This week’s story is about quality and how things can slip through the cracks.

The story is Titled: Send Them Away by John W. Howell©2014

“Okay now start again. What were you supposed to do?”

“Uh well ah . . . I am supposed to make certain the products I inspect are perfect when they leave the factory.”

“Tell me about that.”

“Well, I’m supposed to look the product over very carefully and check to make sure all the conventional quality checks are made.”

“Like what checks.”

“Um . . . you know. We have the standard conventions by which we gauge a high quality product or a low quality product and I was to check to be certain this was a good product.”

“And what did you find?”

“Oh I reported it was a good product.”

“You reported what you believed to be true. Right?”

“I just said I reported it was a good product.”

“Well is it?”

“It is a fabulous product. It has everything anyone would want.”

“Again, I’ll ask the question a different way. Is the product defect free?”

“Depends on what you mean by defect.”

“I mean when you view the product do you see any defects?”

“If I view any product I usually see defects.”

“What do you do with them? The defects I mean.”

“I eliminate them.”

“Did you see any defects in this product?”

“No I did not.”

“So why are their defects being reported?”

“I’m sure I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You said you did not see any defects.”

“That’s correct.”

“Can you possibly explain why there are defects reported after you inspected the product?”

“I didn’t say I inspected the product. I just said I didn’t see any defects.”

“You did not inspect the product?”

“That is correct that’s why I didn’t see any defects. I only commented that the product was fabulous. I think it was someone else’s job to inspect this one.”

“You think?”