantly, striving to go beyond customer needs.
Aus einem Guss
Germans like to work on problems, whole, not half problems. Work results handed off to the next colleague or department should be complete results. The closer to complete, the greater the level of respect the Germans show.
Products and services aus einem Guss – from one mold – are near-perfect, durable, reliable, innovative, consistent, no surprises, do not require finishing off, polishing, rework. They are the result of individual work steps which flow together into a whole, an entirety. German politicians refer to their legislative proposals as coming aus einem Guss. German companies do the same, especially those who develop and produce complex, sophisticated products.
Church bell chimes are made from the same cast iron mold. Otherwise they don‘t sound right. When Germans say something is aus einem Guss – from one mold – they mean it has been well thought out and executed. It is the opposite of thrown, tied, glued, patched, bolted, copy and pasted, together.
Figures of speech: Etwas dem letzten Schliff geben. To give it that extra polish. Ohne Kratzer. Without a scratch. Das ist eine runde Sache. That is well-rounded, meaning good job. Etwas abrunden. To round something off, in the sense of complete it. Der Ball ist noch nicht rund. The ball is not yet round, meaning incomplete. Flickenteppich. Hodgepodge. Pfusch. Botched, fumbled, fudged. Zusammen geschustert. Cobbled together.
Quality is key
When it comes to the so-called magic triangle – schedule, budget, quality – Germans will almost always sacrifice one of the first two, or both, before reducing quality. The German customer, whether internal or external, expects nothing less. They will wait, and might even pay more if necessary, as long as they receive what they have ordered, or better. Germans expect completeness and quality.
Germans respect – and enjoy – work completed properly and presented in good form. For they are critical people always looking for what is not quite right, even if it has little to no effect on the purpose of the work: Spelling mistakes, scratches, inconsistent file formats, unclear graphics, creaky joints, unnecessarily sharp edges, dripping faucets. A job completed and well done requires no rework, no improvement, deserves only praise, is a work of art. Satisfaction.
Fehlervermeidung
Fehlervermeidung, literally mistake avoidance, is central to German thinking, where progress is often understood as the absence of regression. Germans prefer to not undertake action which could lead to mistakes. “Get it right the first time” could be their motto. Moving ahead in one’s career is often based on making fewer mistakes than other colleagues.
For many years a large department store chain used the slogan “Good is not good enough for us.” German companies expect near error-free work from their people.
The Stiftung Warentest, literally Foundation for Product Testing, established in 1964, enjoys a very high level of trust and prestige among the German population. The foundation rigorously tests products and services, providing their results in monthly print and on-line publications.