Drive
for Zero
Defects
Overview
Trusted to deliver excellence
Our Customers want products and
services that perform as they are intended:
reliable, delivered on time and at the
lowest cost.
The consequences of non-quality are always unacceptable:
• Passenger disruption due to a cancelled or diverted flight
• Mission cannot be completed
• Damage to business reputation (negative news stories)
• Increased costs of fixing issues
• Delivery delays
• Civilians or military personnel in peril
• Operational disruption and additional costs to expedite parts
Programs such as AQP and
RFT have enabled us to
improve our quality performance
in recent years. However, our
customers’ quality expectations
are rising all the time and are
more demanding of our designs
and specifications.
Customers are increasingly intolerant of
failures and being
‘in spec’ is not always acceptable. Ensuring
our designs capture
what our customers expect is
fundamental to our ability to provide
Zero Defects.
In our LEAN program ‘Defects’ is one of the key wastes.
Defects drive additional costs, delays and duplicated effort. It is
always cheaper to do it ‘right first time’. It is estimated that in
most businesses the cost of ‘non-quality’ can be as high as
20% of sales.
The key principles of Drive for Zero
Defects are:
• Quality is defined as ‘conformance to
requirements’ or specification.
• The quality standard is Zero Defects
• Focus is on defect prevention rather than
inspection to ensure quality
• Quality is measured through the cost of
non-conformance
Quality must be ‘built in’ to every
Design, Production and Service’s
process. Tools such as Failure
Mode and Effects Analysis and
Process Control enable us to
prevent non-conformance
Making sure that our processes are
always ‘on target’ with ‘minimum
variation’ is a key aspect of achieving
our target of Zero Defects.
It will require true cross-functional
engagement to be able to get the best
out of our processes and people. Our
Product Development System,
Production System and Customer &
Services System includes all of the
required tools.
But Zero Defects is not only a technical challenge.
It is a mind-set that requires us to be intolerant of
non-conformance. Quality is everybody’s responsibility; we all
have a part to play in the continuous improvement of our
products and processes.
Leadership must ensure that Our suppliers have an
we create systems that enable important part to play too. With
the achievement of Zero 75% of the parts that get fitted
Defects and display into an engine coming from our
behaviours that help create an external suppliers we rely on
environment where the drive their ability to provide defect-
for Zero Defects is the norm free products.
We are committed to enabling our organisation to
achieve Zero Defects through the design of our
products and processes, developing the capability of
our people and our leaders and the continuous
improvement of everything that we do.
We know that this is a journey and
that progress will be measured over many years.
However we must be determined to create a
culture that is intolerant of defects and be prepared
to think differently to be able to prevent them.
As a company with Zero Defects, we will:
• Save money every year in • Have confidence in our ability to
avoiding unnecessary costs and deliver products on time and on
penalties cost
• Have stable, capable processes • Have satisfied customers
that are predictable • Deliver shareholder value
• Beat the competition
Security statement goes here
“Strive for perfection
in everything.
Accept nothing
nearly right
or good enough.
”Sir Henry Royce
Part of our heritage.
Part of our future.