It was a privilege for me to speak with Steelcase vice president of global operations and condense his philosophy and approach to quality into this short piece. A more in-depth piece will appear in a future issue of Steelcase’s 360 Magazine.

Bob Krestakos:  “Making is a privilege . . . Today, it’s about much more than being able to offer lots of colors and configurations. I think quality means you design and engineer for predictable and consistent outcomes, but that doesn’t have to mean you make the same thing with little or no variation. In our industry, there’s enormous complexity in the logistics of getting products to our customers in a complete, on-time, and damage-free manner. Using math and science is key to managing that complexity. Our data-driven tools and capabilities give us creative freedom and engineering flexibility. They allow us to be more predictive; we can look at a lot of different design options and know immediately whether or not we’re on firm ground from a quality and life-cycle standpoint. Then, with confidence, we can layer scalability and agility onto that . . . “