'Horizontal' and 'Vertical' deployment in quality context

Many a times we come across the many tech words , such as  ' Horizontal deployment ' or 'Vertical deployment '  , 'Top to Bottom Approach ' or 'Bottom to Top approach.' What's  all this stuff  about ? What this jargon terminology suggests. So if we want to know about it , let's start with 'Horizontal deployment and Vertical deployment.'

Let's start with example to grasp the subject straightway.

(Photos from our own collection . During training by foreign instructor. Location :Pimpri,Pune )

Example of horizontal deployment :-

The incident happened this way. The year was 2017. We can say 😊 now, 'before ' corona era' .  A man on pretext of relative of patient used to go inside various hospitals in the city. Inside the hospital he used to steal syringes and costly medicine bottles that were kept at a place near to patients. The crux was that he never spotted up in CCTV cameras recordings. He might have studied the hospital inners carefully. Such a clever thief was he, no one had a word  to describe him to prove his identity. 

That hospital quality department, organised a meeting in that regard and decided to go for horizontal deployment. Meeting was attended by a security person, by  mama's (ward boys ) and mavshi (Lady caretakers) each one from day and night shifts , by sisters(nursing staff) each one from day and night shift, by brother each one from day and night shifts, by PRO (Public relation officer ) , by RMO (one doctor from each shift ).. The guidelines issued to all of them. They were considered as responsible from their respective departments for the issue described. Under any noticeable suspicious activities, they were told how to act and how to communicate each other. 

That is an small example of horizontal deployment of hospital employees.

Vertical Deployment :-  Any organisation has a level of employees or grade of employees. Persons working in single department can have different grades. In production department, there are  helpers ,machine operator, production engineer , production manager and so on... here comes the word ' Vertical Deployment'

In some cases , we can not make horizontal deployment because of gravity of issue. Vertical deployment necessitates engagement of CEO , AGM , Admin Head, Senior Production/Quality/Accounts Head , Senior Engineer/Executive , Shop floor head , Operator's head or lead operator etc. The involvement goes vertically up , means starting from operator, Engineer, Head, CEO ... Organisational hierarchical is important factor in vertical deployment. For Large scale /Ltd companies , Directors , CEO . MD might not come into picture as they have well planned organisational structure to take care of any issue arising out of day to day activities.

Example of vertical deployment :-

Medium scale company ' X ' is manufacturing automobile parts and supplying it to renowned customers like Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata motors , General Motors , Ford and so on...

The customer collaborates with a foreign company for certain new project. Before finalising project, that foreign company wants to visit major supplier of the company to view overall systems. Our 'X' company is listed in visit for review. (We are assuming it. In practical cases, many times the collaborated company may not review it by visit or such a requirement need not exists at all ).

Now imagine the days, before visit of foreign delegation to ' X ' company. In  'X' company at every level say from operator to MD  at most care is taken so that  any silly mistake will not get exposed  or not to get any non conformity related to product or system.

This is the case of vertical deployment, where at least one person is involved from each grade or position.

Hope you may have got some of the basic idea.

Thnaks. If you have any questions you are welcome to ask.