- Giving Managers the Raw Data

The Financial Post, Friday, September 30, 1994. David Lipton

As president of Sensors Quality Management Inc., I would like to respond to Ian Hamilton’s letter (Sept. 23) referring to comments I made appearing in Randall Scotland’s column, Going Undercover to Size Up Service (Sept. 21).

Sensors Quality Management Inc. is a Toronto-based company that evaluates a variety of different operations based on the standards and criteria which that particular organization has developed. SQM does not tell a company how to operate the business. SQM merely informs management as to whether the operation is being run in the manner which they desire.

Since SQM is not a consulting firm, the information which is supplied to management (some of which may be obtained by completing and analysis of the competition), is simply raw data assembled in an understandable format. As a result, management may choose to use this information in a variety of different ways.

David Lipton
President,
Sensors Quality Management Inc.
Toronto

The Financial Post, Friday, September 23, 1994. J. Ian Hamilton

Re: The article, Going Undercover to Size Up Service (Set. 21), by Randall Scotland.

It seems to me that David Lipton of Sensors Quality Management Inc. of Toronto has the wrong (Canadian) spin of the ball when he describes this scenario: “Say a hotel wanted to compare its phone reservation system with the competition. If an audit shows that operators are answering calls within three rings, while a rival takes five or more, management could justify reallocating some reservation staff. The service level would remain competitive and other departments would benefit from extra employees.”

To whit . . . if we have better service than our competition, cut service back to parity.

If this mentality prevails, WalMart deserves to win.

J. Ian Hamilton,
Toronto