Veteran quality and engineering executive Paul Arrendell is raising awareness around a simple but often overlooked principle: strong systems prevent preventable problems.
Drawing on more than 30 years of leadership experience across global healthcare manufacturing, Arrendell is encouraging professionals at every level—not just engineers—to adopt a “systems first” mindset in their daily work.
“If the same issue shows up twice, it’s not a people problem,” Arrendell says. “It’s a process problem.”
Why This Matters Now
Across industries, weak processes are costing individuals and organisations time, trust, and performance.
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According to McKinsey, companies lose 20–30% of annual revenue to inefficient processes.
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Gallup reports that 67% of employees are unclear about what is expected of them at work.
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A 2023 Asana study found that workers spend 60% of their time on ‘work about work’—emails, follow-ups, and status updates instead of meaningful output.
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In regulated sectors like healthcare manufacturing, the FDA has linked thousands of product recalls over the past two decades to breakdowns in process controls rather than product design.
Arrendell believes these issues start small and grow silently.
“Systems rarely fail all at once,” he explains. “They wear down. A missed handoff here. An unclear form there. Over time, that becomes risk.”
The “Systems First” Approach
Arrendell’s advocacy centres on three practical actions individuals can adopt immediately:
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Assign clear ownership to every recurring task. “If no one owns it, it won’t get done consistently,” he says.
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Document the real steps—not the ideal ones. “Write down what actually happens. That’s where friction shows up.”
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Fix one friction point each month. “You don’t need a full overhaul. One steady improvement builds trust.”
In one example from his career, Arrendell recalls consolidating multiple versions of a quality form that were being used across global sites.
“We thought we were being flexible,” he says. “What we created was confusion. Once we standardised it, review time dropped and audit prep got smoother.”
What Individuals Can Do Today
Arrendell emphasises that this is not just for executives or compliance teams. Anyone can apply it.
He suggests a 15-minute self-check:
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What process frustrates me every week?
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Who owns each step?
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Where does it usually stall?
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What one change would make it clearer?
“You don’t need permission to improve a system,” he says. “Start with the part you control.”
A Call to Action
Paul Arrendell is urging professionals, managers, and team members alike to adopt a simple commitment this month: review one recurring process and improve it.
Share the updated checklist. Clarify ownership. Remove one unnecessary step.
“You don’t build trust with slogans,” Arrendell says. “You build it with repeatable actions.”
By focusing on structure before speed, individuals can reduce stress, increase reliability, and improve outcomes—both professionally and personally.
To read the full interview, visit the website here.
About Paul Arrendell
Paul Arrendell is a San Antonio-based quality and engineering leader with over three decades of experience in the medical device and manufacturing industries. He has held senior leadership roles at Abbott Diagnostics, Wright Medical, KCI Medical, and Becton Dickinson. Arrendell is recognised for building scalable global quality systems and for mentoring the next generation of engineers through his advisory work with the University of Texas at Arlington.
Contact:
Info@paularrendellhealthcare.com
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