If customer complaints are growing in number, if production people are spending time reworking product, and, if you have more people handling repairs than building product, the business is doomed. In order to remain competitive in global markets, every customer problem must be anticipated and prevented before it can occur. And, if it does occur, it must be attacked by the organization as a symptom of a larger work process problem. If the root causes remain untreated, just like a weed which hasn't been systematically destroyed, the same problem is lurking in the defective work process waiting to attack another customer, perhaps one of your largest customers.
Prevention is an easy concept to understand, but very difficult to put into practice.
Prevention is causing something not to happen. Every one of us spends personal time on prevention activities. Regular car maintenance, exercise, teeth flossing and annual physicals serve to prevent future problems. When an organization's primary focus is next quarter's profits, every dollar tends to be viewed by management as an expense dollar. In this type of climate, prevention is viewed as an investment.