Kualiti teras kejayaan

Translation: Quality is the core of success.

I vaguely remember a government jingle about quality and productivity back in the late 80's or early 90's. It was the first time I had heard of the term productivity and I used to wonder what it really meant. I know what it means now, but everyone seems a bit lost on Quality.

At work, design engineers have to calculate their productivity every month to justify the ridiculously low manhours and absurdly tight schedules that project managers come up with, while the project control engineers record the figures and witness the project going out of control. I bet they wish projects could autotune themselves with the correct PID parameters, or better yet apply APC and RTO so they'd have even less work to do and more time to blog. Until that becomes a reality, we'll just have to stick with estimating over-the-top manhours because at the end of the day the PM will just slash it by half to come up with a low-priced proposal to win the job.

If I were to calculate my productivity index for my current domestic project of moving house, I'd end up with a vey low figure. Firstly, I underestimated the amount of stuff we have, and secondly I overestimated the amount of energy I possess. Not to mention my commitment to blog about all the mundane stuff I do, my boys' incessant demand for attention, and Hubby's requests for baby's latest photos (you can see by the order that this is the lowest priority for me).

Yesterday, though, was a good day. In the morning I managed to have my smoked salmon-and-egg combo breakfast at Coffee Bean, ogle handbags at Parkson (no buying till after the move), and pack Hubby's clothes into a suitcase. More books have gone into boxes, but I'm still left with technical reference, fiction and fantasy on the shelves. Hmm, do we really need 2 copies of Catch-22?

The original plan in the afternoon was to complete an assessment form for a new member of staff who had worked with me on a previous project, and maybe start reviewing the report for the current job (see who has to work on her maternity leave. If I clock 8 hours to do all this, can I get an extra day off?). But Nuaim decided to forego his afternoon nap, and with Nu'man also awake, someone had to referee their play and fights. All the way till 11.00 pm. So I've rescheduled all that work stuff for today, after I post this entry. Promise.

The afternoon and evening were not without their magic moments. Contrary to his lack of focus when it comes to food (in the sense that he wants to eat EVERYTHING), Nu'man can actually concentrate on a specific toy if it strikes his fancy. Last night I realised he's actually quite content to play with building blocks, and was able to build a tower without anyone's assistance. And Nuaim, while 'reading' the Qur'an with me after Asar prayers, was actually able to repeat (to some degree) the verses I recited. And it wasn't any surah he's familiar with either.

Now that's Quality.