90-Day Quality Turnaround

Stop the same problems coming back on the next job

The 90-Day Quality Turnaround stops the same problems coming back on the next job. The bleeding is contained within weeks, then a handful of fixes remove whole families of failure, run with your own quality lead and reported weekly. Most of the effort is in the first month, and there is a review at day 30 where you can stop.

Best when: The same return visits, remakes and supplier errors keep coming back, and you want them stopped for good.

What you get

  • The bleeding contained within weeks, before the long-term fix is built.
  • A handful of fixes, each aimed at a whole family of failures, cheapest control first and no extra admin.
  • A short weekly update showing what's fixed, what's in progress and what the numbers say.
  • A review at day 30 where you decide whether to carry on.
  • Someone in-house coached to lead it, so it keeps running after we leave.

Sounds like your business?

  • The same defect keeps appearing across batches, months or customers.
  • You have already tried "being more careful" and it did not hold.
  • Corrective actions get written up but the problem returns.
  • Customers or auditors are starting to ask why the same thing keeps happening.
  • The quality system documents what should happen, and the floor does something else.

What it needs from you

  • A named person inside the business to own quality day to day. This does not work as a side project.
  • Authority to change a process, not just recommend it.
  • The patience to let the before-and-after data accumulate rather than declaring victory early.
  • Access to the error records throughout, not only at the start.

How it works

  1. Diagnose

    Cost the repeat errors and trace each one to where it is made and where it should have been caught.

  2. Engineer

    Fix the process, not the person: change the paperwork, layout, supplier hand-off or system so the error can't happen or can't get through.

  3. Prove

    Measure before and after, report weekly, and close nothing until the data says it worked.

What each stage involves

Diagnose
The first three weeks cost the errors and find the two points: where each one is made, and where it should have been caught but was not. This is the same work as the diagnostic, done as part of the programme rather than before it. It sets the baseline everything else is measured against, so the "after" number is comparable with the "before" rather than a different calculation.
Engineer
Errors are contained first (extra checks, a stop on despatch, sorting what is already in progress) so the programme does not start by shipping more bad work while the cause is investigated. Then the process change goes in, with your quality lead rather than around them. The change might be paperwork, a layout adjustment, a specification written down properly, a different supplier hand-off, or a system step. Where a fix would cost more than the error it prevents, we say so and leave it. The work is front-loaded: most of the effort is in the first month, and at day 30 we review the numbers with you and you decide whether to continue.
Prove
Weekly reporting is the discipline that stops this becoming another improvement project that faded. Each week: what was fixed, what is in progress, what the data says. Nothing is closed as resolved until the measured error rate confirms it stayed fixed. If a change does not work, it is reported as not working. That is more useful than a tidy story.

About our method → What these terms mean →

What this service is not

  • Not a temporary inspection uplift. Adding checks treats the symptom and adds permanent cost.
  • Not a blame exercise. If the answer turns out to be a person, we will say so, but the answer is usually the process.
  • Not a certification project, although it often makes one easier afterwards.

Who runs this

Karl Pallister

Ran corrective action and quality systems in manufacturing; ISO 9001 and root cause practice

Proof it works

See the measured results behind this work: doubled assembly output, quote turnaround cut from 150 minutes to 15, and more.

Read the track record →

The approach in practice

An example from the track record

Before

An assembly department had become the bottleneck, putting pressure on the wider business. Adding resources looked like the obvious answer, but it was not the constraint.

What changed

The department was diagnosed at the level of the actual work rather than the official process. The real constraint was identified, the process around it was changed, and responsibility was taken for making the improvement hold.

Result

Output doubled within six months, with no additional investment.

From Doubling output without additional investment on the track record, anonymised, and achieved before these services were formalised.

Often paired with

Fractional Quality Lead

Senior quality leadership a few days a month.

All services →

Find out what your rework really costs.

Start with a free Margin Leak Review: about an hour, on a sample of your own rework or remedial records. If there's a fit, we agree the scope before any work starts.

Book a Margin Leak Review

Free. About an hour. You keep the findings.