EDITOR'S FOCUS: Quality Matters

One thing you learn as a magazine editor is that you will get called on your mistakes. Sometimes it comes in the mail as a photocopied page with a typo circled in red. Or the message might be delivered via e-mail, or a phone call with a pregnant pause at the end to hammer home the message: "You misspelled such-and-such on page 28 in your last issue…." Translation: "You're supposed to be the editor and I'm smarter than you!" And the caller's point is what?

I actually don't mind getting called on errors. Well, that's not exactly true when it comes to my columns. Helen Duerr, our production director, likes to stop by my office and hand me a copy of my column with any errors circled. The standing joke between she and I is that every typo costs me $5. I'm running up a hefty tab, even if Social Security does make it, I'm not sure there is enough money for me to settle up with Helen.

Mistakes do happen. In fact, it's nearly impossible to prevent every typo from getting through. But you have to be eternally vigilant to try to stop them. On a previous magazine I once took a third and final look at a cover. My heart almost stopped when I noticed the issue date and year - the month was right, the year was the previous year. I had already looked at this cover twice before as had two other editors on staff. How did it almost slip through all those eyes? We just took it for granted that the year was right. How did it happen in the first place? The art director combined the graphic template from last year's cover with the new image and headlines but neglected to update the year in the process.

Accepting mistakes as mistakes is a dangerous practice. A few years back a quality control specialist provided statistics that illustrate how important quality really is. He said that if 99.9 percent were an acceptable quality standard it would mean:

• 32,000 missed heartbeats per person per year.
• 22,000 checks deducted from the wrong bank every hour.
• 500 incorrect surgical operations per week.
• One hour of unsafe drinking water each month.
• 16,000 pieces of mail lost by the U.S. Postal Service every hour.

In my business the concept of functional quality is clear: Words have to be spelled correctly and proper grammar used. Captions need to match photos. Page numbers need to be in sequence.

How about in your business? Do your crews have a clear concept of what quality is and what it looks like? Here's a suggestion: The next time you meet with your crews, ask them to define quality for their jobs. Write down what they say and discuss it. You might also ask them about quality work as it relates to "internal" customers - mechanics, supervisors and office staff. The answers could be enlightening.