For me it shows up in what happens when something goes wrong, not in what the policy says. In an organisation with a real quality culture the operator who spots a problem stops and reports it and nothing bad happens to them for it, and the supervisor treats that report as useful information rather than a mark against the team. When it is missing you notice it quickly as an auditor, because problems only surface at the end of the line or in a customer complaint.
The other signal I look for is whether leaders can talk about their own performance data without reaching for the quality manager. If the plant manager knows the top three recurring problems and what is being done about them, the culture is there. If quality is treated as a department that owns the system, you can have every clause covered and still have very little behind it.
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Dilawar Laghari
Auditor, Consultant and Trainer
AuditWorkshop.com
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